At the end of the day… Dita Von Teese

47, BURLESQUE STAR

on skincare, fondue and her bath-loving cat

In the evening after a show, I usually do a meet-and-greet with fans. I like to spend as much time with people as I can, so that’s a lot of my night. I’m doing my fourth full-length review, and it’s very different. It’s a classic American burlesque show, but with a modern take. We use a lot of state-of-the-art equipment and props and ideas to take it to a different place that hasn’t been seen before. And there are just as many men in the show as women.

I used to go out and party afterwards, but I kind of stopped doing that because I feel like I have a much bigger responsibility to make the show great. But we do have parties backstage where we pop open a bottle. If I’m in the UK, Claridge’s is a favourite when I deserve a treat.

At home in LA, I’ll do a lot of private events for brands or even birthday parties. I do try to take a little bit of time out, though. I have a little log cabin up in the woods, about an hour and a half ’s drive away, so I like to go up there and relax when I can. I love entertaining. When friends come over I really love a potluck dinner [where guests each bring a dish]. It’s fun for me, first because I don’t have to cook everything, but also my friends love to present their dish. I’m kind of known for my theme parties: I had a Fun-do Fondue party where everyone had to wear fun hairdos and we ate fondue. I’m just bored of the normal dinner party. I like something funny.

I’ve been reading this book called Tribe Of Mentors, by Tim Ferriss. It gives advice and knowledge from heads of Fortune 500 companies and helps me think how

I can adapt that to what I do. I’m leading a tour and I’m a producer of the show: showbusiness is a business!

I try to cut off my work time at 7pm so that I have between then and 10pm to relax. If I’m not performing, that’s when I’ll eat dinner and stay home. I’m a little bit of a homebody. I love a bath. My cat, who’s kind of a famous Instagram star, likes to watch me take a bath. He loves water but he doesn’t want to get in, so I make little droplets of water and put them on his face. He loves it. I love tuning out, getting in the bath with my cat staring at me. He used to tour with me but he’s 16 now, so I don’t really bring him around.

I’m not very high-maintenance as far as dermatology. In fact, my dermatologist is a paediatric dermatologist, because it’s hard for me to trust Hollywood skin doctors. They all want to sell you something. They’ll tell you you need to use this laser, because they own that laser. But

I like a nice heavy product skincare regime: I mostly use a brand called

Retrouvé, and another called

Eminence, which is natural, organic skincare.

I am very susceptible to jet lag. I have a very, very powerful body clock, which on the bright side means that I can wake up at the same time every day with no alarm clock. But that also means, when it comes to jet lag, I really suffer, it takes me a while to adjust.

Dita Von Teese: Glamonatrix tours the UK from 14 April; myticket.co.uk