Help, I’m stuck in a make-up rut!
Author KATE MOSSE (right), 62, has stayed with the same look for decades. Rosie Green coaxes her into the expert’s chair for a makeover
It would be fair to say that Kate Mosse doesn’t have a great deal of spare time for experimenting with make-up. The bestselling author of ten novels and short-story collections (including the multimillion-selling Labyrinth), three works of nonfiction and founder director of the Women’s Prize for Fiction (and now for Nonfiction) is used to being onstage at events and award ceremonies and to being photographed.
‘I know what suits me,’ she says, but acknowledges it’s nevertheless often hard to come up with new ideas alone. ‘After [our YOU magazine shoot] I looked in the mirror and thought, “OK, I would never have done that myself!”’
What the 62-year-old is definitely not interested in is attempting to appear younger. ‘I’m comfortable with my look,’ she says, ‘but I thought this would be fun and informative.’ Make-up that doesn’t take expert skill or hours to perfect is what
Mosse is after, plus anything that will work well under bright stage lights.
Who better, then, to help the busy author expand her repertoire than make-up artist Caroline Barnes? Now in her 50s, she has worked for glossy magazines including Vogue, Elle and Red and celebs such as Kylie Minogue, Keira Knightley and Naomi Campbell. When she’s not making-up stars, she’s sharing (with the 80k+ subscribers to her YouTube channel Speed Beauty) the secrets of the industry insiders. So, what tips, tricks and solutions to beauty dilemmas did she have for Mosse?
How to rescue the over-plucked boomer brow
Like so many women of her generation, the 1970s took their toll on Mosse’s brows. ‘I plucked them to within an inch of their lives,’ she confesses, ‘so I have always filled them in a bit.’ She