‘I’ve finally got to the point where I really love my face’
As a transatlantic TV presenter, Cat Deeley is no stranger to LA therapies. Here she shares some of her favourite beauty tips & tricks with Sonia Haria
It’s lunchtime on a breezy day in St John’s Wood, north London, and I’m meeting Cat Deeley in Soutine, a cosy French restaurant. I spot the bouncy, buttery blonde blow-dry before I sit down on the squashy leather sofa across from her. She’s wearing a black dress and has hardly a scratch of make-up on.
The trendy lunch spot is a stone’s throw from the home the presenter shares with her comedian husband Patrick Kielty and two young sons, Milo, six, and James, three. “We’ve still got boxes up to the ceiling left to unpack, but we’ll get there,” she laughs, in her reassuringly familiar Birmingham accent, which hasn’t changed a jot.
This is surprising, because it’s been a while since Deeley has lived on UK soil. Deeley, Kielty and their children only moved back to London at the beginning of the pandemic, leaving their life in Los
Angeles, where they had spent 15 years.
“We just thought it was time,” says Deeley, though she admits the catalyst to leave was a “terrifying” incident when Patrick and Milo were stuck in a shopping mall while police responded to a gunman on the loose.
“We wanted the boys to go to school here, not because it’s better, just because we understand it more. And the biggest thing was to be closer to family. You have such a small amount of time when everyone wants to hang out, so we moved back to take advantage of that. And then the pandemic hit…
“We didn’t want to put anyone at risk in the pandemic because, well, young kids! But we’re making up for it now. I taught Milo how to read and how to ride a bike in the pandemic. It was nice to all be together.”
Deeley was a permanent fixture on our TV sets in the late 1990s and early 2000s, hosting Saturday morning children’s television show SM:TV Live alongside Ant and Dec. Then in 2006 Deeley moved to LA to host reality series So You Think You Can Dance. The show was a hit – as was Deeley. In 2011, she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Host.
Did she ever feel like she needed to “crack America” at the beginning? “No, never! I never felt that, or a pressure to adjust to the LA lifestyle, it was just more practical than that. I had to learn how to drive my car on the other side of the road, rent a house and work out health insurance.”
Now back in the UK, Deeley is still thinking practically, planning to return to LA with family in tow to host the show in the school summer holidays. There is plenty keeping her busy here in the UK, too: Deeley is back doing the occasional breakfast TV gig, albeit for grown-ups this time, as a stand-in for Lorraine Kelly on Lorraine. She released her own children’s book, The Joy In You, in 2020, and even joined Ant and Dec for an SM:TV Live reunion later that year.
Her latest project is launching e11even (e11evenfragrance.com) a unisex perfume she developed with her make-up artist friend Amanda Grossman. Deeley points out that the blend of essential oils was created completely sustainably – demonstrating that while leafy north London is home for now, her time in the US gave her a more considered approach to wellness.
“In LA, they were quite ahead of the curve in terms of beauty products, supplements and procedures and there was a lot to take from that,” she explains.
Here, Deeley shares some of her beauty recommendations.
NO MAKE-UP DAYS ARE NO BIG DEAL
“In LA, you see women in the Polo Lounge in the Beverly Hills Hotel with not a scrap of make-up on. Nobody cares about that in LA – it’s such a different mindset to London. Also the sun shines most of the time in LA, so you can get away with wearing less in general.
“Now, unless I’m working, I don’t wear much make-up, just a light face oil like the Decléor Green Mandarin Glow Aromessence Serum, (£55, decleor. co.uk), which gives my skin a nice glow. I’ve been a fan of the brand for over 20 years – I love that the products smell botanic, herbal and floral, too.
“On the school run, I might use the Green Mandarin Sunkissed Cream and pop a baseball cap on and I’m good to go. I fake tan every few days, too, with Amanda Harrington’s collection.”
‘I can’t go short: if I cut my hair it will go like a giant mushroom because it is so thick’
WEAR SUNSCREEN, RELIGIOUSLY
“The LA climate is so different to London’s – LA is practically a desert – so my skin was much drier there and I had to take skincare more seriously. As well as smothering my face in a rich cream at night (I like to look like a greasy chip in the evenings), I used sunscreen daily.
“Back when I was younger everyone would slather themselves in baby oil or frazzle their hair with Sun In – the arrogance of youth. I don’t know if it’s partly the LA lifestyle or the fact that I was getting older and started to notice the signs of aging more, but I now wear sun cream every day. I like Anthelios by La Roche-Posay, (£18, lookfantastic. com) because it’s really light and sinks in quickly.”
JUICING ISN’T JUST A FAD
“I’ve become very good at taking my vitamins! I use Viviscal (£29.99, Holland & Barrett) to improve my hair’s condition, I take vitamin D daily and I take a multivitamin, too. I also do something that is very LA: I drink celery juice. It’s supposed to have good antioxidants.
“I also now make my own antiinflammatory juice shots. Here goes: either choose pineapple or orange as your base and then add fresh turmeric, a little bit of olive oil, black pepper and lemon juice. That’s it.
“I got Covid in January 2021 and my joints really hurt as a result. I thought I was getting arthritis. It still hasn’t gone away completely, but I feel the juicing and supplements have helped. However, diet-wise, my general rule is to pick at whatever my boys are eating.”
CHECK IF YOU HAVE ‘A FACE FOR BOTOX’
“I’ve had bits of Botox done before but I’m not that person who will schedule it in. I’ve never had filler. I don’t want to change my face – and I’ve got to a point where I really love my face – but sometimes I look in the mirror and think, ‘Oh I’m really tired’, as I’m a terrible sleeper, and that might be the sign.
“However when in LA, I would see the renowned dermatologist Dr Harold Lancer to check moles and for some skin treatments. I remember once asking him, ‘How can I reach my maximum potential?’, and he said that I didn’t have the face to have stuff done and that it would look terrible on me and actually age me. So now I might have a bit of Botox on my jaw because I clench, but it’s not something I’m wedded to.
“And I now see an amazing doctor in the UK, Dr Frances Prenna Jones, who will Botox my shoulders for me as I get stress there: the toxin helps relax them.”
THE FACIALS THAT ACTUALLY ANTI-AGE
“Before LA, I wouldn’t have regular facials, but I do now. In LA I would book in for LED light therapy and oxygen facials, especially if I had something big coming up. In the UK I love to see the Decléor facialist Katharine Mackenzie Paterson. At home, I use an LED face mask when I can, such as the CurrentBody Skin LED Light Therapy Mask (£279, currentbody.com).
“However, generally with my beauty routine, I’m all for the double up: quick multitaskers, such as a face scrub in the shower or tanning while I have Zooms from home. I even have my toothbrush in the shower to be extra quick before someone shouts, ‘Mum!’
“If I have any time for ‘self care’, heaven for me is pouring some Epsom salts into a bath with some lavender oil and listening to an audiobook. But I’m in bed most nights by 9pm because I’m exhausted and I don’t know if the boys are going to wake up overnight.”
STICK TO THE HAIRSTYLE THAT WORKS FOR YOU
“The colour and texture of my hair changed after I had my boys. My colourist in LA would use the exact same colour as usual and suddenly the tone was much warmer in my hair postchildren. So I now cool it down regularly with the Icy Blonde hair gloss by Josh Wood, (£19, joshwoodcolour.com).
“As for the style, I occasionally toy with a fringe, but I’ve got a cow lick and it doesn’t work for me at all. And I now know that I can’t go short, either: if I cut it, it will go like a giant mushroom because it’s thick and I’ll have to do a million things to style it. That would drive me up the wall.”
WORK EXERCISE INTO YOUR DAILY ROUTINE
“It’s much easier to be healthy in LA. I would get up in the morning, have a coffee, put my leggings and trainers on, take the dog down to the canyon and walk back up again. It was one and a half miles and a 45 degree gradient. It was always sunny, so even with yoga – which I did three times a week – I could just go into the garden and roll out my mat. Back in London, it just doesn’t work like that. Although I’ll do some online yoga classes, I haven’t completely found my groove yet, but I’m not going to beat myself up about it.”
AND SOMETHING I’VE DONE SINCE I’VE BEEN BACK IN LONDON…
“I’m 45 and I’ve just started getting my brows done. It’s one of the things I’ve done that makes me look a little more youthful, because my eyebrows are now a little bit more fashionable! I had amazing brows when I was 14 and then of course the 1990s happened and I plucked them into oblivion. They grew back a bit, but not quite as much.
“I went to a salon in St John’s Wood and had my brows “laminated”, which is supposed to make them look brushed up and fuller. Although when the therapist brushed them up I looked like a geography teacher – you know, when the hairs are so long you can pick up the BBC World Service. But then she did the lamination treatment, which softens the hairs and fixes them into place, and she applied a little dye.
“It’s the type of treatment that means you can wear less make-up and quickly look more put together. Which is everything I’m about.”