The Beauty Secrets I've Actually Used Since the 70s

I started modelling in the early 1970s. I was The Sun's Face of 1972, which sounds very glamorous and was actually mostly very cold studios and a lot of waiting around. But it did mean I was exposed to the beauty industry at a time when it was quite extraordinary — and quite unregulated.

The things that went on your face in 1972. We just didn't ask questions. We should have asked questions.

Over the subsequent decades I've learned to ask all the questions, tried almost everything, and arrived at a set of principles and products that I would defend to the end. These are the things I actually use. No sponsorships influencing this (I'll tell you clearly when something is an affiliate link). Just fifty years of paying attention.

SPF Every Day — I Cannot Say This Enough

I discovered daily SPF relatively late, in my forties, and I wish I'd started earlier. The sun in England is not as benign as we pretend. Decades of cumulative UV exposure — a bit through the car window, a bit in the garden, a bit walking to the shops — adds up to something your skin shows you eventually.

I wear factor 30 minimum every day without exception. A good mineral SPF now sits under my makeup as naturally as moisturiser once did. If you do one thing differently after reading this, let it be that.

Rosehip Oil Changed My Skin

I've been using rosehip oil as my primary facial oil for over twenty years. Cold-pressed, organic, Chilean rosehip if I'm being specific. It's extraordinarily rich in vitamin A and essential fatty acids. It absorbs beautifully. And it costs a fraction of many luxury anti-ageing creams that contain it as a minor ingredient buried on the label.

I apply it every evening, sometimes morning too if my skin is feeling dry. My skin is seventy years old and people are regularly surprised by this. I credit genetics partly, habits mostly, and rosehip oil significantly.

I Stopped Using Anything With Fragrance on My Skin

This one took me a while to accept because I love fragrance — I created fragrances, for heaven's sake. But synthetic fragrance in skincare is one of the most common causes of skin sensitivity and irritation. Once I removed it from my daily skincare, the low-level redness I'd had for years simply vanished.

Fragrance on your skin: absolutely. Synthetic fragrance in your skincare routine: worth reconsidering.

Facial Massage Is Free and It Works

Every evening when I apply my oil, I spend two minutes massaging it in properly. Working from the neck up. Lifting movements, gentle pressure on the lymph nodes, attention to the jaw and temples where tension collects. It improves circulation, helps with product absorption, and there's something about the ritual of it that signals to my nervous system that the day is ending.

You don't need a tool. Your hands are enough.

Less Really Is More

In my twenties I used approximately seventeen products twice daily. My bathroom was a laboratory. What I've learned since is that skin mostly wants to be clean, moisturised, and protected. A good cleanser, a good oil, an SPF. Everything else is optional.

The beauty industry has a financial incentive to make you believe your routine needs to be complicated. It doesn't. A simple routine done consistently beats a complex one done sporadically, every single time.

Drink the Water

I know. You've heard it a thousand times. It's still true. I drink two litres a day. My skin is demonstrably different when I don't. Hydration is not a beauty tip — it's biology.

Fifty years in this industry and the advice I'd give my younger self is the same advice every sensible person has always given: protect your skin from the sun, feed it good oil, clean it gently, drink your water, and stop buying things you don't need.

The rest is just very well-packaged noise.