The WILLIS WAY

BEAUTY

The WILLIS WAY

The TV presenter shares her attitude to ageing

BEAUTY

The WILLIS WAY

The TV presenter shares her attitude to ageing

INTERVIEW: KATE LOCKETT. PHOTO: MIKE BLACKETT 2023

A couple of years ago, Emma Willis noticed the appearance of her skin had changed. “You take it all for granted in your 30s – you don’t think about how quickly your skin texture will change,” the The Voice UK host tells HELLO!. Committed to looking after her skin from the inside, she has teamed up with her friend Maxine Laceby, the founder of collagen specialist Absolute Collagen, to be the brand’s ambassador and help launch its first skincare line, Deep Lift.

Emma, 47, who has three children with Busted bassist husband Matt, discusses why less is more sometimes…

Emma, have you always looked after your skin?

“My profession, since I was 17, is about how you look so my skin has always been a consideration. I’ve been lucky to learn about good products because if you look after it early on, that will serve you later. I’ve always had pretty decent skin apart from puberty, when I had what are considered normal breakouts and you first discover make-up and use loads of it in the wrong way.”

If you could change one thing about society’s attitude to ageing and beauty perceptions, what would it be?

“The one thing I’ve learnt with getting older is: less is more. Look at Pamela Anderson at Paris Fashion Week. I thought that was amazing. Helen Mirren looks phenomenal. She is ageing beautifully and looks incredible.

“It’s a funny one, isn’t it? It’s whatever makes you feel comfortable and strong in yourself. I feel like as you’re ageing and getting more lines, the more you try to cover that, the more you see it. I wish people weren’t trying to erase their history, which is what we see [on their face]. But I look in the mirror and I’m like: ‘How can I lift this triangle of youth back up a little bit more?’ But a very tight ponytail does the trick as well.”

What are your favourite make-up products?

“Mascara and factor 50 lip balm and I’m good to go. I use Charlotte Tilbury Full Fat Lashes and I love to put the Hello Sunday SPF50 balm on my lips. In the sun, if I don’t protect them, I get cold sores.”

How do you take off your make-up after filming?

“I double cleanse. I use a cream cleanser – Dr Dennis Gross Marine cleanser. Then I use the Keren Bartov micellar water, just to make sure everything’s off. She’s an amazing facialist. I saw her recently and had some lovely treatments. I get quite bad pigmentation in the summer so she blitzed all of that for me. Then I put on the Absolute Collagen Deep Lift Night Cream. I would like to look 20 years old again afterwards, please. But what happens really is, I wake up and I’m a very puffy human. So my face looks lovely and plump and nice, but my eyes are like a little puffer fish – but that’s genetics rather than anything else.”

Does your husband Matt ever pinch your beauty products?

“Matt’s got more products than me! He will nick mine if he’s run out, but he’s quite particular. Matt has struggled with his skin from a really young age and he has had acne for years. It really flared up again in his 20s so he has to be super careful with products. But it’s not just what you put on, is it? It’s what you put in as well. So try and target it from both ways. What’s going into your stomach helps what’s coming out.”

What’s your favourite beauty treatment?

“I have to microblade my eyebrows because I don’t have any; just a little bit at the front. I’m quite hairless. It looks like I have zero hairs on my arms and legs because they’re so blonde. Microblading was a game changer for me. It’s my favourite beauty hack.”

How do you look after your general wellbeing?

“I’m a fan of the Absolute Collagen supplement and I’ve been so good with it recently. I drink at least two litres of water a day and also use hydration sachets, which I carry in my bag alongside my omega-3 supplements. My bag is like Mary Poppins’s – Ihave every product in there.”

What is your favourite product from the Deep Lift range?

“I love the serum: it is delightful and sits amazingly under anything. I also love the Neck & Dec cream. It’s a really luscious product – immediately it feels like it’s doing something. The minute I turned 45, the skin on my neck changed. Your collagen is decreasing so it’s less plump – abit stringy looking.”

‘When I started prioritising myself, it made me turn up in a much better way for my family’

Can you take us through your beauty routine?

“I put the Neck & Dec cream on in the morning after a shower. When they first gave it to me, I was applying it downwards and they were like: ‘No – up, up, up!’

“I use SPF every single day. I don’t think I have not done so for years. I use the Dermaceutic factor 50 on my face and I wear a hat on holiday – Idon’t tan my face: I’ll sit there with my body [in the sun] for as long as possible and I just faketan my face to make it match. I add the Tan-Luxe oil to my moisturiser and slap it on.”

When do you feel your strongest?

“I think my strongest was actually at my most vulnerable and that was when I had my kids. There’s nothing like giving birth to teach you how you can achieve something that you absolutely do not want to do at that moment in time. You can grow, birth and raise a human. It makes you feel capable of absolutely anything. In my experience, obviously, there are other ways of feeling and having that strength as well.”

What’s your favourite way to take a moment for yourself?

“My moments are normally a form of exercise, which I used to feel like I didn’t ever have time for because there were other important priorities. But when I started prioritising that for myself, it made me turn up in a much better way for my family, rather than running around like a headless chicken, trying to achieve everything and feeling like I was going to combust. I learnt it from Matt – he’s really good at it.

“I love Pilates, boxing or getting a pedicure, but I only ever did them on holiday. Also, meeting a mate for lunch. I’ve realised that I don’t really do anything socially. There’s that guilt that I should be at home with my kids, putting them to bed, but actually, there’s nothing wrong with going out occasionally.”

What beauty advice would you like to instil in your children?

“Experiment. My eldest is 14 now and they see lots around them, whether on social media or at school, and everybody’s trying something. Give it a go and hopefully you will find your happy place, but be comfortable in yourself. That is first and foremost with everything, really.”

What has been your most important career lesson so far?

“That I’m not the only one who is self-conscious. The more you talk about it, the more people say: ‘I know exactly what you mean.’ Everyone is worrying about something. We’ve all got insecurities and that’s lovely because that makes us all feel human together.”