Fearne Cotton Tells Grazia About Anxiety, Downtime, And Her Nan’s Favourite Hairspray

Fearne Cotton is used to playing the role of interviewer, but Grazia is turning the tables.

Updated on10th January 2022 at 10.23am

Fearne Cotton launched her podcast Happy Place in 2017, and her characteristic warmth and openness has since reeled in a loyal army of listeners, as well as an admirable lineup of podcast guests. Drawing on the experiences of both herself, experts and celebrities alike, she explores the idea of happiness on the reg, and discusses the many ways we can help ourselves find our own happy place.

Her book Happy became a lauded bestseller, and two more soon followed suit. Now Fearne extends her uplifting ethos to the beauty arena with a 'Happy Place by Fearne Cotton' line exclusive to Boots. The range is comprised of three separate facets, 'Energise', 'Calm' and 'Sleep', made up of body butters, scrubs, candles, mists, and even an eye mask. It's fair to say Fearne has downtime...well...down! So Grazia decided to pick her brains on the subject.

Watch: Fearne Cotton Talks Downtime, Anxiety And The Nostalgia Of Scent

Fearne On Downtime

'I love to have an evening of proper, proper selfish downtime, so what I would do is run a bath immediately, a super hot bath, and get an excellent book, some bath salts and whatnot. I'd get a candle going, I love the Calm one from my own range because it smells heavenly, a face mask, and just stay there for as long as possible with the odd top up of hot water'.

Fearne On Anxiety

'If we all accept that there are peaks and troughs, that's half the battle, rather than expecting to feel amazing all the time. [...] I think usually if you feel anxious about something or you're suffering from insomnia, ...] it's down to something in your day or life that needs to be tweaked, and usually if I take a brave step or make a change my anxiety will dissipate a little bit. It's quite empowering to know that if you can make small changes then it can alleviate some of that horrendous anxiety'.

Fearne On Turning Off From Social Media

'I don't go on my phone after 9pm, mainly because I'm in bed about to go to sleep at granny o'clock! But I do think it's important to have breaks, and luckily, because my work involves talking to people, researching people, drawing and creating things, I have to be off my phone for big chunks of the day and that is lovely'.

Fearne On The Nostalgia Of Scent

'You can shoot back to a memory so quickly with scent. [If I smell] Elnett Hairspray I'm in my Nan's front room, along with fags unfortunately. Hairspray and fags, that is my Nan. I can go back to being a little kid in her front room in an instant, it's so strange.'