Claudia Winkleman’s makeup is iconic. Heavy on the pleasantly smudgy eyeliner, light on the nude lip and coupled with her signature fringe, it’s a look which has carried her through a career in the public eye – and apparently, more than 4 decades. Speaking to OK! Magazine, Winkleman says she ‘never’ takes her makeup off: ‘The stuff you see me in I first put on in the '70s.’ No diligent double cleansing or fashionable face oils for Claudia; the star said that, while her husband ‘thinks [she’s] insane’, she finds the makeup marks on sheets and pillowcases ‘quite charming, a bit studenty and almost erotic.’ She’s on to something, I think – and ‘studenty’ is right. Remember when you were having too much fun to worry about micellar water? When dancing all night meant collapsing, rather than cleansing, was the first order of business on getting into bed? As Claudia says, ‘life’s far too short’ to bother about mascara on the sheets – a truth we all knew once, dashed to the wayside in a quest for grown-up propriety.
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The culture of self-care we’re living through can easily veer into to-do-list territory rather than love: instead of opting in to more and more steps, there’s something nicely self-indulgent about skipping a couple. Maybe it’s the beauty equivalent of ordering a pizza, rather than the salad you’re pretending to want. Giving spin class a miss in favour of a night on the sofa, or admitting you’d rather have a glass of wine than a green juice. Claudia’s spoken about her attitude to beauty culture in the past, explaining how her mother didn’t allow mirrors in the house while they were growing up: ‘I was 15 going out saying “Mum, I need to know how I look, give me an idea”. She’d say “Fine”’, Winkleman told Good Housekeeping in 2017. ‘She wanted to teach us that appearance is a waste of time, it’s not the least bit important’.
It’s a question of what works for you, isn’t it? Back with OK!, Claudia doubled-down on her commitment to her personal brand of glamour: ‘I always have eyeliner in the house. There might be no bread, we might be out of milk, but there’s always eyeliner.’ Priorities, people! Make like Claudia and pick your own.