SHE is famous for those kohl-circled panda eyes, tangerine tan and fringe.
Claudia Winkleman is the perfect antidote to the polished and preened celebrities we can never keep up with.
She is a mum of three who doesn’t look in the mirror, sleeps with her make-up on and has never knowingly drank a glass of water. In her words, she is the ultimate lazy girl.
I met the Strictly host to discuss her beauty tips — and get a first look at her new make-up collaboration with Boots, called Full Panda by Claudia.
“ARE you going mid-panda or are you going full-panda?” would be the question banded around between Claudia and her girl friends before a night out partying, she tells me.
Sitting opposite me with her black-rimmed eyes, she says: “Full-panda is ‘Let’s go out, I might get pregnant, we are going to drink margaritas tonight’.”
The ethos behind the make-up range is that it’s quick and easy. It is like Claudia’s routine, in which she juggles being mum to Jake, 16, Matilda, 13, and eight-year-old Arthur, plus her TV jobs.
She says: “I would love to tell you that my beauty regime is quite complicated and deeply powerful. But both of those things would be a lie.
“What you see here on my face right now is what I first put on my face in the Eighties. And I have just put more and more make-up on. I even get into bed with it on.”
The next day, the 47-year-old will do the school run “with quite crusty, disgusting eye make-up on”, come home and get in the shower to scrub it all off.
A deep fake tan is also a must. Claudia admits the more orange she is, the better, and tops up regularly. She says: “I will use anything for my fake tan. I would use gravy.
“I have used mud before. I will use a brown Sharpie.”
Claudia is exactly what you would imagine — warm, wacky, witty and wilful.
When I ask whether her husband, film producer Kris Thykier, minds her getting make-up and fake tan on the bed sheets, she says with a laughs: “It would go down very badly if he did.”
The daughter of Eve Pollard, the former editor of the Sunday Express, and publisher Barry Winkleman, Claudia first worked on BBC’s Holiday and since 2014 has been presenting Strictly Come Dancing with Tess Daly, 50.
While her contemporaries may have changed their hair, dabbled with Botox, experimented with make-up styles, Claudia’s look has never wavered.
She is so expert at painting her face that she could probably do it with her eyes closed.
Claudia says: “That is the brilliant thing about going full-panda, you don’t need a mirror. Even if it goes wrong, it only looks better. If there is black around your eyes and white sort of near your mouth, then you are good to go.”
As for ageing, Claudia, who is one of the highest-paid women at the BBC, does not fear the process. For that, her only tip is to sleep.
She says: “My anti-ageing secret is just go back to bed. I think sleep is key. I have up to two naps a day — I am part human but mainly cat. I think I am supposed to drink water as well to help with ageing. But I have never knowingly had a glass of water. I don’t like it.”
When I ask Claudia to show me the Full Panda products, which range from £6 to £20, she jumps up and runs around the room collecting bits.
She says: “I would say that it is the lazy girl’s make-up dream. “These products are incredibly easy. There isn’t a fiddly brush and they are all-in-one.”
The range includes a £6 double-ended lipstick, £8.50 double-ended mascara, £10 trio of eyeshadow crayons, £12.50 smoky eye kit and a £16 highlighting kit.
Claudia gives me a quick demonstration, recreating her look on me in less than three minutes.
She uses an eyeshadow crayon over and under my eyes, assuring me that, “You smudge it with your fingers and it doesn’t come off, ever.”
Claudia finishes off with shimmer on the cheeks and her classic nude lip.
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Then she says: “I promise you, you will always want to have the full-panda look after this.”
I am not sure it will be my go-to look every day, but I will certainly use it on special occasions.
And I will definitely be channelling Claudia’s laid-back, lazy panda approach to life.
- Full Panda by Claudia launches exclusively at Boots stores and at boots.com on Monday, November 4
