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STYLE & ESCORTS

OFTheINSTA
POWER
The fashion formula
influencers
selling their bodies
that delivers both

ARE YOU
THE
A FILTER WILDEST
ADDICT? NIGHT IN
The beauty apps
messing with our THE UK
Inside the sordid
faces (and minds) world of the reality
TV party circuit
HOW TO
HOLD
THE MAKING OF...

A ROOM MILA
The charisma code
all great leaders use
09
KUNIS
HOW SHE MASTERED
9 770141 055290
HOLLYWOOD... HER WAY
WWW.COSMOPOLITAN.COM/UK
 ✱ n the cover
YLE & POWER The fashion
rmula that delivers both
HOW TO HOLD A ROOM
The charisma code all great
leaders us
MILA KUNIS How she
mastered Hollywood… her way
E YOU A FILTER ADDIC
e beauty apps messing with
r faces (and minds
94 TH LDEST NIGHT
THE UK e the sordid w ld
of the reality T r t
106 ESCORTS OF INS
influencers selling their bodies

✱ Know
11 STREAM AND SHOUT
Want to go to the cinema
but also want to sit at home in
your smalls eating Nutella off
a spoon? Now you can do both
13 SEE YOU AT… Where we’ll be
eating, drinking and having all
114
The bright young
things modelling
the fun in September – join us! and making
15 A-LIST READING Ain’t no waves
book-club party like a celebrity-
certified book-club party
16 THE BIG REVIVAL Time to
dig out that shoulder-padded
power suit: pop culture’s
bringing back the ’80s
17 MY CULTURED LIFE
Singer Jorja Smith recently
unfollowed you on Instagram?
This could be the reason why…
18 THE COMPASS This month’s
cultural ups and downs
20 CONFESSIONS Does bird
excrement still count as lucky
if it’s on your face?

4 · C O S M O P O L I TA N
ts ✱ Glow
LRY.
SUBSCRIBERS COVER, PLAYSUIT, ALICE MCCALL. EARRINGS, JACQUIE AICHE. BRACELETS, BOTH MAYA BRENNER. RING, SASKIA DIEZ. SHOES, AQUAZZURA. PHOTOGRAPHS, THIS PAGE, MATTHEW EADES, RICHA RD
COVER PHOTOGRAPH KAI Z FENG. FASHION EDITOR KRISTEN SALADINO. MILA WEARS, NEWSSTAND COVER, JUMPSUIT, MARISSA WEBB. BRACELETS AND EARRINGS, JENNIFER FISHER. RING, SAINT ANN JEWEL
23 YOU’RE SHEETING ME Too
busy to hair wash? Hair blot!
24 HOT RIGHT NOW!
FREEMAN, DENNIS PEDERSEN, SARAH BROWN. MODELS WEAR CLOTHES, SHOES AND JEWELLERY, ALL MULBERRY EXCEPT (LEFT) JASMINE’S RINGS AND (RIGHT) DEBA’S BRACELET, THEIR OWN
Sunsets: emerging soon on
a dressing table near you
25 LET’S GET KINKY The tress
trend currently turning us on
26 PRETTY UGLY Because it’s
not all about looks, people
33 LIP SHTICK Gloss, tint,
life-enhancing, unicorn-
yielding balm? Just what
Tall, dark and
handsome – and
is in these new tubes?! will always walk
36 LIQUID LIDS Eyes:
get set to get wet
37 INGE HAS ISSUES… with
your genes. Well, not just yours.
Everyone’s. Well, not everyone’s.
But most of us. Oh, just read this
✱ Move
41 HACK YOUR PICK-ME-UP
The new food boosts
42 WELCOME TO THE FITTEST
CITY ON EARTH Where even
the dogs’ diets beat yours
46 FEEL THE BURN The workout
that’ll make you look Insane
49 READY TO RUMBLE
You’ll be an (upper)cut above
the rest in this little lot
✱ Wear
51 BOOTY CALL The hunt for the
perfect winter boot? Completed
60 HEY, HOW DO I WEAR…
The turbo trainer?
62 TO HAVE & TO HOLD We’re
ready to commit to one (or
quite possibly all) of these bags
42
Where to go if
✱ Earn
71 PRESCRIBE YOURSELF
A HOBBY So it turns out
post-work wine doesn’t qualify
as a “healthy group activity”
(we know, we’re surprised too)
76 SELF MADE Swoon’s Debbie
Williamson on why you should
never get too comfortable
you’re this serious
about exercise…
✱ Read
100 THIS WOMAN LOST FIVE
FELLOW STUDENTS IN A
CAMPUS SHOOTING. NOW
SHE PROTECTS OTHERS
FROM THE SAME FATE Maria
Christiansen on the US tragedy
51
that shocked the world
114 NOT JUST A PRETTY FACE
The slash-slash generation who
model and smash a side hustle
you home
✱ Lust
127 LOVE COACH The new recruit
who’ll up your dating-app game
128 “I’M FINDING THAT
SOMETIMES POLY REALLY
IS BEST KEPT SECRET” Why
our columnist’s keeping schtum
130 MY BEST SEX EVER WAS…
with a male model
131 WORST DATES EVER
Just when we thought they
couldn’t get weirder…
132 FIRST LOVE Cuteness overload
✱ Play
137 JUST IN CASE Packing hacks
138 HOLIDAYS THAT CHANGED
US Three writers share the trips
that forever marked their hearts
✱ And the rest…
86
Beauty bloggers:
6 MEET TEAM COSMOPOLITAN
7 FROM THE EDITOR
the faces behind
154 COSMOPOLITAN CONTRACT
the filters The personal training session ◆
C O S M O P O L I TA N · 5
 RANDOM
QUESTION OF
THE MONTH
Give us your secret
FARRAH STORR hack for staying
Editor-in-Chief cool this
Editorial Assistant DANIELLA SCOTT
summer…
Deputy Editor SHOSHANA GOLDBERG Creative Director STUART SELNER
Associate Editor AMY GRIER Special Projects Director LOTTIE LUMSDEN

FE AT U RE S
Senior Editor CATRIONA INNES Features Writer JENNIFER SAVIN
Keep sheet masks in Features Intern KATE PASOLA
the freezer and listen to
Demi Lovato’s Cool For DE SI GN
The Summer at least Art Director VICTORIA HORN (maternity) Acting Art Director MARTIN IXER
once every 45 minutes. Senior Designer JESSICA LOCKETT Junior Designer KATIE WILDE Replace all food groups
PI CT U RE S with frozen cocktails.
Picture Director CAT COSTELLOE Picture Editor NICOLE HOLCROFT-EMMESS

PRO DU CT I O N
Workflow Director CHRISTINA SIMONE
Chief Sub-Editor HANNAH JONES Deputy Chief Sub-Editor STEPHANIE JACKSON

BE AU T Y
Beauty Director INGEBORG VAN LOTRINGEN
Beauty Editor CASSIE POWNEY Beauty Writer JO TAYLOR
Ditch your bra – I feel Close all the curtains
like they hold a lot of FASHI O N and blinds first thing
heat and sweat in. Fashion Director AMY BANNERMAN Senior Fashion Editor SAIREY STEMP in the morning –
Bookings Editor SOPHIE LEEN Fashion Assistant MADDY ALFORD that’s an actual one
COSMO PO LI TA N .CO M/ U K that works from an
Digital Editorial Director CLAIRE HODGSON Fashion & Lifestyle Editor JESS EDWARDS Australian who knows.
Beauty Editor VICTORIA JOWETT Entertainment Editor ANNA LEWIS
Senior News & Health Writer CATRIONA HARVEY-JENNER
Senior Sex & Relationships Writer PAISLEY GILMOUR
Entertainment & Lifestyle Writer DUSTY BAXTER-WRIGHT Fashion & Beauty Writer LAURA CAPON
Head of Social Media LAUREN SMITH Multimedia Producer ALEX HERING
Senior Motion Graphics & Snapchat Animator CHARLOTTE TEMPLE Snapchat Editor SOPHIE BOYDEN
Actually I’m always
cold. I wear jumpers in CO N T RI BU TO RS
the middle of summer, AMANDA STATHAM (Travel) Never leave your house,
so this question is N/A. Acting Group Managing Editor CONNIE OSBORNE Finance Business Partner EMMA JONES and lie very, very still.

MA N AGI N G DI RE CTO R
JACQUI CAVE
HE ARST MAGA Z I N E S U K
President and Chief Executive Officer JAMES WILDMAN
Executive Assistant to the President and Chief Executive Officer FAYE McNULTY
Chief Financial Officer/Chief Operating Officer CLAIRE BLUNT
Chief Strategy Officer ROBERT FFITCH Chief Operations Director CLARE GORMAN
HR Director SURINDER SIMMONS Head of PR FAY JENNINGS
Director, Hearst Live VICTORIA ARCHBOLD 020 7312 4105
MD, Hearst Brand Services JUDITH SECOMBE
Marketing & Circulation Director REID HOLLAND
Head of Consumer Sales & Marketing MATTHEW BLAIZE-SMITH
Head of Subscriptions JUSTINE BOUCHER
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Digital Marketing Director SEEMA KUMARI Deputy Head of PR BEN BOLTON
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Associate Publisher and Client Director, Beauty STEVEN MILES
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Luxury Directors SHARON DAVIES RIDGWAY, LEE BAILEY, JHAN HANCOCK-RUSHTON
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International Brands Editor JACQUELYN GALGEY
Editor-in-Chief, Cosmopolitan (1965-1997) HELEN GURLEY BROWN
I N T E RN AT I O N A L E DI TIONS
Argentina Australia Brazil CRISTINA NAUMOVS
Bulgaria Chile China YVONNE LIU Croatia ALEKSANDRA ORLIĆ
Czech Republic SABRINA KARASOVA Finland STINA MANTYNIEMI
France MARIE LA FONTA Germany ANJA DELASTIK
Hong Kong RUQIYAH LAW KAM YING Hungary JOHANNA SABJÁN
India NANDINI BHALLA Indonesia FILISYA THUNGGAWAN
Italy FRANCESCA DELOGU Kazakhstan ANEL ABDUALIYEVA
Korea EUNJI KIM Latin America LUCÍA SOTELO SANTOS
Latvia Lithuania VIOLETA KALIKAUSKIENE
Malaysia NISA HALID Middle East KAVITA SRINIVASAN
Netherlands ANNE MARIJE DE VRIES LENTSCH
Poland HANNA WOLSKA Romania DIANA COLCER
Russia ALIONA PENEVA Serbia NASJA VELJKOVIC
Slovenia MANCA ČAMPA PAVLIN South Africa HOLLY MEADOWS
Spain CECILIA MÚZQUIZ HERRERO Sri Lanka Turkey OZLEM KOTAN
Ukraine OLEKSANDRA BURYNSKA USA MICHELE PROMAULAYKO

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6 · C O S M O P O L I TA N
 FROM THE
EDITOR
I
s it just me or does everyone look different? I scroll
through images of long-lost colleagues and once-
upon-a-time acquaintances and think: how come
they look so good? There are people on my social
feeds who, with time and age, have magically
metamorphosed into chiselled, pillowy-lipped beauties
who glow at me from behind the screen. I look at these
images and then I peer at my own lot in the mirror:
a body heavy and tired with age. It sags and bulges
around the edges like a half-filled shopping bag. My
skin is the colour of a Yorkshire sky in January. My lips
are getting more miserly with age, the top one now
nothing more than a narrow dado rail of flesh that
serves only to emphasise the meadow of hairs above it.
“Where did I get it so wrong?” I think. Was it around
30 when everyone started going wheat-free and doing
PHOTOGRAPH IAN HARRISON. HAIR AND MAKE-UP SHARI RENDLE. ADDITIONAL IMAGE GETTY IMAGES. *NAME HAS BEEN CHANGED
Except, over time, something unusual had happened. In
images posted on her social feeds, her jaw looked smaller,
her skin oddly smooth and her nose had disappeared to
nothing more than a small, unremarkable button.
It was with relief, then, that I saw the old Claire
I remembered bloom into view. IRL she was the same
handsome woman I knew all those years ago. Except
now, of course, she was lovingly weathered by age with
all the freckles, lines and requisite saggy bits a life well
lived gives a woman in her late thirties.
We took a picture together as a keepsake. “Watch this,”
she said, instructing me to bend over her phone screen.
And then she performed a feat of Houdini-esque magic
(otherwise known as a facial-tuning app) that blurred
out the lines from our skin, cleaned up our molars to
a blinding TOWIE-whiteness, pumped up our lips and

yoga at dawn while I decided giving up an entire food
group felt like a social injustice?
I spent an unhealthy amount of time thinking about
this. My poor husband knew that every time I popped
onto Instagram he had to be ready with the balm-like
words: “But you’re beautiful just the way you are!”
And then one day I got it. I was out at a party when
I saw Claire.* Claire was a peripheral acquaintance from
many moons ago. And even all that time ago she was
what you would call a handsome woman: big, blue
eyes, a strong jaw and the sort of large aquiline nose
that suggested French nobility somewhere down the
bloodline. She was the type of woman you looked
at and knew, with absolute certainty, would age as
g
beautifully as an English oak.
trimmed the edges of our hips. My face stared back at me,
immaculate but blank, like a cadaver in a coffin. That or
a Love Island contestant. I was floored. This, it appeared,
was what the world was doing… to its own image.
You can read about what everyone is doing to their
faces in our brilliant feature on page 86, where four
brave beauty bloggers come clean on the rampant use
of photo manipulation to create a new vision of beauty.
After my evening with Claire, I went home and looked
in the mirror. Thirty-nine years
of living stared back at me.
I felt alive. Alive and thankful.
4Keep in touch by following
me on Twitter @Farrah_Storr FARRAH STORR
and Instagram @farrahstorr Editor-in-Chief

MEET LITTLE MIX!

Simple and Little Mix are collaborating on a brand-new limited-edition range
of products. To celebrate, they’re hosting an exclusive Little Mix event in
Central London on 30th August. For your chance to win VIP tickets and meet
the band, find your ticket hidden somewhere inside this issue and enter the
code online. This competition closes at midnight on 9th August, so be quick!

C O S M O P O L I TA N · 7
 IF IT S HOT AND HAPPENING, IT’S I N HERE

STREAM AND SHOUT

Let’s face it, as much as we’re all keen to keep up with the latest must-see movies,
the allure of staying at home in a sheet mask and curry-stained leggings, within
10 paces of the fridge, is often too strong to resist. With that in mind, lazy film-
lovers will be pleased to hear that there’s now a whole generation of (totally legit)
on-demand services bringing brand-new releases to tellies and laptops at the touch
of a button. Our favourite? Curzon Home Cinema, where you can access heaps
of fresh movies from the day they hit cinemas for as little as £3. Chili ofers new
and recent releases ahead of their TV air date for one-of payments or, if you’re
feeling adventurous, try Flix Premiere, an at-home service that streams unreleased
films overlooked by traditional cinemas and distributors. Now all we need
is an app-based popcorn-delivery service and we’re all set...
WORDS KATE PASOLA. PHOTOGRAPHS GETTY IMAGES

11
 DATES

SEEYOUAT...
Because your work-life balance should
always tip to one side
FOR YOUR
DIARY

START
29th
Sept
Haçienda Classical, Leeds
What is it? The acid-house once
played in Manchester’s Haçienda club
reimagined by a 70-piece orchestra.
ÅInsider tip: “Orchestra” doesn’t mean
Until it’s a great day out with the folks:
15th with the live vocals and rave-style
lights, it’s definitely more Warehouse
Sept Project than Classic FM.
OPEN
NOW
Brigadiers, London
What is it? New Indian barbecue
restaurant launched by the three e
siblings behind BAO. It’s worth
going just for the snacks alone:
masala chicken skins and the oxx-
cheek vindaloo are top of our lisst.
ÅInsider tip: They serve nitro
espresso martinis by tap. What 77th-9th
did we do to deserve this luxury? Sept
Brigadierslondon.com

Seetickets.com

Little Shop Of Pub In The Park , Knutsford

Horrors, London
What is it? To om Kerridge
What is it? Catch the kitsch hosts a three-day y feast, with
some of the be est names in

SEPTEMBER
’80s musical as part
of this summer’s British food,
open-air theatre drink and
season at leafy music (such
Regent’s Park. as
a Tom Odell,
ÅInsider tip: Don’t WHERE TO BE, WHEN, All food stalls
left). A
be afraid of the THIS MONTH charge just £5 a dish.
cheap seats. It’s an ÅInsider tip: Head to
amphitheatre-style Kerridge’s The
T Hand &
venue so all the Flowers stand for some
views are good. seriously good
g grub.
Openairtheatre.com Pubintheparkuk.com
WORDS DANIELLA SCOTT. PHOTOGRAPHS GETTY IMAGES, SHUTTERSTOCK

Wanderlust 108 14th-30th

15th Festival, London
Sept
What is it?
A mindful triathlon in
Battersea Park: a 5km jog,
90 minutes of yoga then
30 minutes of meditation.
Plus, celebrity yogi Julie
Montagu, food, and
#content opportunities.
ÅInsider tip: Feeling
energetic? Book an extra
class. We recommend
aerial yoga to feel like a
hench-yet-graceful angel.
Wanderlust.com
Sept
Liverpool
Comedy Festival,
Liverpool
What is it? Across 25 nues
in the city, the fes l
is famous for featu
homegrown talent, al ngside
big names like Joe Lyc t
and Greg Davies.
ÅInsider tip: Tickets are
also available on the door
for those of us who are
slightly less organised…
Liverpoolcomedyfestival.com
C O S M O P O L I TA N · 13
 A-list reading
Frankly, anything less than superstar-approved just isn’t for us…

T
hey dominate film. They dominate with publisher Molly
TV. They dominate fashion. And
now the A-list has set its sights on
Stern and curating
works based on her POWER
another world: books. And we don’t
own reading choices.
Her latest release:
PLAYS
mean a ghost-written memoir – we’re A Place For Us, by Fatima These celebrities have
talking stars teaming up with publishers Farheen Mirza (£12.99), the ability to make –
which explores tensions or break – a book
to curate their own recommended list of
across the generations
novels. They call them imprints. We call SJP of a Muslim family. Å Zoë Ball
hem a guaranteed
th t d go
ood read… Also reading: Go Ask The Zoë Ball Book
The publisher: Hogarth. Ali, by Ali Wentworth Club (part of Ball’s
The imprint: SJP for (Harper, around £15*), TV show) has chosen
Hogarth. a collection of essays 10 of summer’s most
Why you can trust her making fun of modern talked-about reads,
choices: Her foray into life, which Parker called and is set to take
books may have been “freaking funny” on Richard and Judy’s
mocked when her Instagram
her Instagram. crown (at its peak,
publisher announced £8 million was spent
it as a “new line”, as if it on Richard-and-Judy
were shoes (book pros books in one year).
OPRAH WINFREY always call a collection
of novels their “list”),
but Sarah Jessica Parker
Å Reese
The publisher: Flatiron,
is taking this seriously.
Witherspoon
part of Macmillan. When her Instagram
The imprint: An She’s working closely
book club selected
Oprah Book. Celeste Ng’s Little
Why you can trust her Ray Hinton (Rider Fires Everywhere,
choices: Winfrey has Books, £16.99), which it shot up The New
Chloe, whose childhood
long been a champion tells the true story York Times Best
sweetheart has been
of books, and was the of a man wrongfully Seller list. She’s now
kidnapped. Kepnes’ work
first celebrity to set sent to death row. turning it into a TV
has been compared to
up a book club, way Also reading: Imbolo series with Kerry
Stephen King’s (who calls
back in 1996. When a Mbue’s Behold The Washington. Next
her writing “hypnotic”).
WORDS CATRIONA INNES. PHOTOGRAPHS GETTY IMAGES. *FROM AMAZON.CO.UK

release gets her seal Dreamers (4th Estate, up: Something

Out in November (Simon
of approval, it tends to £8.99), a story about In The Water by
& Schuster, £8.99).
fly up the charts – she’s a young couple during
LENA DUNHAM Also reading: Genuine Catherine Steadman.
said to be responsible the Great Recession. Fraud, by E Lockhart
for the sale of more The e publisher:
than 55 million titless. Ran ndom House.
(Hot Key, £12.99). She Å Zoella
and Girls co-creator Jenni Unsurprisingly,
Her latest release: The e imprint: Lenny. Konner are adapting the mega-influencer
The Black Angels: Th he Why you can trust her it for the big screen. holds power over the
Untold Story Of The cho oices: She may be a
book world, too. The
Nurses Who Helped Cure bit “Marmite”, but Girls
titles selected for her
Tuberculosis (the title won n two Emmys, two
Book Club always
pretty much sums it up) Golden Globes and had
rocket on Amazon.
by Maria Smilios. It will
w everyone talking about
One of her picks,
be released by Little e, or most of 2012.
it fo
The Potion Diaries
Brown in the UK late e The e woman knows
by Amy Alward,
next year. Can’t wait till wha at makes us tick.
saw sales increase
then? Try out her latest Her latest release:
by more than
book-club pick, The Sun Providence, by Caroline
11,000% in one day.
Does Shine by Antho ony Kep pnes, which follows

C O S M O P O L I TA N · 15
 the
BIG REVIVAL
Pop culture has gone ’80s mad. After the success of Stranger Things, Glow and,
erm, the Blind Date reboot, here’s our pick of the three best new offerings

Summer Of 84
(In cinemas now)
®What is it? A group of kids, who
cycle aimlessly in most scenes, suspect
their neighbour is a serial killer. Expect
the usual set-up: the geeky one, the
girl-next-door and endless sci-fi chat.
Eerie, Indiana, eat your heart out.
®Who’s in it? Riverdale’s Tiera Skovbye.
®Nostalgia factor: They all have
’80s-appropriate Raleigh Chopper bikes,
but the hair is upsettingly tame.
®Perm-raising fact: It may look like a
Stranger Things knock-off, but the project
was underway (read: looking for funding)
long before the Netflix hit appeared.
Pose
(Coming to TV screens soon)
®What is it? Series following fictional
characters in the LGBT+ black and Latina
ballroom scene in ’80s New York.
®Who’s in it? James Van Der Beek
(forever Dawson in our hearts), plus the
largest-ever transgender cast on TV.
®Nostalgia factor: The shoulders
are padded, the jackets are neon and
there’s a glitter ball in almost every
scene. Bang on.
ÌPerm-raising fact: The show’s
choreographer has worked with
Jennifer Lopez, Janet Jackson and
Beyoncé. Expect big things.
White Boy Rick
(In cinemas 7th December)
®What is it? Feature-length film based
on the true story of drug kingpin Richard
Wershe Jr who, at the age of 14, became
an FBI informant on the inner-city
Detroit drug trade of the ’80s.
®Who’s in it? Matthew McConaughey,
and Ray Donovan’s Eddie Marsan.
®Nostalgia factor: They went for it on
the styling: yellow-tinted aviators, mullets
and even a powder-blue suit. But it’s the
soundtrack that nails it. So much synth.
®Perm-raising fact: Richie Merritt, 16,
who plays Richard Wershe Jr had never
acted before this role.

Ì SHOULD IT STAY OR SHOULD IT GO? Ì

We embrace the return of some ’80s trends with our arms wide open – others, not so much…

SHUTTERSTOCK, ALAMY, POSE © 2018 FX PRODUCTIONS, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

WORDS DANIELLA SCOTT. PHOTOGRAPHS SCOTT GARFIELD, GETTY IMAGES, REX/
L E AVE IT BE BRING IT BACK
Spandex
p Mullets Travolta’s Walkmans Original Old-school Slush Shoulder
workouut Back then, hips The We don’t Madge Tom Cruise puppies Get pads Ideal
thongs A good hair = workout miss the pain Shoulders That floppy a blue mouth for power
sweaty rooad looking like scene in ’80s of having our not instantly hair, the and a brief dressing
from arse your cat died flick Perfect favourite Bon wiggling endless smile, bouncing- or barging
to crotch?? on your scalp is gyration Jovi cassette to Holiday? the cocktail- off-the-walls through the
The dreamm! a month ago. overload. chewed up. Please leave. making... high. Win. Zara sale.

1
 MY film that made you
Hidden Figures. I didn’t
the real story behind
fore [I watched it],
t was such a big
ent in history.

LIFE
Singer Jorja Smith
shares what’s keeping her
Last thing you do before
bed? I spray my pillow with a mist to
help me get to sleep. I use one by This
Works or Neal’s Yard and always take
it on tour with me.

Favourite emoji?
The little pink hearts.

entertained this month Last time you were star-struck?

I saw Sade at a concert,
First thing you read and didn’t know what
in the morning? to say. She’s a legend. I
The day’s calendar just sort of went “Hey!”
on my phone.
Current wallpaper on
Last thing your phone? My boyfriend at the
you bought? beach. We went to St Lucia recently
Elizabeth Arden Eight to celebrate my 21st birthday.
T CLARE THORP. PHOTOGRAPHS GETTY IMAGES, HEARST STUDIOS, ALAMY

Hour Cream at the airport.

It’s used a lot on shoots for Song that’s guaranteed to get you
glossy eyelids, but it’s also a on the dancefloor? Gyptian’s Hold
really good all-purpose cream. If You. If I hear that, I’ll always get up.
anything is dry, you just stick it on.
Last person you unfollowed
What book is on on Instagram? I’ve unfollowed
your bedside table a few friends by accident, then
waiting to be read? wondered why I’m not seeing any
Letters To A Young of their updates any more
more.
Poet by Rainer Maria
Rilke. It was given to Go-to takeaway
me by Felix Joseph, dish? A Thai
who produced a track green curry.
AS TOLD TO

ll d Wandering Romance
calle
on my album. Last Google searcch?
[The photographer] David
d
What TV shows LaChapelle.
you binge on?
do y
I watch films much What’s on your workout
more than TV, but playlist? Stefflon Don’s 16
I do love Ab Fab. Shots and Bad Boys by Stormzy.

App you can’t live without?

A Jorja’s album, Lost & Found,
Uber Eats.
U is out now

C O S M O P O L I TA N · 17
 OM PASS
t he C
s mon th …
ion t h i
a l dir ect
l t u r
ri ght cu
y o u i n the
g
Pointin
T
U R BOA H A I R H OT L I N E S
G O
FLO AT I N Uber-luxe salon
Hari’s has kicked off
PA STA ST R AW S the trend for Skype
Eco-friendly cafés consultation calls,
VOXX
(from Bristol to where they’ll help
Set in a dystopian
Stockton) are using with everything
future where women
hollow pasta straws from at-home dying

WORDS JENNIFER SAVIN. PHOTOGRAPHS GETTY IMAGES, JASON LLOYD-EVANS, STX INTERNATIONAL, @SKYZINIT/INSTAGRAM. *SESSIONS COST £25 FOR HALF AN HOUR,
can only speak 100
in place of plastic disasters to general
words a day, Christina

AVAILABLE ANYWHERE IN THE UK. CONTACT INFO@HARIS.COM FOR A CONSULTATION. †OUT 23RD AUGUST. ‡CONDUCTED BY AUDIBLE.CO.UK. **OUT 17TH AUGUST
ones. The only time Q U E E N FA S H I O N styling tips.*
Dalcher’s debut
we’ll tolerate the Confession time: it’s
novel (which fans of
phrase “carbs suck”. not Meghan Markle’s
The Handmaid’s Tale
Genius.. style we’re poring
PRAMA will love) is thought-
over, it’s Elizabeth
Blending circuit provoking and set to
Windsor and her silk
training with dominate dinner-
headscarves. Our
interactive floors party chats.†
favourites are by ultra-
and walls, this chic brand Silken
Spanish-born, Favours. Corgis
700-calorie-blitzing
workout is basically
not included.
U R SHIP
K I N G O
a sweatier dance
SIN
mat for adults.
A D U LT SWA D D L I N G
This Japanese trend
involves being sheet-
wrapped (while in
T H E H A P PY T I M E a foetal position,
MURDERS naturally) and rocked
Melissa McCarthy like the creepy, tax-
and a puppet team paying baby you are.
up to investigate the It’s meant to lower S EC U R I T Y-
murder of… other stress and, bizarrely,
G UA R D C H I C
puppets.** Should C O C K R OAC H M I L K improve posture.
First, Prada sent
“D I G I TA L PAC K I N G”
G be funny. Sadly, isn’t. Apparently it’s full models down the
Research shows
‡
ws we of protein
p and is runway wearing
spend over four hours bein
ng touted as a security passes
downloading books,
b neww superfood. How (above). Now the
TV and podcasts and do yyou even milk a label is flogging
making playlissts cocckroachh anyway? lanyards for £235
pre-holiday. L
Let’s no
ot think – which are, quite
Exhausting. about that… literally, just lanyards.

18
 Because
sometimes
life is
stranger
than
fiction

LAP IT
UP
ROCK BOTTOM
I was standing on a
busy Tube train when it
CHUMP DUMP
jolted abruptly and I fell into I found out that a guy I’d been seeing I’m a bassist in a band,
the lap of a very attractive man. was two-timing me. Raging, the other girl and we were playing a set
I was so shocked by my own
and I manufactured a John Tucker Must to a huge crowd. There’s
impromptu lap-dance that
I couldn’t get up until the next Die-style ambush, meeting up with him a bit in one song where
stop. Everyone was laughing –
simultaneously to catch him out. He was we all jump into the air on
apart from his girlfriend, who
a specific note, but as we
shot me daggers so chilling
I’ll take them to the grave.
totally shameless, so we double-dumped reached that point, I lost
ABBIE, 23, FASHION him, but she and I have stayed friends! my footing, plummeting
INTERN, LONDON MARIAH, 20, SALES ASSISTANT, COVENTRY
down onto the step in
TURDS OF A FEATHER
I was working for a charity-fundraising company, furiously flirting with a guy on the street front of me. The guitar
in an attempt to secure a donation, when a seagull flew overhead and released a gigantic
white shit onto my face. The guy donated a tenner out of sheer pity.
survived; my pride didn’t.
KATE, 25, JOURNALIST, LONDON TYRHYS, 18, MUSICIAN,
LONDON

20 · C O S M O P O L I TA N
 BUDA-
PISSED
WINNING STREAK
I went on a crazy
night out in Budapest
LET’S GET PHYSICAL
AGUYIWASREALLY INTO
I started working at a PT company
REPRESENTS. STYLING MAKEDA STAIR. INDIA WEARS SCARF, LAZY OAF. WITH THANKS
WORDS KATE PASOLA. PHOTOGRAPHS ANTONIO PETRONZIO. HAIR AND MAKE-UP AMI
PENFOLD, USING LAURA MERCIER; MUZHDAH, USING MAC COSMETICS, BOTH AT LHA

a few years ago, and stumbled

NEEDEDAPLACETO STAY ONE
back to our 30-bed dorm in
the early hours. After hitting
and they decided to advertise my NIGHT,SOIOFFERED HIM MY
the hay, I must have sleep- services in a blog post that showed COUCH.WEDEFINITELY HAD
walked because I woke up
in a random dude’s bed
off my glittering personality. They ASPARK,SOIMADE THE
asked how I unwind after work, BALLSYDECISIONTO STRIP
across the room. Think that’s
NAKEDINFRONTOF HIM
bad? I’d also wet myself. and, because this was a long time UNDERTHEPRETENCE THAT
MARK, 33, TOUR GUIDE, BERLIN
ago, I innocently replied, “Netflix IDON’TLIKEPYJAMAS. IT
TO THE HOXTON (THEHOXTON.COM)

CHEAT CHAT
I once told a long, gossipy tale
and chill!” By the time the interview
of my ex-boss’s adulterous
threesome to a stranger at a
work event. It turned out she
was his wife’s best friend.
NICKY, 24, STUDENT, LINCS
came out and was published on
social media, that phrase meant
something very different.
INDIA, 26, ONLINE PT, LONDON
MUSTHAVEWORKED – WE’RE
NOWENGAGED!I’M REALLY
HOPINGITDOESN’T COME UP
INTHEWEDDINGSPEECHES…
ZOE, 26, USER EXPERIENCE
DESIGNER, LONDON

C O S M O P O L I TA N · 21
 YOUR NO–BS GUI HINGS BEAUTY
WORDS JO TAYLOR. PHOTOGRAPH LEO ACKER. MAI COUTURE, THISISBEAUTYMART.COM. IGK, SPACE NK. CINDERELLA STYLING HEAD, AMAZON.CO.UK

YOU’RE SHEETING ME
Remember blotting papers? The beauty world has turned them on our heads. Ouai’s new
pocket-sized Anti-Frizz Hair Sheets (£20) tame flyaways with a single wipe, while the handy IGK
Swipe Up Charcoal Dry Shampoo Hair Blotting Tissues (£16) tackle greasy locks on the go. If you’re
still a fan of the old-school T-zone blotters, Mai Couture has formulated a range of sheets with
the added skincare benefits of vitamins C and E, charcoal and rosehip oil (from £10) for an extra
boost throughout the day. We’re no school teachers, but we reckon these papers deserve an A*.

C O S M O P O L I TA N · 23
 Guerlain Météorites L
Parfum EDT, £52 (100m
The smell of Guerlain
L ene IInvisible Illumination powdery highlighting
Watercolor Blush, £22 éorites pearls, bottled.
This co al deli ntl
warms tthe cheeks in a way
no po der ever could.

Wella Invigo
Color Protection
Shampoo with
Lime Caviar, £11.50
Protect your colour
Jimmy Choo with vitamins – it’ll
Fever EDP, £79 thank you with long-
(100ml) You know w lasting vibrancy.
the perfume you
om
want to steal fro m
the nightclub
bathroom? Voila a.
a

L’Occitane Immortelle
Reset Oil-In-Serum,
£49* Antioxidant oil
bubbles suspended in
a skin-tension-relaxing
serum: wear overnight,
awake looking better.
AHA Smart
Renewal B dy Serum,
Thank he lactic
a d in this for your
bri er, smoother
bun nd mbs. s.

Get ready to tch the

GEN, CASSIE POWNEY, JO TAYLOR. PHOTOGRAPHS LUCKY IF SHARP.

sun set on your dreams
ms
of saving this month…
C ecting
Ser Watchc

MISS DE GASPE AVAILABLE AT SELFRIDGES. *AVAILABLE FROM SEPTEMBER

Miss De Gaspé D
Defyy& , p mentation –
g& cin e and
Hydrating Dry Mask, ylreso ol are
use not your fr ds.
Marc Jacobs
Daisy Love oil
EDT, £59 (50ml) he
Cloudberries u
and daisy tree use them thrice!
petals? No, us
neither, but they
WORDS INGEBORG VAN LOTRINGE

sound pretty. My Mood Get Up Show Nars Orgasm

Up Body Buffing Scrub, Afterglow Lip
£8 Bad day? Scrub it Balm, £22
away. This rice bran and An offshoot of
cocoa seed butter blend that flatter-all LOVES
+ 2 01 8 +
sees off dead skin cells blush. Because
(and any grumpiness). you can never
have too many We rate every beauty
orgasms. product we feature,
but the ones with
24 · C O S M O P O L I TA N this logo are our
absolute favourites.

Let’s get
kinky
Turn yourself on with this
season’s modern finger waves
1 
CRINKLE
CREW
DIFFICULTY 1/3
The ’30s Hollywood curls
seen on the Temperley
WORDS JO TAYLOR. PHOTOGRAPHS JASON LLOYD-EVANS. STILL LIFES LUCKY IF SHARP, LUKE PIDGEON PHOTOGRAPHIC
A/W 18 catwalk are this
season’s cool-girl glam.
Ricky Walters, founder
of Salon 64, says it’s a
great way to frame your
face, and an excuse to get
creative with the tongs.
“Start by drying your
hair into a strong side
parting, then take a large
barrel tong [hint: the
bigger the barrel, the
looser the wave] and wrap
wide sections of the hair
around it, towards your
face,” he says. Next, brush
the waves out so that they
look loose and natural,
then re-tong the two
front sections either side
of your face for extra
definition. Finish with
a strong-hold hairspray,
and you’re good to go.
TRY THE
TREND
TEMPERLEY A/W 18
1 T3 Cura
Dryer, £155
2 Label.M
Soft-Touch
Roughly blow-dry
your locks and
remove the clips. Crimp the
SONIA RYKIEL A/W 18
Sectioning
rest, brush it out and enjoy.
Clips,
£10.95
3
GATSBY
GANG
Mr Smith DIFFICULTY 2.5/3
Mousse, According to Walters, these
£28
’20s-inspired finger waves
Percy seen at Erdem A/W 18 are
& Reed Babyliss
Surprisingly Volume great for those with choppy
Strong Waves crops. Slather towel-dried
2
Curling
FRIZZ Extra Hold
Hairspray, £12 Tong, £20
hair in two handfuls of
FANATICS mousse and create a deep
DIFFICULTY 2/3 side parting. “Dry the hair
If you’re a fan of Monica’s on a low speed, at a high
“humidity” hair (yes, we GHD Contour heat, for a glossy finish.
binge-watch Friends, too), Professional Then, using a tong, curl the
Crimper, £95
this is the autumn-winter front sections and brush
style for you. “Apply loads
of medium-hold mousse to
damp hair, as this will give
3 them out,” he says. Next, use
a comb along the front of
the hairline to manipulate
ERDEM A/W 18
it the texture that you need the waves to sit along the
for extra hold,” says Walters. forehead, holding them
Then create an off-centre in place with kirby grips.
parting and apply sectioning Secure any leftover lengths
clips wherever you want to the back of the head with
a kink along the hairline. more slides, then hairspray.
C O S M O P O L I TA N · 25
P
RETTY
UGLY
Neutrogena Instant Facial
Cream-Mask Pods, £3.50 each
Yes, it looks like a McDonald’s dip, but
for those of you who tend to buy a big
tub of face mask, use it once, then leave
it to fester at the back of your beauty
cabinet, this 10ml shot of hydration just
makes sense. Scoop out the contents,
apply like a normal face mask, then wipe
away any excess after 15 minutes. There
are three types to choose from depending
on your skin concern, but we love Hydro
Boost for its hyaluronic acid hit.
Westlab Cleansing
Shower Wash, £3
Finding a reasonably priced shower gel
with no sodium lauryl sulfate (the skin-
drying foaming agent) is actually harder
than it sounds. Westlab developed this
shower range to complement salt bathing
(an old remedy thought to soothe aching
muscles, improve sleep quality and calm
irritated skin), and our fave is infused with
rejuvenating Himalayan salts. It took us
months to get through a bottle and we’d
happily pay more (but don’t tell them that).
An Instagram grid full of
swoony products is all very
well, but what about the dowdy-
looking ones that win awards
and form the secret stash of
beauty editors? Meet the far-
from-millennial-pink potions
worth ruining your bathroom
shelf for #notgridgoals
s CASSIE POWNEY
M a i n p h o t o g r a p h L O U I S A PA R RY
Ameliorate Intensive
Foot Treatment, £15
Derm-approved brand Ameliorate keeps
winning Cosmopolitan Beauty Awards, and
this new addition deserves one, too. It
softens hard skin over a 14-day period using
urea, a water-binding substance found
naturally in skin (yep, it’s also the stuff we
wee out, but this is produced synthetically
for skincare). Teamed with a decent amount
of face-exfoliating-favourite lactic acid,
consider this a foot facial in a bottle. They’ve
even thrown in a deodoriser. Nice touch. i
C O S M O P O L I TA N · 27
 True North Timeless
Eye 5.3, £37
The Danes, responsible for an upsurge
in candle and cosy blanket sales (all hail
hygge), now have their eyes on our skincare
routines. True North, founded by a Danish
medical research specialist, stays true to
the Scandinavian way of life: “not too much
and not too little”. This lightweight gel-cream
hydrates, soothes and strengthens the oh-
so-delicate under-eye area with nurturing
natural ingredients that include aloe vera
extract and pentavitin (a plant-derived
hydrator). Gentle-yet-effective is an
overused claim, but True North owns it.
Dr Dennis Gross Alpha Beta Pore CeraVe Moisturising Cream, £9
Do not judge a tub by its fugly-looking
Perfecting Cleansing Gel, £36 cover, for this one houses a surprise
The dermatologist every beauty journalist
wants to visit when they’re in New York
keeps his packaging plain and his potions
potent. This powerhouse cleanser combines
a bunch of pore-unclogging acids
(including glycolic, which might not suit
more sensitive skins), but no stripping
soaps or sulfates. Also making an
appearance is the very Disney-sounding
snow ear mushroom to hydrate, plus
dead-skin slougher willow-bark extract.
It foams lightly, cleanses deeply, but
leaves the skin feeling far from stripped.
28 · C O S M O P O L I TA N
Modern Botany Deodorant, £25*
While we don’t advise you to drop-kick
every beauty product with a chemical
in it, we love how many great free-from
options are emerging. Modern Botany
switches traditional sweat-duct-blocking
aluminium salts for witch hazel, which
reduces perspiration by tightening the
pores. Then there’s the cocktail of
anti-microbial essential oils (vetiver, lemon
tea tree and frankincense, to name a few),
which not only smell like a posh spa, but kill
off the kind of bacteria that causes that
unmistakable underarm whiff. It’s pricey,
but having tried so many natural
deodorants, this one takes the crown.
bestseller. The seemingly simple face
cream inside boasts three types of
skin-barrier-building ceramides (the
lipids lacking in the skin of people who
suffer from dermatitis, acne or eczema).
Said ceramides (alongside hydration
heroes hyaluronic acid and glycerin) are
packaged between a series of onion-like
layers that slowly dissolve and release
the good stuff over time. The result?
Up to 24 hours’ moisturisation. It’s no
wonder this under-£10 cream has gained
serious cult status in America. ◆
Exuviance Probiotic Lysate
Anti-Pollution Essence, £54
The skin’s microbiome (the little community
of good bacteria living on its surface) wasn’t
really talked about in the beauty industry
until recently. Nor were the ageing effects
of pollution. But now, we’re obsessed. This
super-light layer of hydration goes on
pre-serum and contains polyhydroxy acid
to protect against airborne nasties, plus
probiotic lysate to nurture good bacteria. It’s
impossible not to trust a brand based on the
discoveries made by two dermatologists
while researching skin-cancer treatments.
Oh, and it smells of cucumber. Result.
WHY SO DRAB? Consumer psychologist
Dr Kit Yarrow explains
why, actually, ugly sells…
ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHS LUCKY IF SHARP. *AVAILABLE FROM CONTENTBEAUTYWELLBEING.COM
“White and blue are
strongly associated
with purity, science and medicine,”
Dr Yarrow tells us. “Using these colours
gives the impression that a product
is new, science-based and therefore
more effective. There’s so much trust
necessary for a consumer to take the
leap of faith with a new skincare brand,
but how do they trust what they cannot
see immediately?” So this pared-back
packaging approach is more considered
than we realise? “Absolutely,” confirms
Dr Yarrow. “What’s being communicated
is that the company is ultra-focused
on the product and not its aesthetics,
as in, ‘We’re scientists, what do we
know about pretty packaging?’ It’s no
different to regular marketing. In fact,
it’s cleverer, since they’re trying to look
like packaging is irrelevant, yet the same
amount of thought and testing is likely
to have gone into it.”
 shtick
Once, the choice was lipstick or lipgloss. To ay, we
haven’t a clue what we’ll find in the tube. o here’s
a handy guide to help combat lip-colour onfusion

CHANEL ROUGE COCO

LIP BLUSH, £28 MAXFACTORCOLOUR
ELIXIRLIPCUSHION,£8.99
YOU’D EX
XPECT:
YOU’D EXPECT: FLOWERY DESCRIPTIO
“Nourished, smooth and soft
lips with a bonus of colour.”
THE REALITY: Very shiny and not
too pigmented, this is a nice gloss
with a balmy feel. That’s down to
the petrolatum (Vaseline), which
FLOWERY DESCRIPTION: is described as “nourishing” (it’s
“Emollient vegetable oils not! But it protec m drying).
captured in a gel that melts
into lips and cheekbones for
HD colour so fine you forget
it’s there.”
THE REALITY: It’s a gel tint for
lips and cheeks. Expect a wash,
not a pop, of colour and a slightly
BY TERRY LIP POWDER
sheeny finish. No impressive ESSENCE, £25
staying power, but the trade-off is
that it doesn’t feel tight and drying. YOU’D EXPECT: THE
REALITY:
Not at all
liquid (as
the word
“essence”
SISLEYPHYTO-LIPDELIGHT,£37 would
suggest), this
YOU’D EXPECT: into a sensorial oil.” FLOWERY chalky powder
Because when there’s DESCRIPTION: goes on like
a crisis, you reach “The world’s first a weightless
for the lip balm. powder that turns wax that feels
THE REALITY: to indelible ink on oddly cool as it
Looks like a lipgloss, the lips. Applied melts onto lips. It
feels like a balmy with a micro-floquet certainly lasts, but
oil with a hint of [eh?] applicator.” it’s rather drying. i
colour. Actually
hydrates long-
FLOWERY DESCRIPTION: term, unlike
“A new emergency lip-care more affordable
texture: a balm that transforms lip oils.

OPOL

IVENCHYLE ROUGE LIQUIDE
VELVET FINISH, £28
FLOWERY DESCRIPTION:
“The art of lipstick
reinvented in a real
trompe l’oeil, this has
a state-of-the-art hybrid
YOU’D texture.” Quelle intrigue!
EXPECT: THE REALITY: It’s a matte
liquid lipstick in a click-
through sponge applicator,
which is disappointingly
unrevolutionary. Gives
full-on weightless colour,
though, and it stays
well-put thanks to a clay
extract, no less.
DIOR ADDICT LIP
TATTOO COLOUR
JUICE, £26
YOU’D EXPECT:
FLOWERY DESCRIPTION:
“A tattoo-finish lip ink
with a no-transfer finish
that takes lips vertical.”
No, us neither.
THE REALITY: These
are the Cosmopolitan-
Beauty-Award-winning
Dior Addict Lip Tattoos,
only in ice-cream shades
and flavours. They tingle
a bit and the colours are
quite transparent, but
these stains do last.

I W WATERLIP
IN,£19
YOU’D
YOU D EXPECT:
FLOWERY DESCRIPTION:
“Made of 77% water, it has
the fresh effect of a sorbet
and drenches lips in matte
WORDS INGEBORG VAN LOTRINGEN. STILL LIFES LUCKY IF SHARP. PHOTOGRAPHS GETTY IMAGES, ALAMY, SHUTTERSTOCK
YSL ROUGEVOLUPTE SHINE
,
OIL-IN-STICK,£28
YOU’D THE REALITY: A glossy
EXPECT: tinted lip b
balm that
looks like a lipstick.
Good colour
payoff and it
feels weighhtless,
with prettyy
OK hydration
– for decennt
nourishment,
e
colour for a bare-lip effect.” FLOWERY get yourself
*Spot the oxymoron* DESCRIPTION: “Gives a plant-butter-
THE REALITY: Apparently instant colour glow and a based balm m,
lip oils weren’t light enough, kiss of tint and care.” Huh? though. ◆
so now you have to spread
drippy juice (“with anti-
pollution complex”) over
your mouth. A bit messy,
but the subtle result does
last and is matte-ish.

34 · C O S M O P O L I TA N
BEAUTY
LAB
Glossier Lidstar, £15
Not one to get swept up in beauty
hysteria, I was resigned to this one
being all hype and no substance.
Matte in texture, but with some
impressive light-reflecting shimmer,
I swiped it on and fell in love. If
you prefer the look of a powder
(as opposed to glassy lids) but
hate the application faff, try this.

Inc.redible You Glow Girl

Iridescent Jelly, £10
This holographic jelly
looked amazing in the
pot, but on skin? Hardly
detectable. ‘Show Glow’
had the most promise
This month...
LIQUID
(but relies on a high glitter
content to catch the light), while
‘Cosmic Blur’ was a tenner’s worth
of invisible. The squelchy texture
made me feel a bit queasy, too.

Bourjois
Metallic
Edition 24H
Eyeshadow, £6.99
Another powdery finish,
with a subtle shimmer that
LIDS A shimmery wash of colour is the only way
to dress up your eyes this summer. Beauty
survives the day. The texture
is very sheer, so even after editor CASSIE POWNEY gets painting

PHOTOGRAPHS RUO BING LI/THE LICENSING PROJECT, LUCKY IF SHARP

multiple layering your
colour is far from dramatic.
Appealing for some, but
too barely-there for me.

Makeup Academy Prism

Eyegloss Kit, £5
You get what you pay for here.
The three-step process involves
depositing loose pigment onto the
back of your hand, mixing it with
a glue-like topper, then applying
the resulting concoction onto your
lids. I looked like I had shimmery
conjunctivitis by the end of it.
Maybe practice makes perfect?
Editor’s pick...
Inglot Aquastic Cream
Eye Shadow, £13
One layer of this creamy liquid
leaves lids looking seriously
expensive. Smudge-free, crease-
free and glitter-free, just a second-
skin shimmer that leaves you
looking part robot. Every one of
the 10 shades is wearable – even
the blue and green ones. I love.

36
 INGE HAS
ISSUES
Cosmopolitan’s beauty director INGEBORG VAN LOTRINGEN gets some things off her chest
PERSONAL SHOPPER
OBSESSED
✱ Urban Decay Born
To Run Palette, £39.50
Sea and sunset eye shades,
holiday snaps and an ’80s
song title for a name. Sold.
IMPRESSED
✱ Trish McEvoy
Eye Brightener, £16
It’s an old trick, never
better achieved than with
this stay-put pencil: trace
inside the waterline for
all-day sparkly eyes.
PHOTOGRAPHS GETTY IMAGES. HYDROPEPTIDE.CO.UK, AUGUSTINUSBADER.COM
NON-PLUSSED
✱ Wilkinson Sword
Intuition F.A.B.
Razor, £12
A “bi-directional blade”
so you can shave up and
down and back and forth.
Hang on… is that not
a recipe for in-growns?!
What’s the deal with …
Controlling
your skin
destiny?
If you’re thinking you’re stuck
with bad or fast-ageing skin
thanks to your parents’ genes,
we bring you good news:
you can beat the suckers.
Nonsense. It’s not.
Epigenetics is the science of how we
influence gene expression: true, you
cannot choose your genes, but you can,
to an extent, activate them or switch
them off through lifestyle choices. In
terms of our skin, we now know that
the right care can not only begin to
reverse inherited problems by changing
how cells behave, it can also give you
genetically better skin to pass on to
your kids. This notion is transforming
skincare, says molecular biologist Dr
Neal Kitchen of HydroPeptide skincare.
Why? “Inflammation is one of the
greatest causes of bad skin, and chronic
F O U R WAY S T O H E L
HydroPeptide No7 Line Correcting
Aquaboost Oil-Free Booster Serum, £38
Moisturizer, £54 Fights Tip: ignore the silly ‘put
spots and ageing. on lines only’ advice.
or cumulative irritation
can turn “good” skin “bad” for
yourself and your progeny. This means
that over-use of fast-acting but sometimes
irritating ingredients such as retinoids
and acids works against you, potentially
turning healthy, happy cells into badly
behaved ones that cause acne and
eczema. So the future focus will be on
actives that repair and regenerate without
aggravating skin,” says Dr Kitchen.
Such as?! Peptides (look for multi-
peptide blends rather than promises
of “high levels” of single peptides) will
be big, as will antioxidant cocktails,
niacinamide, DNA repair enzymes and,
always, broad-spectrum sunscreens.
YOUR GENES
Augustinus Bader The Olay Regenerist 3 Point
Cream, £205 WonW the Day Cream SPF30,
lottery? This improves £29.99 Niacinamide,
lines, eczema and acne. peptides and a high SPF.
C O S M O P O L I TA N · 37
 STRETCH UR MIND...
WORDS KATE PASOLA. PHOTOGRAPH LOUISA PARRY

HACK YOUR PICK-ME-UP

Silicon Valley has, in recent years, become an unlikely source of health inspiration, with many of its trends making it to
the masses (think Bulletproof coffee and cold-shower therapy). The next? Biohacking. The concept is simple – lifestyle
and diet tweaks that will improve the way your body works, be it sleeping better, thinking more clearly, or feeling less like
you need a defibrillator to get up in the morning. And while the SV lot spend hours debating the best combos to turn
them into maximum humans, we’re all for a simpler approach. Try a sprinkle of reishi mushroom powder on your morning
cup of Joe (said to fight fatigue and inflammation), stir powdered collagen into your porridge (not just for skincare,
this protein-rich ingredient is a gut-health hero), or give your smoothie a probiotic boost with a dash of coconut vinegar.
Sure, you might need a biology GCSE to explain it – but it’s worth it for the smug office points.

41
 ? M
. A

t’s 8am on a Monday morning

when I slap my yoga mat onto
the hot studio floor, feeling a
pre-emptive sense of virtuous
wellbeing as the first beads
of sweat gather on my brow. But any
smugness is swiftly eviscerated when
I overhear a few hissed words from
my neighbour to her friend. “Are
you double-classing today, too? The
killer combo is hot barre then hot
power yoga, back to back,” she says.
Welcome to Santa Monica, California,
where “double-classing” is a verb. i
43
For decades, this beachside enclave
has attracted the most health-obsessed
inhabitants of a health-obsessed city
(Los Angeles) in a health-obsessed
state (California). As the coastal
district closest to Hollywood, it was
destined to become the palm-fringed
playground of choice for sport starlets,
bodybuilders, dancers and performers.
During the ’70s, Jane Fonda opened
her aerobics studio here, future
Olympian Carl Lewis trained at the
Santa Monica Track Club and Arnold
Schwarzenegger pumped iron at the
weightlifting mecca Gold’s Gym.
Today it’s where fitness trends and
health fads are cooked up, sampled
by a hungry but ruthlessly discerning
public, and then either spat out or
savoured and given the coveted Santa
Monica seal of approval. (The best
of the batch eventually make it
across the pond, and we Brits giddily
embrace the likes of SoulCycle,
Barry’s Bootcamp and paleo granola
as brand spanking new, when Santa
Monica-ites are “totally all over them”
and on to the next big thing.)
The Fondalike ’70s aerobics queens
are still here but, a few decades and
husbands later, they’ve swapped
calisthenics for Cardio Barre and
the grapefruit diet for Keto. The
changing-room demographic is
a mix of taut-faced, oddly airbrushed-
looking women who could be 49 or
69, semi-recognisable celebrities and
fitness-obsessed twentysomethings
working at tech companies on Santa
Monica Silicon Beach. Mine are the
only pale thighs in the room. I’m also House, an ‘urban sweat lodge’ where Exhale (boutique fitness studio), all
the only one with mismatched gym you’re swaddled in an infrared interspersed with paleo-friendly pit
socks and a Sainsbury’s carrier bag blanket and left to sweat for 50 stops that have names like “True Food
instead of a Lululemon tote. minutes like a dumpling. Kitchen” or “Kreation”. All the gyms
I leave Hot 8 Yoga and console Walking down 2nd Street, every are open 24 hours. The city never
myself with a £7.50 Date Shake at other person is carting a yoga mat; sleeps – not because it’s up all night
Moon Juice, the “lunar apothecary” most are wearing neon New Balances. partying, but because it’s up at
made famous by Gwyneth Paltrow. Because what Rodeo Drive is to 4.30am for kundalini yoga.
I’m eavesdropping gleefully as the designer boutiques, Santa Monica’s Yes, Santa Monica is a laboratory
post-workout, pre-work crowd hotly 2nd Street is to designer workouts. for both the most innovative and
discuss their favourite brand of whey On the same street, I pass Equinox gimmicky fitness trends, such as
protein and enzyme supplement (swanky gym), Orangetheory vertical climbing workouts, hot barre
and their new obsession with Shape (high-tech quantified cardio) and and hot weights; kookier options

44 · C O S M O P O L I TA N

BLACK BOOK
Santa Monica’s best health services and products
THE WORKOUT
Pilates Platinum. Meghan Markle
was spotted leaving the SM branch,
which boasts 55-minute classes on
a Megaformer machine (like reformer
Pilates... on crack) in the run-up
to her wedding. If you’ve seen
her shoulders, you’re definitely
going to want to try it out.
Find it here: Studio Lagree holds
classes, from £15, on similar
Megaformers, and has four
locations in London.
THE STREET-FOOD TREND
Sweetfin Poké has brought poké
(a traditional Hawaiian seafood dish
similar to sashimi rice bowls) to Santa
Monica. Perfect post-workout fuel.
Find it here: Island Poké in London,
and Oké Poké in Manchester.
like Feet & Paws Fitness (yep, that’s
interval training for dogs and owners)
feature prominently. But there are
also old-school sports that started
here and never, ever went away:
rollerblading, surfing and volleyball,
played by teenagers on the beach.
And everyone, it seems, is in on
it. Walking down the street one day
I spot a beefy Pit Bull terrier in a
GETTY IMAGES, RICHARD FREEMAN. IMAGE COMPOSITION BIMMILL.CO.UK
‘Bulletproof’ T-shirt, and jokingly ask
its owner if the canine also follows the
PHOTOGRAPHS DANIELLA MIDENGE/BLAUBLUT-EDITION.COM/
Bulletproof diet. “Oh, yes,” says Jordan
Bowditch, a beaming, handsome
marketing graduate – and Bulletproof
devotee – from San Diego State
University. “Biggie starts each day with
a Bulletproof fast, then moves on to a
grass-fed butter and grass-fed beef, and
I supplement it with whey protein and
collagen; the only thing he doesn’t
do is the coffee, obviously.” Obviously.
Only in Santa Monica would I meet
a dog that eats better than I do.
THE HEALTH SUPPLEMENT
Add one teaspoon of Beauty Dust to
nut milk, water or tea for supple skin,
lustrous hair and bright eyes. Magic!
Find it here: Available online for
around £29; Moonjuiceshop.com
THE SMOOTHIE
SunLife Organics’ Billion Dollar Meal
contains the likes of goat colostrum,
lion’s mane (actually a mushroom)
and rice bran solubles, and claims to
be the most nutrient-dense smoothie
out there. Yours for around £21. Yes,
you read that correctly.
Find it here: Goat colostrum is the
first milk a baby goat is given, and
is called “liquid gold”, thanks to
its richness in vitamins A, E and iron.
Non-goats can find it in a supplement
from Iherb.com for around £27.
Before I know it, I’m celebrating
my final Cardio Barre class of the
week with a kaletini (yes, that’s a gin
cocktail made with cold-pressed kale).
It’s Friday night, my fellow drinkers
and I are clad in workout gear,
accessorised with a post-SoulCycle
glow. Admittedly, it’s not any old
workout gear; we’re talking Onzie’s
brightly patterned harem-style pants,
Lululemon tops and swathes of
Kit And Ace’s technical cashmere.
“I have two wardrobes: work
clothes and
workout clothes,”
says Jackie
“It’s all Alvarez, the
27-year-old PR
about manager for the
guilt-free Santa Monica
tourism board
gluttony” – and my date for
the night. “I can
think of very few
o
occasions in Santa Monica where
it would be inappropriate to show
u in your exercise gear.”
up
o
“
t
Jackie catches the barman’s eye and
orders
“We’ll
tomorrow,
us two beet-based cocktails.
sweat out all this organic gin
in the first few minutes of hot yoga
” she assures me. Santa
M
Monica isn’t about deprivation; it’s
a
about guilt-free gluttony and hangover
h
hacks. Much like my kaletini, this
c is a careful balance of health and
city
h
hedonism. It’s as though every facet
h been given a healthy twist. So
has
w
when someone talks about “the best
b
burger in town”, they mean a raw
v
vegan ‘burger’ with sprouted onion
c
chia bread topped with coconut jerky
s
strips. That Lycra-clad girl licking
a ice cream? She’s indulging in a
an
v
vegan goji-berry-and-coconut-milk
c
concoction. And at hipster bars,
locally brewed kombucha is on
t alongside craft beers.
tap
In Santa Monica, you can have
y
your cake and eat it – just as long as
it’s made with agave and raw cacao.
Y can have a stressful job in tech
You
a stay serene – if you make it to
and
6am yoga every morning. And you
can party hard and still look young,
if you know the name of the best
beautician in town.
Here, women aren’t shamed for
showing a little self-obsession. I had
assumed SoCal women were born
with it. But a week in Santa Monica
has taught me that Californian girls
don’t have an unfair advantage,
they have an attitude of serious
self-investment. They’ll fill their
wardrobe with bum-flattering $100
leggings and drink double-digit
juices, but they’ll also spend $200
on Botox or eyelash extensions. Their
glowing skin isn’t just from hot yoga
and wheatgrass shots, but high-tech
electronic facials. Contrary to what
we might think in Britain, health
isn’t a birthright in California. It’s
an obsession. Just how healthy it
is to be obsessed with health? We’ll
let you be the judge of that… ◆
C O S M O P O L I TA N · 45
 emember Insanity? It had everyone (even your nan)
sweating it out in their living rooms, gyms and
church halls when it took the world by storm in
2014. Well, it hasn’t gone away – and it’s still one
of the best workouts for fat-burning there is. Don’t
knock it just because it’s not AcroYoga on stilts, or whatever
bandwagon the fitness elite are currently on. Its creator,
Shaun T, has devised the following circuit in which he
challenges you to complete three rounds, increasing intensity
as you go. It’s been designed to spike your metabolism, and
ssculpt your arms, legs, abs and shoulders. And yep, it’s
Get ready to seriously still
s l every bit as tough and effective as you remember.
sweat with this
full-body
blast

TIME TO GET INTENSE STEP1 Divepush-up

For round one, do as many reps as you
can for 20 seconds per move, resting
for 10 seconds between each. Then take
a 30-second break before moving onto
round two, where you’ll do as many reps
as you can in 45 seconds, with 15 seconds
between moves. Finally, do as many
reps as you can for one minute, going
from move to move without rest.
TARGETS Triceps, biceps, core, lats
1 On your front, with hands on the floor
under your shoulders, extend your legs.
2 Raise your hips, keeping your arms
straight and your back flat.
3 Lower your hips back down into
a plank position, and bend your elbows
to lower your chest.
4 Now repeat. Sorry.

WORDS CATRIONA INNES. PHOTOGRAPH SHUTTERSTOCK. ILLUSTRATIONS LIZZY THOMAS


STEP2
Scissorstance
starjumps
TARGETS Whole body
1 Stand feet shoulder-
width apart. Hinge
forward at the hips,
reaching your right hand
in front of your left foot.
2 Jump
J p up p with your
y y
hands to your chest,
cross your right foot in
front of your left, before
landing back, legs parallel.
3 Next, jump, crossing
your left leg in front of
your right – and keep
swapping sides.
47
STEP5The slalom
TARGETS Core, thighs, arms
1 Stand, feet together, and bend
down to touch the floor with
STEP3Punchingabs your right hand
TARGETS Biceps, abs 2 In one motio , swing
1 Sit with legs forward and feet both hands in f on
together, knees slightly bent. of you, elbows en
2 Brace your core and lean back, and jump to th
with your fists at each side of your Land softly and
chest and your elbows bent. bend your knee
3 Punch your right fist forward to reach your left
at shoulder height, then return hand onto the floor.
quickly and repeat on the other Keep alternating.
side. Keep punching. You’re owning i
STEP4 STEP6
The jump cross Switchkickpunch
TARGETS Obliques, triceps TARGETS Cor , thighs, glutes
1 Stand with your p
feet hip- 1 Stand with yyour left foot in front
width apart, knees bent and of your right, nees slightly
fists raised to shoulder height, bent and fists raised in
like you’re ready to punch. front of you, elbows ben
2 Jump up, raising 2 Bracing your core, kick
your arms over your right foot in front
your head. As you of you, leg straight, whil
land, pivot to the left punching your left fist
and punch your right towards your foot.
fist in front of you. 3 Return to start,
Keep alternating sides. swap and keep
You’ll be questioning alternating.
your sanity about now,
but keep going.
 Focus pads, Jacket, £95,
£14.99, Everlast at Replay
Sportsdirect.com

Trainers, £134.95, Nike

REEBOK A/W 18
Shorts,
£35,
Ellesse

Gloves, £59.95,
Reebok at

READY to
Hoodie, £38, Ivy Wiggle.co.uk
Park at Topshop

Headband, £8, Fila.co.uk

RUMBLE
Want some boxing in your workout? Socks,
£15, Kappa
Kontroll
Punch above your weight in this lot

Leggings, £40,
Björn Borg
COMPILED BY SOPHIE LEEN. PHOTOGRAPH CATHRINE WESSEL

T-shirt, £15.47, Ben

Lee at Amazon.co.
uk/fashion Gloves, £52.46,
Adidas.co.uk

Jacket, £330,
Pinko.com

Punch bag,
£40.99,
Lonsdale at
Sportsdirect.
Sports bra, com
£68, Lululemon
Trainers, £165,
Shorts, £75, Kappa Kontroll Ashfootwear.co.uk

C O S M O P O L I TA N · 49
 SOMETIME IT’S T E O TSIDE THAT COUNTS

BOOTY CALL
It’s a bit like being the princess in
The Princess And The Pea when you’re
choosing winter boots. They have to
go with everything as well as update
your past season’s favourites, and they
shouldn’t necessitate you living off cereal
for six months to afford them. This River
Island pair will work hard for you this
season, and we’re as obsessed with them
as Scott Disick is with Vegas. Wear with
cosy tights layered under long dresses
and ’70s-style fitted midi skirts. Or – and
this may sound unlikely now – wear with
straight-leg jeans or trousers loosely
tucked inside. Trust us, it’s the future.
Also, who needs a boyfriend when
you’ve got these tall, dark and handsome
guys escorting you round town?!
Boots, £120, River Island
WORDS AMY BANNERMAN. PHOTOGRAPH DENNIS PEDERSEN

COSMOPOLI N · 51
Coat, £159, Topshop.
Blazer, £550; skirt, £285,
both House Of Holland at
Urban Outfitters. Jumper,
£30; bumbag, £28, both
River Island. Socks, £9.99,
Pantherella at SockShop.
Shoes, £110, Boden

All hail,
autumn!Summer, we’re sad to see you go, but there’s nothing quite like a new
season. Hello, coats, boots, knits and can’t-wait-to-try trends…
S e n i o r Fa s h i o n E d i t o r
SAIREY STEMP
Ph o t o g r a p h e r
SAM COPELAND
 SHOP
Trainers, £149, Kurt
Geiger London
Jacket, £70,
ME NOW
River Island

Hat, £16, Skirt, £49,

Asos.com Warehouse

Coat,
£449, Oui

Coat, £190, Skirt, £35,

Levi’s ASOS Design
at Asos.com Jumper, £69.99,
H&M Studio
Earrings, £12,
Scarf, River Island
£30, Aldo

Heritage
Henry Holland led his tartan army to victory
on the catwalk. Houndstooth, checks and
Dress, £25, tweed should also be in your sartorial armour
George Boots, £89,
Charleskeith.com

Skirt, £195, Psst... This is the season to be bold and

LK Bennett mix things up. We’re dreaming of an Hat, £18,
oversized checked coat slung over River Island
a houndstooth trouser suit.
Trousers, £185,
Essentiel Antwerp

Trousers, £200,
Current/Elliott
Coat, £250,
Shoes, Karen Millen
£60, Aldo

Belt, £14,
River Island

Watch, £79,
Tommy Hilfiger at
Coat, £1,200,
Hourtime.co.uk i
House Of Holland Bag, £70,
Dune London
Trousers, £48,
River Island

C O S M O P O L I TA N · 53
 Watch, £79,
Guess Watches Hat, £20,
Backpack, £95, River Island
Herschel Supply
Earrings, £15, A
at Selfridges
Weathered Penny

Sweater, £45,
Jdwilliams.co.uk

Bra, £17.99, Bag, £22, Faith

H&M Studio Briefs, £8.99, at Debenhams
H&M Studio Coat, £1,700, Kate
Spade New York
Shoes, £75,
Charleskeith.com

Bag, £60,
Dune London
Animal print Body, £25,
ASOS Design
When it comes to fashion, the call of at Asos.com
the wild is only getting louder. Go on a
style safari in tiger, zebra and leopard
Sunglasses, £410,
Calvin Klein
Psst... The new king of the jungle? Red and
black animal print. Exhibit A: this Studio by
Preen number (right). Wear with black Skirt, £35,
River Island
Skirt, £30, opaques and patent ankle boots.
River Island

Jumper, £30,
Dorothy Perkins
Earrings, £22,
A Weathered
Penny Skirt, £28,
ASOS Design
at Asos.com
Coat, £130, Biba
Dress, £105, at House Of Fraser
Lollys Laundry at
House Of Fraser
Boots, £900,
Giuseppe
Zanotti Shoes,
£50, Aldo

Bag, £35, Therapy

Trousers, at House Of Fraser
£151, Mother

54 · C O S M O P O L I TA N
Coat, £199; dress, £99,
both Studio by Preen
at Debenhams i
Jumper, £27.99, New
Look. Skirt, £49; jacket
(around waist), £35,
both Urban Outfitters.
Bag, £35, Herschel
Supply at Selfridges.
Socks, £9.99, as
before. Boots, £259,
Kurt Geiger London
 Hat, £18, Urban
Outfitters

Boots, £68, Backpack,

Urban Outfitters £340, Diesel

Shirt, £110,
Ohheygirl
store.com
Bag, £60,
Watch, £399, Fjällräven at
Victorinox Snow + Rock
Jacket, £35, F&F

Jumper,
£38, Oasis

Hat, £10,
Urban explorer ASOS Design
at Asos.com

Jacket, £85, Anorak. Chunky sweater. Backpack. Hiking

Urban Outfitters
boots. The perfect outfit for a Saturday trip
to IKEA also happens to be fashion dynamite Boots,
£85, Office

Psst... So you’ve mastered this look at entry

level (think Fair Isles, Pufas and bumbags)?
It’s time to get a little more adventurous –
add hiking boots with a chunky tread.

Bag, £95,
Herschel Supply
at Selfridges

Jacket, £401,
Parajumpers

Boots,
£99, Ravel
Shirt, £55, Urban
Outfitters Bumbag, £30,
Herschel Supply
Sweater, £295,
Madeleine
Thompson i

Jacket, £55,
ASOS Design
Watch, £139, Hugo at Asos.com
at Hourtime.co.uk

C O S M O P O L I TA N · 57
 Beret,
£28, Aldo

Trousers, £38,
River island Gloves,
£49, Hobbs
Dress, £440, Lalo at
Lalocardigans.com
Bag, £39,
Kaleidoscope.co.uk Sunglasses,
Watch, £265, Chloé
£95, Swatch

Coat, £149.99,
H&M Studio

Coat, £120,
All the browns Lazy Oaf

Bag, £99, Chic, understated and versatile, with a Earrings, £78,

LK Bennett Kate Spade
shade for everyone. Welcome back to our New York
wardrobes. What kept you away so long?
Trousers, £119, Jumper, £59.99,
Ted Baker Psst... A camel coat is key this season, but rarely H&M Studio
goes out of style. Our advice? Buy early, as the
new classics from high-street heroes like Zara
sell out as soon as they hit the shop floor.

Dress, £425, Skirt, £139,

LK Bennett Whistles
Watch, £150,
Boss at
Hourtime.co.uk

Jacket, £345,
Bimba Y Lola
Boots, £310,
Tara Jarmon

Earrings, £17,
A Weathered
Dress, £139, Penny
Plümo Trousers, £75, Free
Sunglasses, £149, People at Yoox.com
Viu Eyewear

58 · C O S M O P O L I TA N
Coat, £285,
Whistles. Dress,
£249, Warehouse ◆

Model Harmony
Brobin at
Established Models.
Hair Liam Curran
at Carol Hayes
Management, using
Aveda at Shine
salon, Brighton.
Make-up Lou Box
at S Management,
using MAC.
Fashion assistants
Maddy Alford,
Shannon Logan.
Photographer’s
assistant Jess Ellis.
Digital assistant
Alaric Macdonald
 , 2 EMBRACE
HOW DO
I WEAR…
The turbo trainer?
Fugly but fun, these
sneakers are a lot like
our last blind date
1 WHY IT
WORKS
High-end labels such as Louis
Vuitton and Balenciaga have
upped the already-popular
(but somewhat baling)
“ugly sneaker” game with
super-charged turbo trainers,
and celebrities (and the
high street) are on board.
Think along the lines of last
season’s dad trainers, but
with layered, souped-up
rubber soles. Frightened?
Don’t be. They’re versatile,
flattering and will refresh
your wardrobe staples.
Hailey
Baldwin
60 · C O S M O P O L I TA N
THE OVERSIZE
See how Hailey’s face looks tiny
beneath her gigantic frames? Her
oversized T-shirt and cartoonish
sneaks have the same efect –
when everything’s a little too big,
whatever’s underneath takes on
Polly Pocket proportions. Make an
element of your outfit streamlined
or small, though, so you’re not
swamped – and show some leg
to maximise the slimming efect.
3 ALL ABOUT
THAT BASE
Turbo trainers are super-
versatile, but what you wear
on the bottom of your outfit
is crucial – drainpipe jeans or
trousers are out, as your feet
will look awkwardly huge. But
pair the trainers with a bit of
skin (say, beneath a miniskirt),
and the look is somehow cool
and sexy. Other top picks
are straight-legged tailored
trousers or floaty mid-length
dresses and skirts.
4 SOCK GAME
So socks on show or no?
Either way is fine, but you
have to commit one way
or the other. Wear a hidden
ankle sock, like Hailey, or
go for a scrunched white
’90s athletic sock boldly
and unapologetically on
show. Or match your socks
to your shoes for a stylist-
approved tonal look.
 Gilda
Ambrosio 4STREET CUTE
A miniskirt is an easy, fail-safe
way to try this trend, because
the shoe is unexpectedly
flattering against bare legs. Try
Gilda’s trick of ofsetting girlie
florals with pulled-up sports
socks and a baggy tomboy tee
or jumper to nail transitional
hot/cold dressing. A drawstring
pouch, camera bag or bumbag
are all playful complements to
this flirty-but-cool combo.

Top, £30, Umbro. Skirt, £36,

Urban Outfitters. Sunglasses,
£40, Quay. Bag, £16, Topshop.
PSST...
Fashion maths: an
Socks, £2, Weekday. Trainers,
£225, Ash
ugly sock + an ugly
trainer = a record
style score this
Emili Sindlev season.
4PALETTE PLAY
Another turbo trainer, another
bare leg, this time worn with pretty,
complementary hues. If your midi
dress is feeling frumpy or formal,
toughen it up with the season’s
must-have sneakers and a structured
bag. And don’t be afraid of colour
– pastels play particularly well with
each other here without being too
much. Daytime style, sorted.
WORDS AND STYLING MADDY ALFORD. PHOTOGRAPHS GETTY IMAGES, BACKGRID, ACIELLE/STYLEDUMONDE.COM, PIXELATE

Dress, £39.99, Zara. Earrings, £40,

Pandora. Bag, £59, Charles & Keith.
Socks, £7.99, Pringle at SockShop.
Trainers, £145, Nike at Ofspring

4WORKING GIRL
Sometimes simple is best to take
the edge of. Take notes from Bella
and try a matching suit with ’90s
accessories for relaxed sophistication.
A ribbed vest or babydoll tee work
equally well underneath. Note that
the trouser leg isn’t too skinny, nor
is it a flare – a straight or wide leg
is what you need to balance this
shoe. The trouser width must
cover just enough of the trainers
so that you don’t look like you
have flippers for feet.

Blazer, £60; trousers, £40, both River

Island. Top, £14, American Apparel.
Earrings, £55, Thomas Sabo.
Sunglasses, £14, Topshop. Trainers,
Bella Hadid
£125, Bronx at Urban Outfitters

C O S M O P O L I TA N · 61
 ndon
une Lo
£80, D

urla
£465, F
rry
trathbe
£325, S

e.co.uk ulu
idoscop £350, L s

o
, Kale s
£39 Guinne

Tv & £35, Ru
byshoo
.co.uk

£495,
Manu A
telier

ha
ld
MULBE

ho
RRY A/
18 W

Q U E E N M UM a s to
THE r yo u’re ace
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 WORK SMARTER, NOT HARDER…
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20
Prescribe Tablets
yourself a hobby
Does your boss sneak their way into your dreams? (No, not
in that way.) Well, turns out there’s a reason for that. A new
study published in the Journal Of Occupational Health Psychology
has found that those who don’t take time for themselves after work
struggle to get a proper night’s kip. They analysed the habits of 699
people, and found that those who did an activity – such as yoga, listening
to music or walking – slept far better than those who headed straight home
(or went for a wine). The best thing to do? Anything in a group. Research*
shows that group classes reduce stress by 26.2% compared to lone exercising.
Boss still ending up in your dreams? Could be time to tell your partner…
71
 How
Yes, it’s terri
are tricks to
a crowd a wh
to ail
fying – but th
make addres
ere
sing
ole lot easier
…

O bama has it. Theresa

May, not so much.
Oprah inspires
the globe with it,
while Gwyneth
has been known to
cry. Being adept at
public speaking may appear to be
something you are simply born with
but, actually, all those who seem to
be ‘naturals’ tend to have a secret.
They’ve had training. Or so says
Imogen Butler-Cole, a tutor at RADA
Business, who, through its course on
improving communication in the
workplace, has trained some of the
very best business minds around.
We tapped her brain for some advice
– get ready for your TED Talk...

PEAK PRACTICE
Martin Luther King practised his
history-defining ‘I Have A Dream’
speech eight months before to a
smaller, high-school audience. It’s a
technique we can all learn from, says
Butler-Cole. And while you might not
have a group of students to rehearse in
front of, you can make the most of
what you do have on offer: mirrors, the
recorder on your phone and friends
can all make for a back-up audience. If
you choose to video or record yourself,
the key is to do it more than once.
This way, you’ll become less self-
conscious, and can also watch out
for key falters in both how you speak
(‘ums’ and ‘ahs’) as well as sections
you stumble over. Knowing your stuff
doesn’t necessarily mean following a
script, though. “There are dangers in
learning something word for word –

72 · C O S M O P O L I TA N
publi
s a k g
if you forget one word, it might throw
you completely,” says Butler-Cole.
Write out what you want to say, but
go back and extract key messages to
make a bullet-point list. The dream is
to speak without notes – but if there’s
even the slightest chance you might
forget something, take them with
you on small index cards (not a big
flappy piece of paper). As for those
key messages? Make sure you repeat
them three times. It’s the technique
Tony Blair used during the run-up
to his election win in 1997.
TELL A STORY
The one thing most successful TED
Talks have in common? They contain a
personal story. And with good reason.
It’s the key to keeping people engaged.
“The more we can include stories
in public speaking, the more our
audience stays with us,” says Butler-
Cole. “Introduce a character, project
or organisation you’ll be talking about
and show some struggles it or they
might have overcome – this gets the
audience to come on a journey with
you.” Try to engage the audience’s
senses, too – paint a picture of what
you’re talking about with descriptive
language. What does it sound, look,
smell or even taste like? “If we can
picture what someone’s talking about,
we’re much more likely to remember
what we’re listening to,” she says. But
be wary – there’s a difference between
evoking emotion and waffling on.
Your personal story should take up
around a minute of your speech (we
analysed TED Talks and found most
of the speakers stuck to this rule), and
it must relate to your central point. i
C O S M O P O L I TA N · 73
BREATHE EASY
It was all going fine... in your
bedroom. But you’re about to go out
on stage/to the front of the meeting
room and your heart is beating like
a moth in a lampshade. Your body
is perceiving a dangerous situation
(a room full of eyes staring straight
at you) and putting you into fight or
flight mode. “That adrenaline spike
will only last for a minute, but if we
don’t handle it appropriately, and go
into a state of short, shallow breathing,
those symptoms can exacerbate,” says
Butler-Cole. By breathing through
it you can settle the adrenaline – and
that feeling of sheer panic. “It’s about
getting the breath lower down into the
body. Imagine a birthday cake with lots
of candles to blow out. Take an active
and sustained out breath, and at the
end of it, just relax into the lower belly
and let that breath drop in. That settles
the breath, and all those symptoms we
might get.” For added calm, count the
candles as you go up to 10 – it will
stop your mind going haywire.
FIND YOUR VOICE
It’s not just what you say, but how you
say it that matters. Studies show that
words only count for 7% of the impact
on your audience, while 38% of it is
your cadence* – how varied you sound.
A monotonous, flat voice can send
an audience into a slumber. Margaret
Thatcher was said to have undergone
extensive voice training to make her
sound more powerful, and Butler-
Cole recommends trying this trick:
“Make little siren sounds with your
voice, and draw a circle in the space in
front of you while you do it, as if you
were a conductor. As you draw it all
the way down and up the other side
again, follow with your voice [up and
down in pitch accordingly].” Then try
saying a sentence while moving your
hand up and down and following the
pattern with your voice. Finally, try
stretching the words, exaggerating each
one. “You’re encouraging your voice
to go into places it wouldn’t normally
74 · C O S M O P O L I TA N
Above and far
right: Martin
Luther King
and Michelle
Obama are
masters of
public speaking,
but Oscar night
was all a bit
too much for
Gwyneth (right)
and opening it up. It can make such a
difference to the impact you make and
help bring in emotion and passion.”
PACE YOURSELF
“One issue for a lot of public speakers
is that we feel we shouldn’t be taking
up people’s time,” says Butler-Cole.
So we race through what we have to
say in order to get off the stage as fast
as we can – a big mistake. “The more
time we take, the more confidently
we come across.” Just watch a clip
of Michelle Obama. “One reason she
is so engaging is [because] she really
takes her time and allows her points
to land,” says Butler-Cole. Obama not
only punctuates each sentence with
a pause, but she speaks slower as well.
“That gives you time to breathe, think
of the next point, and move on. You’re
calming yourself but also giving the
audience time for the message to sink
in.” And the pauses? Allow double the
time you would normally – Obama
takes around three
seconds.
And practise
speaking as
slowly as you
would were
you handing
out a phone
number.
GET CONNECTED
You’ve spent hours crafting an
informative, funny, inspiring talk –
so don’t waste it by delivering it with
your head down and buried in notes.
Whether you’re sitting around a table
with 10 people or speaking to a hall
of 300 (gulp), making eye contact with
the audience is vital, says Butler-Cole:
“It helps them connect with us and
feel like we’re talking directly to them.”
If the space is so big that direct eye
contact is tricky, angle your shoulders
towards different areas so your
*ACCORDING TO RICHARD GREENE’S TED TALK THE 7 SECRETS OF THE GREATEST SPEAKERS IN HISTORY
eyeline is in that direction. “Make sure
WORDS CLARE THORP. PHOTOGRAPHS GETTY IMAGES, REX FEATURES, ALAMY, SHUTTERSTOCK.
your body is open to different parts
of the room and you take people
in from all parts of the space.” Can’t
bear to look them directly in the eye?
Head to the eyebrows, it’s interpreted
the same. Don’t be afraid to gesture
either – within reason. “Gestures give
the audience a visual language, but it’s
important that they are intentional
and not just wafting,” says Butler-
Cole. “It’s the difference between
one clear movement and just
flapping your hands about.” ◆
Imogen Butler-Cole teaches
the Stepping Up With
Confidence For
Women course at
RADA Business;
Radabusiness.com
SELF
MADE
“Deine
who you
want to be”
DEBBIE WILLIAMSON, 42, co-
founder of online furniture
company Swoon, sits us down
for some crucial career advice
³ Keep in touch
After taking a gap-year in my mid-thirties,
I wanted to turn my passion for interiors
into a business. While travelling, I spotted a
chair in a market that I’d seen online, but at
a fraction of the price, and realised I’d found
a niche. You could cut out the middleman,
not have a warehouse, and deliver customers
quality furniture at affordable prices directly
from suppliers. Back home, I met up with
a former colleague, Brian, and told him
my plan. Within six months, we’d launched
Swoon – keep in touch with those you work
well with and whose skill sets complement
yours, you never know when you might be
in a position to start a business together. We
now employ more than 110 staff and have
hundreds of suppliers across the world.
³ Speak their language
My dad came to the UK as an Indian
immigrant aged 21 and hustled hard. On
family holidays, he’d send me into shops
to negotiate the price of ice cream – he
exposed me to essential business skills,
like bartering, from a young age. Even
if you can’t speak someone’s language,
you need to be able to communicate in
ways they’ll understand. Learn the goals
of the people you want to work with and
position what you do as a way to help.
76 · C O S M O P O L I TA N
³ Combine data and creativity
DEBBIE’S Often, what customers say and actually want
BUSINESS are two different things. We asked people to
ESSENTIALS vote on the furniture they wanted stocked
Book: on Swoon, but found they didn’t really buy
Start With those things. So we switched tactics and
Why by Simon now sell a small batch initially and see what
Sinek looks at people purchase – success is a combination
why you do what you do.
of data and creativity. We’ll then direct our
For me, Swoon is more
than just selling furniture, designers by saying,“This material in this
it’s about creating homes category seems to work better than other
to facilitate happier lives. combinations. Create a product within
those parameters.” They’ve got creative
Podcast:
freedom within well-researched restrictions.
I like The Tim
³ Strategise your work and life
AS TOLD TO JENNIFER SAVIN. VISIT SWOONEDITIONS.COM
Ferriss Show
[by American Before Swoon, I worked for a big advertising
author Tim Ferriss]. He corporation and found the best thing is to
interviews great leaders on sketch your own one-page plan; don’t wait
everything they’ve learned.
for someone to give you one. No matter
Industry read: your role or industry, define who you want
As we work to be, your goals and the actions [to take]
with suppliers to achieve them. I also think about what
everywhere relationships I want to strengthen and who
from India to Morocco,
I want to spend time with. Setting goals
I think it’s especially
important to have global around personal development, just as you
perspective, so I read would at work, helps ensure you meet them.
Monocle, which has stories
from all around the world.
 THE FACES OF
LITTLE MIX
They’ve got the best glam in the game, but how do our
favourite girl group achieve their signature looks and keep their skin glowing?
We unzipped their beauty-bag secrets…

PEACHY
“My signature
JESY NELSON look is warm and
bronzed, with
Pink & bold touches of peach.”

LASHES
For a bold eye
like Jesy, layer REMOVE
up on the Take of eye
mascara. make-up before
bed with Simple
Eye Make-up
Remover – it
can even handle
waterproof
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JADE THIRLWALL
Daytime fresh

HYDRATE
For those with HANDY
sensitive skin, like “A normal day is
Jade, a gentle just mascara and a
face wash is a key lip for me. I always
daily essential. carry travel-sized
products with me
DARING to use on the go.”
“For nights out,
I get inspired by
drag-queen make-up
on Instagram! I love
colour and glitter.”
 COSMOPOLITAN PROMOTION

SHINE
IG ANNE PINNOCK
Metallics make
eyes pop. Brown Casual chi
peepers look great
with gold hues,
hazel with smoky
silver and blue
against copper.
EXPERT
TIPS
“I was clueless on
skincare until I had
a facial from Nilam
Holmes-Patel,
founder of HD
Brows. Genius!”

GO-TO LOOK
“I’m a lip girl – I love a
perfect liner and brown
or burgundy tones.”

PERRIE EDWARDS
Summer hippy

SPEEDY INSPIRATION
“I used to have such “Social media is the best
a long make-up- for make-up hacks and hair
removing routine, inspiration. Next up, I really
until I realised all the want to try a pixie crop!”
other girls just used
Simple wipes.”

RELAX
Perrie loves to indulge in
a bath and sheet mask on
her rare days of. Us, too! WANT TO MEET THE BAND IN PERSON?
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 CELEBRITY

il
Straight-talking, funny and a shrewd
businesswoman… Mila Kunis, who rarely
gives interviews, opens up to her friend,
Saturday Night Live’s Kate McKinnon i
Photog raphs KAI Z FENG • Fashion Editor KRISTEN SALADINO

SPEAKS OUT C O S M O P O L I TA N · 81
CELEBRITY
Mila Kunis
is funny.
That much
we know.
And she’s been proving it since she
was just 14 years old on That ’70s
Show. Shortly after came the voice
of Family Guy’s Meg, and then there’s
the vast back catalogue of films,
too. And Google any of the few TV
interviews she’s done and you won’t
be disappointed. Her chat with Radio
1’s Chris Stark in 2013 went viral
after they ditched the traditional
questions and talked about drinking
“lad bombs” and “dropping trou”,
with Kunis having to be asked by
the PR to revert to discussing the
film she was promoting.
What few people realise is that
there is a more serious side to her,
too, because Kunis is also an astute
businesswoman. Since starting a
family with her That ’70s Show co-star
Ashton Kutcher (they have two
children together), she has cut back
on her acting roles and has instead
been focusing on her TV company,
Orchard Farm Productions, which
she set up in 2014. She also speaks
fluent Russian (she was born in
Ukraine) and regularly has Family
Guy fans shouting, “Shut up, Meg!”
at her in the street. With this in mind,
we asked Kate McKinnon, her co-star
82 · C O S M O P O L I TA N
in new film project The Spy Who
Dumped Me (another funny), to grill
Kunis, 34, on everything we don’t
know about her – and there is a lot…
KM: You’re very close to your family.
How did they influence who you
are today?
MK: My parents allowed me to be
very independent and a free thinker,
whether they agreed with
my choices or not. I never
had a curfew, and I never
broke many rules. I was
in bed by 9pm. I think “My parents
my parents were like,
“Well, she’s not an idiot.”
allowed me
KM: To me, you are one to be a free
of the most normal
people in the world.
thinker”
You told me at one point
about how you’d hang
out at a pharmacy after shooting That
’70s Show. Do you think that’s why?
MK: My mom used to work at
a pharmacy. When I was 14 and 15,
she would pick me up on her lunch
break. She didn’t have time to drop
me at home, so I’d go back to work
with her until she finished. I would
walk around the aisles, and sometimes
my mom would be like, “There’s
somebody at the ice-cream counter,
go serve them,” and then, “Will you
go to the photo counter?” I was free
labour, totally illegal. She’s retired
so I guess she can’t get fired now!
KM: I’m sorry, it never fails to
amaze and amuse – that image
of you leaving the TV lot and then
going to scoop ice cream....
MK: An image? This was years
of my life!
KM: Neither of us participates in social
media. What’s that about for you?
MK: I was so late to that train.
I remember at some point my
roommate was like, “You know, there’s
a thing called Facebook,” and I was like,
“What is this Facebook? Who’s gonna
poke each other? That’s just weird.”
And then Ashton and I reconnected
and started talking. He used to be
incredibly forward-thinking with
PREVIOUS SPREAD, PLAYSUIT, ALICE MCCALL. EARRINGS, JACQUIE AICHE. BRACELETS, BOTH MAYA BRENNER. RING, SASKIA DIEZ. SHOES, AQUAZZURA.
social media, when the intent was
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to connect people. But it took an
ugly turn and became all about
who can be the loudest, who can be
the angriest and the most negative.
Then it’s just not a fun game to play.
KM: Do you feel you’re missing out?
MK: Not at all. I get my news online,
and I can tell you which Kardashian
is dating whom. I wish
I didn’t know… but I do.
KM: So when you have a cute
picture of your children, do
you send it to anyone?
MK: We have an app that
my family and I are all on,
and it’s only for our closest
friends and family. We all
post photos to it, but it’s on
an incredibly private server.
KM: That’s the best idea
I’ve ever heard.
MK: The idea of sharing personal
moments with loved ones is beautiful.
It’s all that other stuff that’s gross.
KM: If you had a month when
you were not allowed to work,
what would you do?
MK: I’d kidnap my family and go to
Italy and rent a house in the middle i
“I don’t feel
pressure to
be anything
that I’m not”

of a village that specialisesin cheese-
making. I’d have nakedbabies running
around Italian sunflower fields. I’d
be making delicious food with my
husband, and we’d be frolicking and
just being in love. That’s all I would do.
KM: Do you think that I could
stop by the house?
MK: Yes. With my naked family
running around.
KM: Will Ashton be as well?
MK: For sure.
KM: Good. I’m just curious. What
is the greatest misadventure you
ever had in the kitchen?
MK: I’m a horrible baker. I’m
an amazing cook and a horrible
HAIR RENATO CAMPORA AT THE WALL GROUP, USING SCHWARZKOPF PROFESSIONAL. MAKE-UP TRACEY LEVY AT FORWARD ARTISTS, USING CHANEL PALETTE ESSENTIELLE. NAILS
baker. I don’t like measuring.
OPPOSITE, TOP, X KARLA. SHORTS, MOUSSY. SHOES, CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN. EARRINGS, JENNIFER ZEUNER JEWELRY. RING, ADINA REYTER. THIS PAGE, DRESS, LOVESHACKFANCY.
CHRISTINA AVILES AT OPUS BEAUTY, USING DERMELECT COSMECEUTICALS. PROP STYLIST ABRAHAM LATHAM FOR ART DEPARTMENT. PRODUCTION FIRST SHOT PRODUCTIONS
KM: I’m gonna go out on a limb
and say you’d be a bad engineer.
MK: Probably the worst. But
I married an engineer, so talk
about a good balance, right?
KM: I didn’t realise that.
MK: Yeah, he was an engineering
major. He loves science and
numbers and spreadsheets
and all things organised, like
all the water in the fridge
facing the same direction.
We balance each other out.
KM: Were you guys similar
people when you were
teenagers?
MK: No! God, no. I wouldn’t
necessarily be friends with
the person I was when I was
16, 17 or 18. Not to say that my
16-year-old self was an asshole…
I wasn’t. But I’m so much more
present in life today than I had been.
And so is Ashton. I think the reason
we fell in love is because we both
had gone through life a little bit
and went, “Wait, wait, wait, let’s just
ground ourselves. Let’s just come
back down to earth.” And I think
those are the people that fall in love.
KM: Do you ever feel like people
put you guys on a pedestal?
MK: I don’t know. I was listening
to Dax Shepard’s podcast [Armchair
Expert] and ultimately the conversation
turned to him and his wife [actress
Kristen Bell] and how people have
them as #RelationshipGoals and how
they have this self-imposed pressure.
Ashton and I don’t have that because
I don’t do social media. So we don’t
feel pressure to be something that
we’re not. I think all relationships
require work, we just simply don’t
post photos about it. And I don’t read
anything about myself. I genuinely
don’t know what’s written about
me… other than I know that I’m
pregnant about once a year, and my
husband and I are getting a divorce
once a year. I know this because I go
down the supermarket aisle and I see
it on the cover of [gossip] magazines
and I’m like, “Oh boy, OK!”
KM: It doesn’t faze you at all?
MK: The only thing that’s upsetting
is my parents and my grandparents
sometimes get confused. My 96-
year-old grandmother assumes that
everything written in the newspapers
must be true. At one point when
I was pregnant, [the tabloids] said
that I had an emergency and was
CELEBRITY
rushed to the hospital, and my face
was on the cover. The amount of
stress that caused my family, nobody
will understand. Although my dad
is always very hopeful that the
pregnancies are true. He’s always
like, “Is there really another?”
KM: Did you always feel like you
wanted to work as a producer?
MK: I realised that I had no other
skills in life! I got knocked up and
I thought, “While I’m pregnant, I’m
not gonna work.” Then three months
into being pregnant, I learned that
I am physically incapable of not
working. I’ve been [acting] for
20 years and I thought, “I know
how to put a f*cking project
together. I know how to find
good material.” That’s my
superpower. More than three
years later, [my company has]
developed some 60 shows.
What started off as “Can I do it?”
became “Oh, I’m doing it!”
KM: What’s your ultimate
dream as a producer and
an actor now?
MK: You know what’s funny?
I just sat down three days ago
to write out my dream in five
years. And I realised very quickly
that I didn’t dream big enough.
So I’ve been thinking about it
for the past few days, like, “What
is my grand f*cking dream for
myself?” I just want to be happy.
I know that sounds incredibly
lame, but I never want to stop
learning or being challenged, and
I never want to stop challenging my
partner. I think that those things will
always lead to some form of success.
KM: And your greatest professional
achievement?
MK: When I’m on SNL, Kate. The day
that I get over my fear and succumb
to host SNL, that’s the day.
KM: It’s gonna be the best episode
we’ve ever done.
MK: One day. ◆
The Spy Who Dumped Me is in
cinemas 22nd August
C O S M O P O L I TA N · 85
 ‘Facetunes’ everything,
even tattoos

Takes 400 shots

for one post

THE

86
 READ

Blurs lines despite

a decade of Botox

Is addicted to
fillers and filters

UNFILTERED
TRUTH ABOUT
Tired of everyone else looking better than
you? Then read on to learn how to navigate
the world of selfie-editing apps i
Words J OA N N A TAY LO R Photographs S A R A H B ROW N
 Danny
FACETUNE 2
Smooth tool
to airbrush
skin and under-
eyes, and erase
blemishes and
lines y Paint
tool to dye hair
and alter skin
tone y Details
tool to make
eyes, lips and
mouth pop
VSCO
Grain tool
to add a film-
like quality

BEFORE AFTER

Tashie
FACETUNE
Smooth tool
to airbrush skin,
plump under-
eyes, and erase
blemishes
and lines
LIGHTROOM
Contrast,
Color and
Brightness
tools
INSTASIZE
Low-
level
filter

BEFORE AFTER

this...
It’s Sunday morning.
You’re in bed, hungover,
contemplating that
McDonald’s Deliveroo now
that you’ve well and truly
missed the Spin class you’d
optimistically booked for
9am. Meanwhile Instagram
is full of bright-eyed,
beauty-blogging brunch-
goers who presumably
were also doing tequila
shots at 2am. So why do
they all look as if they’ve
slept for eight hours and
just finished a 90-minute
vinyasa session – and
how is it that they seem
to look more oddly perfect
with every passing post?
But look a little closer
and you’ll spot the tell-tale
signs of “tampering”: the
perfect hyper-realism, the
plastic-perfect skin, the
blurry jaw and waistline.
Could it be there’s more
to beauty blogging than
meets the eye?
Most influencers will
insist the main reason for
heavy editing is a consistent,
well-curated, aspirational
grid. What they don’t always
shout about is: that’s what
pays. More than half of
us search Facebook and
Instagram for our beauty
eyeshadow then you need
that photo to look its best.
Otherwise people will talk
more about the fact you
have a spot than the message
you’re trying to get across,”
she says. Danny Defreitas
(@dannydefreitas), a
134,000-followers-strong
beauty influencer, agrees.
“It’s no different to the
retouching you see in
magazines or adverts – every
image you see has gone
through post-production.”
inspiration* and, according Perfection, it turns
to Forbes, anyone with a out, requires a process
following of 100,000 can guaranteed to test patience,
command at least $5,000 commitment and wrist
per post, which can rise strength. First things first:
into the hundreds of the lighting. “You could take
thousands for those with the exact same image using
over a million followers. two different light settings
Influencer Tashie Tinks and the result would be so
(@tashietinks), who has different,” says Tashie, who
78,000 followers (and in the flesh is bronzed,
probably Instagram’s most curvy and impeccably
impressive highlight), well-dressed. “My favourite
thinks it’s “perfection” lighting is the natural cast
that sells, and that zapping of light you get standing in
away blemishes helps focus front of a window,” she says.
her followers’ minds. “If This is guaranteed to erase
you’re posting a selfie to pores, even skin tone and
promote a brand or sell an whiten your eyes instantly.
How to spot an edit-addict
WHITE-OUT BLURRED BAGS FOR CHIN CHIN
Teeth and LINES Do LIFE If the You really
eyes oddly the areas under-eye can’t build
bright? around the area looks an Angelina
Pros use bum, boobs dubiously Jolie jawline
Facetune and waistline even, they overnight.
and look oddly probably Look out for
Perfect365 dark or haven’t suspiciously
to whiten, blurry? had more chiselled
brighten and You’ve got sleep than chins via
stretch eyes yourself you. It’s Facetune,
for a wide- a shape- Facetune’s Perfect365
awake look. shifter. Smooth tool. and YouCam.
READ
Danny prefers to use
a professional ring light.
Brightening, flattering
and a pain to haul around,
these gargantuan circular
LED lights used to be
the preserve of pro
photographers, but are
now every beauty blogger’s
best friend. “For me, it just
makes everything pop. I use
it for video and photos,” he
says. And there’s a bonus:
ring lights are more reliable
than natural daylight: “You
can adjust the brightness,
which is great – even
though I always have it
on full.” You can pick up
portable versions, like the
GIM Selfie Ring Light, on
Amazon for as little as £5.28.
When it comes to taking
the perfect shot, Danny,
Tashie and fellow beauty-
and-lifestyle-blogger
Shantania Beckford
(@shantaniabeckford,
183,000 followers) say
they take between 10 and
40 snaps, while Madeleine
Holth (@madeleineholth,
with a following of almost
25,000) is either more of
a perfectionist, or more
honest. “After taking
between 200 to 400 shots,
I’m usually left with three
to four options and I edit
all of them to find the best
finished shot,” she says.
Next up: post-production.
Facetune wins the race, and
none of our influencers are
coy in saying so. Shantania
dubs it “the Holy Grail of
editing apps”, and Danny
claims it’s worth every
penny of its £3.99 price.
It has dozens of functions,
including an instant
personal hairstylist. Tashie,
Danny and Shantania say i
C O S M O P O L I TA N · 89
they use the app for the
bare minimum – limiting
their usage to banishing
blemishes, smoothing
skin tone, fixing messy
backgrounds and
sharpening details. But in
reality, this app does away
with the need for not just
hairstyling, but also skincare,
make-up, healthy eating and
even toothpaste. All you’d
have to do is disappear from
view IRL until the end of
time. With practice, you
can zap away pigmentation,
highlight cheekbones,
switch between eye colours,
change skin tone and apply
any make-up you please,
all at the touch of a button.
Plus, you can completely
reshape your face: skim
centimetres off your jawline,
plump up your cheekbones,
widen your eyes and give
yourself the nose you’ve
always dreamed of.
Madeleine says she only
uses Facetune for editing
her backdrops. “Oh, and
my waistline,” she adds
casually. On her face, she
prefers competitor app
Perfect365, “because it
maps out your face and
puts it in grid format so
it’s easier to work with”.
She uses it to wipe away
under-eye bags, whiten
teeth and add mascara,
eyeshadow, lipstick and
oomph to her hairline
with mastermind precision.
Their next mission is
finding the right #nofilter
filter. Danny prefers app
VSCO for adding his
favourite filter pre-
Instagram, because a “go-
to filter theme really helps
to tie your feed together”,
apparently. Tashie uses
90 · C O S M O P O L I TA N
Afterlight’s “dusty” feature
“to add a grain or scratch-
like effect to my image,
making it appear more
vintage, like it came from
a film camera rather than
digital”. Aviary is a firm
favourite download for
Shantania, using it to
place herself at the centre
of attention by making
the “background grey,
and me – the subject
– appear in colour”.
Do the humble
Instagram tools that the
rest of us know and love
come into play at all? They
do for Shantania: “I love
the filters and adjustments
after I’ve used Facetune
and Aviary on my pictures. BEFORE
Instagram tools clean
everything up and take
the images to the next
level.” But Madeleine warns
that too many edits and
different filters can leave
you with bad-quality
pictures that don’t look
great on our screens, so
trying to keep the number
of apps down is key.
The question is: once
their carefully and
laboriously “enhanced”
looks have racked up
thousands upon thousands
of followers, do beauty
bloggers feel supremely
confident about their
appearance, or does all that
editing just create a fear of
showing people your actual
face? Madeleine admits
to the latter. “I absolutely
worry about not looking
the same in real life.
When I meet people from
Instagram I’m nervous
that they’ll think I’m the BEFORE
uglier sister to my online
persona,” she says. And
 READ

when it comes to doctoring no make-up or extensions,

her selfies to fit her
perception of society’s
beauty ideals, Shantania
admits she stretches herself
to the limit: “I’m such
Shantania a perfectionist with my
FACETUNE pictures, sometimes I feel
Smooth tool
on arms, chest like I set myself up for some
and under- unrealistic expectations.”
eyes y Eyes Tashie agrees, but says she
Whiten tool y
Structure tool doesn’t believe the pressure
to intensify of follower counts has much
eyes, tattoos to do with it. She says
and hair
y Glow tool society’s beauty standards
to make hair put pressure on each and
look darker y every one of us: “Everyone
Touch-up tool
on cheeks, jaw gets the fear, no matter
and nose y what.” To Danny, finding
Adjust tool to a balance (or what he sees
alter contrast
as balance) is the key to
AFTER having a good relationship
with his followers. “There’s
a fine line between looking
real and just looking
completely blurred, where
you no longer have any
facial features. You want
to make sure there’s still an
element of realism,” he says.
In person, Danny’s eerily
symmetrical features are
partly thanks to years of
“tweakments”. Opening up
on his YouTube channel
earlier this year, he admitted
so people can see that I’m
comfortable naturally, too.
The pictures don’t define
me, they represent my art
and creativity.” And Danny
says that when it comes
to showcasing new beauty
products and treatments,
showing himself bare-
faced goes without saying:
“I’m often in front of the
camera without make-up.
People have plenty of
opportunities to see
what I really look like.”
But looking through most
beauty bloggers’ accounts,
it’s hard to find too much
reality. And the truth is
that it’s not just beauty
bloggers making a lucrative
living who struggle with
pressures from online
images of perfection. It’s
becoming hard work to
find anyone who’s not
busily doctoring their selfies
before posting. Sometimes
it seems everybody’s at
it. Even our friends and
family are becoming barely
recognisable and merging
into one slightly blurred,
perceived ideal of beauty.
And if the relentless search

PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANT JONATHAN FAULKNER. *ACCORDING TO YOTPO & NOSTO

to having Botox and dermal for artificial perfection is

Madeleine
FACETUNE Patch tool to remove
blemishes and unwanted lines
PERFECT365 Soften Skin tool
y Eyes Brighten tool and
AFTER Circles tool y Eyeshadow tool
y Slim Face tool
fillers in his forehead, jaw,
tear troughs, nose, lips and
cheeks – which goes some
way to explaining why his
unedited content is already
Facetune-perfect.
Shantania says she tries
to make sure her followers
see her “everyday look” as
well as her flawless grid.
“My skin isn’t perfect,
I’m not perfect, so I try to
show that in my Instagram
lives, on YouTube and on
Snapchat. I carry out my
normal everyday life with
HAIR AND MAKE-UP AMI PENFOLD AND MIA MUZHDAH, BOTH AT LHA REPRESENTS.
eroding at the confidence
of beauty bloggers, what’s
it doing to the rest of us? ◆
BEHIND THE
SCENES
Joanna Taylor
“Tashie confiding that after
10 years of Botox she still
erased every imperfection was
a wake-up call for me. I’m now
only posting twice a week and
drawing the line at Instagram
filters. Once you go down this
road, nothing’s ever enough.”

91
COSMOPOLITAN PROMOTION

&
Everyone knows that
hard work is exhausting,
fact. So how do some
people try to balance
their day jobs and a
side hustle? Doing-
it-all expert Grace
McGovern is here
to share the secret

G
 
race McGovern is
busy, very busy. She’s
a successful influencer
and presenter and, in
her spare time (if you can call it
that), she works as a TV production
assistant; filming scenes, scoping
out shoot locations and edi
footage. Oh, and did we
mention she also has Grace: a s
erial
a degree in sociology r
cereal eate
and media studies?
For Grace, working
hard has always been her
ethos. Inspired by her
film-maker stepmother,
who went undercover in
Burma for a documentary,
she’s no stranger to
grating. Having started
as a production runner,
 Breakfast helps Grace
whizz through work
CONTAIN PROTEIN, WHICH CONTRIBUTES TO THE GROWTH AND MAINTENANCE OF MUSCLE MASS AND ARE UNFORTIFIED. ENJOY AS PART OF A VARIED AND BALANCED DIET AND A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE
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waking up at 5am to hold mics and
do cofee runs, she now has plans to
work her way up through the ranks.
So, her summer is all about smashing
the side hustle. And who better for
us to learn from?
It starts with attitude, according to
“To feel strong,
you also need
to eat strong –
nutrition is key”
Grace, “Be nice to everyone, keep your
head up and stick at it… even when
you’re missing [out on time with] your
COFFEE SHOP, THE PARLOUR - HERNE HILL
friends to work all weekend you have
to be resilient and remind yourself
you’re progressing towards a goal.”
Then, get organised, whatever the
method. For Grace, it’s the old-school
way: “I use a paper diary, and every
night in bed I write my to-do list for
the next day.” Luckily, it turns out
there are lots of ways your bed helps
you to get things done, starting with
to-do lists and ending with sleep:
“I try to get as much as possible”, Grace
says. “It makes me more productive
and happier, so set yourself a bedtime,
put your phone on ‘airplane mode’
and get as much sleep as possible.”
But the side hustle means you’re
always on the go, and that takes
energy and determination, so
you’ll need more than sleep for
fuel. Follow Grace’s rule, and start
the day right, with a balanced
breakfast that’ll help to keep you
going, “I always make sure I have
breakfast,” says Grace, “and that it’s
something healthy like Special K
Nourish, which has vitamin B12
to help me get the energy I need.
It’s important for me to feel like
I’m looking ater myself.” She adds,
“To feel strong, you also need to
eat strong – nutrition is key.”
Doing it all doesn’t have to
mean burning out. But it does
mean that if you want to become a
multi-tasking, side-hustling career
queen like Grace, you’ll have to
start by looking ater number one.
er
e whatev
We’ll hav se
ing, plea
she’s hav
HOW TO GO-GET
LIKE GRACE
BOOSTED BREAKFAST
Starting your day right is important
to help get the energy you need to
work on your side hustle. Containing
up to 26% of the B12 you need in a
day, a bowl of Kellogg’s Special K
Nourish is a perfect way to get your
day off to a good start. Vitamin B12
helps release energy from the food
we eat as well as helping to reduce
tiredness and fatigue.
SIDE-HUSTLE SUSTENANCE
Want the energy to build your own
empire? Then you’ll need food that’ll
fuel you. “I love to snack on fruit,
nuts and Special K protein bars
throughout the day,” says Grace. And
for dinner, grilled chicken or tofu (if
you’re vegan) with leafy greens and
a carb like sweet potato or brown
rice fits the bill. Sounds – and tastes
– like a recipe for success to us.
Head to Cosmopolitan.com/
uk/specialk to hear more of
Grace’s advice on smashing
the side hustle, being
your best self and
positive nutrition.
 ‘It’s an empty and
shady world full of
excess, hedonism
and rejection’ The ‘personal appearance’
parr ccircuit is where reality
starss and soap actors go to
cas in on their 15 minutes
of fame. But behind the
sselfies and stage curtains
J oey E ssex luurks a murky world where
I E ’s
T OW
sex, lies and blurred lines
of consent exist. PA veteran
Fab Santino comes clean… i
Geordie Sh As told to A M Y G R I E R
ore’s Scotty
T tograp AH BRIMLEY

e Thalassitis
Love Island’s ‘Muggy’ Mik

m e ets his public Made In Che

94 · C O S M O P O L I TA N
S c o t t y T lsea’s Sam Tho
mpson
READ
 hey say you never I couldn’t believe that someone would
forget your first pay me up to £2,500, and all I had
time. Mine was to do was turn up to a club, smile
on the balcony and have my picture taken. When “You can get
of a nightclub in
Derry, 600 miles
you first start out, it’s huge super-
clubs in big cities – Glasgow,
addicted to
away from my Liverpool, Exeter, Birmingham that kind of
home. As I entered,
the DJ shouted my
– to a crowd of hundreds. I was
doing two to three a week (though
adoration”
name. The room some people do many more).
went wild. Nearly Food is free, cigarettes are free,
a thousand people and as much booze as you can
were watching, drink. And, for this, the usual fee
cheering, egging was around £1,500 for an hour’s
me on. A queue of work. Although for some stars,
bodycon-clad women particularly the bigger reality ones,
formed behind me, you can make at least twice that.
200-people deep. I’ve probably done over 100, some
I felt like a king. good, some bad, some ugly. Because
For the uninitiated, behind the velvet ropes of the VIP
this is what it’s like areas, behind the riders full of
to do a PA – PA, by magnums of vodka and champagne,
the way, stands for personal appearance lies an empty and shady world full
– and is essentially what the people of excess, hedonism and rejection.
you’ve been watching on Love Island Here’s how it works. You’d be put
all summer end up doing long after up in a beautiful hotel and have a
they’ve vacated the villa. They take chaperone/minder provided for you
place in the VIP areas and main by the club. There’s always a few hours
stages of clubs across to kill before you “go
the country and can Geordie on”. I’d spend these in
mean anything from Shore’s my hotel room, eating
Kyle Christie
a meet-and-greet at a dinner on my bed,
Vodka Revs, or cutting calling my girlfriend
a ribbon at a new hair at the time, watching
salon, to taking prime TV, knowing that just
position behind a a mile down the road
velvet rope while huge a DJ and hype-man
groups of (mostly) are whipping the crowd
girls queue for hours into a frenzy about my
just for the chance arrival. You get calls
to have a selfie with from the promoters,
TOWIE’S
you. Calum Best, asking where you are,
Diags
Katie Price, and anyone what you’re doing, so
who’s endured more they can tell the crowd
than a few weeks “he’s just having a
on a reality TV series shower, ladies, he’s
– and occasionally on his way”. I had a
actors like me – are girlfriend the entire
its bread and butter. time I was in Hollyoaks,
I first started doing doing these huge PAs –
PAs six months into my but I never told anyone,
role as mechanic Ziggy even when she came to
Roscoe on Hollyoaks.

96 · C O S M O P O L I TA N
 READ

one in Glasgow. The promoters would

think it’s bad for business.
The clubs normally put you on
around midnight, to give people
a few hours of drinking time in
the venues first, and make sure they
are at peak capacity when you arrive.
Around 11.30pm a driver picks
you up from your hotel and takes
you to the club. There, the DJ will
announce your arrival, and security
– three or four huge bouncers –
make a triangle around you, pushing
through the crowds of people until
you get to the VIP area. The first
few times, I felt like George Clooney.
Sometimes I’d take friends with
me, and they’d whisper as we walked
through, “Fabi, Fabi, you’re famous.”
It’s easy tobecome addicted to that
kind of adoration.
The action, of course, happens
in the VIP area, where girls queue
in single file, phones ready, for the
chance to have a selfie with you, or
better still, to sit down with you and
have a drink. They want to sit on your
lap, have a cuddle – they’re shaking
and sweaty and nervous, drunk
because they’ve been waiting for you
for four hours. They feel like they are
owed their pound of flesh. But, most
of all, they just want a story. Escapism
from their everyday lives. I’ve had
fiftysomething mums pull down their
tops and ask me to sign their boobs.
Sometimes, in fact, more often than
not, they try to put their tongues
down your throat. They grab your
bum, try to nuzzle into your chest.
On the PA circuit, they are known
as “table groupies”, women who will
do anything just to sit and be seen
with you. I’ve had both women and
men try to shove their hands down
my pants. I felt like a piece of meat.
It seems shocking and outdated in
an era of #MeToo and yet...
And then there’s the young girls,
the really young girls, begging to
come back to my hotel room. I’ve got
a sister. I felt sad and responsible for
them. I never wanted them to feel i

C O S M O P O L I TA N · 97
READ

used. One girl said to me, “I’ve got no

knickers on… have a feel if you like.”
The entire VIP area could hear her,
but she didn’t care. When things like
this happen, it’s invasive and scary.
In the glory days I could tip the
bouncer a nod as it was getting out
of hand and they’d tell that person
their time was up. When you no longer
have a bouncer, you need to have
your wits about you. I tend not to
spend more than five to 10 minutes
with each group. But that doesn’t
stop them from lingering outside,
like coyotes, trying to buy you shots
even though there’s buckets of free
booze in front of you. I never accept
drinks from strangers. Once, I’m
pretty sure my drink was spiked
– I woke up in a cold sweat feeling
sick. I’d had two bottles of beer.
As the work dries up – as it
invariably does for those who’ve
had their two minutes of fame –
the towns start to get smaller. This
PA might be the biggest event to
happen at that venue in months –
people would do anything just to
have a story to tell the next day.
I’ve seen it with my own eyes,
other people on the circuit, taking
advantage of this fact. Going back
to their hotel rooms with four, five
women in tow. Everything is free;
the attention, the adoration, the drink
– anything you want, you can have.
I can see why it goes to people’s
heads. But nothing comes without
a price. All it takes is one person
with a camera filming something
they shouldn’t. I’ve seen videos
of others caught out in hotel rooms;
they’ve been stupid enough to invite
a group of “fans” back, there are
class-As on the tables and girls that
are definitely too young to be there.
As a celebrity or TV personality, you arms and then, the next day, telling light of day. When those girls ask to
have to be so careful. I barely drink the papers that the man doing the PA swap numbers with whichever reality
on PAs, one or two small bottles did it. I’ve left hotels the next day and star they’ve spent the night with, and
of beer, max, because I’m always so seen young women, barefoot, still in are told “no”, how do you think that
aware of what could happen if you their dresses from the night before, feels? I’ve always been aware that one
put a foot wrong. I’ve heard stories make-up smeared down their faces. false move, one perceived rejection,
of women scratching their own Everything looks different in the cold could cost you your career.

98 · C O S M O P O L I TA N
 One of the hardest things
to manage is when you arrive
at the hotel before the PA and
there’s already a group of girls
waiting for you. The PA circuit
is propped up by promoters
– young guys (usually) who
make their money by getting
a certain quota of girls
through the doors of the clubs
they work for. It’s these men
who tip off their “favourite”
girls that a certain celebrity
is staying at a certain hotel,
and some go early and wait
for you in the hotel reception.
The coy looks, the giggling
behind their phones, dressed
up to the nines when it’s still
light outside… it’s obvious
they’re there waiting
for you. I’d smile, be
courteous, play the
game, but there’s “One false
always a voice in
your head that says, move could
“What if they find cost you
out what room I’m
in?” I’ve heard of fans your career”
offering the hotel
staff £20 to tell them.
Three years down the line
from my first PA appearance,
however, and things are a bit
different to the bottomless
riders and super-fans of my
first few. I am no longer top of
the booking list and, although
I do still get bookings, they
are half the fee they used to
be. Instead of being the main
event, I get last-minute calls
when someone “bigger” has
pulled out, but I’m offered
a fraction of the money they
would have been paid. It’s
demoralising, but it’s also part of
the business. When you’ve been an
actor for 10 years, you get used to it.
The hotels have got progressively
smaller, too, and further and further
out of town. I left Hollyoaks around
three years ago, and when you’re
out of a show, or the star of your
fame starts to wane even a little
bit, you’re no longer a king. That’s
when you have to be doubly careful
– without the protection of the
bouncers, the chaperones or the
cushion of your fame, you’re even
more exposed. Sometimes the hotels
are so shabby, with urine-soaked
carpets and stains on the mattresses,
I drive back the same night.
This industry can be cut-throat.
There’s always a new boy – a new
“star” with a six pack – in town. I’ve
been to PAs where only 10 people
have turned up, but in the end, does
it really matter? I get paid either way.
It’s when you’re not getting bookings,
that’s the hard part. Last year was
especially tough. I wasn’t getting
a lot of the acting auditions
I wanted, and I got quite
depressed as work took
a nosedive. It’s easy to feel
like you’re on the outside,
like you’ve been forgotten.
Sometimes doing a PA
reminds you that you’re
still here. The hardest
thing, though, is being
mistaken for reality-TV
stars such as Muggy Mike. I’ve been
a professional actor for a long time,
so when people shout “Oi, are you
that guy off Love Island?” as you’re
walking down the street, it does sting.
That pathos is actually the theme
of a film called Pleasureland that I’ve
just finished shooting, about an out-
of-work actor looking back at his 15
minutes of fame. In it, my character
re-evaluates his life, and the decisions
he made when he was a “somebody”.
I only hope that when I get to that
point in my career – hopefully many,
many years in the future – I’ll look
back at my time on the PA circuit
with pride and relief, with the
knowledge that I never made a fool
of myself, or anyone else for that
matter. As for all the others? Well,
I guess that’s for you to decide. ◆
Pleasureland will be released in 2019
Life on the
PA circuit
The worst things some
stars (who, oddly, wish to
remain anonymous) have
seen in the line of duty…
“Once, I was walking
through the club
surrounded by bouncers,
on my way out, when
a huge fight kicked off in the crowd.
The bouncers broke away from me
to sort it out and my shirt ended up
covered in bIood. It can be pretty
scary when it gets that out of hand.”
“By far the worst thing
I’ve ever seen at a PA
was a soap star snorting
coke out of a men’s
urinal in a nightclub. The germs.
Just think of the germs!”
GROOMING MAINE SMITH AT LHA REPRESENTS. ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHS GETTY IMAGES, BACKGRID, WENN, SOLARPIX.COM, SHUTTERSTOCK
“I’ve seen a member of
the Geordie Shore cast
go to the ladies’ toilets
in the middle of being
interviewed, leave the door open, and
proceed to continue the chat while
having a wee. The tinkle was audible
on the journalist’s recording!”
“One night, I drove myself
and a few other reality
stars to the club we were
appearing at. We parked
up nearby and, as the other lads
opened the door to get out, two girls
wearing nothing but lacy lingerie
appeared, inviting us back to theirs to
have sex. They must have had a tip-off
we were arriving from the promoter!”
BEHIND THE SCENES
Fab Santino
“Once, I took my girlfriend
to a PA in Glasgow because she didn’t
believe all the stories I was telling her
about the things that went on. It was a
brilliant night – even though I couldn’t tell
anyone who she was – but the hotel was
so bad we both had to sleep with our
clothes on. The sheets were disgusting.”
C O S M O P O L I TA N · 99
Shooting survivor
Maria Christiansen
 READ

THIS WOMAN
LOST FIVE FELLOW
STUDENTS IN A
CAMPUS SHOOTING.
NOW SHE PROTECTS
OTHERS FROM
THE SAME FATE
Gun violence in the US has never been higher.
Abigail Pesta speaks to survivors of one of the
most notorious student attacks in history i

Julianna Gehant Gayle Dubowski Catalina Garcia Daniel Parmenter Ryanne Mace

C O S M O P O L I TA N · 101
It wasn’t until
she tasted blood
in her mouth that
Maria realised she
had been shot.
The gun that had fired bullets into
her face, neck and chest had looked,
at first, like a long pole. It was only
as Maria Christiansen (then Ruiz-
Santana) lay on the ground, her
body soaked in her own blood,
that she started to understand what
had really happened.
“I heard noises – bam, bam,
bam,” she says.“But my brain
wasn’t processing it. I remember
seeing lights in the ceiling. Then
I realised I was on the floor. I could
see the bottoms of chairs. I thought,
‘What’s going on?’”
It was just past 3pm on Valentine’s
Day 2008, and 27-year-old former
student Steven Kazmierczak had
burst into the lecture hall at
Northern Illinois University
where Maria was studying that day.
Wearing a black T-shirt with the
word “Terrorist” emblazoned across
it, he carried with him an arsenal
of weapons, including a sawn-off
shotgun and three handguns. As
he began to spray bullets, students
sprinted towards exits or hid between
seats; a few sat frozen, immobile
with fear. The gunman paused, and
some, noticing the opportunity to
flee, shouted, “He’s reloading!” But
Kazmierczak resumed firing with
the shotgun, before switching to
a semi-automatic pistol. Six people
102 · C O S M O P O L I TA N
lost their lives that afternoon,
including the shooter, who finally
turned the gun on himself; 21 were
injured. But Maria recalled little
as she lay there, her only vague
awareness that she was slowly
dying on the cold linoleum floor.
And yet out of the fading light she
heard a voice. It was an older man,
the campus police chief, Donald
Grady. “He was asking me what
seemed like weird questions, like how
many brothers and sisters I have,” she
says. She now knows he was trying
to get her talking, to keep her brain
in action. It worked. She clung on.
What happened to Maria and the
120 other students in that lecture hall
should have been an unthinkable,
rare occurrence. For Americans, case I woke up
however, it’s not. The rate at which and freaked out,”
public mass shootings occur has she says. “My
tripled since 2011,* and, in schools, “I had mum held my
there has been one shooting a week
on average this year alone.† You’ll
shotgun hand and told
me it was OK.”
have seen the headlines and know pellets in The shotgun
the names of the schools only
because of the tragedies they have
my face” blast had ripped
open her neck,
suffered: Santa Fe, Stoneman tore through her
Douglas, Sandy Hook. oesophagus and
Maria remembers little of the ride narrowly missed her spinal cord. As
to the hospital, but she can recall such, surgery to her oesophagus and
waking, unable to move or speak, trachea was the only option. Her neck
with a neck brace and tubes cascading was cut open and her chest slashed
from her body. “I was tied down in to her lower stomach. She drifted in

and out of consciousness for days.
“I couldn’t speak, eat or swallow,”
she recalls. “My vocal chords were
damaged, and I didn’t know if
I would talk again. I had shotgun
pellets in my body and in my face.”
Finally, after a week of ceaseless
pain and discomfort, Maria did the
one thing she had been dreading the
most: she looked in the mirror. She
knew to expect the scars on her face
where bullets had hit, but she was
unprepared for the huge gash on her
neck. “I thought, ‘I’m going to learn
how to live with it.’ The truth is, I’m
still learning how to live with it.”
Maria embraces
her scars
Later, she found out from her
family that other students had died,
including two friends, Ryanne Mace
and Catalina Garcia. “I had seen
Ryanne that day at the start of class,
sitting all the way at the front, and
waved,” she says. “And Cathy had
been sitting with me in the lesson.”
Her family helped her cope, her
parents never leaving her side. She
was driven by thoughts of returning
to school, where she had been
studying criminology, considering
a career in the FBI. “I have goals that
I want to achieve,” she says. “Nothing
was going to prevent me from getting
READ
that done.” The doctors told her she
was recuperating well, and one day,
she realised she could speak, her
voice coming out with a squeak.
She was released within two weeks,
still connected to a feeding tube. She
went home to a house surrounded by
reporters but she just didn’t feel like
talking. “I only wanted to get better,”
she says. She started physical therapy
and voice therapy and went to
counselling with her family.
Around two months after the
shooting, she returned to university.
She asked Grady, the campus police
chief, if he would take her to the
scene of the crime. “I think it was
part of closure for me,” she says. “I
wanted to know what had happened.”
Entering the room where she was
shot, she was intrigued but nervous.
“This is where we found you,” Grady
told her. Later, he offered her an
internship with the campus police.
“Seeing the officers interact with
students… I really liked that,” she says.
A new future began to take shape.
Ten years on from the attack, Maria
is now a campus police officer – one
of the handful of women on a force
of dozens. Shotgun pellets still lie
beneath her skin. She points to the
inside of her arm where two pellets
have worked their way up from her
wrist to the middle of her arm over
the years. There’s one in her forehand
which hurts when she bumps it.
Her neck bears a pink scar from
surgery. “Sometimes the students
ask me about it,” she says, loosening
a bright, patterned scarf. “I’m kind
of proud of it.”
No one knows for sure why
Kazmierczak chose Valentine’s Day.
If it was a quest for notoriety, Maria
says, he failed. She doesn’t remember
his name and doesn’t care to. “People
say his name, and I’m like, ‘Who?’
My brain automatically blocks it.”
Fellow survivor Unnum Rahman,
25, says she doesn’t remember the
shooter’s name either. She escaped
the classroom plastered in shotgun i
C O S M O P O L I TA N · 103
READ
pellets – one embedded in the corner
of her right eye. She recalls fleeing
from the room so pumped with
adrenaline that she didn’t know
she had been shot. “I didn’t feel
pain or anything,” she says. Outside
the building, on the snow-covered
campus, she realised her arms and
face were covered with blood.
Students stared at her, stunned.
All she could get out was “help me”.
The shotgun pellet remained
lodged in her eye for six months,
until doctors felt they could safely
remove it. But she was back at school
within two weeks. “I wanted to come
back – I didn’t want to feel afraid,”
she says. Her sight is intact, but her
eye is constantly dilated and she
wears coloured contacts to deal
with the sensitivity to light. She
has shotgun
pellets under
the skin of her
face, scalp and
“I wanted to arm. A few
come back pellets had
– I refuse to worked their
way out after
feel afraid” the shooting,
popping out
of her skin.
She laughs
about the weirdness of that.
The shooter had a history of
mental illness, attempting suicide
in his youth, according to a report
commissioned by Northern Illinois
University. After high school,
his parents sent him to a mental
health facility, where he was given
medication for schizoaffective
disorder, which can involve paranoid
delusions. A couple of years later, in
2001, he joined the military but was
discharged for hiding his history of
mental illness. In 2002, he enrolled
at NIU, and his life stabilised. He met
his girlfriend and excelled in sociology
and criminology, attending classes in
Cole Hall and graduating in 2006.
Kazmierczak started graduate
studies at NIU, then transferred to
104 · C O S M O P O L I TA N
Gun violence:
the numbers
● There have been more gun
incidents in America this year than
there are lions left in the wild.‡
● More people in America have
a gun than a bike.
● More children are shot each
week in the US than there are child
homicides each year in the UK.
● The US is host to less than 5%
of the world’s population… but
31% of global mass shooters.
● In America, you’re more likely
to die from gun violence than the
combined risks of drowning, fire,
stabbing, choking on food, aeroplane
crashes, animal attacks and forces
of nature.
● On average, someone is shot
accidentally in the US by a toddler
once a week.
● Kinder Eggs are banned in the US,
due to the risk of choking. Guns aren’t.
the University Of Illinois when he
felt that NIU was de-emphasising
criminology. He reportedly took
this personally. By then, his life was
unravelling, as was his mental health.
His mother had died. He had broken
up with his girlfriend. He started
buying weapons at local gun shops,
legally. Because while the specific
†ACCORDING TO CNN. ‡ SOURCES, FROM START, GUNVIOLENCEARCHIVE.ORG, PEW RESEARCH CENTER, PEDIATRICS, TELEGRAPH.CO.UK, AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION, BUSINESSINSIDER.COM, WASHINGTONPOST.COM, INDY100.COM
ADDITIONAL REPORTING CATRIONA INNES. PHOTOGRAPHS GABRIELA HERMAN, CHICAGO TRIBUNE/LANDOV, SPLASH NEWS. *ACCORDING TO RESEARCH BY HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY.
The university
memorial site
laws on gun control in the US vary
from state to state, being able to
own a gun is seen as a human right.
And despite the constant stream
of mass public shootings – and huge
public outcry that follows – US
congress has not made any changes
to gun control legislation. This
year, Emma González, a survivor
of February’s Marjory Stoneman
Douglas high-school shooting,
became the figurehead for March
For Our Lives – the largest student
protest in history. A huge number
of celebrities have also called for gun
control, including Cara Delevingne,
Jessica Alba and Amy Schumer,
who has long been vocal on the
subject after two people were
killed by a gunman at a screening
of her film Trainwreck.
As for Maria, who daily sees the
spot where she was shot, she now
speaks matter-of-factly about how
the classroom shooting reshaped
her life. “It happened. You’ve got
to move on,” she says. “I had my
moments when I would start crying,
thinking, ‘Why did this happen to
me?’ But why waste my time feeling
bad about myself or angry about
the guy who shot me? I’m alive
and healthy. I heard about students
dropping out or transferring – that’s
not going to make you forget. I see
my scars. I remember it every single
day. I am never going to forget.” ◆
READ

106
106 · CO MO O I A
 Theyac t
girls of
summer
They’re the
twentysomething
girls who travel
first-class, party
like rock stars and
showcase their
five-star lifestyles
on social media.
But who’s paying?
Jennifer Savin
investigates i

C O S M O P O L I TA N · 107
N o matter how good my
intentions are to read
instead, my bus journeys
always seem to end up
the same way: with
a thumb-cramping
Instagram-scrolling
session. There are certain
people whose lives
I frequently check in on,
like the ex who decimated my heart,
as well as the quiet, bookish redhead
I sat next to in English Literature,
who now has three squashy children.
And then there are Instagram’s
#yachtgirls. I know very little about
these twentysomething women – not
their full names, nor where they live,
or indeed what they do. But I have
watched from afar as they dance on
tabletops in Mykonos, sunbathe on
the bows of glossy super-yachts in
the south of France or pose in front
of bathroom mirrors in seven-star
Dubai hotels. Who are they, I wonder,
as I lick Wotsit dust off my fingers
and zoom in on their bicycle-tyre lips
and cantilevered bottoms, staring at
the designer hauls that lie scattered
on unmade hotel beds behind them.
Who are these women who appear
not to pause for work, but instead
flit around the globe partying in
the world’s most rarefied clubs
and restaurants, stopping only to
document their lavish lifestyles
across social media? And how does
a twentysomething woman like
Tropez for the last two
weeks of July.” Mariana
is a 24-year-old translator,
she tells me, whose
father funds movies and
whose brother co-owns
a restaurant in Dubai
with a sheikh. As such,
she is privy to the worlds
these young women
inhabit from May until
early October. Ibizan
opening parties, super-
clubs in Mykonos,
Sardinia and the Riviera,
and tennis tournaments
are, she confides, prime
hangouts for these
young, apparently
gilded, millennials.
“Dubai is a hot spot
as well,” she adds. “It’s
very lavish, with guys
spending money on
things you can’t even
imagine. They remind
me of Mexican narcos
– buying exotic animals
and gold-bathed guns,
and paying women
thousands to party with
them. Even my brother
pays hot girls from Instagram to go His company, Millionaires Concierge,
to his restaurants and post pictures. will cater to his wealthy clients’ every
That way his businesses become wish, whether that’s getting a last-
the ‘it’ place to go.” minute table at London’s Sexy Fish
To many, Instagram is nothing restaurant or commandeering
more than a harmless distraction a super-yacht for an impromptu party

PHOTOGRAPH, PREVIOUS SPREAD, SERGE GUERAND/BLAUBLUT-EDITION.COM

me, whose last Instagram Story
was about eating dinner sitting
on her rented kitchen floor, due
to a lack of furniture and funds,
get in on the action?
“There is a circuit for these girls,”
confirms Mariana, an expert with
waist-length jet-black hair and a
Coca-Cola-bottle figure, who speaks
with the sort of indecipherable
accent that one can only describe as
“international”. “It starts in May with
the Cannes Film Festival, followed by
the Grand Prix in Monaco, then Saint-
where we post images of waggy
dogs, artfully arranged salads and
the odd Aperol spritz balanced
precariously on the edge of a balcony.
But it has also become a kind of
shop window for young, beautiful
women to catch the eyes of wealthy
men who, in exchange for their
youth and pulchritude, will reward
them with the sort of lifestyle
available only to the super-rich.
Anthony London (his real name,
he swears) is what is called a “luxury
concierge” – essentially a fixer for the
1% wanting to have a good time.
in Monaco. “Say a wealthy client
comes to town last minute. They’ll
contact me to arrange their restaurant
booking or stay in a top hotel, like
The Dorchester or The Bulgari in
London. I’ll then use my accounts
to secure the booking.” But Anthony
organises more than hotels and
dinners out for his clients. He can
also arrange for them to party with
the best-looking women in town.
“I’ll book them a table in wherever
is cool and ensure 10 girls come
along. All they’ve got to do is
look pretty and have a good time.”

108 · C O S M O P O L I TA N

While many of the women booked
by elite concierges like Anthony
come through modelling agencies,
Instagram has also become a
recruiting tool to spot beautiful
women who are available
for a fun time. “If you’ve
got your head screwed
on, you can make a lot
of money from social
“They just
media and partying,” need to look
Anthony says cryptically. pretty and
Mariana’s brother in
Dubai has assistants who have fun”
actively scour the location
tags of some of the world’s
most in-demand venues on
Instagram, then simply message the
best-looking women who’ve tagged
themselves there, inviting them to
fly out to Dubai. It’s a mutually
beneficial arrangement: the women
get to experience luxury travel and
parties with which to fill their grid,
while the restaurant fast becomes
known as a go-to destination.
Some women will be
even more proactive in their
pursuit of luxury #gridgoals,
paying for a cheap flight
out to Ibiza or Saint-Tropez,
say, where they’ll rent small
apartments close to the
most chic hot spots, then
walk around in groups until
they are “spotted” or offered
an invitation onto some
of the mega-yachts or private parties
taking place in the multi-million-
pound villas there, Mariana tells
me. She, however, uses a far subtler
technique. “I’ll stay at the more
READ
chilled five-star hotels away from
the crowds. Older men stay there,
so I’ll go to the pool alone or have
breakfast in the hotel restaurant
where they’re likely to start a
conversation. If they like you, you
stay in touch and you’re set for
next year. It’s a good way to make
business connections through
them to advance your career.”
But what if you don’t have the
deep pockets to go out there in the
first place? No bother, says Anna Bey,
a 32-year-old Swede of supermodel
proportions and the hustling prowess
of Jordan Belfort. “Some women just
upload selfies from their bedrooms,
but tag them as Cannes or Saint-
Tropez during the right points
of the season,” she tells me. It’s an
inexpensive, sure-fire way to get
‘spotted’.” And she should know.
Anna has positioned herself as
a sort of gatekeeper into the world
of professional “partying” and the
upper class. Her company, School
Of Affluence, started life as an
aspirational blog in 2012, showcasing
the scores of beautiful young women
who inhabit what Anna calls “the
jet-set world”. She has positioned
herself as a “lifestyle coach” to those
seeking to penetrate the upper
echelons and imparts advice on
everything from what to wear
(never a bandage dress) to curating
a suitably enticing Instagram feed.
“If women want to achieve that
lifestyle, I want them to be smart
about it,” she tells me. Her “girls”,
as she affectionately refers to them,
come from all walks of life: some
are already entrenched in this world,
others are hovering on the periphery,
looking for a way in, while many
are regular suburban women without
contacts, money or means.
Once upon a time, Anna was
one of those women. Hailing from
Stockholm, her father worked in IT
while her mother is a lawyer. Yet
Anna had “always enjoyed the finer
things in life”, which were to be i
C O S M O P O L I TA N · 109
found, shebelieved, in the more
glamorous capitals of Europe. And so,
aged 19, she moved to Rome, where
she met an Italian rich kid who flew
her around the world, showered her
with designer swag, and wined and
dined her in the most decadent of
eateries. “Honestly, it seems as if the
easiest way to achieve an elite lifestyle
is through a man,” shrugs Anna. “I
don’t think people understand how
common transactional sex is – not
everybody does it, of course, there
are other ways in, but it’s kind of the
norm in that world,” she says casually.
For Anna, the relationship with
her Italian suitor was very much
about love, she assures me, but many
of the women who inhabit this world
use the designer shopping sprees
and surgery as a sort of
Instagram calling card,
she confides. “You want to
paint a picture to wealthy
men that you have status
“The guys
of your own by looking the passed the
part.” Other status pieces girls around
an aspiring yacht girl of
Instagram needs? An Insta
like merch”
bio that reads “model”, with
an accompanying set of
professional photos, ideally peppered
throughout their feed. “Girls
collaborate with photographers:
they get shots for their grid, the
photographer for their portfolio.”
The men of this world are obsessed
with status – in the way that the
women all want to bag the richest
man, the men want to be seen with
the most desirable, hardest-to-get
woman. “Status builds in all kinds
of ways, from modelling work to
your looks, your connections and
the way you carry yourself.”
But can it be that simple? Are men
degrading sexual practices demanded
in exchange for money and a five-
star experience, much of which is
negotiated over social media before
the women have even stepped on
a plane. According to the source,
in Dubai it’s especially common
for women to be flown out by
wealthy sheikhs who, in return,
will ask them to participate in niche
sexual practices, many of which
involve (look away if you’re eating)
being defecated on. “My brother
has told me stories of how rich men
ask their PAs to contact girls over
Instagram, and pay them up to
£20,000 per night [to indulge
their fetishes],” confirms Mariana.
“The truth is, if you don’t come
from money, it’s almost impossible
to travel every week in
your twenties, sporting
expensive watches and
flying first-class. Even
more obvious is when
these girls are on private
jets, or sitting in a Rolls-
Royce.” This is Adam*
speaking. He runs a
controversial website called
Tag The Sponsor, a site
that was set up to expose the young
women who flaunt their five-star
lifestyles on Instagram. Adam
launched the site after seeing dozens
of women posting endless images of
their lavish lifestyles... but cutting out
the creepy guy in the background
who was presumably the “sponsor”
financing them. The site is filled
with images of the sort of young
women you or I might follow:
glamorous women who appear in
Instagram’s “Explore” section and
who, out of nothing more than “These women haven’t killed anyone,
sheer intrigue, we follow to see their nobody is getting hurt. Why do we put
PHOTOGRAPHS NICK LEARY/AUGUST.

with power and vast wealth prepared #wanderlust images across the globe. so much effort into this witch-hunt?”
ALL IMAGES POSED BY MODELS
*NAME HAS BEEN CHANGED.

to ship women out to the ends of
the earth simply to party? And if not,
how aware are these young women
about what they’re getting into?
A source, who prefers to remain
anonymous, reports tales of
Adam and his team, however, say
these women are fully aware of the
transaction involved, with many
of his site’s “contributors” honey-
trapping them with the promise of
all-expenses trips in exchange for sex.
says Anna with a half-sigh when we
discuss this particularly shady corner
of the internet. “There’s a huge amount
of slut-shaming of these women, from
men who are trying to control them,
but also from other females trying to

110 · C O S M O P O L I TA N

control the competition.” The site
makes for uncomfortable reading –
with many of these women being
publicly shamed for the lifestyle
trade-off they have chosen and,
subsequently, forced to delete their
accounts. Unsurprisingly, it seems
there isn’t (yet) a Tag The Guy That
Does The Sponsoring website.
READ
One woman who ladder, you’re never really satisfied.
has lived and breathed It’s an addiction, a video game you
the competitive can never really win,” she explains,
paid-to-party scene and divulges how she began to feel
herself is Valentina, a “brainwashed” by Instagram and the
25-year-old model and hollow, haute-couture world she was
friend of Mariana’s. inhabiting. “You begin wanting a
Two years ago, on a millionaire, then a multi-millionaire,
night out in Cannes, until only a billionaire will do.
a man approached I reached the point where if a man
her and explained his didn’t have an Amex Black Card,
boss was interested I wouldn’t date him.” When I ask
in spending time what her tipping point was, she tells
with her. “He wanted me about a terrifying experience
us to party with him, where her drink was spiked. Anna
offering my friends awoke in a mansion, alone. When she
and I €4,800 to tentatively headed downstairs to seek
spend the night and help, a burly man became aggressive
morning on his yacht.” with her, even grabbing her by the
When she arrived, the throat at one point. “It was the wake-
party (featuring more up call that I needed to operate in
women than men) a smarter way if I wanted to survive
was in full swing. “We in the jet-set world. I took time away,
stayed on deck until had therapy and re-entered seeing
sunrise. Sometimes things more clearly.” Mariana shares
people from other a similar sentiment, too. “I was offered
yachts would join and money to go to the same yacht party
vice versa. Drugs and as Valentina but I declined. The guys
alcohol flowed and all passed the girls around like merch,”
the girls on board had she says. “But you’d look at the
sex, some with more pictures that were posted and wish
than one man. I had you were there. If you want in on this
sex with two guys – lifestyle, find a way to benefit from it
a director’s assistant in the long run,” she continues. “Use
and a publicist. the connections to get a better job
The former gave or start a business – otherwise you’ll
me his number and, just be another forgotten party girl.” ◆
eventually, did offer
me a few gigs in
BEHIND THE SCENES
Budapest,” she says.
Most of the girls were
sleeping with men
JJennifer Savin
“W
While I was writing this
at least 10 years their piece, I coincidentally befriended a
senior. “Some were so fortysomething eye-surgeon sponsor and
scarily drunk they passed out or did his millennial, modelesque companion on a
things they wouldn’t consent to in boat trip in Aruba (he told me all his friends
were married and boring so he preferred
their normal lives, like threesomes or
younger company). I couldn’t resist adding
anal. They’d get extra gifts for doing them both on Instagram – her posts from
this stuff, from cash to job offers.” the trip make no mention of the guy who
In Anna’s experience, even the funded it at all, and just show her reclining
women who partake willingly in on the yacht, seemingly solo. She, of
course, appears bikini-clad and untagged
these sexual exchanges also appear
in all his posts. F-a-s-c-i-n-a-t-i-n-g.”
to lose. “Once you start climbing this
C O S M O P O L I TA N · 111
COSMOPOLITAN PROMOTION

SET YOUR
SIGHTS HIGH
Glasses have come a long way since the metal-rimmed horrors
of the ’80s: now, the specs you wear are as vital to your outfit as
the shoes and bag you pair them with. Thankfully, Specsavers
is here to turn your frame-library dreams into a reality

L
 
et’s be honest, you’ve
lusted ater a chic pair
of frames ever since
Zooey Deschanel
popped up on your
screen in New Girl
with her tortoiseshell beauties.
And you’re not the only one: glasses
have become a major player in the
fashion world, and the style elite
take their eyewear very seriously
(Case in point: Lupita Nyong’o
at this year’s Oscars). But we all
know the struggle of getting hold
of the dream trio: price, quality
and style. Well, lucky for you and
your neglected peepers, Specsavers
has introduced a number of new
designs to its Love Moschino range.

FANCY FRAMEWORK
Because Specsavers knows that
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options, you can get two frames for
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#OOTD, you’ll have a pair of specs
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Never again will you have to return
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of ‘glasses clash’: whatever you’re
wearing, there’s a frame for that.
With everything from classic shapes
and glamorous colours to bold
new looks, these Love Moschino
specs can take you stylishly and
seamlessly from office to out-out.
VARIFOCAL/BIFOCAL: YOU PAY FOR THE LENSES IN YOUR FIRST PAIR ONLY. ALL LENSES SCRATCH-RESISTANT. EXTRA OPTIONS AVAILABLE AT AN ADDITIONAL CHARGE ON BOTH PAIRS. EXCLUDES SAFETY EYEWEAR
CANNOT BE USED WITH OTHER OFFERS. SECOND PAIR FROM £69-£169 RANGES, TO SAME PRICE RANGE OR BELOW AND TO THE SAME PRESCRIPTION. £69-£169 RANGES: STANDARD 1.5 SINGLE-VISION LENSES
INCLUDED IN BOTH PAIRS. VARIFOCAL/BIFOCAL: YOU PAY FOR THE LENSES IN YOUR FIRST PAIR ONLY. £169 FINEFORM AND RIMLESS RANGES: STANDARD 1.6 SINGLE-VISION LENSES INCLUDED IN BOTH PAIRS.

See it to
believe it
Fancy getting your hands on a
set of these plush new designs?
Well, because Specsavers knows
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Plus, you can use the in-store
frame styler to test drive these
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and mirror posing). So when
you’re struggling to make that
final choice, the frame styler
will do the work for you. Head
to Specsavers.co.uk to get
browsing. We’ll see you there.

Love Moschino at Specsavers has a huge

range of spectacles, whatever your style.
And when the price for two pairs starts
from just £125, there’s no need to hold
back – infinite eyewear options, sorted!
NOT JUST A
o a r d e r to
e s k ateb
mt h
. Fr o
de l s
m o
e s e
r t h
- 5 fo
9- t o
a s
i n g
h t h
s uc
n o AIMEE GILLINGWATER
Th e r e ’s Paddington, London @bowlbabesltd
My side hustle is…
is London skateboarders
Skateboarding. And that went into Hero
I founded Bowl Babes, magazine, which is how
a clothing label that my agency found me.
also runs female-friendly Modelling wasn’t even
events encouraging on my radar until then.
girls to skate. A lot of people don’t
Most interesting thing know that… My music
that’s happened to me: tastes are really
Being scouted as a outdated. I love almost
model. My friend signed anything written between,
me up for a shoot with like, 1915 and 1995.

Shirt, £318; trousers, £267; belt, £232, all Paul

& Joe. Trainers and socks, model’s own
 PRETTY FACE FASHION DIRECTOR AMY BANNERMAN P H OTO G R A P H E R M ATT HE W E A DE S

t h e a r t i st , m
e et t h e
slash
-slas
h gen
erat
ion w
earin
g A/W o u
18’s i r e y
runway looks to i n sp

115
 MARIJA MARC
Lithuania
@marijamarc
My side hustle is…
I’m a freelance graphic
designer – you can
see my work at
Marijamarc.com.
Most interesting thing
that’s happened to
me: Working with the
record label Rhythm
Section International.
I designed their
promotional poster,
which was a big deal
because I love them.
A lot of people don’t
know that… My party
trick’s a yoga
headstand.

Cape, around £2,557;

top (just seen),
around £460; skirt,
around £876; belt,
around £787; gloves,
around £221, all
Ninaricci.fr. Hat, £37,
Wool And The Gang
IKEDA SHAMARA
Tottenham, London
@sweetlikekeda
My side hustle is…
I’m a first-year
fine-art student.
Most interesting thing
that’s happened to
me: Being invited
to Jourdan Dunn’s
birthday party. I was
so star-struck. She’s
one of the few recent
black models, and
inspired me to
start modelling.
A lot of people don’t
know that… I once
did a casting for a
commercial in Brazil
and had to throw
toilet paper around
in the audition.

Dress, £550; scarf,

£60; boots, £350, all
House Of Holland

117
 ZENOBIA
VOEGELE-DOWNING
Dorset
@zenobia_crimson
My side hustle is…
Styling and
creative direction.
Most interesting
thing that’s happened
to me: Collaborating
with my friends to
create a zine about
the aches and pains
of growing up.
A lot of people
don’t know that…
When I was younger
I wanted to be an
actress and was in
an episode of the
CBBC kids’ show The
Sparticle Mystery.

Jumper, £350; skirt,

£495; bag, £495;
shoes, £395, all
Mother Of Pearl.
Phone case,
£8, Skinnydip
London. Necklaces,
model’s own
118
AYESHA TAN-JONES
Chester
@ayeshatanjones
My side hustle is…
I’m an artist and
co-founded Shadow
Sistxrs – a self-
defence class for
women, non-binary
people, queer people
and people of colour.
Most interesting thing
that’s happened to me:
Collaborating with a
dead artist! For my
Yorkshire Sculpture
Park residency I used
some metal donated
by the sculptor Sir
Anthony Caro.
A lot of people don’t
know that… I can twist
my entire hand 360°.

Coat, £1,161; jumper,

£396; skirt, £312.75,
all Dries Van Noten.
Sunglasses, £204,
Prada Linea Rossa at
Sunglasshut.com
 DEBA HEKMAT
Chelsea, London
@d.3b4
My side hustle is…
I’m an aspiring
editorial stylist.
Most interesting thing
that’s happened to me:
I’m working with a
friend on a magazine
called Hekyen, which
will be out in August.
I’m doing the styling
and artistic direction.
A lot of people don’t
know that… I also
sing. My style is
inspired by indie and
R&B (I’m putting some
of my music out on
SoundCloud soon).

Dress, £650, Dondup.

Sunglasses, £118,
Gigi Hadid x Vogue
Eyewear at Asos.com.
Jewellery, model’s own
TIGERLILY SIMPSON
Croydon, London
@tigerlilysimpson
My side hustle is…
I love creative writing
and photography.
Most interesting thing
that’s happened to me:
I’m photographing
people’s morning
routines for an idea
I’m working on called
The Matin Project. It
poses the question:
what gets you up in
the morning?
A lot of people don’t
know that… I enjoy
gardening. I also
love to dance – if I’m
having a good enough
time I can find moves
I didn’t know I had.

Coat, £2,400; shoes,

£500, both Emilio Pucci.
Jewellery, model’s own

121
 JASMINE ASIA
Tottenham, London
@jasmine.asia
My side hustle is…
Gaming. I take part in
online championships
in my spare time.
Most interesting thing
that’s happened to
me: I did a video for
Taylor Swift. They
got a shot of me
stuffing a kebab in my
face, then eating chips
with a big camera
on my arm. So in both
shots I was eating, but
that’s how I’d like
to go down…
A lot of people don’t
know that… I’m a sci-fi
nerd and can quote
Star Wars backwards.

Jumper, £970;
trousers, £817; shoes,
£550, all No21

122
 JEAN WATT
Hampstead, London
@jeanwatt
My side hustle is…
I’m a student at the
Slade School Of
Fine Art, specialising
in sculpture.
Most interesting thing
that’s happened to me:
I’m collaborating on
an eco-project called
The Calthorpe Project
in King’s Cross.
I’m vegetarian and
eco-conscious, so I’m
passionate about
getting into sustainable
practices with my art.
A lot of people don’t
know that… I’m also
a (non-identical) twin.
My sister studies
biomedical sciences.

Coat, £1,090, Osman

at Matchesfashion.
com. Jewellery,
model’s own
 JASMINE (left)
Jacket, £1,035;
turquoise earrings,
£325; pearl earrings,
£250, all Mulberry.
Hairslides, stylist’s
own. Jewellery,
model’s own
DEBA (right)
Jacket, £885; pearl
earrings, £250; metal
earrings, £595, all
Mulberry. Jewellery,
model’s own
 AS TOLD TO SOFIA TINDALL. PHOTOGRAPHS MATTHEW EADES AT ONE REPRESENTS. MODELS AIMEE GILLINGWATER, AYESHA TAN-JONES, DEBA HEKMAT, GUINDILLA, IKEDA SHAMARA, JASMINE
ASIA, JEAN WATT, MARIJA MARC, TIGERLILY SIMPSON, ZENOBIA VOEGELE-DOWNING, ALL AT ANTI AGENCY. MAKE-UP KARINA CONSTANTINE, USING SISLEY SKINCARE AND COSMETICS. HAIR ZOE
IRWIN, USING GHD. FASHION ASSISTANTS MADDY ALFORD AND SANYA MAHAJAN. PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANT HARRY BURNER. DIGITAL ASSISTANT ROLAND GOPAL CHOWDHURY

Spain

everything!
I’m an actor.

Dress, £1,215;
GUINDILLA

A lot of people
[video channel]
me: I did a short

Tights, £16, Falke

Net-a-porter.com.
futuristic video for
My side hustle is…

Star Wars. I played

Alessandra Rich at
Rey and had to act

dance impressions.
so I had to imagine
that’s happened to

with a green screen,

Nowness themed on

and Michael Jackson

earrings, £205, both

incredible Mick Jagger
Most interesting thing

don’t know that… I do

@guindideguindilla

125
COSMOPOLITAN PROMOTION
You’ve got mail
There’s a monthly subscription box that delivers all your period essentials
alongside an array of must-have beauty products. Tempted? Of course you are
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 SINGLE? SETTLED? WE’VE GOT YOU COVERED
WORDS NIAMH SHACKLETON. PHOTOGRAPHS CLAIRE BENOIST/THELICENSINGPROJECT.COM

LOVE COACH
First came the TV matchmakers (Cilla,
Paddy McGuinness, Davina McCall – what
do you mean you never saw Streetmate?!),
then the “elite” matchmakers and now, for
the less fame-hungry/rich, there are dating-
app “coaches” to help you measure up. Yes,
if all Tinder’s elicited in the past six months
is a few tumescent dick pics, help is at
hand. This new breed of Fairy Godmothers
ensures you beat the competition by
rewriting your profile, picking new photos
(or shooting them) and penning messages
for you. Find one at Tindermentor.com or
Bidvine.com. Warning: you may still get
dick pics... but they’ll be of a better quality.

C O S M O P O L I TA N · 127
 F
ollowing my wife

THE Lucy’s* brief foray

into S&M with a
POLYAMORY guy called James*
(now, mercifully,
DIARIES not on the scene),
the news that she’s found
someone else comes as
something of a relief.

“I’MFINDING
It’s not that I don’t feel
jealous when my wife tells
me she’s going on a date
– I do. But it’s not quite
the gnawing green-eyed
monster of old. It’s more

THAT
of a fleeting feeling that
is quite easy to dismiss
as useless and destructive.
On the plus side, I have
a girlfriend and there’s
nothing (apart from time
and money) to stop me

SOMETIMES
going on other dates. My
life feels more exciting,
fuller, and my marriage
less pressurised, less
strained… and, yes, happier.
For all polyamory’s

POLY REALLY
unconventionality, it’s
starting to become a
way of life. And by virtue
of that, sometimes it just
feels normal. Having spent
a lifetime listening to pop

IS BEST KEPT
songs that tell stories of
monogamous love and
heartbreak, now when
one particularly lovelorn
singer comes on the radio,
I just can’t relate to them

SECRET”
any more. Can it really
be healthy to pin so much
of one’s happiness on
just one other person? Is
monogamy really just an
outdated social construct?
A con? The fact that I have
This month, Jack* and his wife push the a happy wife, children
and girlfriend doesn’t
boundaries of their new relationships by feel like it should be a
testing the tolerance of their friendship group. crime, when everything
is mutual, honest and
But can everyone handle the new set-up? agreed in advance.

128 · C O S M O P O L I TA N
 But just as I start to feel
comfortable, my bubble
is burst, and I’m reminded
that polyamory is most
definitely not an accepted,
mainstream way of life. It
happened when I attempted
to introduce an old friend
to my girlfriend, Nell,* who
I’ve been seeing for nearly
eight months. He knows
about mine and Lucy’s
set-up, and has previously
been keen to meet Nell,
but he lives out of town
and, when the subject
of sleeping arrangements
comes up, he says he’ll have
to check with his wife.
There’s an ominous silence
for a few days, before I’m
told there is a complete
ban on me bringing any
of my girlfriends to stay
the night at their place.
Two weeks later, the same
thing happens to Lucy.
A different friend who lives
in London and, over the
years, has repeatedly offered
his spare room to us flatly
refuses to let Lucy stay
with her new boyfriend,
Max.* “I don’t know if I’m
ready for that,” he tells her,
ending the conversation.
Could it be, Lucy and
I wonder, that our friends
object to the possibility
of us having sex in their
spare rooms? Before we
were married, neither Lucy
nor I were ever told we
couldn’t bring a new lover
to a friends’ house to spend
the night, no matter how
passionate and sex-filled
that relationship might
have been. Instead, it seems
it’s polyamory our friends
don’t like. Whether they feel
their own monogamous
relationships are threatened
by it; they disapprove of
the “breakdown” of our
marriage; or if it’s for
other reasons we don’t
understand, it’s impossible
to say. But it does seem
like a pattern is emerging,
and both Lucy and I feel
the sting of rejection from
our mutual friends keenly.
However, a few weeks
later, there’s a breakthrough
when another friend, Tom,*
turns out to be more
relaxed about Nell and
I staying at his. Perhaps
the fact that he’s never
quite seen eye to eye with
Lucy makes the situation
more acceptable for him, or
perhaps it’s the fact that he’s
divorced and living happily
with his new partner.
Whatever the reason, we
find ourselves in his dark
spare room one night, and
when the rest of the cottage
falls silent, Nell and I are
quietly overcome with
passion. She tells me she
doesn’t want to make too
much noise, so I try to take
it a bit slower than usual…
but eventually she has to
stifle her cries and bury her
face in the pillow for fear
of waking our hosts. I know
they wouldn’t have minded,
but it does make me wonder
what some of our other
friends would think if they PHOTOGRAPH AGATA PEC. *NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED
knew the situation… I’m
finding that sometimes poly
really is best kept secret.
The Polyamory Diaries
chronicles one man’s
reluctant journey into
polyamory in order to save
his marriage. Read the
previous instalments at
Cosmopolitan.com/uk/
polyamory-diaries
C O S M O P O L I TA N · 129
A D U LT N O N - F I C T I O N
MY
BEST SEX
EVERWAS…
with a male model
Tinder offered Ade* the most amazing swipe of her life…
When I first saw Paulo’s*
profile, I thought he was
a catfish. His photos were
so perfect they looked as if
they were straight off a Google image
search. When we matched, I made
him exchange social-media handles
with me so I could verify that he really
was that good-looking. He sent me
links to his Instagram and Facebook
profiles, and they confirmed he was
a Brazilian model who just happened
to be in my home town for a job.
We spent our first date in a cocktail
bar, and almost immediately I started
to feel guilty that I was objectifying
him. I just couldn’t stop staring:
everything about him was gorgeous,
from his carved cheekbones to the
outline of a six-pack (maybe even
an eight?) that I could see through
his fitted grey T-shirt. Of course
I wanted to get to know him more,
and I tried to listen to what he was
saying, but everything turned me
into a giggling wreck. I just wanted
to get him home.
Home, it turned out, was too far
away. After a couple of drinks, we
went to a casino where the sexual
tension kept building. He told me
I was his “lucky charm” as he kept
130 · C O S M O P O L I TA N
winning on the roulette wheel. It was
fun, but we both knew where we’d
prefer to be, so when I suggested
I walk him to his car, we knew what
was going to happen.
He’d parked on the top floor of
a multi-storey car park… which was
totally empty. We both must have had
the same idea, as he glanced over at
me, then grabbed my hand, pulling
me towards a wall where
there were views of the
entire city. As he pushed
my back up against it, he
began to kiss down my “He touched
neck, pressing himself
against me, before sliding
me in the
his hands into my jeans most expert
and touching me in the manner”
most expert manner. Then,
taking control, he turned
me round, so I was looking
over the street, and pulled down my
jeans just enough to enter me from
behind. His hands snaked their way
up my T-shirt, which clung to me as
I was sweating so much. It was such a
turn-on seeing people walking around
below, knowing that if they glanced
up, they’d spot what we were up to.
Then, just as I was about to orgasm,
we heard footsteps. Paulo put his
hand over my mouth to silence
my cries. My pulse began to race
– I almost wanted to be caught.
Paulo was less keen, and pulled out.
We dashed to the stairs, where we
found an empty room. Inside, I leant
against the cold wall and he got on
his knees, giving me the best head
I’ve ever had. My body trembled
and my eyes rolled back as his tongue
flicked back and forth.
Unfortunately I was
moaning so loudly I hadn’t
noticed that the footsteps
were getting closer, and a
security guard had entered
the room. I pushed Paulo
off me, yanked my jeans up
and found I was completely
unable to meet the security PHOTOGRAPHS SHUTTERSTOCK. *NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED
guard’s eyes. I was mortified!
He must have seen the
whole thing on CCTV, before
catching the end of the live show.
We both ran out of the room
laughing, and the security guard
seemed more amused than annoyed.
Paulo dropped me back home and
left for another job a few weeks later
– after a couple more hook-ups, of
course. Since then, none of my other
matches have come close...
 WORST DATES EVER Hey, we’ve all been there…

He told me he’d My date hid behind a tree as he “didn’t MYDATEMENTIONEDHISDOGHADBEEN

been raised in a cult
think I’d turn up”, presented me with an ILLEARLIERTHATDAY.LATER,BACKATHIS,
and then apologised
abnormally large bunch of flowers and ISPOTTEDITSPOOR,LIFELESSBODYUNDER
for having really
long fingers. then ticked off an invisible checklist THEDININGROOMTABLE.ANHOURLATER,HIS
FLORENCE, 28 whenever I said something he liked. FAMILYRETURNEDHOMEANDINSISTEDISTAY
“You’re ambitious? Ooh, TICK!” ANDWATCHTVASTHEYCRIEDWHILE
ELLA, 27 BURYINGTHEDOGINTHEGARDEN.
JESS, 19

As we queued for our

cinema tickets, my date
panicked, chucked me
his keys and insisted
I check if his phone was
in the car. I came back to
find him chatting to an
“old friend”, who I learnt
was his girlfriend’s sister.
MARED, 21
AFTER TELLING ME ALL ABOUT THE MANY CO-WORKERS
HE’D SLEPT WITH, AND HOW HE ONCE LOST AN ERECTION
WHEN ONE ASKED HIM TO CHOKE HER, HE DRUNK-CALLED In the middle of sex,
ME POST-DATE TO ASK IF HE SHOULD PEE ON A CAR. he stopped, looked me
KATIE, 27 dead in the eye and asked
if he could call me by
another woman’s name.
GRAINNE, 30

His first Tindermessage was,

He spent most of our art-gallery lunch “We have the same music He’d said he was 6ft 4in,
AS TOLD TO JENNIFER SAVIN. PHOTOGRAPHS GETTY IMAGES, SHUTTERSTOCK

(where he ordered the stinkiest tuna and taste, let’s get married!” I said but as he got out of his
mum’s white Nissan
red onion salad) checking his phone, as yes and it became a running Micra, saying “Yo yo
he was bidding for something on Ebay. joke – only halfway through yo!” it became clear he
Later, in the souvenir shop, he asked our first date, he got down was 5ft. Then, when our
drinks bill came, he’d
me to Google if the soap they sold on one knee and actually “forgotten his wallet”.
would be OK with his psoriasis. proposed, with a real ring. LUCY, 29
IVANA, 27 ALICIA, 21
✱ Got a dating nightmare to
share? Email worstdatesever
@
@cosmopolitan.co.uk
FERAL FACTOR
HOLD YOUR CRAZY OTTER AW
WKWARD TOTAL
HORSES FROG LOSER TURTLE
T PIG

C O S M O P O L I TA N · 131
 George
Ffion and 2007
bac in
k

“It was a real teenage infatuation”

Ffion, 28, is a pharmacy technician from Sheffield

It was a mutual love of anime comics that

brought George and I together. We were both
16 and had lots of friends in common, but we
only properly started talking on a school trip
when I noticed he was reading this nerdy comic. I told
him I liked anime, too, and later that night he messaged
me on MSN. I think he must have gone out of his way
to get in touch because I’d never given him my email
address... We then spent a lot of time chatting online.
He was really funny (that’s what caught my attention),
but also very shy. The first time we kissed, his legs were
shaking so hard I thought he was going to fall over. One
Valentine’s, before we were even dating, he sent me a rose
at school anonymously. Then we attended the May Ball
together, and that’s when we became official.
We were the PDA couple; our friends found us really
annoying. It was a real teenage infatuation, and we stayed
together for a year and a half. When we broke up, it felt like
the end of the world. He did it by email; I was distraught.
He’d started his first year at university a month earlier
than me, which made me act clingy and unintentionally
push him away. It was a clean break, and then we didn’t
see each other again until later that year at a New Year’s
party. It was horrible – I ended up crying in the toilets.
Fast forward 10 years, and it was surreal to see him again.
We’re still really goofy with
each other. I didn’t want to Would you see him again?
sour the moment at all, so “I’d definitely see more of
I didn’t go into the break-up. him, as friends. Dinner again
would be great, or meeting
I just brought up all the
up in one of our cities and
good memories, and it felt going to a festival together.”
like we’d never been apart.

132 · C O S M O P O L I TA N
 Each
month, we
send two
former lovers
on a date to
see what
happens

“We felt like we’d be together forever”

George, 29, is a publisher from Edinburgh

Ffion was out of my league. When we first spoke,

I was reading a manga comic. I wasn’t actually

AND ALTERNA HAIRCARE. STYLING MADDY ALFORD. FFION WEARS TOP, JEANS AND SHOES, ALL NEXT. GEORGE WEARS SHOES, H&M. JEANS AND SHIRT,
AS TOLD TO KATE PASOLA. PHOTOGRAPHS ANTONIO PETRONZIO. HAIR AND MAKE-UP CASSIE STEWARD AT LHA REPRESENTS, USING URBAN DECAY
that into manga – but I knew she was, so I was
deliberately reading it in view of her as an

HIS OWN. FFION AND GEORGE ATE AT ATHENAEUM IN LONDON (ATHENAEUMHOTEL.COM/RESTAURANT-BAR/GALVIN-AT-THE-ATHENAEUM)

icebreaker. After that, we started chatting over MSN, and
one lunchtime I asked her over to mine to watch anime.
As she was leaving, I said something corny like “Goodbye
kiss?” and we fumbled this terrible peck. As she walked
away I remember thinking, “What the f*ck was that?”
After that, everything accelerated. Things became official
just after Valentine’s Day 2006. A few months later, I told
her I loved her. We discovered a lot of things together,
confided in each other, and were each other’s firsts for
everything. We felt like we were destined to be together
forever... and then the sobering reality of university kicked in.
We ended up at opposite ends of the country – I went
to Edinburgh and she chose Southampton. I had no
intention of cheating on her, but she felt insecure and
would call me multiple times a day, which I found pretty
claustrophobic. I remember feeling sick for weeks leading
up to the break-up. And, for the record, I haven’t broken
up with someone over email since!
Seeing her again was amazing. We have diverged, but we hit
it off and there’s still great chemistry. What I had with Ffion
will forever be unique. We were so fortunate to have what
we did. All the long summers
and trips we shared were so Would you see her again?
special – nothing I’ve had “We’ll definitely stay in
since has been quite like that. touch and not leave it so
long next time. It was nice
4Want to be reunited with your to make that connection
first love? Email us at first.love@ and see her again.”
cosmopolitan.co.uk

C O S M O P O L I TA N · 133
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137
 THAT
CHANGED
US
Every journey leaves an imprint on
your psyche, memories that live long
after your ‘well-rested’ glow subsides.
But some trips mean more than others.
Here, three Cosmopolitan writers
reminisce about formative holidays
that have stayed with them to this day i

C O S M O P O L I TA N · 139
 The time I cheated
BY FARRAH STORR IBIZA, SPAIN

M
y moment of I had gone to Ibiza with
betrayal began my mother and sister,
under the strobe staying in the “family-
lighting of an friendly” resort of Playa
Ibizan nightclub as foamy d’en Bossa. I’m not sure
suds fell about us like rain. why we’d ended up
I don’t remember the name there – it was a deeply
of the nightclub, only that unremarkable place back
it billed itself as a “foam then. It probably still is
party” – whatever now. There was
that meant. But a supermarket
I do remember and a café, as well Cute, calm coves: our
the name of the “I ran into as a nightclub favourite C words

boy: Neil. Neil

from Croydon.
the street, that shuttered
at 9am, throwing
I recall very dizzy and ghoulish ravers
little about Neil
from Croydon,
breathless” out into the
morning light.
apart from the Playa d’en Bossa
fact that he came was a 10-minute
from the same south- taxi ride from the glamour
London suburb as Kate of Ibiza Town, and a
Moss – a wildly glamorous coach ride away from the
accolade back in 1997 – and Hogarthian madness of
that I kissed him greedily San Antonio. It wasn’t
and carelessly while the much of anything really
“love of my life” waited and, as such, was hopelessly
p
patientlyy back home. dull for a 17-year-old girl.
I was bored. I wanted
Farrah and her sister aadventure. And I found
Ibizan sunsets AKA the
ultimate Instagram spam
it in Neil from Croydon.
He was 18 and tanned,
with brown Labradoodle
curls and the swagger of
a Kray twin. Along with
a group of friends, he had
somehow found himself
in this same bland corner
of Ibiza, staying in the
same hotel and, I suppose,
wanted adventure too.
At this point in my life,
I should mention (though
this is no justification
for what subsequently
happened) that I was
staggeringly untrained in
the art of seduction. An
all-girls-school education
and a strict Asian father
made me unfamiliar with
the ways of true Casanovas.
And Neil from Croydon
was the truest of Casanovas.
I cannot remember
exactly how he made his
intentions clear, only that
he was persuasive and I was
horribly willing, a single
drop of male attention
enough to erase the
memory of a nine-month
courtship back home.
My interaction with Neil
from Croydon was limited
– we talked only once
over drinks at a karaoke
competition the hotel
had put on, where other
girls appeared, as if from
nowhere, and he fawned
over them like a wolf over
its cubs (a sign, if ever there
was one, that he was cut

140 · C O S M O P O L I TA N

from ‘Casanova cloth’).
We took a chaste walk on a
deserted beach one evening,
too – where I tried to talk
about books and films
and he nodded in bovine
indifference. There was no
real courtship and certainly
no connection, but what we
did have was potent teenage
lust. And so the kiss, when
it eventually came, was
savage and passionless, more
a point of conquest than
anything close to romance.
And once it was done with,
we never spoke again.
What struck me later
wasn’t how quickly the
kiss was enacted, but how
long the ensuing guilt
took to arrive. It did not
appear as we groped on the
dancefloor. Neither did it
raise its head the following
morning as I awoke, groggy
with the image of our
illicit encounter. It arrived
The Old Town, looking
fresher than most tourists
only as the plane touched
down onto the tarmac of
Manchester airport and
I saw my boyfriend, G,
waiting patiently with
a gift under his arm.
G went to kiss me and
I remember I dipped my
head and folded my arms,
my betrayal hanging in
the air like a bird of prey.
Except I didn’t tell him.
And he didn’t ask. My
failure to admit what I had
done born out of nothing
more than sheer cowardice.
G’s failure to ask, I imagine,
born out of nothing more
than self-preservation.
We argued that evening
and, as we’d declared many
times before (because such
is the rhythm of teenage
infatuation), decided it was
“over”. At other times in our
relationship, “over” was
accompanied by a phone
call an hour or so later,
grand protestations of love
and a dramatic reunion the
next day. But not this time.
Instead, G dropped out
of college. He started dating
a much older woman
(who, I later found out,
had ‘cemented’ their
relationship in Tesco’s car
park – a fact that
horrified me far more
than G deserting
his education).
One evening in
the pub, just shy of
my 18th birthday,
I heard they’d got
engaged. I ran out
into the street,
breathless and dizzy,
the pain so immense
I felt as though I had
been hit. In many
ways, I had. It was
G’s perfect coup de
grace. His revenge enacted
in the most devastating
of ways: by falling in love
with another woman.
After that, I decided to
leave Manchester. I moved
to London. I became wary
of charming men. And of
my own capacity
to deceive. I never
returned to Ibiza.
Until this year,
when I went back
with my sister, to
not far from Playa
d’en Bossa, in fact.
It marked 22
years since we
last went. i
IBIZA: HOW TO
HAVE YOUR OWN
LIFE-CHANGING
BREAK
Stay: At Seven Pines. While
it may sound like Netflix’s
latest Scandi crime drama,
it is, in fact, one of the
glammest things to come
out of Ibiza since, well,
Nobu opened last year.
A 30-minute cab ride from
Ibiza town, the luxury
resort is set on
a cliff and
surrounded
by, you
guessed
it, pine
forest,
with
enough
pools, yoga
decks and a massive
wellness and medical
spa to ensure you leave
looking approximately
126% better than when
you arrived. From £208
per night; 7pines.com
Eat: Ragout of cuttlefish
with squid ink linguine,
new on the menu at
the legendary Pikes
(Pikesibiza.com), but
if you can’t elbow all the
musicians and models
out of the way to get
a table, the avocado
cannelloni at Wild Beets
(Wildbeets.com), Ibiza’s
top vegan restaurant,
will change your diet (and
quite possibly your life).
Fly: From £60.59 return
in September; Easyjet.com
Wine and dine
at Seven Pines
 The trip where
I realised it’s
OKBY JENNIFER
to be SAVIN
alone
Jenni aged 2
PARIS, FRANCE 1

T
he deer either side of
the yellow-brick road
leading up to the
château would dart
between the trees, their
eyes reflecting the light
from my iPhone
torch, afraid
of unknown
footsteps. It was
the tail end of “The way
summer in 2014, I felt about
I was 21 years old,
and after four
Paris was
years in Brighton, real love”
one of which
I’d spent with
a man I’d met in
a bar, kissed, and eventually
named hypothetical future
babies with, I had the
chance to embark on a solo
adventure. Fontaine-le-Port,
a village populated by just
800 people, is under an
hour from Paris, and curves
around a bend of the River
Seine. For the next three
months I was to don chef’s
whites, wash pans for a
living and carry a pocket
dictionary at all times. My
boyfriend, Max, was to head
to Peckham, south London,
to find us a flat
near a decent nail
salon (my only
request) and set
up home ready
for my return.
Every morning,
I washed fruit,
chopped
vegetables and
laboured over
creating a
spectacularly pungent
cheese platter, which the
French staff would devour,
the Australian gardeners
would pick at, and from
which I’d slide rogue
Babybels into my pocket.
My fellow kitchen comrade
and bedroom neighbour,
Lydia Storm (her actual,
real, fabulous name),
became my closest
confidante – she was the
one I told when I worried
that my boyfriend had
been acting aloof. The
château’s corridors, lined
with paintings of the
Middle Eastern oligarch
we all worked for (but had
never seen), whispered
as I roamed them late at
night, clutching my laptop For the first few, we camped
and waiting for Skype in sticky tents in a family
calls that never came. park in the nearby Bois-le-
But every weekend Roi (pronounced Bwah-leh-
a respite appeared – all Rwah, not Boy Leroy as
château staff had to hand I first thought) and sipped
their uniform in and tepid red wine (“Où est le
disappear from our vin rouge pour les moins
protected castle when prix?”) from the campsite’s
they weren’t at work. bar. I asked a Frenchman to
microwave cheese on some
Pray to the posh-cheese chips for me and he was
gods at Sacré-Coeur disgusted, then ate most
of them himself. Other
weekends would be spent
dotting about different
Airbnbs in Paris, my
favourite neighbourhood
being Belleville, where you
could see the Eiffel Tower’s
light display from the top
of the hill. I got used to not

142 · C O S M O P O L I TA N

A lovely Eiffel (sorry)
being able to understand way, way back, I knew
any of the conversations he was the wrong choice.
around me. They became Loving him was like trying
peaceful; white noise. to squeeze into shoes that
My world was changing. were a size too small, which
As the leaves turned I refused to take off for fear
brown, I could feel Max of being barefoot for the
slowly letting go of my rest of my life. It was while
hand from hundreds of I watched the river slowly
miles away, while I tried move through Paris at
to cling on to his more midnight, while splitting
tightly than ever. Deep a bottle of €3 Opéra Brut
down, I didn’t really know with Lydia and the thick-
why I was holding on limbed gardeners we
so tight, beyond the fact prepared meals for, that
that the future seemed I began to understand that
too vast without him. As perhaps I would be better
a boyfriend, Max was safe off alone. Then a friend
and sturdy, like a heavy messaged me to say they
wardrobe you could hide had spotted Max on Tinder,
from yourself inside. But and even the deer at the
in the back of my mind, castle heard my heart break.
The River Seine:
cruise with views
Yet Paris represented
how the future could –
and should – look and feel,
which in turn made me
realise that Max had already
silently become my past.
Everything in France felt
new, tasted new, smelled
different. Nothing was
familiar and I began to love
the freedom that offered,
rather than being afraid to
go it alone: I already was
making it work on my own.
We hadn’t touched skin in
months, and although my
chest ached, I wasn’t dead.
I realised the way I felt
about Paris – the obsession
with drinking in every
tiny detail – was real love.
Retreating into the safety
of a relationship that never
quite went wrong enough
to leave, but never felt right
enough to stay in, was not.
I spent the remainder of my
time gorging on pastries
and dancing them off in
underground clubs where
it was so loud it didn’t
matter what language
you spoke. Alone for the
first time, I learned to
befriend the unknown. i
Sea urchins
at Septime
A :H
LIVE YOUR BEST
FRENCH LIFE
Stay: Château Rouillon
d’Allest (on the outskirts
of Fontaine-le-Port)
has palatial gardens
sweeping down to the
River Seine. From £94
per night; Chambres-
hotes.fr. If you’re longing
for Paris’s bright lights,
book an Airbnb architect’s
studio in Belleville with
rooftop views across to
the Eiffel Tower. From £63
per night; Airbnb.co.uk
Eat: It’s all about Septime
(Septime-charonne.fr).
It’s budget-friendly
(there’s a gourmet
tasting menu under €100),
has laid-back décor and
some of the best (and
most sustainable, yah)
food in the city (turbot
with a sauce made from
mushrooms grown in
Paris). Da Vito serves
pizza, but skip that and
disappear into their
speakeasy for a Back To
Basil cocktail and your
own Parisien adventure.
Fly: Don’t. Get the Eurostar
from London to Paris, as
you’ll arrive right in the
heart of the city. From
£58 return; Eurostar.com
Top topiary at Château
Rouillon d’Allest
 From left: Catriona’s mum, Sue,
her grandma, Jean, and Catriona

The last holiday

with my mum
BY CATRIONA INNES
MOLEDO, PORTUGAL A surfer wanders
the Moledo shore

I
’ve always felt proud to
know the code of the
sea. How you can know
the safety of the ocean by
simply looking up to the sky
– and seeing what flag the
lifeguard has strung up that
day. And if it is red, you do
not enter. Even if the water
looks welcoming, what lies
underneath could tug at
you, pull you in and under.
It was a red-flag day when
we realised something was
wrong with Mum. The sea
had turned dark, the waves
were taller than me, they
were even taller than Dad.
There were a few brave
surfers, delighted that the
beach no longer belonged
to us, the tourists, but to
them: the thrill-seekers.
We decided to stay in and
play Scrabble. We sat on the
floor, by the window that
overlooked the beach I’d
been going to for 10 years
(since I was eight). Dad had
always known words longer
and more complicated
than anyone else could
muster. The fact that Dad
was impossible to beat at
Scrabble was a running
joke within our family. But
today Mum wasn’t laughing.
She was yelling. Yelling
that Dad was a cheat and
that we had to take the
game seriously. Mum never
yelled. A collective worry
hung over my family of
five. Eventually someone
So close to Spain you
can smell the Sangria
suggested pancakes. There
was a spot just five minutes
away that served ones
smeared in Nutella, and
the gloopiest of banana
milkshakes. I always drank
mine too quickly and
begged for another (which
I was never allowed).
The next day, the green
flag waved at us proudly.
The ocean had learned to
behave. And everything was
back to normal. Mum sat
on a plastic beach chair,
in a café on wooden stilts
that had always been our
favourite. There were
rumours that other places
were cheaper, the food
nicer, but we refused to
believe it – how could
anyone do chips better? But
maybe they simply tasted so
good because we loved the
café owners. Two smiling
men who’d dish them up
as soon as they spotted my
sister and I running out
of the ocean – me, chubby
in a yellow swimsuit, with
In Portugal, we like
our wine like our
olives: green

144 · C O S M O P O L I TA N

a bodyboard under one
arm; her, tall and willowy
in pink. We’d devour those
chips in minutes, towels
flung over our shoulders.
That year, the year that
was to become our last in
PHOTOGRAPHS BENJO ARWAS/THELICENSINGPROJECT.COM, GETTY IMAGES, ALAMY, SHUTTERSTOCK
Moledo, I was 19.
I wore a bikini.
I ate less chips. I
was grown-up. Or “Mum was
at least I thought
I was. I had just
yelling. But
returned from she never
travelling around
Europe. Mum
yelled…”
kept commenting
that I held myself
better, that I was more
confident. That year, instead
of running in and out of the
sea, I sat with her. We drank
Vinho Verde, Portuguese
‘green wine’, which fizzed on
the tongue, and we talked.
I’d love to be able to tell
you what we spoke about.
Race you to
the sea…
It’s somewhere in my
memories, but I can’t access
them. When we returned
from that holiday, Mum was
diagnosed with brain cancer.
She was given three days
to live. She survived for six
months. That
Scrabble game
had been the first
warning sign:
the tumour not
only ravaged and
bloated her, it
made her angry.
Today I still flinch
if I hear the click
of my dad’s jaw.
It reminds me of it clicking,
in stress, as Mum shouted
in the house, confused by
what was happening to her.
I can remember a lot from
those days, those days of
waiting for her to die. But
that trauma made my brain
develop a blockage, one
that prevents me – even 13
years later – from recalling
our happier moments.
MOLEDO:
But if I shut my eyes,
EXPERIENCE IT
I can picture Moledo. The FOR YOURSELF…
striped beach tents that I
Stay: Gather family and
always wanted to hire. How
friends at stylish villa Casa
it was so close to Spain you da Cruzinha: a six-minute
could go there for a day and walk from the beach with
eat tapas right by the river. a pool and four bedrooms
The orange-roofed homes. (sleeping nine in total). You
can hire it for seven nights
What the tug of a surfboard
from £1,024; Booking.com
feels like around my ankle… Eat: Chips (the seafront’s
And with all of that comes still lined with cafés), but
trickles of her. Her floating if you want something
in the shallow end, laughing more than fried carbs,
hit Paredão 476 for views,
at the feel of the waves.
tapas, sangria and surfers.
Her teasing me that the Fly: London to Vigo
lifeguards were attractive. (Spain) from £136; Iberia.
Her yellow deckchair that
she insisted on bringing
com. From there, take
the bus (for around £6)
with her every single year.
or a one-hour taxi transfer
to Moledo.
Maybe one day I will go
back. The owners of the
café will be long gone,
the lifeguards old and
married… but there will
still be plastic beach
chairs, there will still be
wine and there will still
be flags alerting holiday-
makers to passing danger.
And hopefully, within all Casa da Cruzinha sleeps
that, there will be her spirit, nine. Or one. Up to you
floating in the salty sea air. ◆
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HEALTH & BEAUTY EDIT

Look good, feel great
NO MORE OF THOSE ‘LITTLE LEAKS’
Pregnancy, childbirth and even
high impact sports contribute
to a weak pelvic floor.
And they lead to those ‘little
leaks’. You know, when you
laugh too much! Or you
sneeze or cough!
85% of women think it’s
normal and just part of life.
1 in 3 women sufer with
leaks. 1 in 2 will sufer from
a prolapse!
The World Health Organisation
say that incontinence is
preventable and treatable. It is
LIVE LIMITLESS not just part of getting older.
‘Limitless’ is a revolutionary and patented complex of natural plant Be proactive and you can
fibres, medically proven under extensive EU testing to aid weight loss. avoid those little leaks and
The capsules control calorie intake by absorbing fats, sugars prolapses, have a better sex life and give you a flatter tummy too.
and reducing appetite – capturing up to 462 calories per day, or Want to know how? Just visit www.kegel8.co.uk/cosmo
ALL the fats and sugars contained in six pieces of chocolate. If you’re serious about a strong pelvic floor and better
Limitless can also help minimise the damage from the all inclusive quality of life, enter COSMO17 at the checkout or call
bufet – your secret weapon against holiday weight gain! our Customer Care Team on 01482 496932 and quote
£35 at www.livelimitless.co.uk COSMOSEPT10 for 10% of. ‘Cosmo’ and we’ll give you 20% OFF!

TAKE CONTROL OF EMBARRASSING

DISCOVER BEAUTIFUL SKIN WITH
REGENTIV (Retinol)
TM
Minimise lines and wrinkles, crepey eyes and
neck, sun and skin damage with The Specialist
Serum’s advanced retinol, vitamin E and aloe
vera. Look Younger LongerTM with the anti-
ageing serum professionals are raving about.
From £29.95 to £149 with FREE UK p&p.
To receive exclusive 10% reader discount,
apply code COSMO9 at checkout.
www.regentiv.co.uk or Tel: 01923 212555
for advice or to order. See website for full
range and special ofers.
LOOK GOOD, FEEL GOOD
Shreddies Flatulence Filtering Garments are
the perfect solution to flatulence related
issues. Using activated carbon panels they
can filter all flatulence odours and their
stylish designs are so subtle they look just like
regular garments. With underwear, jeans and
pyjamas available to buy from their website
they’ll have you covered from day to night!
Shop online www.myshreddies.com
LEAKS TODAY
Did you know that poor bladder control is
a symptom of stress incontinence? If left
untreated, it can quickly develop into a
bigger problem.
The good news is you can put a stop to
these leaks without medical intervention.
This is where the PelvicToner can help. NHS
approved, clinically proven and available on
prescription, the PelvicToner can help strengthen
your pelvic floor in a matter of weeks.
So what’s stopping you?
To purchase a PelvicToner today for only
£29.99 delivered (no prescription needed),
or to find out more, visit pelvictoner.co.uk
or call PT Direct on 0117 974 3534.
There’s never been a better time to take
control.
 cosmoadvertisement

THERE SHE GLOWS

All you need for that luxury tan

CRAVING A KILLER YEAR ROUND TAN WITH SKIN LOVING

INGREDIENTS AND A FUSS FREE NATURAL FADE?
YEP US TOO…
Introducing DRIPPING GOLD Luxury Tanning, the hotly anticipated
tanning range from blogger turned business woman Suzanne Jackson.
Almost two years in the making, DRIPPING GOLD luxury tan is finally
here and all products in the range are completely cruelty free, free of
parabens AND vegan friendly with NO compromise on colour!
Available in two fierce formulations; Lotion and Mousse with THREE
stunning shades to choose from - Medium, Dark and Ultra Dark.
The range is now available to order on www.sosubysj.com
Both Mousse and Lotion
formulations come with a RRP
of €21.95 with the exception
of the Ultra Dark Mousse
which, due to its higher DHA
%, carries a RRP of €23.95.
Also available in the range are
a Luxury Velvet Tanning Mitt &
Luxury Exfoliating Mitt, both
of which will retail for €7.95.
Instagram: @drippinggoldbeauty #drippinggoldtan
cosmoadvertisement

BEAUTY ESSENTIALS
All you need this month

NU COLOUR’S POWER LIPS

CANDY COLLECTION 2018
It’s almost summertime, which means it’s time for you to start
switching up your beauty routine! New to our Powerlips Fluid shades
is our Candy Collection which contains three perfect shades for those
warmer weather days.
Bold. Bright. Vibrant. Those Candy shades are ready for you to make a
statement and have the hottest summer ever!
Available from nuskin.com

ORGANIC – PURE – HANDCRAFTED

Ideal for sensitive skin, BO&B ofer you fully customisable blends of
handcrafted oils and butters from organic sources and medical grade
essential oils. Working in harmony to nourish your skin, by not using
any fillers or harsh ingredients, our balms restore all skin types, body,
hands or face.
“I’m really impressed with BO&B’s balms. A little goes a long way –
absorbing into the skin with delightful ease, leaving no sticky or greasy
after-effect makes BO&B balm the best hand-crafted balm I have ever
used. Leaves skin feeling nourished and smooth. True food for the skin,
these balms are as perfect for use in massage (especially for clients
who prefer not to be covered in oils), as for self-care.”
Anne Galvin, ITEC GCP Massage Therapist THE ALL NATURAL WAY TO BRIGHTEN YOUR SMILE
Formulated with six natural ingredients, this all-in-one tooth whitening
These products are incredible. I have spent years trying all sorts of
and oral cleansing powder from La Lune Noire helps to remove
lotions, creams and oils to try and combat my dreadfully dry skin.
stains and discolouration from the surface of your teeth, fight against
Nothing has ever worked. Within four days of using these creams my
gum infection, protect against bad bacteria, remineralise teeth and
skin is transformed. The creams smell and feel amazing on my skin and
eliminate bad breath for a healthier, brighter smile. Vegan and cruelty-
a little goes a long way so they are really good value for money. The
free with no additives, preservatives or any other nasties. £14.
customer service I received was excellent too. I cannot recommend
Cosmo readers can receive 20% OFF all tooth whitening and skincare
these products highly enough. Thank you Balmy Oils and Butters.
products with code COSMO20.
Zoe Blake
FREE UK Delivery when you spend £25 or more!
www.balmyoilsandbutters.co.uk Facebook: BalmyOilsandButters Check out all La Lune Noire 100% Natural Skincare & Tooth Whitening
May not be suitable for nut allergy suferers. products at www.lalunenoire.co.uk or @LaLuneNoireUK
 cosmoadvertisement

FLAWLESS SKIN FROM WITHIN
Formulated with the help of dermatologists, Skin Woof Original Vitamins
contain an intense blend of natural ingredients that help your skin to
look and feel firmer, clearer and more radiant. Tan Enhancing Vitamins
help your body to naturally produce more melanin which is the pigment
that gives your skin that beautiful bronze glow. The Brand’s mission is to
help everyone feel more confident in their own skin.
Get 20% of using code COSMO20 at SkinWoof.com
Instagram @skinwoof
COLLAGEN SUPERFOOD BULLETS FOR HAIR & SKIN
Slow growing thin hair? Then you need to try these. Root Rehab by
HARVEY&COCO contains 13 x ‘explosive growth’ ingredients, which
are then SUPERCHARGED by marine collagen. WARNING: You WILL
spend more on haircuts. Ugly, tired skin? Then try Complexion Rehab.
This ‘facelift in a bottle’ super-hydrates and plumps your skin using a
unique mix of hyaluronic acid, vitamin C, E, and marine collagen.
Treat yourself to amazing hair and younger, fresher looking skin.
Order now at www.harveyandcoco.com (follow us @harveyandcoco).

BAEBROW INSTANT TINT

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make-up? For days?
What’s the secret?
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Kiki London Nail Gel is a premium and contemporary UK-based minutes. BAEBROW has
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cosmoadvertisement

TREAT YOURSELF
This month’s top tips

M A^ E N STUDIO BREAKFAST OR LUNCH MADE EASY

F R I ZZ Apparel unisex t-shirts are a limited collection launching in
SS 2018 by designer Myrna Gutierrez owner of M A ^ E N Studio.
The T-shirts will feature expressive, abstract collage art mixing
fashion, pop culture and typography.
Visit www.maenstudio.work or e-mail maenstudio.work@gmail.com
Honest and nutritious, Purition wholefood shakes are made in the UK
using natural, nourishing ingredients with no hidden nasties. We care
about what we put into Purition, because you care about what you put
into your body. It’s THE diference that makes the diference.
purition.co.uk

BESSIE LONDON
BESSIE LONDON is an
East London handbag
and accessories brand
that embodies London’s
‘quirky elegance’ with
classic structures and
modern designs.
Their handbags are
ideal for working
professionals that
need a strong practical
bag while looking and
feeling fabulous.
Introducing their new
AW18 collection visit
PRACTICAL & STYLISH their website
Beautifully made jewellery books that hold earrings, necklaces and www.bessielondon.com
rings. Soft padded pages keep precious jewels tangle and tarnish-free. Instagram @bessie_
Designed to sit elegantly on top of a dressing table or easily pop into a london
suitcase for travelling.
To see our full range, large palette of colours available and for details
of stockists visit our website.
www.littleshopof.co.uk
020 3371 1522
 BEAUTY cosmoclassified

FOR DETAILS OF CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING PLEASE TELEPHONE 020 3728 6260 OR VISIT WWW.HEARSTMAGAZINESDIRECT.CO.UK
cosmoclassified BEAUTY & STATIONERY

ESTABLISHED 2000

SPECIAL OFFER A Multi-Award Winning laser skin care clinic located in Harley
U P TO 3 0 % O F F
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An excellent team of skin care professional offer skin transforming

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FOR DETAILS OF CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING PLEASE TELEPHONE 020 3728 6260 OR VISIT WWW.HEARSTMAGAZINESDIRECT.CO.UK
 C O N T R A C T
This is an agreement made by A Person Having Their First Personal Training Session,
__________________ (hereafter referred to as The Trainee)
1 GOALS & GAINS
The personal trainer will start the session
by asking The Trainee, “So why are you
here?” Instead of telling the truth (that she got a
free voucher), she will panic and say it is her lifelong
ambition to do a chin-up. This is a lie. The Trainee
will then continue to lie, mainly regarding: how often
she eats crisps; how many alcohol units she drinks a
week; how many of those units she drank last night.
2 DIDDLY SQUAT
The Trainee will suppress a traumatic
flashback to school PE lessons as her
session begins with a series of humiliating mat
exercises. She will regret last night’s McDonald’s
as she discovers the real reason those jumping-
squat things are called “burpees”.
3 INTERVAL TRAINING
Just as she feels like she might collapse,
the PT will say, “That wasn’t so bad, was
it?” As The Trainee pants “goodbye” and begins
walking towards the changing rooms, he will explain
that it’s the end of the 10-minute warm-up. Not
the whole session. The Trainee will pretend she
knew this and was just making a hilarious joke.
4 HITTING THE WALL
Disappointed that she isn’t allowed
to plug in her headphones and watch
E4 while on the treadmill, The Trainee will debate
which is worse: looking at herself in the mirror
or maintaining awkward eye contact with her
Signed:
(The Trainee)
S P
PT as he makes motivational “whoop” sounds.
She will end up keeping her eyes shut. This will
work fine until she trips and flies spectacularly
backwards off the treadmill.
5 RESISTANCE IS FUTILE
The Trainee will feel relieved when it
is time for the weight machines, as it
means she gets to have a sit-down. The relief will
not last, as The Trainee discovers she has the upper
body strength of a Beanie Baby. At one point, she
WORDS LAUREN BRAVO. PHOTOGRAPHS AGATA PEC. ADDITIONAL IMAGES GETTY IMAGES. FILA DISRUPTOR LI TRAINER, SCHUH.CO.UK
will make a grunting noise so loud that people
will look over to check she’s not giving birth.
6 THE AFTERGLOW
Finally, after what feels like 800 hours,
the PT will announce that it is time for
cool-down stretches. By this point, The Trainee will
be sweating in places she didn’t even know she had
glands. She will begin to think she can smell gin
radiating from her pores. As she gets up, a glob of
sweat will fly off her forehead and land on her PT’s
chin. He will politely wipe it away with a towel.
7 THE ENDORPHIN RUSH
It is not over. The PT will hang around as
The Trainee glugs water and tries not to
collapse, giving a lecture about lunch. But he will not
call it “lunch”, he will call it “refuelling”. There will be
talk of chicken, eggs and something that sounds like
Milky Way but almost certainly isn’t. The Trainee
will nod, and somehow agree to pay for six further
sessions. Then she will stagger outside and vomit.