Ruby Hammer
If there's one person who knows their make up it's Ruby & Millie make-up artist Ruby Hammer. FemaleFirst sat down with her to chat about make up tips, celebrity looks and her favourite new products.
Hi Ruby, have you been up to anything exciting recently?
Well, I've just been to Cannes but sadly working but I did see a few bits and pieces so that was quite exciting and then I went on holiday.
Why did you decide to get involved with Jergens?
Well, officially it was the beginning of the year when they decided to launch, they were looking at PR strategies and I guess the people that look after Ruby & Millie suggested there might be an expert to represent them and in conversation it just came out that I've actually known Jergens for years and years because it's a massive big brand in America, it's in all the drugstores and things like that for over 100 years. You know in America you can get huge big sizes and I used to be constantly be hauling it over, I constantly just had it in my kit! They're massive in the States, and hopefully they'll be that massive here, but I've known them for probably 20 years of my career.
I bet they were telling you about the products and you were like, 'Yeah I know, I love them!'
Exactly! They couldn't believe it! When I brought them in and showed them and I said 'Have you got this one, have you got that one?' They were laughing! I've got to be careful now that I don't mix my American ones with the ones I've got in England, I've only got four here so that keeps it nice and simple!
What do you think is so special about Jergens moisturisers?
I think the message is quite clear. The first thing about it is, it's going to be easily available so whether you go to Boots, Superdrug, Tesco... wherever you go it'll be available. I like things like that, that are not so elitist, like oh it's a great product but you can't find it. Secondly, it is about the contents. When they are saying in great big bold letters, minimum 95% natural ingredients, some are 96% but there's not a lot of brands that are in the mass market today that can make a claim like that. Nowadays you make a claim like that it's got to be backed up by actual research and tests and everything, and this is. It's a fantastic product, I've always used something for hydrating purposes, whether it's your feet, your legs, because it's got like a sort of wardrobe effect. What I would say to any woman is if you're not sure about it go and buy the ultra-hydrating you can't go wrong, the smell of it, the feel of it, the way it immediately sinks in. If someone says to me 'Can I have a bit of bodycream' by the time they've rubbed it in they say, 'Oooh what is that?' There's not one person that doesn't ask what it is. Then you've got these other things like age defying or skin firming or extra softening, it is wonderful in that way.
Do you think natural products like Jergens are the way forward?
Definitely because look at the way our planet is now. It's not just about the products you put on your body, it's the food that people are eating, people are taking flights and you do that thing where you try and work out your carbon footprint. You look at fashion magazines now there are articles all about being organic, trying not to buy cheap things Primark, trying to think about somebody suffering at the end. If you're buying something for £10, somebody must be getting paid only half a penny for making it. I think everywhere there is this thing about being natural and we've got to preserve all our natural energy and everything in this planet and this is one way of it because there's so much that we use everyday, what we wash with, what we put on our body. Also at the end of the day, this world is commercial. If we didn't make money, nobody would be looking at it that way but if you look at people like Estée Lauder and things, they're going to far off countries and they're even Co-oping, doing things with local communities for Shea Butter or working with treatments and stuff that they do in India, obscure things but in a few years when they have researched it and they stabilise it, those are brands that we're going to hear more about in the future, not those using chemicals and things and that is the way forward. If I created a brand now I'd have to consider in ten years time how green and how organic, how natural it is going to be? Because you don't want to have to then, when the Government's legislate forces you to do it, be natural. If you're already like that it's fantastic.
Ruby at the Jergens Natural Beauty March
What do you think are the big beauty looks for this season?
You're still gonna see quite a lot of flushed colour, a bit of bright cheeks, not tangoed and not overly bronzed. You're gonna have a lot of vibrant lip colours, so they can end up in red but they're sort of more colour, bright pink, shocking pink if you can take it, if you've got the olive skin. A lot of bright colours again in eye pencils and eye shadows, a little bit of blue or a sea green but only in one area, you don't just put it on everywhere. The biggest thing I think is still a lot of emphasise on lashes. Wether they're fake eyelashes, individual eyelashes or every sort of brush from oscillating mascaras down to brushes that have like a ball, or two-headed brushes. All that sort of thing so there's a lot of emphasise on eyes and lashes.
What about Autumn/Winter, what will be the big looks then?
Weirdly enough there's a bit of a continuation of it, we've still got quite a lot of red but maybe going a bit more burgundy, a bit more maroon, not so rich red. Still eyebrows are big, big, big, it doesn't seem to have evolved and reduced. Colours go from, smokey eye colours but more grey and metallic. Also skin is a bit more...not super glowy but not super matte either, just in between.
What beauty rule do you think is the most important?
Blend, blend, blend! If people just did a little bit more, even if they think they've done enough, it would be amazing! Everything from foundation marks to blusher in stripes so I just say blend blend blend, that could be with a brush, with a sponge, with your finger but just be aware. Look at it and think 'Have I done enough?' Then really look at it again and then blend some more! You can't go wrong.
What do you think is the biggest beauty mistake people make?
Either blending well or using far too much. Too much blusher, too much foundation and then it's just slapped on. Sometimes people use a really good expensive product, and it's not even the cost of it, but it can't go from the palette to your face without you doing a bit of application. You have to apply it and you have to blend it, I think that is the most common mistake.
Do you have a beauty icon?
My all time beauty icon is Bianca Jagger. I had the good fortune to meet her, when she was in a film called Hunger with David Bowie and Susan Sarandon. I was 18 or 19 and I was at university, and my boyfriend's parents used to own a very famous restaurant that celebrities went to. I remember going to a big dinner before that film and I sat in between Catherine Deneuve and Bianca Jagger. I think I was holding my breath all night, I couldn't breath sitting next to her! Her amazing skin, her beautiful eyebrows, she had dewy skin. I remember at the time she used to say she'd do her full make up, put her hair up and then go and have a bath. The steam from the bath used to soften up her make-up and because her hair was up all higgledy piggledy it would encourage those curls, proper defined curls as opposed to a frizzy mess. Then she'd shake it out to get dressed and she'd just look amazing. I'm telling you she still always looks amazing!
Are there any celebrities that you think always get their make up right?
I think, if we look at someone who is obvious but, Kate Moss always seems to get it right. Not just her clothes but sometimes it's a bit more on the eyes, sometimes it's the earrings, sometimes the messy hair. So I have to say she's still one that looks amazing. Also a younger one, if you look at Sienna Miller. She's got the blonde sun kissed look but she always looks good, wether she's walking her dog or she's in LA or she's on a boat, she doesn't often get it wrong. And she does actually attempt things, I like people to experiment a little bit, they do try and change the rules a little bit. Someone like Angelina Jolie looks amazing but she doesn't change her look. I don't think there's anything different there for someone to go, 'Ooh I might try that.'
Any famous faces that always get it wrong?
The sad thing is it's not just celebrities it's all women, we can all get it wrong but the sad thing for them is they've got people following them around trying to catch them getting it wrong. I think it's because they got caught at the wrong angle or the paparazzi just take the picture and it doesn't come out the most flattering but I don't necessarily think it's them just getting it glaringly wrong other than when they overdo the fake tan. Sometimes even Victoria Beckham can do that, or you see it with somebody like Paris Hilton where she's done her fake tan and she hasn't done her ankles, silly things like that.
If you only have a couple of minutes before you go out and can't do you full make up routine what is the most important thing to do?
For me I'd just stand back and look and think, 'Do you look like you've got too much on anywhere or do you look like you haven't got enough on?' If it was that I'd put a bit of lip balm on, a bit of mascara on and pinch my cheeks to give a bit of colour.
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