As her beauty wonderland flagship store opens in London's Covent Garden, Charlotte Tilbury, make-up artist to the stars and founder of Charlotte Tilbury shares her beauty must-haves with Holly O’Neill.
The three products I always have in my make-up bag that everyone needs are my Pillow Talk Lip Liner, €26 – this is amazing, one sold every six seconds around the world – and my Pillow Talk Lipstick, €36 – heaven, it suits everyone, it’s universally flattering. Also my Magic Skin Hydrator Mist, €42 –if you haven’t experienced this, and if you’ve got digital fatigue this is going to stop it. I always have this in my bag. I feel like sometimes like a wilted flower with exhaustion from the digital fatigue and then I just spray this on.
My signature scents, €150 each, are my six invisible superpowers, my fragrances for depending on how you want to feel – Joyphoria for happiness, Magic Energy for energy and balance, Calm Bliss for feeling serene and calm, Love Frequency makes you feel loved, More Sex for seduction and Cosmic Power for feeling empowered. They are six fragrances that elicit feelings. How do you want to feel today? Use one of these. I go out with the 10ml, €23, in my bag and leave without them because my friends always steal them off me.
I love Lolavie’s Glossing Detangler, €20 which is amazing. It is a detangler for the hair and it’s fantastic, my hair gets knotted and tangly and it makes it feel really luxe and shiny. It’s by my gorgeous friend Jennifer Anniston who killed it with this detangler.
The first thing I put on my skin in the morning is my Magic Hydration Revival Cleanser, €30. It is a three-in-one priming cleanser that immediately gives your skin a revival, for spa-cleansed skin like you’ve literally just come out from a spa. It’s a cleanser, a hydrator, a skin reviver and a primer in one with hyaluronic acid to plump the skin, a peptide complex that reduces the appearance of pores and a biomimetic barrier shield tech. It’s incredible. I feel like I’ve just come out of a lake when I put this on my skin and then I will always do my immediate skin revival routine, which starts with my Magic Crystal Elixir Serum, €79 which has got niacinamide which is like bootcamp for the pores and golden vitamin C that penetrates 100% into your skin without irritating it. It’s so youth-boosting and amazing. It also has polyglutamic acid which is four times more hydrating than hyaluronic acid – this serum has everything. Then my Magic Water Cream, €90, which I love because it’s got the aquaphor and the hydration because I’m always so dehydrated. This just makes me look like I have glowing mermaid skin.
A beauty appointment I never miss is a facial. Either I’m doing it at home with my products and multi-masking because I love masks, or I’m going to a facialist, my fabulous friend Sadaf Jaffari in London. If I need to restore balance in my life, I call my fabulous, genius homoeopath.
In the morning, I love a bit of my Cryo Recovery Eye Serum, €59 because if you wake up with a slightly puffy eye, this will immediately get rid of it. It has the most incredible ingredients inside it like Swiss Ice Wine Essence to depuff and lift and it’s got this amazing metallic tip – keep it in the fridge and use it around the eyes to plump away all of the puffiness.
The best piece of advice I ever received was from my mother. She said that it is a beauty crime not to wear SPF. But I always say it’s a beauty crime not to prime. So darlings, I created a product all in one, my Invisible UV Flawless Poreless Primer, €49. I put it underneath my make-up and it gives you amazing, beautifully blurred glowing skin. For health reasons and for beauty reasons it’s essential.
I never travel without all of my on-the-go travel minis and my Airbrush Flawless Finish Powder, €50. Everyone’s obsessed with this in Hollywood, they put them in their clutch bags on the red carpet, it’s the number one selling powder in the world.
I always have a Mason Pearson hairbrush, €74, I use it to create volume and height in the crown of my hair, I adore them, they’re fantastic.
My make-up hack is my Airbrush Flawless Settings Spray, €36, this is amazing because it locks in your make-up so you can party all day and work all night – or the other way around!
Everyone needs to try my Hollywood Flawless Filter, €50 – who needs an Instagram filter! It’s a social media filter in a jar – it blurs, it’s smooths. Honestly, darlings if you haven’t got it I don’t know where you’ve been.
The first beauty product I ever bought was a tube of mascara, I tried it as a teenager and I felt its transformative powers instantly, opening up my eyes and lifting my lashes and it was then that I truly understood how make-up and skincare can empower us all to look and feel like the most beautiful, confident versions of ourselves.
My beauty quick fix is my incredible Instant Magic Facial Dry Sheet Mask, €24, when you put it on, it’s dry, so you can put it on the back in the back of a taxi, you can put it on on the airplane because it doesn’t drip. It gives you that most incredible glowing smooth skin, if I’m in the office, I just pop this on and it gets rid of any dehydration.
My hair favourite is by my friend Sam McKnight, the amazing hairdresser, we’ve done loads of amazing fashion shows together. It’s Cool Girl Barely There Texture Mist, €32. I’d like to say he created it for me but I think he created it for Kate Moss. You spray it in your hair and it’s really texturising, it doesn’t feel dry, just luxe and the hair still moves and it gives it great texture.
My desert island essential is Magic Water Cream, €90, which has the most gorgeous gel-like texture that makes you look so hydrated, after one use you’re 100 times more hydrated.
My lifelong lipstick love is my fabulous, universally flattering, easy-to-wear nudey pink Pillow Talk lipstick, €36. I can’t live without Icon Baby, €36, which is also Kate Moss’ favourite.
My ultimate beauty muse is my mother. She taught me the power of a great red lipstick, she’d say “red lipstick is instant glamour, you just wake up and wear it.” She loves my Hollywood Beauty Icons Hollywood Vixen lipstick, €36.
The foundation I always use in my Beautiful Skin Foundation, €50. It’s the perfect buildable, medium coverage, hydrating foundation for a gorgeous healthy-looking glow that is proven to improve the look of your skin every time you wear it because it’s skincare and foundation in one. It has plumping hyaluronic acid and brightening rose complex – it will give you beautiful skin and no one will know you’re wearing foundation.
I grew up in Ibiza and my parents still live there so when I visit, I’ll stay at my family home which is on the northside of the island. For a day trip, one of my favourite places to visit is Tagomago Island — it is the most beautiful private island, just off the coast of Ibiza.
Photography by Charlotte Tilbury. We may earn a commission if you buy something from any affiliate links on our site. A version of this article originally appeared in the Summer issue of IMAGE Magazine.