Beauty Lessons We Learned From Our Mothers - REFINERY29.co.uk

Here's to the lady who built me up, shut my bad beauty habits down, and taught me the value of looking after my skin from the inside out. I shared the beauty advice and self-confidence tips from mum with Refinery 29:

What's the best beauty advice your mother has ever given you?
"To eat the food rather than put it on my face! This came when she caught me slicing cucumbers for my eyes when I was about 12 after finding a '70s Vogue beauty book. Now I’m more about eating the food and using the end bits as beauty products — for example using the skin of a papaya as a face mask when I’m on holiday. Leftover scrapings from an avocado or the bottom of a honey jar make a great mask, too. I also use the ends of a cucumber for cooling my eyes."

How do your beauty habits differ from hers? 
"We both know the value of sleep and eating well. I’d say I’m much more vain than her, so making sure I treat myself to a facial every six months is high on my agenda, whereas I’d have to con her into going to one (but she’d LOVE it once she was there). My skin is naturally drier than hers so I use cold-pressed organic sesame oil as a body oil after a shower and an Ayurvedic oil infused with herbs as a detoxifying treatment once a week."

Was your mum strict when you were growing up in terms of letting you wear makeup and shave your legs, etc?
"She wasn’t strict in as much as she didn’t really do it, so there was nothing to raid — very frustrating when you’ve got summer holidays on your hands and you want to experiment. She didn’t like the idea of me shaving my legs, though (not fair cos hers are naturally hairless!). The first time I dehaired was by using one of those stinky hair removal creams which managed to notify the whole house that I was up to something."

Read the full interview on the Refinery 29 website.