Is Claire a Good Girl?!

Claire writes the blog Ask Claire McDonnell. As a professional makeup artist I wouldn't expect there to be too much in the way of naughty confessions. It might not be a confession but one of my favourite discoveries recently about Claire is that she used to do makeup for the Cbeebies presenters and has worked with Chris and Pui. This probably means nothing to you if children's TV isn't a regular feature in your home but I've spend the last five years with Cbeebies on in the background. Chis and Pui are legends! Anyway, let's see what Claire has to get of her chest...

Confession is good for the soul, go ahead and unburden yourself! I promise I won’t judge.

I have an unhealthy obsession with squeezing ingrown hairs on my legs and bikini area – totally gross I know but I just can’t stop and I get a strange satisfaction out of it!

My second obsession is beauty products. Every time I visit a new town or city I go to the local pharmacy and spend ages staring at every single product on the shelves in a kind of trance. Even though I’ve probably seen them all before I still do it and get lost in my own world. My absolute beauty junkie heaven was when I went to the USA where they have massive pharmacies – I spent hours and hours wandering around, much to the annoyance of my husband. This obsession has been life-long, my mum said I used to play with her beauty products when I was 2!

Another monster in the making!

There, don’t you feel better now?

Aunty Brown has a few more questions though; it’s true that I’m the nosy type.

When was the last time you visited the hairdresser?

I’m a weirdo – I love going to the hairdresser! I have a short bob and definitely cannot sport the casual, tousled, boho look unfortunately, so I have to get my hair cut regularly so that it looks presentable. I also have a fabulous hairdresser so visiting him is not a chore.

Which bit of beauty trickery couldn’t you live without?

It’s all related to taming hair and I have to chose 3 because they are all of equal importance and I couldn’t choose between them! Dyeing my hair, regular waxing including brazillian (ouch), chemically straightening the naturally wavy hair on my head.

You’ve overslept and have 5 minutes to get out of the house. Are you going out with dirty hair or no makeup?

I have such dark circles under my eyes that I scare small children if I don’t apply concealer, however, dirty hair on me does not look cool or Kate Mossish, I look mad, so it would have to be no makeup.

Which trend still makes you cringe?

I look back at pictures of me in the 80’s and NOOOO is all I can say. Everything about how I looked was awful - blue eyeshadow, super pale pinky foundation, over contoured cheeks, oversprayed, crunchy, hair, the works.

At the moment, lots of girls seem to be sporting pale, lilac, concealer type lips – stop it, you do not look like Bridget Bardot and it makes you look dead! Along with this, many of them also wear the type of flash eyelashes that should only be worn by drag queens.

Even Nana Knickerbocker knows it's good to have some colour in your cheeks!

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Your confession about pharmacy lurking sounds like me! It was a running joke at University that if you couldn't find me, better go look in Boots! Thanks you so much for sharing Claire. If you would like to take a turn and unburden yourself in the Friday Confessional you can email me at modestybrown@googlemail.com. It's open to everyone: if you have something to confess, I'm happy to hear it!


Image credit for Nana Knickerbocker - www.bbc.co.uk