Nip Tuck - Special guest - Sali Hughes

Episode Date: July 2, 2024

This is your ultimate beauty guide episode with the amazing beauty journalist Sali Hughes. We chat about everything from make up bag essentials, best foundations, tips and more! Guys you will love this episode!To find out more about Sali - go follow her on Instagram @salihughesAnd her book mentioned in the episode is Pretty Iconic: A Personal Look at the Beauty Products that Changed the World.If you want extra episodes check out our Patreon - patreon.com/Nip Tuck or you can subscribe on Apple subscriptions.This week's episode is sponsored by AG1 - for discount, click the link https://drinkag1.com/niptuck Music courtesy of BMG Production Music Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

guys hi and welcome to nip tuck not giving a this is the podcast where we celebrate being positive aspirational women now we are in london today and we are recording with someone that i've wanted to get on the podcast for absolutely ages. So we're with Sally Hughes. She is a journalist. Would you say you're an influencer? I don't know. I wouldn't, but then nobody wants to be called that. It's just so reductive, isn't it? Yeah. I'm primarily a journalist, a writer, an author, and an event host, but I also am a content creator. And you have your own podcast as well. and i have my own podcast and my own brand yeah so sally really is in my eyes like the beauty expert so i discovered you when i got bought the pretty iconic book and honestly girls i've spoken

previously on the podcast about that book that book is a beauty bible i've shown you haven't i and honestly if you want to buy a gift for someone it's just there looks lovely as well doesn't it on your dressing table and I can sit and just pick it up and read through so do you want to explain what that book is about then so pretty iconic was my second book I've written four I've contributed to various other books but under my own name I've written four books that was book number two it's got a special place in my heart that book because really it's kind of like as somebody who has been obsessed with beauty since I was a tiny child it was a bit like my beauty mixtape so what it is is the beauty products that changed the world

changed how we look changed how we look after ourselves and I was always reading these pieces in magazines about you know what my mother taught me what my mother left me and you'd always get these women going oh I'm wearing my mum's Chanel jacket and I'd be like that is not my life that is not my childhood I remember Olay on the shelf I remember my grandmother's Yardley perfume I remember a number seven lipstick or you know the lip gloss I wore at school discos and those are the things that bring back memories for me so it's a kind of tribute to all those products yeah so whether it's your granddad's old spice or brill cream or you know the perfume you wore at school or the perfume you were wearing when you had your first snog like body shop white mask or whatever

look back at all of those beauty products how they came about when they were invented and what they've meant to culture widely yeah honestly guys like have a look at that book and i just think it's such a nice dressing table book to have it's a pickup put down yes yeah yeah if you've just got five minutes you can read a couple of chapters and then come back to it later and they've photographed all of the products so well in there as well so you open it up and like you said there's those proper like old gold products in there like the L'Oreal hairspray for example the Olay so those pictures were taken by Jake Walters who's a brilliant photographer my ex-boyfriend and one of my oldest friends and he did the most beautiful beautiful job yeah kind of whole concept

was gorgeous yeah it is absolutely stunning so how did you get into beauty then because we know we've done some research and wasn't your first journalist job at loaded magazine it was so it kind of started before that so basically I only ever wanted to be a journalist from the age of four I didn't have any other ideas I didn't want to be anything else I came to London I left home really young I was too young to get work experience on magazines and so through a friend of a friend of a friend, I became an assistant makeup artist on music videos. I did that until I was old enough to get work experience on magazines and go back to my first love, my true love, which was writing. I did lots of work experience on magazines. I got my first paid job on Loaded as fashion writer.

And while I was there, I suggested to the editor that we should have a grooming section. And in those days, people just didn't really have that. Not for men, no. No. And he said, why? And I said, well, you're missing loads and loads of advertising here. And also this is a magazine for working class boys and working class boys really care about how they look. And I just don't understand why you're not covering it. So he said, fine, go and do it. So I launched a grooming section alongside my fashion writing. And then I wrote a piece about men's fragrances that won a journalism award. And when I was at the ceremony

for these awards uh the editor of Marie Claire came up to me and said I really love that piece would you write for us and it just kind of and I worked for Marie Claire health and beauty which was a spin-off for Marie Claire that was just about beauty and it just kind of snowballed and I did beauty alongside opinion columns news stories profiles and so on for years and years and years um and then I was asked to do the guardian column it's amazing um 13 years ago something like that um i still do other types of journalism but yeah i suppose that's what these days i'm known for yeah so with regards to like the magazines because obviously we've heard loaded's coming back isn't it christina i think it relaunched last week yeah magazines i honestly i

miss like picking up a magazine so much and not being distracted by your phone and because you're reading that whereas when you're on your phone you're distracted by all the messages and things it was nice just to sit and read exactly and that's like I got that nostalgia back when I picked your book up and I just you know turned my bedside light on and just had a flick through it and put my phone to one side and I really do miss the magazines because I am so into Lauren is as well the makeup beauty skincare tips tricks all of those things and I remember like sugar magazine Then we had Glamour, Marie Claire, Vogue, all those magazines. You used to get them from the airport.

Do you remember when you were going on holiday? And I just don't do that anymore. No, it's sad. I still subscribe to Vanity Fair, Vogue, Allure, a few different magazines. I write for Vogue. But I think that magazines are in an interesting place because although three years ago I would have been really doom and gloom about it, I think what's happening now with the written word and magazines is interesting.

Firstly, I think magazines are going to end up in the same place as vinyl records, which is a really thriving industry. So last year, the year before and the year before that, vinyl records outsold digital downloads. And I think we are going to go back to a place where, yes, maybe the kind of disposable magazines don't exist anymore, but holding a beautiful magazine and lying in the bath yeah and just really getting immersed in a long read piece is definitely coming back and the success of things like substack in this country yeah I mean I have a substack and there is absolutely the appetite for the long written word and so I feel more optimistic than I have in years about magazines good because the thing is now we are on our phones we were just

sat here before we started recording and we were saying about how we I'm sitting really badly and I'd definitely put that down to being on my phone. Absolutely. Lauren and I have spoken about our frustrations with being influencers, being on the phone all the time. You can't switch off. And beauty, now I see so many reviews going viral on, for example, like TikTok, Instagram. I think it's really hard to find a genuine review sometimes and yours definitely are you always mark definitely they are yeah it's so like for example I was watching one of your videos and I really loved it it was about that I think it was the living proof dry shampoo and oh I think it was probably triple bond complex oh yeah and you said like I got sent this yes I got sent it

free I used it and I love it and you know you you've disclosed all of that very very well um I disclose everything always because people deserve to know everything and that's fine I don't begrudge doing that at all um but you've got you've got to make good choices I've always taken the view that if you make the wrong choice it will cost you and so it's easy to make the right one and the right one is don't do anything you don't genuinely genuinely like and I say no to things all the time because i don't genuinely like them yeah and i think there's nothing in it for you there's nothing in it for me and most of all there's zip in it for the follower yeah and so i don't want to do it and you just have to keep being really straight with people i think people

know that you're being straight um or not being straight and you just you just have to absolutely disclose everything but can i just say something about free samples yes so i was in because you just mentioned, you know, about me getting sent everything. And I do, I get sent literally everything and I have done for the better part of 30 years, right? I was in Superdrug about a year ago and I was buying the things I buy, razor blades, deodorant, toiletries. And a woman came up to me and she said, oh, I love your column. It's so nice that you come to the shop and you buy everything yourself. It's really good to see. And I said, no, no, no, I don't. But why is that important to you? And she said, well, because if you buy something, it's authentic.

And I said, no, it's the opposite of true. Buying something is an act of bias. You are influenced by the marketing, the packaging, the price point, the suitability for you, what appeals to you in terms of your lifestyle about that purchase. It's a biased act. I get sent literally everything. So it's a level playing field. If I had to buy everything, which of course nobody in the world can buy everything. So I would just buy the things that I think I'm going to like, that I think I'm going to be worth my money, which means I am going to write about a white woman who's 49, who lives in the South of England and all these who has what, 15 minutes to get ready in the morning, a certain demographic. Whereas in my column, I am constantly, constantly in the

position where I'm writing about things that are brilliant that I would never have discovered if it wasn't for the fact that all beauty brands send me everything. If everyone is sending you everything, no one brand has one over on the other brand. Constantly, I ignore things. Any beauty brand would say, if Sally doesn't like it, she never talks about it. And that's what I do. I don't work any other way. If I love it and I say I love it, I promise you I do.

I was going to ask on that. Have you ever been sent something? I mean, you've kind of answered that by saying that you tend to ignore, but has there ever been a time where you said, I'm going to review these few products and then you've used them and thought, I don't like it? No, because I would never decide to review something until I tried it. I have never written about anything that I haven't tried. I think the only time I have written, I tend not to write negative things because just because I don't like something doesn't mean something's

a shit product. I just happen not to like it. I think there's so little real estate to rave about things that i don't want to waste the space lagging something on i think the only times i've criticized things are i criticized a range by a skincare brand who called a range cougar because it was aimed at women my age which i found i found offensive so i wrote about that yeah i have criticized the politics of say james dyson in a review about dyson there are some times where i feel it's warranted it's appropriate or if I feel people are being ripped off or lied to I will say something but me just not liking a product does not make it a worthless product it means I don't like it and there's plenty I do like so I'd rather focus on that I've only ever

seen one almost slag off that you did and I totally agreed with you when I read it it was a certain foundation it's not a foundation it's a skin tint and the pipette what if it wasn't if it was a the the L'Oreal you're talking about the L'Oreal tinted serum amazing products stupid packaging they need to change it and I think I would always mention things like that I mention things like that a lot yeah um I would always point out the kind of negatives in a product if I like it overall but if I just hate it it's not for me that's okay it's just not for me someone else can talk about it. This episode is brought to you by AG1. We've spoken about AG1 so many times on the podcast and we absolutely love it. AG1 is integrated into my everyday morning routine.

So once I've had my AG1 for the day, I really feel like I have got myself together. Don't you, lauren yeah it makes you feel like you've done that one good thing in the day i've done that i've got it i've got ahead of my health i know what i'm doing see i don't take mine in the morning actually i still have it as a routine because i think incorporate it into your life you don't forget it then but i fast until sort of after lunchtime but it's the first thing that i take so that i know that if i haven't potentially got the nutrients that i need the vitamins i'm still getting it even if i've got that little break from eating i have to take it in the morning otherwise I do not remember the day just carries on and on but it does make me feel like I don't

have that coffee crash and that's why I like doing it in the morning because then when it gets to about 11 or 12 I will have one coffee I think in you know substituting that first morning coffee that I used to have with my AG1 has honestly been the best thing for me ever and I've been taking it now for over a year. Definitely over a year because you've got me onto it and I've been taking it for about a year. James takes it as well. I think it's just that convenient way of getting the vitamins that you need rather than thinking, I need to take this, I need to take that. It's one drink, drink it, done. You feel like you've done your justice for the day and you feel ready. It gives you more energy. The vitamins for your hair, skin and nails are in

there. Like you're totally covered, aren't you, with what you need? Absolutely. Now we get asked a lot what does AG1 taste like because obviously it is it's green and usually green juices don't tend to taste that great yeah I don't think it tastes bad and I think you get used to the taste yeah um it tastes almost minerally vitaminy kind of thing it's really hard to explain but again eat you know it is one drink you drink it you're done exactly and I find the shaker really good for on the go so when i was rushing out of the door this morning i put my water in my one scoop shook it up and i was out the door with my ag1 yeah you can drink it on your way to work then as well and it looks cute in its little shaker very cute yeah you can literally drink it in your car you know

that you've got over 70 vitamins minerals all the other ingredients antioxidants it's got high quality mushrooms in it as well did you know that yeah they're amazing for focus and performance and the immune system we've got kids you know what it's like ag1's got your daily dose of vitamin c and zinc as well so it helps to support your overall immune health so there's just so many things in one drink i need all of that immunity support so guys try ag1 and get a free one year supply of vitamin d and k and five free ag1 travel packs with your first subscription all you've got to do is go to drinkag1.com forward slash nip tuck that's drinkag1.com forward slash nip tuck check it out right okay you've lost your makeup bag okay what are you buying first uh okay so

the nature of my job is i'm always swapping products it's quite hard for me to stick to things long term we find that hard but there are some things that i go through over and over and over again so uh charlotte tilbury hollywood flawless filter i would buy immediately i wear 2.5 i would wear that get that immediately um i would have to immediately buy a nude lipstick and a red lipstick and two matching lip liners because i would never go out without my lips sorted and ideally i would always like a red with me in case i get invited to something in evening and i'm underdressed yeah you throw on a red levels it up levels it up so i would do that and i would probably get mac mac lady danger for the red and then what would i get for the nude

god so many different ones i could choose so many different ones nice that thanks it's mac is night a nice nude is a great nude and see sheer lots lots of nudes i could wear velvet teddy's another a good one lots of great ones and then a subculture lip liner oh I've not had that for ages it's really nice it's like a dirty pink I'm gonna order it on the train home yeah it's an amazing lip liner I have probably been through 25 of them in my life we wear boldly bare so boldly bare pulls a bit red for me it's a bit of a red nude on me but subculture is like a dirty pink and I think I've easily gone through 25 if not 40 of them so you're a bit you like a lip i like a lip i i'm interested primarily in skin and lip okay have you ever had lip blush no i asked that because i used to do

that um as a practitioner honestly it's life-changing if you get it done properly and right it is a game changer tell me why because you wake up if you go for a color that's sort of similar to your lip tone, but a little bit better, fills out the edges. You wake up and you've got the base, but you can choose a base that's really similar to your lip color, a little bit better. So you can still change the color throughout the day, but it's there. It is the best. Honestly, I don't do it anymore, but it is a game changer for me. Because what's always slightly put me off about that, because look, I'm up for anything. I certainly haven't got a problem with a treatment. What's always put me off about that is I'm never

quite keen on the color I see when I see photographs of people with them. And I always worry that they'll be like a bit blurry around the lip line so you never go over the lip line right that's why and it depends where you go but i just thought of it then with you saying like honestly you should look into isn't it i mean if you get it done properly and they don't go outside your lip line which they shouldn't it just fades naturally doesn't it but have a look at a good i'll tell you some good people to go to because i'm always interested in what people are doing but you know what and i think this is just a me thing people say to me all the time things like can you recommend a lipstick that lasts all day and i'm always like what's wrong with working on

your lipstick halfway through the day like i enjoy yeah going to the bathroom taking a second just even at a restaurant table i just like enjoy a reset yeah i'm happy to get a concealer brush out halfway through the day and fluff out my you know it's fine i want to ask all of these tips so right makeup bag we we know what lip we're doing eyes um so eyes because yours look gorgeous they look like a teddy shrimp like a brownie this is um a veve i want love veve i notice you have the underglow that's gorgeous this is a veve i want in mahogany i really like those i would Definitely, without a doubt, buy a stick, not a powder. I've not used it.

Aren't the Victoria Beckham ones meant to be quite nice? They're fantastic. The best ones are the Bobbi Brown ones. Okay. I mean, she invented them, really. So the Bobbi Brown ones, the Veve ones, Laura Mercier makes them, Victoria Beckham makes them. They're all excellent.

But the thing about a stick is it's so easy. You just scribble it on, buff it out with a clean brush, and people think you've made an effort when you haven't really. Oh, wow. So I would do that. I would get a stick. I would get some kind of brow gel, which would probably be Benefit.

You love the Benefit brow wax. Do you know what I use? The old Zing. Do you remember the palette? Yes, the Brow Zing. I had to get one from eBay because the palette's changed and I'm so upset.

So I had to get one and it was ridiculously expensive from eBay. But yeah, I agree. It's a brand I don't really use much, but their brow products are excellent. Yeah, I agree. And then powder-wise, are we powdering or not?

i'm very pro powder yes people constantly say oh powder's so aging it's absolutely not it's just about finding the right powder now the last thing my face would ever want is like a baking sort of powder like a super matte yeah powder but a light light reflecting powder is gorgeous so i am obsessed with the new hourglass one it's extraordinary that it's stunning so good um but If I was in, in answer to your question, I'm at an airport, I just have to replace everything. I would get Skin Finish Natural from MAC in Light Plus, which is one of the all-time great powders. People know them for Studio Fix. Yeah.

But Skin Finish Natural is a mineral baked powder and it is just matte enough. It's really light. It's an absolutely beautiful powder, but I'm a big believer in powder. I actually think shiny chin, shiny nose is quite aging. Yeah. But I don't want it on my cheeks. No. And then what are we doing with concealer-wise?

I mean, got to have a concealer. I really love the Natasha Denona concealer. My favourite. I love that concealer. It's fantastic. The high glam. I only recently discovered it. Yeah.

It's amazing. I like that it's got, like, nice neutral shades. It's got a full coverage. So coverage is fantastic. It's not matte and dry. Yeah. I think that's a great concealer. I think I've probably used that more than any other concealer in the past year.

that's fantastic little under eye brightener i like the beauty pie one a lot and then i would have to have cheek yes and i would have a cream blush so i really love the westman atelier ones we love westman yeah so she does one it called and it's a stick have you tried mimi no so mimi you can't get in any of the westman atelier stockists except westman atelier herself so you