Chantelle tell us who you are and what you do…

I am an English girl living in London with my sister, Chloé. I am 24 years old and I have always loved photography so I began documenting my passions and loves through photos. I am now a fashion and beauty blogger, an animal lover, sun worshiper, believer of good energy and all round shopping addict. I have also been modelling since I was 19 years old with D1 model management.

Why are you so interested in the beauty industry?

Since I was a little girl I have enjoyed making things look beautiful. I would borrow my mums makeup and make, what I thought was, a masterpiece of my face and my doll’s face. I even took to the scissors a couple of times and experimented with different hair styles for myself when I was about 8. As I grew older my love for beauty grew also, experimenting with makeup, cosmetics and anything that may have had pink packaging. I was definitely a girly girl. I love seeing girls looking and feeling beautiful and I also love learning new ways to use beauty products; I recently learnt how to use hairspray on a small eyelash brush will keep your eyebrows in tact. There is always something new to learn or try although I must say that my daily beauty routine hasn’t changed in a while.

If you were told that you could only have 4 beauty products to use for a month what would they be?

Mascara, Coconut oil, Liz Earle cleanse and polish, and my Mac concealer.

WOW beauty has several mantras, which one best demonstrates how you feel about beauty and why?

The #wowbeauty mantras;

#beautyisconfidence #beautyisfearless #beautyisageless #beautyisdiverse #beautyishealth

#beautyisconfidence is definitely how I feel about beauty; I think people are always at their most invincible when they are feeling confident. When you can walk into a room as if you have just walked onto the Victoria’s secret catwalk. No matter your age, shape or size a confident person to me is very powerful and beautiful.

We all love social media and it can be a really positive: but what do you think about the impact that selfies, comments, likes etc….are having on young people’s self esteem? 

I think young people today depend a lot more on how many likes and comments they may get on a picture to determine their popularity or beauty. This is one of the biggest downfalls of social media as well as young people, and even older people, comparing their lives and giving themselves, sometimes what seem, totally unrealistic expectations of what they need to look like or have to be happy. Social media is very influential and we need to remember that sometimes what makes us beautiful is our individuality, after all we are all born different so why try to be the same. Be one of a kind, not one of many.

What has been one of your favourite beauty advertising campaigns in recent months and why?

I think my favourite beauty advertising campaign recently must be Caitlyn Jenner featured on Vanity Fair. Showing how beauty is about confidence and courage to live the life we want to live and ignoring negative feelings or comments that may be thrown your way. This campaign has really been an inspiration to a lot of people as well as the story behind it. Well done Caitlyn.

To contour or not to contour …?

I am a lover of the natural beach look, I love long waves and sun kissed skin with freckles on your nose. Discreet contouring is something I will do now and again to give myself a more defined cheekbone as I wasn’t blessed with that; thanks dad. But I like to keep my makeup natural and minimal most of the time.

We have a section on WOW Beauty called ‘What mama told me’ do you have any beauty tips that your mama has shared with you?

My mum was the first people to teach me about beauty and cosmetics; I would steal her makeup and try it on and so she decided to take my sister and I to the nail salon we experimented with many different colours. Soon after we would be getting blow-dries at the hair salon with her. We loved it and haven’t stopped since. My mum to me was my first fashion icon and she taught me everything I know about beauty and fashion.

We also have a section called ‘My beauty journey‘. Have you always been a confidant woman?  

I haven’t always been confident; growing up in my teen years I was very shy because I had terrible skin and the only way I thought I could hide it was with heavy makeup, but I always was self-conscious that people were staring at my skin. Teenage acne is difficult to deal with. I now use Liz Earle products everyday which are all natural and work so well for my skin, so if anyone is struggling with it I would definitely recommend trying Liz Earle.

Have you ever had an embarrassing or awkward beauty moment?

I have definitely had more than one embarrassing or awkward beauty moment; although one that stands our more than the rest would be when I tried to dye my own eyebrows. This was not necessarily something I needed to do but I had always been an experimenter so I bought a pack of home DIY eyebrow dye and followed the instructions accordingly. Except I had decided that I would leave the dye on a little longer because I wanted to make sure it definitely worked, and I mean what harm could it really do? Well a lot actually, my eyebrows were so dark it looked like someone had painted them on, they almost looked navy blue. I had to go to school despite my plea to my mum to let me stay home and was mortified at the response from my classmates. Since then I have never died my own eyebrows.

What charities / causes are close to your heart and why?

I support The Children’s Adventure Farm Trust which supports children who are living with difficulties or may be terminally ill, disabled or disadvantaged. They are an amazing charity that can bring some fun and happiness into these children’s lives when they are facing some of their darkest times.

I also support Cancer research as this is an illness that many of my friends and their families have suffered through. It is an illness that has ended too many lives too soon. My mum was diagnosed with kidney cancer and as we support her back to full health we support those who are helping those around the world who also are going through the same difficult times.

What do you do to relax and unwind?

I like to watch Friends, this is a series that I was brought up watching and for some reason it never gets old. I will laugh as much as I did the first time I watched it and although I could probably recite most of the episodes word by word, it never gets boring. Otherwise I love going to meet my friends to chill and talk; this is something we do on a weekly basis, usually in the same spot.

Chantelle how would you finish this sentence

WOW beauty believes that beauty starts on the inside …….

…however happiness causes you to smile and there is nothing more beautiful than someone with a genuine smile on their face.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed reading all about Chantelle!