Charlotte Tilbury’s Mother Is Impossibly Fabulous
Patsy Tilbury shares the beauty secrets that inspired her daughter’s passion for make-up
If you thought you couldn’t get more fabulous than Charlotte Tilbury, the inimitable queen of make-up with a beauty brand as mesmerising as her, then you haven’t met her mother.
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Patsy Tilbury, Charlotte’s first beauty icon and one of her biggest inspirations, taught her daughter that lipstick is “happiness in a tube”, the make-up artist and entrepreneur tells Bazaar.
Charlotte explains: “Since I can remember, I have always believed that lipstick has a magical, secret, transformative power. I would watch my mother Patsy applying her ruby red lipstick. She would always tell me as she put it on, ‘lipstick is instant glamour and it will take you anywhere!’ I understood from an early age that lipstick empowers confidence. It was an act of instant beautification, confidence and strength.”
Courtesy of Charlotte Tilbury
Indeed, the simple act far surpassed vanity. The transformation for Patsy “pulled her style together and painted on a happiness,” Charlotte says. “At first, it was just my mother’s magic ritual, but soon I observed how it effects other women. There was a psychology to make-up. If you look good, you feel good and the world reacts to you in a powerful way.”
Three decades later, the dynamic talent who now has an MBE under her belt having set countless beauty trends and transformed our make-up bags with her unstoppable eponymous brand, has dedicated a lipstick to her mother.
Her latest collection, Hot Lips 2, is inspired by 11 forceful women and men, from J.K. Rowling to Amal Clooney and – of course – Patsy Tilbury. Patsy Red is the ultimate statement shade for that instant dose of glamour (and happiness).
Watch Rosemin Madhavji discuss looks done on the likes of Amal Clooney and Meghan Markle with Charlotte Tilbury’s lead artist
From Harper’s BAZAAR U.K