Over the weekend I can safely say that the majority of Canberra’s female population were fan-girling all over the place, waiting to meet author, columnists and Go-To Skin Care founder Zoe Foster Blake – whether at her much-anticipated book launch of Amazinger Face, or at home sobbing in a pile of tissues because you missed out on tickets.
Who is Zoe Foster Blake you ask? (We like saying her name in full and a little aggressively to communicate that she is a dead-set lady boss). Well, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you would know that as well as being a beauty-guru-turned-comedic-wordsmith (we’ll get to all that in a second), she has possibly the most freaking adorable child on this planet – Sonny, her blue-eyed, pudgy-cheeked two-year-old son to equally-hilarious radio host Hamish Blake. Please go on her Instagram now if this is news to you.
There were two book launch sessions held at Muse at East Hotel on Saturday, and both sold out before the word could event get around town that Zoe was coming to the nation’s capital.
Among her many magazine columns about life, love, beauty and random side-splitting commentary that date back to 2002, Zoe was deputy editor of Mania Magazine, Smash Hits Magazine, and beauty director at Cosmopolitan, Harper’s BAZAAR, editor in chief of beauty website PRIMPED.com.au, and contributing beauty editor for Mamamia.com.au.
She has published four women’s fiction titles, Air Kisses, Playing The Field, The Younger Man and The Wrong Girl (TV adaptation coming soon to Channel Ten); as well as three non-fiction titles, Textbook Romance, Amazing Face and now, drumroll…… Amazinger Face!
She runs her beauty site, zotheysay.com, and her own charming and witty skin care line, Go-To, which is the result of 10 years working as a beauty editor and identifying that women across the nation were bloody confused as to how to keep their skin routine in check.
Now that you’re up to speed, this is how the best day of my life went down. Women from all walks of life gathered into the quaint and quirky space that is Muse; part bookshop, part café. Although Muse was anything but quaint on this day – packed with people from corner to corner, some weaselling their way to purchase Amazinger Face and others to get their hands on the range of Go-To products. I however was in search of champagne and ample canapés.
After a brief intro from HerCanberra editor Amanda Whitley, Zoe emerged with a beaming smile and an outfit to kill, including black buckle Céline heels that we were all lusting over.
“The beauty industry is so much more exciting now and makeup is so much more popular and universal,” Zoe says.
“Having said that I don’t think that we need to wear makeup every time we walk out the door. There’s a trend of bloggers and young celebrities that endorse that image, but I don’t think that necessarily works in real life. I’m all about good skin and accentuating things that you are happy with, such as a bright lip. Makeup is temporary, there’s no commitment.
“With Amazinger Face, I feel confident that all my beauty knowledge is in there – having had Sonny I’ve put in baby stuff too and it was a natural progression from the first book. I also got to go through it again to rewrite the jokes and make them worse,” she laughs.
Hands flung in the air and the Q&A was off. Every topic was touched on from breastfeeding, adolescent skin, the importance of sleeping with clean skin, how to create voluptuous hair, the power of eye serum, the stigma around Retinol Vitamin A cream, how to combat oily skin and ‘gigantor pores’ – as one lady described it, and how to get rid of acne scarring.
But what we were all aching to hear was the upcoming beauty trend and tip of the season.
“Liquid matte lips are everywhere, and with good reason! They’re lovely if they are well maintained and if you have a nourishing formula, one that doesn’t crack through the day and with stay power. I love MAC lipsticks,” Zoe explains.
“Because it’s a trend, you don’t want to spend a lot of money, so just choose a couple of colours. I have a nude, hot pink and plum, and a good lip pencil is key.”
But we don’t want to spoil all the secrets within Amazinger Face, so grab your copy ASAP (mine is better because it is personally signed. Sorry, not sorry) and you’ll be rocking a flawless face in no time!
PS – Zoe has also just released a Bro-To Skin Care product called Properly Clean for male skin! Check it out here fellas.
