Ceri Wheeldon of Fab after Fifty chats to make-up trainer Jo Jewitt of the Make-Up Training Company about how great Make Up can boost confidence over 50 and help midlife women look and feel fabulous.

In the past Jo has worked her magic on Princess Di, Bette Midler, Barbra Streisand and Madonna. Today Jo wants all women to have the tools and techniques to transform their make-up in just 5 minutes using just 9 products in 9 steps.

 

Jo is passionate about what she does - it's a lively conversation!!

 

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Episode transcript:

[00:00:04] I'm Ceri Wheeldon. And welcome to the Fab after Fifty podcast. Leading the pro age conversation, talking about all things life after 50.

 

[00:00:17] Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Fab after Fifty podcast. And I have with me today Jo-Anne Jewitt,  make up trainer extraordinaire. Hello, Jo, and welcome to Fab up to 50.

 

[00:00:28] Hello. Hello. Great to be here talking to like minded people.

 

[00:00:33] Absolutely, we've had fabulous chats haven't we outside of this podcast and I think it's important to share your philosophy with our listeners and the readers of the website. But first of all, can you tell us a little bit about your own backgrounds in the makeup industry?

 

[00:00:49] Well, How long have you got? I know it's a long. It's a long. I am now 61. So it started when I was 19 and I had a broken heart. And I joined the promotion team for Helena Rubinstein, gone to the south of France to be a nanny, realized I hated kids. And then I came back with my tail between my legs, had a little jaunt  in the police force and then realised I was going to be the worst policewoman that's ever been known to man. So I joined Rubenstein  and I started travelling. And basically I used to sit with women for hours on end and everybody else would say buy two products and I'll give you a bathrobe and. And amazingly, everybody was just there would be queuing up to see me, which even then it was was quite a revelation. And it made me realise that actually people woould actually come in for advice. They didn't want a free bathrobe or, you know, three free products. They wanted. They wanted proper advice. So I started with that because I was very successful at what I did. I came to the attention of Liz Laverne, who was our director. I was being poached by various different people because obviously I was having humongous sales. And basically they said, what can we do to keep you? So I said, well, I'd like to be properly trained. So they sent me off to Fabourge St. Honore in Paris and I did my makeup training there.  When I came back. They kind of exploited that. I know that's fine, but that's fine because I benefited from it.

 

[00:02:34] And then I used to do private one to ones with with elite clients, if you like. YOu've had some very elite clients haven't you?  And I did. I did. And all of them were, you know, weren't really planned in that way. But I had the beautiful Princess Di who came to me because I'd done quite a few of her friends, what we used to call back in the day, Sloane Rangers and a few of her friends had already been to me. So she came for advice because she was getting engaged and she was wearing a blue suit. And we had a big fight about blue liner because at that point, all she did actually was have her eyelashes tinted navy, weirdly,  But you know what I mean? And until we had this kind of big performance and we had a wonderful one to one, she was gorgeous, very, very, very shy, giggly young country girl who had never worn makeup. But cleverly, she actually realised that because of that point, she was being papped everywhere. And she realised that she didn't have a makeup artist permanently on her side. So she needed to learn how to use makeup for herself. And I like to think that that I taught her that. And we became quite good friends. We saw again each other. Unfortunately, I didn't realise who she was marrying at that point. And when she asked me ab