Nadiya Hussain: ‘I’ve spent a lifetime feeling like I don’t belong’

telegraph.co.uk:

The Great British Bake Off in 2015 she was completely bare-faced, not a jot of concealer or lipstick in sight. “We weren’t allowed to wear make-up [on the show], not even nail varnish, but I didn’t wear it at that time anyway, so I didn’t even think about it.

Although I do look back now and think, ‘Gosh Nadiya, you could have at least moisturised!’”Fortunately for Hussain, 37, she has been blessed with a clear complexion. “I owe it to my mum and dad and good genetics, but I do drink loads of water and am ritualistic about my skin routine – I always double cleanse and I don’t sleep with my make-up on,” she says.Despite coming to the world of beauty late, she is well versed in her products. “Skincare, beauty and make-up has been a big part of my life for the past 10 years, but before then, I didn’t bother,” she admits.

Although it wasn’t for lack of trying. “God loves a trier and I tried! I’d go into Boots every week thinking, ‘This is the week I’m going to find my foundation’, but a decade later and I still couldn’t find one that worked.

They were either too yellow or too pink and after a while I just couldn’t face it any more.”It can be hard for anyone to find the ideal foundation, even when the available shade range caters for you skin tone, but Hussain, a second-generation British Bangladeshi, born and raised in Luton, had a particular struggle to source her perfect match.