Kelly Hume
“I’ve always subscribed to a very natural idea of beauty. A rawness and acceptance of what it is one actually looks like without a lot of makeup, retouching and botox.”
“I wear Tom Ford chocolate liner on the rim of my upper lid and dotted on my lower lid, a Lancome mascara, RMS or Becca blush/lip tint and occasionally a Bobbie Brown cream eyeshadow in bronze. Of an evening I will wear Bobbie Brown eyeshadow in the shades of brown which I layer up for my variation of a smoky eye”.
On her dirty little beauty secret:
“I assume most people think my brows and lashes are this colour but when I leave them to grow out they’re white! I look like a new born piglet when I wake up of a morning if I don’t tint them every five weeks or so”.
“I moisturise my face with a Payot cold cream before applying Dermalogica Barrier Repair and the Dermalogica Sheer Tint Redness Relief with SPF.”
On her approach to beauty:
“Low key and consistent. I know what works for me and I stick to it. I’m not one for a beauty trend or a fad product and I’m loyal to the products that I’ve found success with”.
On one thing people may not know about her:
“That my love for food and cooking potentially surpasses my love for fashion”.
“In an ideal world I would wash my hair every second day but because I go to yoga most evenings I end up having to wash it every day. In the summer, I let it dry naturally as it’s quite wavy and the weather allows it happen quickly. In the winter I opt for a sleek blowdry which I’ve reduced down to a 10 minute process. My hair is quite dry so I use a moisture based shampoo/conditioner by Goldwell or Aveda”.
“I love Dermalogica’s Daily Micro Exfoliant, Shu Uemera cleansing facial oil as it really does remove all traces of makeup, and a good rosehip oil. Trilogy is an old favourite.”
“As a red head, my mum told me was that chocolates and taupes would work best on my face and to steer clear of black, and I still follow her advice to this day. I have never been big on wearing a lot of makeup personally and don’t like that look on others or in my work”.
“I cut my hair short for the first time when I was assisting; I must have been about 22 and have never looked back. Up until then I had always had super long hair and I was really ready for a change. Simply, I have quite a long oval face and it really suits me to have hair that sits at my jawline or just below. I feel like I look younger, more polished and it is a lot quicker to dry and maintain”
“I moisturise the body with Sukin unscented body moisturiser or La Mer if I am feeling luxurious”.
“I went to Tulum last year and stayed at Coqui Coqui and fell in love with the area, the hotel and the beautiful products. The products smell as raw and authentic as the hotel. They are unpretentious and unique and transport me back to Mexico every time I use them”.
On how she maintains her skin when travelling:
“The travel at times is relentless and the different climates and water can be quite harsh on my skin and hair as can the flying itself. In flight, I slather my face in rosehip oil and my hands in Aesop handcream. I don’t normally drink alcohol when in the air, only water and plenty of it. When I land, I use a body oil rather than a cream as my skin usually is crying out for it and an SKII face mask is the ultimate saviour (and luxury)”.
On what is most important in life:
“My fiancée, my family and my dearest friends. Nothing else really matters other than ones health”.
“I generally prefer quite a masculine scent as I already look quite feminine and English so I like to juxtapose that softness. I have been wearing the Jo Malone for years during the day but will mix up the other fragrances on my shelf of an evening. Acqua di Parma is my all time favourite fragrance house though. It’s steeped in Italian history and my partner wears it as well”.
“I quite like the oil free tinted moisturiser by Laura Mercier as well but I never wear foundation. I use a By Terry concealer for my T-Zone”.
“I love OPI’s ‘Big Apple Red’ nail colour for hands and feet”.
On her beauty style:
“Low key and consistent. I know what works for me and I stick to it. I am not one for a beauty trend or a fad product and am loyal to the products that I have found success with”.
On her words to live by:
“Be authentic”
“Onde Sensuelle is a favourite as it is quite unique and unheard of, which I love”.
“I loathe having my makeup done and am generally too busy to watch the hair and makeup process to learn anything valuable but the dotting of the eyeliner instead of drawing a line was a game changer for me!”
“Body Eclipse is super light and non greasy and has a strong enough SPF for me. I rarely use it on my face but mainly my body. Perfect for when I’m on location or running around on the weekend. I need to wear some sort of sunscreen on my face everyday”.
On what’s most important in life:
“My fiancée, my family and my dearest friends. Nothing else really matters other than ones health.”
“My style is fairly 90’s and classic with a garçon twist I guess. I wear a lot of denim and Bretons, masculine button downs, tailoring with neat sweaters and short dresses with flats when I am on duty. Off duty, it can become somewhat more bohemian”.
“Because I add colour to my hair every 6-8 weeks I feel that keeps it in pretty good condition. It can feel a little dry at the end of that cycle so I will use an Aveda or Christophe Robin hair mask. The only other product I swear by is Bumble and Bumble brilliantine which gives a ‘slept in’ texture to your hair and reminds me of being on location in South Africa as that’s when a hair stylist introduced me to it and the obsession began”.
Full disclosure, we love a Fashion Editor. They have the inside line on everything, they can spot a trend a mile away, their beauty cabinet is usually full of the best and they have a wardrobe you’d sell a kidney for. Surrounded by style, it’s as if a Fashion Editor absorbs cool by osmosis and by far our favourite among them is Sunday Style’s Kelly Hume. Sharp and witty as she is painstakingly stylish, hanging out at her Elizabeth bay apartment in Sydney’s east is as much fun as we’ve had on a shoot.
There’s a real honesty about Kelly Hume. You know those friends who tell it like it is? Who say shit that no one else says but that everyone is thinking? Kelly’s a bit like that. She’s hilarious, warm, occasionally inappropriate but always real. And that realness is reflected in her beauty routine.
“I’ve always subscribed to a very natural idea of beauty. A rawness and acceptance of what it is one actually looks like without a lot of makeup, retouching and botox. Having said that, I do tint my eyelashes and eyebrows as I’m incredibly fair”.
It’s that fair skin, green eyes and red hair that make for a killer combination, and it only adds to Kelly’s uniqueness. We’ve read somewhere that in a few hundreds years scientists believe that redheads will face extinction due to climate change or a recessive gene or something. Well we call bullshit. Look around. Jessica Chastain, Florence Welch, Karen Elson. If anything, they look set to become the new master race.
“As a red head, my mum told me that chocolates and taupes would work best on my face and to steer clear of black and I still follow her advice to this day. My style is fairly 90’s and classic with a garçon twist I guess. I wear a lot of denim and Bretons, masculine button downs, tailoring with neat sweaters and short dresses with flats when I am on duty. Off duty, it can become somewhat more bohemian.”
And her beauty style is just as classic, “I love Dermalogica’s Daily Micro Exfoliant, Shu Uemera cleansing facial oil as it really does remove all traces of makeup, and OPI’s ‘Big Apple Red’ nail colour for hands and feet. Payot cold cream is the ONLY daily moisturiser I have found that keeps my forehead from flaking.”
Her fiancé has just moved in to her apartment so sharing shelf space has become a reality, but it’s not without its perks…
“He’s pretty good with keeping to his allocated shelf in the beauty cabinet so I can’t complain. He will kill me for saying this but he has quite a little manscaping routine going on. His caffeine stick for under the eyes is my favourite, I’ve been known to use that after a late night and a few too many wines!”
You can imagine a late night out with Kelly after a few too many wines would be an absolute riot, the kind when you wake up with sore abs from laughing so much, or from some sort of impromptu handstand competition. There’s a real joy to her outlook on life, mixed with this uncompromising belief that honesty is king; “Be authentic” she says when we ask her for one parting piece of advice. It’s clearly something she lives by. With Kelly, what you see is what you get. Except for the eyebrows….
Photographed by Rudy Zverina
