Run Around Chic

Denice is an inspiring woman, with being an actress, director, photographer and now the founder of the New Cult Beauty Brand, In Your face Skincare, she’s reinvented herself time-and-again proving that you can have a family and a career that produces results, anti-aging results that helps women look and feel their best without using harsh chemicals on their skin.

Denice has been busy with new formulations to add to her already successful skincare brand, but found time to answer a few questions.

Fashion icon: Audrey Hepburn. Because she made everything work, fashion-wise. She had such a sparkly personality, she was lovely in heels, she was lovely in a pants suit and likewise, lovely in a ballgown.

And you didn’t notice the clothes, you just still always noticed HER. They were an extension of her. They were a part of her. They effortlessly made sense. 

Last piece of clothing you purchased before the Pandemic: A flowy maxi dress in Dubai. It was on sale for $32. It’s a long sleeve, muted Indian floral pattern maxi dress. It was very pandemic friendly because it was very comfortable and simple but it makes everybody happy when I wear it. It’s one of the most complementary dresses I’ve bought. 

Last book read: Do audio books count? It was “Saturday’s Child: A Daughter’s Memoir”. Having lost my mom two years ago, it was consoling to dive into that. 

Favorite Restaurant: Mozza in LA. Their burrata made me cry and made me wonder why I’m living in the USA and not Italy.

6602 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90038
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If you could live in any piece of clothing what would it be: Linen pants with pockets and a thin oversized gray sweatshirt….with well-worn leather sandals ….and plenty of my favorite boho  jewelry.

Source of Inspiration: My music list and texting friends if they need any help. If I’m not feeling on fire, I’m probably not doing enough so I reach out to friends and see if they need anything and that fuels my own tank. And also cooking. Cooking heals a lot of wounds for me.

Describe your beauty routine: I do a fruit enzyme exfoliation 4 times a week. My skin really LOVES this! I’m also a fan of oils. I love dewy naked skin. And I only put concealer on just where I need it – under my eyes and a few dots around my nose. A dot of lip and cheek tint and a few swipes of mascara. 

As a photographer I love naked skin on women’s faces. I was also a makeup artist for many years. I did some of the sparsest makeup for my female clients and they always said it was the best they ever looked. 

Why is clean beauty important: Because what we put on our skin does go into our body and the effects of these synthetic and toxic ingredients may not take a toll within a year or two but I want to be a great-grandmother and it’s just another essential step in staying healthy.

I don’t think anyone would really expect to eat McDonald’s and Twinkies every day of their life and expect to remain healthy so I like to apply that discipline to my skincare. Like my Italian great-grandmother said to me, “A healthy inside is a healthy outside”. 

Here’s to running around chic with healthy glowing skin! To learn more about In Your Face Skincare .

@InYourfaceSkincare on Instagram.

I’m a lover of the dramatic, gothic, elaborate and sumptuous, I fell in-love with Mr. Mortimer’s Wife, the Tiaras are gorgeous and allows every woman to live out her life as a queen or princess, whichever she prefers. Samantha is the go-to for inspiring gothic fairytales and living your life in and shall we use fairytale again? I think so.

Samantha in-between creating her masterpieces, and encouraging us to embrace our inner magpies, found time to answer a few questions.

Fashion Icon: I hardly know where to begin. Perhaps close to home. My mum was accepted into a prestigious art college in the 1960s, and there are many photos of her wearing snappy little outfits back then. She had a very defined sense of style. My grandmother was a seamstress to royalty in the 1930s, she worked in the Court Dress Rooms on clothes worn by Queen Mary. She was an incredibly talented dressmaker, and made most of my clothes when I was young, even my coats. Her grandfather was a tailor in Victorian times, so perhaps it was in the genes.

I think these various influences taught me that, in terms of fashion, having your own ideas about style and your own likes and dislikes is one of the most important things. I think that it’s different to following trends.

Then of course there are more obvious, tangible sources of inspiration; a few things spring to mind. I’ve always admired the way Helena Bonham Carter dresses, for instance, and I love watching costume dramas.

Time and again I’m drawn back to the Regency period in my work, everything about it was beautiful and feels like home to me. I do think I was born 200 years too late. I’d say my main inspiration for what I do is historical styles and fashions, from Tudor to Regency, Georgian to the Roaring Twenties, Ancient Rome to Victorian, and everything in between. There is often a heavy sprinkling of Victorian gothic drama in my work. 

The jeweled styles seen on the runways in the early nineties still make me go a bit weak at the knees. Clothes dripping in sparkles with big, chunky costume jewelry to match. I vividly remember falling in love with a Dolce and Gabbana corset I saw in a magazine, it was covered in jewels in all the color’s of the rainbow.

As a child and young teenager those  bright, vibrant color’s that were everywhere in the late 1980s and early 1990s had an enormous effect on me. In fact I haven’t really thought about it before now, but my abiding love of brightly colored jewels began at a very young age, and comes out in a lot of my work. 

Last piece of item purchased before the pandemic: Not really an item, but the main thing that I remember, very shortly before lockdown began here in the UK, was spending a perfect day at the V&A in London. It was at the beginning of February 2020 and there was already a nervousness in the air about what was potentially coming our way, but I spent that day in a bubble and had such an amazing time poring over the paintings, clothes and jewelry, and buying guidebooks, that it kept me going for a few months afterwards. 

If you could live in any piece of clothing what would it be: Well it would have to be a tiara, wouldn’t it? I’d wear one every time I went out, to pubs, restaurants, shopping trips, days out, dropping my kids at school – everywhere. Maybe with a big Georgian gown. 

Favorite Restaurant: I think going anywhere at the moment would be a real treat, I’ve almost forgotten what it’s like to go out for the evening. There are so many places I would go, but if I have to pick one restaurant then I’d plump for Andrew Edmunds in Soho, London – a candlelit restaurant in an eighteenth century townhouse. I’ve had one or two great evenings there. Having said that, I’m not really a posh restaurant kind of girl – for an night out I’d much rather find a rickety old pub with a roaring fire and a resident ghost.

Last Book Read: I always have several books on the go, usually about history, ghosts, and mysteries, and it’s quite a feat if I manage to finish any of them. I have just finished reading The Dreams of Cardinal Vittorini by Reggie Oliver, a collection of stories very much inspired by M.R. James, my favorite author. We went to see Reggie Oliver read some of his ghostly tales at the theatre in 2017. I’m embarrassed to say it’s taken me this long to read the book that I bought that evening. 

Here’s to running around while wearing a tiara! To follow Samantha @mrmortimerswife