It's meant to be the cardinal sin of skincare, leaving your make-up on at night. That didn't stop Alexa Chung happily owning up to it as she attended the launch of Lacoste Joy Of Pink perfume though. But then, considering her late development as a style icon and rather unusual choice of role models, it wasn’t really that surprising that the TV presenter doesn’t exactly do things by the book…
Saying she looks up to Jeremy Irons, Graham Coxon and Keith Richards as her fashion icons, Alexa also credited Julie Christie and Francoise Hardy as guiding lights, but points out she had a rather stilted upbringing style-wise, having lived in distinctly unfeminine sports gear.
"When I was a kid, I used to get handed down my brother’s rugby shirts," she explained. "It wasn’t until I started modelling that I realised there was a world outside denim shirts and cowboy skirts."
But Alexa takes a distinctly laidback approach to her beauty routine. "I’m obsessed with moisturising, but relaxed about everything else – I even leave my make-up on at night," she said. "I just always have to be wearing black eyeliner."
Alexa went out to Argentina to film the TV commercial for Joy Of Pink with two of her close girlfriends from modelling, who all pile into a convertible that’s then showered with pink streamers falling from the sky ("I’m in the back seat because I haven’t yet learned to drive," she quipped).
Alexa, who’s currently working on a new vintage fashion show in the States, said she appreciates being around friends, "because it’s important to have people to rely on and share stories with. I like to go bowling and to the pub " she stated, adding she also loves a night of cocktails and The X Factor.
The fragrance itself is a cocktail of grapefruit and Blue Curacao, with the burst of citrus slowly fading to peony and then musky notes of cedar woods. It’s essentially a fresh, light fragrance – quite unusual for this time of year. It’s on sale now from £24.