We're not quite ready yet!

by CAROLINE BERGER, Daily Mail

Looking good for your job is a smart career move. 'Attractive people always do best in the workplace,' says psychologist Susan Quilliam. 'Taking care of your appearance shows you'll be meticulous angd implies you'll respect your customers.' But can spending five hours a day on your beauty routine really be necessary?

Here, we talked to three working women who say it pays to be vain

BEAUTY CONSULTANT

Denise Zaccaria, 40, is area operations manager for Collagenics, a company offering cosmetic procedures including Botox and face-peels in 140 clinics nationwide. She lives in Beckingham, Nottinghamshire, with her husband Dino, who runs a glazing firm, and children Natalie, 19, and Elliott, 16. Denise says:

Just the other day, I was at a Collagenics salon in Manchester when a 21-year-old blonde, without a line on her face, touched me on the shoulder. 'Your skin looks amazing,' she told me.

Two days earlier, I'd had a chemical face-peel. Even though my skin felt tight and uncomfortable, and I'd left half my face on the pillow that morning, it was worth it because I knew I looked fabulous.

My job is to visit Collagenics salons around the country, to check everything is running smoothly. I also organise evenings with potential clients, explaining what our treatments involve.

Because I'm an ambassador for my company, there's a lot of pressure on me to look immaculate. If your hairdresser looked like a devil, you wouldn't go to them for a haircut, would you?

Before I started at Collagenics, I was a receptionist for the NHS - another job in which it is important to look smart and efficient. However, it's only since I joined this company that cosmetic treatments have become a regular part of my beauty regime.

My routine takes a lot of time and effort - but more on an ongoing monthly basis than hours every morning. I have Botox and collagen injections, as well as face-peels, several times a year.

I love them because they make me look my best. It's not my ambition to look 20 years younger: I just want to look like an attractive 40-year old.

I'm convinced it won't be long before a cold-link gel face-peel is as much a part of any woman's beauty regime as a facial or a leg-wax.

In addition to taking scrupulous care of my skin, I visit the hairdresser regularly - for a cut, 'natural' highlights, and to make sure that my nails are always immaculate.

It's important to have nice hands and feet. A manicure makes an immediate impression when you are introducing yourself.

Because I'm often travelling, I carry around my make-up for 'top-ups'. I can spend hours stuck in traffic jams, so I keep a large bottle of water in the car to keep hydrated.

I don't think I pay too much attention to my appearance. Nor do I spend too much on my looks.

I know my husband, Dino, is proud of me. And taking care of my appearance certainly makes me feel good. It's a real morale boost to present your best face to the world - whatever age you are, and whatever you do.

Sometimes, though, all this flawlessness can become bit tiring. At the end of the day, it's such a relief to come through the front door at home, have a relaxing bath, take out my contact lenses, put on my glasses and then slip on my robe and sit in front of the TV.

Even if you're selling the dream, you just can't be that perfect all the time.

DENISE'S BEAUTY ROUTINE

  • EVERY SIX MONTHS:

    Face peel: to re-surface skin

    Cost: £270

    Time: One hour

    Facial: to replenish moisture

    Cos: £30

    Time: One hour

  • EVERY MONTH TO SIX WEEKS:

    Haircut and highlights

    Cost: £70

    Time: three hours

    Manicure

    Cost: £22

    Time: 30 minutes

  • DAILY ROUTINE

    6.30am: shower and wash hair

    7am: blow dry and straighten hair

    7.30am: breakfast (toast and tea)

    8am: make-up - foundation, eye pencil and mascara

    8.30am: Leave for work

    Total cost (per year): £3,684, total time (per year): 22 days, 4 hours

    SHOP MANAGER

    Drift Stoddart, 23, lives in Barnes, Middlesex, with her boyfriend Eric Hall, a nightclub promoter. She is manager of Pout's flagship London store. Pout is a fashionable brand of cosmetics favoured by celebrities such as Kylie Minogue and Victoria Beckham. Drift says:

    I am high maintenance, and proud of it. Even if I'm just going out to buy a pint of milk, I won't leave the house without full foundation, bronzer, blusher, mascara, eyeliner and lipgloss. The way I look means everything to me.

    My boyfriend, Eric, wonders how I ever manage to leave the house in the morning. I can take two hours to decide what to wear - and that's after I've put on all my make-up. Painting my face always takes me at least an hour.

    Every day at work, around ten people come up to me in the shop and gasp: 'How do you do your hair/nails/eyes?' Then they ask me what products I use - and so I sell them the make-up I'm wearing.

    Working for Pout is the ideal career for me. I take enormous pride in my beauty routine, from my false nails to my permanently topped-up tan and my pencilledon eyebrows.

    I can be a different person every day, and my 'look' changes dramatically all the time. On Monday, I'll be a Fifties sweater girl; Tuesday, a city-slicker in a suit; and then on Wednesday I'm dressed in 'boho street' style.

    My hair colour changes depending on the season. At the moment, I'm dark brown for winter. Last summer I was platinum blonde, and I will probably bleach my hair again when the weather gets warmer. I'm obsessed with my hair and wash it every morning.

    Probably the most distinctive thing about me is my eyelash extensions. I have them put on professionally, one at a time, monthly, and maintain them myself every morning, because two or three come out in bed.

    Sometimes I even splash out on a diamantÈ version.

    Because my lashes are so delicate, I take only baths, never showers, or I could find myself losing the lot.

    Most of my friends work in the beauty or fashion industries, so they don't see my regime as excessive. I know I spend a lot, and my beauty products are the tip of the iceberg: my shoe collection alone is worth about £5,000.

    I don't dare add everything up, but I'd say my daily upkeep regime costs more than my rent

    . . . possibly even double.

    DRIFT'S BEAUTY ROUTINE

  • EVERY FOUR MONTHS:

    Hair colour Cost: £45-£120

    Time: Three hours

    EVERY SIX WEEKS:

    Hair cut

    Cost: £54

    Time: 30 minutes

  • EVERY MONTH:

    Eyelash extensions Cost: £80

    Time: Two hours

  • EVERY TWO WEEKS:

    Facial Cost: £30

    Time: 45 minutes

    Nail extensions

    Cost: £40

    Time: 90 minutes

    Gym membership

    Cost: £45

    Time: None - 'I never go'

  • TWICE A WEEK:

    Sunbed session Cost: £60 for ten sessions

    Time: 15 minutes

    Fake all-over tan Cost: £20

    Time: 55 minutes, including exfoliation and moisturising.

  • DAILY ROUTINE:

    8am: Make tea, run bath

    8.15am: Wash hair

    8.45am: Blow-dry/style hair

    9-10.30am: Put on make-up. Replace false eyelashes. Draw on eyebrows. Get dressed

    10.30am: Leave the house

    TOTAL COST: £7,060 TOTAL TIME: 39 days

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