Louise Redknapp on learning to love her own version of beauty in an ‘Insta ready’ world

Louise Redknapp has opened up about the challenges of being in the public eye as she comes to terms with loving her own version of beauty in an “Insta ready” world.

The 47-year-old singer originally shot to fame at the tender age of 16 in girlband Eternal back in the 90s when social media wasn’t yet a thing and trolls had yet to find a public forum.

Speaking to the Standard, the glamorous former WAG and ex-wife of retired footballer Jamie Redknapp, made a confession that seems hard to believe: “I don’t always look fabulous, let me tell you!”

“I’m not somebody that puts lots of makeup on. There are hundreds of pictures of me out there looking awful and probably hundreds of me looking good dependent on what I was doing, where I was, like being the best version of myself and looking the worst version of myself. It kind of comes with the territory,” she continued.

“If I get papped leaving a restaurant I feel a bit sick inside thinking ‘ugh, I hope they look ok and I’m not going to look awful,’ [that I’m not] walking weird and got a big arm.

“Of course, I’m a human being and absolutely care about that, but funnily enough, going back to the Eternal days I genuinely didn’t and I think that’s because we didn’t have that culture of people commenting on how we looked.

“If we got pictured, we never knew, like, everybody could be indoors thinking ‘oh, that’s a horrible picture,’ or ‘oh she doesn’t look that good there,’ but you’d never hear it.

“There were no forums, there were no comments left on papers, there was no social media where everybody could have a say, so I was completely oblivious to what anyone might be thinking about us. That came much later on in my career. Times have changed!

“When I was 16-17 in Eternal, not a Scooby! Couldn’t care a less. I was like, knee pads, puffer jacket, it was all good.”

One upside she notes is that while you can’t silence the keyboard warriors, people are a bit more intune with what is and what isn’t acceptable.

She explained: “I think we’re much more aware of what’s wrong and right and as much as there’s a lot of negativity out there, there are a lot of people that really will stand up to your defence and say that’s not something that someone should have to go through and I think that’s great.

“I don’t feel a huge amount of pressure to look a certain way for media, yet it almost means more to me in my real life that when I walk in and my friends go ‘oh, you look really well!’ or ‘you look glowing,’ or ‘you look super happy’ – they are the comments that you want.”

The mum-of-two has struggled for years with pigmentation otherwise known as Melasma, a common skin condition in adults where darker areas of skin appear.

She was recently named the new ambassador for Nivea Cellular Luminous630 after being given the opportunity to test out the product for her self and was pleasantly pleased with the results.

She said: “I’ve spoken quite openly about suffering with pigmentation long before Nivea approached me about this. It’s in my book and I just think over the years I have always been quite open about it. You know, I haven’t just out of the blue gone, ‘Oh! I get that!’

“I think a lot of women are in the same boat, especially those that have had children, or been on the pill and things where your hormones play quite a big part in your skin texture.

“I used the products for three months, photographed every step of the way and Nivea being Nivea did it very properly and by the book – you know, no sort of wizardry things going on and yeah, it worked!

“I just really noticed [the pigmentation] would get a lot worse at the end of summer. I felt like during the middle of the summer if you’re tanned all over the suntan would fade and the pigment was still there.

“And in sort of certain lights, you know, when you get to my age, you know where the good light is so I just tend to find that for a picture. Like, never stand with the spotlight right above my head, or anything down below.”

Offering more pearls for your selfies, the former Strictly Come Dancing star added: “Never do a photoshoot mid-day on a sunny day, I always wait until about 4 o’clock before I take any good beach snaps. Never take pictures of yourself on the beach at midday! Always get up early, or wait until the end of the day, the light is much kinder.”

Louise Redknapp is the proud ambassador for Nivea Cellular Luminous630, available to purchase nationwide across all major retailers. Shop the NIVEA Cellular Luminous630 range here.