Terry de Gunzburg

Thanks to Terry de Gunzburg – the make-up guru – my wedding day morning became one of those fairy-tale duckling-to-swan moments. Ignoring my mother’s words of wisdom, I stayed up way past midnight and woke up looking puffy-eyed and jowly-jawed. The night before, Diane von Furstenberg had given us an unbelievable party – drinks in the communal gardens followed by a buffet dinner at her sumptuous apartment – and when surrounded by family and friends, beauty sleep seemed utterly irrelevant until faced by my appearance the next morning... Major help was needed and major help came via Terry.

Proving that fairy godmothers can be super glam as well as kind – the Cairo-born Terry reminds me of Cleopatra though I doubt that the great queen possessed Terry’s pearly teeth and perfect smile – I suddenly glowed with natural looking apricot loveliness. That was 1997. Terry was then famous for creating YSL’s ‘touche éclat', performing her hocus pocus at Yves Saint Laurent’s fashion shows and working with fabled photographers Guy Bourdin, Sarah Moon and Helmut Newton. Many would have stopped there. But not Terry – a blissfully-married, energetic mother of four – who launched her By Terry make-up line in 1998. Suddenly smart Parisian bathrooms were vamped up by her purple and silver packaged products. At first, I became obsessed by her subtle array of eye-shadows but these days can’t live without her Hyaluronic Face Glow, Aqualip and Mascara Haute Croissance. Before meeting Terry, two beauty bête noirs plagued my existence: poorly chosen skin foundation and mascara-caused black bobbles. However, following Terry’s advice, I now know to test foundation around the chin area – as opposed to my hand – and refrain from applying too much mascara which leads to the offending bobbles. “Less is more,” insists the très timeless Terry. Et oui, c’est vrai!

Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni is a Paris-based British journalist who covers fashion and lifestyle as well as being the author of Sam Spiegel – The Biography of A Hollywood Legend, Understanding Chic, an essay from the Paris Was Ours anthology and soon-to-be released Chanel book, for Assouline's fashion series.

Robert Beck is former New Yorker currently based in Paris. Also known as C.J. Rabbitt, he is the author and illustrator of several children's books, including The Tale of Rabbitt in Paradis, Un Lapin à Paris and the soon-to-be-published A Bunny in the Ballet.