shania.funurl.com

Cosmetic Magazine - Canada
Sep./Oct. 2005 Vol. 33, Issue 5

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Beauty Q & A with Shania Twain

C: Rose is a key ingredient in your new fragrance. Is it your favourite flower?

ST: It is. It's such a complex flower, but also very diverse. From rose to rose, there's a different fragrance. I love the sweetness of a rose. Roses smell like, depending on the colour and the variety, a candied fruit. I particularly like the grapefruit-smelling roses. And that's what we ended up with in this fragrance - real fruity-smelling roses. There's something extraordinary about roses. They are so feminine and beautiful, and yet they have thorns.

C: What fragrances did you wear growing up in Timmins?

ST: I didn't really get into fragrances very much as a teenager. I was very Tom Boy-ish. I grew into fragrances more when I thought it was time to treat myself. I didn't fuss over myself much as a teenager. I didn't wear makeup. The odd time I'd put mascara on for a school photograph. I didn't play around with makeup much and I wasn't really a girly-girl as a teenager. I was into music and sports. I don't know at what point along the way that I thought, "Wow, it's actually kind of fun." Maybe I just matured late too. It's really quite fun to play around with all these little accessories and to treat yourself to a nice fragrance.

C: What song best represents your new fragrance?

ST: That's a good question. I think it would probably be "The Woman In Me." Although a lot of my up-tempo songs are very strong female type songs. I think "The Woman In Me" says the most lyrically. It's the most descriptive and something I'd write alongside the perfume. The song would describe what I feel about the perfume.

C: Did you test out your fragrance with family and friends throughout the process?

ST: Well everyone liked it, which is really surprising because I have two sisters with completely different tastes. They don't like each other's perfumes at all. And they both really liked it a lot. There were only three variations because we narrowed it down quickly. I gave Coty a list of my all my favourite scents so it wasn't this "smell fest". They wanted to know what I wanted to smell. I gave them my list and they reduced it into six - which isn't a lot. I lived with three for a while and they were quite similar. Just a few stronger notes in one or the other. But it didn't take long. This was always my favourite from the beginning.

C: What was on your list of favourite scents?

ST: Oh, well grapefruit is one of my favourites. And grapefruit-smelling roses. I like the smell of green things - like when you scratch a leaf and smell it. I wanted really earthy smells. I put herbs in there - rosemary, thyme and sage. Needles from evergreen trees. I'm not really big on spicy smells.

C: Tell us about the bottle shape?

ST: It's based on a glass vase in my house. I looked at it one day and took a Polaroid. I thought, "that is such a simple design. It would make a beautiful perfume bottle." I wanted something strong yet feminine and it just popped out at the right time.

C: I understand your sister works for Shoppers Drug Mart?

ST: My sister Carrie-Ann has worked at Shoppers Drug Mart in Huntsville for 12 years. Yes, she's been there a long time.

C: What is your beauty regime?

ST: I do the same thing everyday. I use essential oils. And I will use very basic things on my skin when I want to get away from the complicated things. One of the most basic things I do when I want to bear down and take a break from any kind of product, I use Bag Balm, which is udder cream. I just put the Bag Balm and exfoliate it off. You don't have to do anything else beside that if it's summer. In the winter, I'll put some moisturizer on. I'll also use an eye gel and sometimes a balm at night. I don't use moisturizer because I find they tend to dry my skin. I just use water. Once and a while I'll do a deep cleansing mud mask.

C: What beauty necessities when you travel?

ST: I like my scrub. I use Decleor. And I use an eye gel, eye cream and face cream. And I don't do a night regime every night. I don't know why, maybe I'm just lazy. I just take my makeup off and use some moisturizer. I need mascara, an eyelash curler, an eyebrow pencil, blush and concealer.

C: What type of woman will wear "Shania"?

ST: It would be someone who is feminine, and at the same time someone who has a strength. It's a funny thing. Some perfumes are more girly. Some are stronger. What I feel when I smell it is confident. I feel good when I wear it.

C: What is the single most-important thing you've learned throughout your career?

ST: I think just not to be so hard on yourself. And the fans taught me that. They are so accepting. And you can go out there and do a really bad job, and you didn't hit that note, and the fans loved it anyway. And I questioned that for a long time. It's a searching thing you do with yourself. I thought, "I'm not worthy of all this praise. But these people are accepting and so forgiving. For a while I didn't get it. Then I thought it's just my perception of it all. I have to accept that they like what I do, whether I like what I did or not. And that's challenging. It's a very challenging thing when you're a performer. That just really helped me a lot because I enjoy myself more by accepting that. And that's a very good lesson in life and I'll take that with me in everything.

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