Like snooping in someone else’s supermarket trolley, discovering other people’s shopping habits satisfies a certain nosiness. And never more so than when it comes to celebrities – there’s nothing more human than knowing Kim Cattrall loves fish and chips, or that Henry Holland is a Skims guy.
And as celebrities often have the inside track – or perhaps we just think they do – on everything from coffee machines to skincare, their recommendations in our biweekly How I Shop column have inspired more than a few of your own retail habits. In some cases, however, such as David Gandy’s £2,500 Cobra Fortis lawnmower, the price was a little too out of reach.
Beauty products have proved particularly inspiring, from author Nussaibah Younis’s favourite Chanel foundation, which she buys “on repeat”, to the Marvis whitening toothpaste that TV presenter Ben Fogle has been using “for decades”. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given her expertise as a beauty pro, Caroline Hirons’ Vieve skin dew was also popular (she likes to mix hers with Chanel primer for a glowy look).
Even the £1,999 cost of Dawn O’Porter’s Lyma laser kit didn’t put some of you off: “The price tag is OUCH,” O’Porter agreed, noting she was given hers as a gift, but said it has dramatically cut down on the amount of Botox she gets around her eyes: “A device like this goes deep and definitely works,” she said.
From beauty buys to kitchen gadgets
We always ask our celebs about coffee. Their answers generally fall into two camps: obsessed and never-touch-it. Some of you were inspired by Patrick Grant’s favourite Bialetti coffee maker, while others decided to invest in other kitchen gadgets, such as Andi Oliver’s Ninja food processor, perhaps due to her ringing endorsement about its durability: “[This is] the only one that doesn’t die on me.”
But your favourite celebrity-recommended product of all? Perhaps because wedding season is in full swing, or perhaps because you wanted to follow her tip about using it on bed sheets, Jo Malone’s £29.99 Philips clothes steamer proved a bestseller.
And because celebs, they’re just like us, there were a few purchases our celebrities regret. David Gandy thinks that pricey Fortis lawnmower was a mistake – “I should have gone for one of Allett’s petrol mowers,” he said – while Dawn O’Porter says she’s bought “countless” pairs of jeans but never worn them because she “can’t quite [find something] right for my shape”. Nussaibah Younis also regrets buying her Christian Louboutin Miss Z patent leather 100mm stilettos as she “can barely walk three steps in them”.
Andi Oliver also told us about her niche but dangerous habit of “sleep shopping”: “I’m pretty menopausal, so I take sleeping pills. When I’m half falling asleep and lying in bed on my phone, I scroll and shop. I don’t even remember I’ve done it. And then weird things turn up.” Her worst buy? “A weird Tory wife outfit.”
Many of the celebrities we’ve spoken to enjoy finding bargain alternatives to everyday items. Gandy refills posh bottles of hand soap with cheaper versions (don’t we all?), and Hirons counterintuitively drives miles to get cheap petrol. And we’re not afraid to ask personal questions: when we quiz our celebs on where they buy their underwear, there’s been one clear winner: Marks & Spencer, of course.
We’ve found the gifts they buy their loved ones particularly touching, such as the hand-embroidered hankies Patrick Grant gave his dad, the jewellery belonging to her late mother that Caroline Hirons saved for her granddaughter, or Banjo Beale’s DIY engagement ring.
We’re occasionally reminded that these people really aren’t like us at all: Ben Fogle got his kids melted snow from the summit of Mount Everest, poured into vintage silver bottles he found on Etsy, engraved with his summit date. Slightly blows that Star Wars Lego set out of the water, doesn’t it?
