As a singer in the ethereal folk and rock band, Gypsyfingers, Victoria Coghlan is used to a life spent on stage and on the road. Here, she delves into the beauty rituals and products she employs both on stage and off.
“Gypsyfingers was my solo project before I met Luke Oldfield in Notting Hill in 2012. We then formed the band after we recorded our first album as a duo. After releasing it, we played at BST Hyde Park and the Isle of Wight festival, as well as supporting James Blunt in Warsaw.
Our second album is entitled Stranger Things. A lot of imagination went into the song writing and production process. I am really pleased with the artwork too. We’ve been working with the photographer Sally Low for many years now, so she was the obvious choice to approach for the new album art work. I told her it needed to be a mix of magical, ethereal, psychedelic madness but elegant and sophisticated at the same time, and she captured that perfectly.
We are often performing under heavy lights which can really wash out my skin. Before I go on stage, I make sure my skin is really well-moisturised and then apply a good amount of foundation, but avoid putting it on my forehead. I move the upper part of my face so much and the foundation just massively accentuates my crinkly forehead! I sometimes experiment with more products and get more creative with my make-up but the problem is it can get really hot on stage and if you’re wearing a lot of eye make up for example, its sweats into my eyes.
When I’m not performing, I wear very little make up day-to-day, but when I go out to a party or am getting ready for an interview or shoot, I do then get really excited about putting it on. For me it’s eyeshadow OR lipstick, never both. Seeing as I’m hopeless with lipstick, I do like play around with eyeshadows and maybe some glitter. One thing I never use is waterproof mascara; it’s so hard to get off and I think it can end up looking quite heavy and clumpy on your eyelashes. I don’t mind if my mascara runs a little from when I’ve been laughing too hard.
I really admire people who aren’t afraid to move their face to laugh, smile or cry, and don’t need to be in control of how every photo is taken. I’ve always admired Jane Birkin. Her beauty is effortless and natural and I love her big teeth.
It’s impossible to exercise when we’re touring, or preparing for a tour. There is so much prep and once we’re on the road, we’re often travelling for 5 hours a day and basically going from venue to hotel to venue. But when we aren’t so busy I love running in the late evenings (in the summer) and I have PT sessions twice or 3 times a week. We work on core strength and toning small muscle groups to protect my posture and bones.
I definitely don’t enough sleep when we’re touring and my eyes are so puffy when I wake up, which is a real problem when we are shooting early in the morning so I splash cold water and apply the back of a cold spoon to my eyes to try and bring the swelling down… or cucumber if its available!
When we are on the road I try and drink a lot of water and herbal teas and cut out alcohol and sweets. I take a Solgar multi vitamin designed for women every day, and boost that with extra vitamin C in the winter. I don’t eat meat or dairy, so I get my fats from lots of nuts and avocados. I am prone to chest infections in the winter and sticking to the above massively helps with my health. I also take chinese herbal medicine when I start to feel poorly and sometimes have a spoonful of aloe vera juice first thing in the morning if my skin starts to play up.
I always keep out of the sun to protect my skin from damage, and wear SPF clothing in the summer. You can buy these big bamboo fibre shawls to wrap round your shoulders and arms when you’re out in the sun, that way you can still wear a nice dress.”