“I just saw new wrinkles in that shoot,” says TV presenter Hayley Holt ever so casually. “Here,” she says pointing to her eye area.
We’re sitting in an Auckland café after the shooting has wrapped. And the presenter, who is currently doing some politics papers at The University of Auckland, doesn’t seem too alarmed by her new discovery.
“I immediately thought ‘oh no’ because I still feel like a teenager… but I don’t look like one. To be honest, I don’t really worry if I see a new wrinkle but at the same time it’s not that nice because you realise they’re going to keep coming. You can’t stop the wrinkles.”
Of course, it’s never easy sitting in front of a camera, even on your best day. And although she was prepared to show the country what she looks like before she’s put on her makeup, she’s still feels a little uneasy about it.
“It was scary doing a shoot like this,” Holt admits. “You don’t really want your picture taken, especially to be put in a magazine, with no makeup on.”
And yet, she did it anyway.
Holt, 35, has been in the limelight since she was in her early 20s, first appearing as a ballroom dancing star on Dancing with the Stars before becoming a presenter on sports commentary show The Crowd Goes Wild. This year she re-entered the Dancing with the Stars realm as a judge.
The presenter was first introduced to makeup as a seven-year-old ballroom dancer, where stage makeup was a pre-requisite. At the time it was all about the winged eyeliner. But away from the sequins and lipstick of the competitive dance industry, she was a bit of a tomboy, and after she left school she got into snowboarding, which she calls ‘a bit of a makeup-free zone’.
“Even now I think I don’t wear too much makeup usually. But my ‘not too much makeup’ is still foundation, brow product, mascara, maybe some bronzer and some lip gloss… so I actually do wear a bit. You forget.”
Holt is aware that her looks are highly scrutinised – it goes with the job – although she admits because she’s in the sports industry she’s not as harshly judged. In saying that, she does feel looking good can be a bit of a double-edged sword.
“You have to look a certain way in your industry and if you do try to do anything serious people say ‘oh whatever, she’s just a dolly bird’ basically.
“You want to look good, but if you do sometimes people don’t take you seriously. I mean it’s hard being a woman, isn’t it –because guys don’t get this.”
So what did she prefer – the shots of her with, or without, makeup?
“Definitely with makeup,” she says, smiling. “Let’s be honest. I do feel different when I have makeup on for a shoot. You know everything is accentuated and I knew my eyes would have shape.”
“In the first shoot [with no makeup] everyone is looking at the screen going ‘oh yeah you look great, that’s a good one’. Then I saw them and thought ‘oh really? I don’t think so’,” she says, laughing a hearty laugh. “But you’re always hardest on yourself.”
Words by: Sarah Murray
