Andrejmania

holly blake for michael wolff

Are you ready for the seven days of Andrej? In his first visit back home downunder since his already burgeoning media profile went into overdrive, thanks to several rather groundbreaking turns on Jean Paul Gaultier’s runways in Paris in January, Serbian Australian modelling superstar Andrej Pejic touched down in Melbourne this morning for what frockwriter understands is a very busy week. We hear today is in fact his only free day. Pejic is in town for Thursday night’s big unveiling of the revamped Bourke Street, Melbourne flagship of Australian department store Myer. In and around that event, one rehearsal, one in-store photocall on Wednesday at 11.45am – not exactly a press conference, but the next best thing – and at least two photoshoots have been squeezed. One of the photoshoots is for an Australian eveningwear label – a womens eveningwear label, just to clarify. And Pejic will of course be catching up with his family, who were first profiled on Seven Network’s Sunday Night program on February 13th. 

Joining Pejic on the red carpet on Thursday will be his charming mother Jadranka, who has been outfitted for the occasion by designer Jane Lamerton. We attended last week’s fittings for Jadranka’s custom-made dress and took a few shots:

Pejic himself will reportedly be wearing a mashup of Arthur Galan and Yeojin Bae.

It’s unclear at this stage whether their red carpet sortie will be the only appearance that the Pejics make at the event.
 
Since we last covered Pejic’s skyrocketing career, after the Fall/Winter 2011/2012 show season, during which he walked for twelve different designers - half in menswear and half in womenswear - Pejic has been working flat out and the global publicity has not stopped. Little wonder he is edging closer to the world Top 10 of models.com’s Top 50 Men list, having just moved into the number 11 spot.
 
Notable jobs have included two magazine covers (Zeit Magazin and Photo), a photoshoot for Dazed & Confused and at least three videos: for Dossier Journal, Crash magazine and emerging talent website The Ones 2 Watch.





 
Just how to leverage this unprecedented interest into serious earnings... that’s the $64million question.
 
A big bucks Myer campaign? Too edgy for a mainstream retailer with a very conservative advertising image, say our sources – in spite of the fact that Myer is so keen to associate itself with Pejic this week.
 

Beauty contracts are where the big money lies in modelling. You have to wonder just how long it will be before a major name snaps Pejic up. Jean Paul Gaultier perhaps, for one of his fragrances? 

So far, two small Australian companies have been the only beauty advertisers to step up to the Pejic plate. The Fudge hair product brand and, most recently, Sydney hair stylist Michael Wolff. 

Wolff's ad, shot by Sydney photographer Holly Blake, featured in a recent edition of Harpers Bazaar Australia:

Wolff told frockwriter:

“I was looking and casting girls and I couldn’t really find the girl. The reference I was using was the story that Andrej did in French Vogue. And Holly Blake said ‘You know this guy is Australian don't you?' We spent a day with him, back in December, he was on his way to Paris. Whilst he was here, I coloured and cut his hair and the next day I shot with him. I have a good friend called Christopher Esber and I borrowed a shirt, a double shirt with cotton and rubber over the top. That was the hero shot I used for the ad.

”At the end of the day, I loved Andrej’s look so much, the whole androgynous thing… it elevated the whole image of the salon. It’s kind of like stepping into the moment. Does it matter if it’s a man or a woman? So many guys have long hair. People appreciate beautiful people. To me Andrej had the most perfect face.

”It’s what’s now. This is what’s happening now. I see lots of young people walking around and I think they’re quite androgynous. It’s not about sexuality, about being gay or straight. There’s a whole new thing going on now, so having the opportunity to shoot Andrej was very cool”.

Here are some hitherto unseen outtakes from the Michael Wolff shoot, which we just couldn't resist turning into a little flash animation.... 

all images: supplied to frockwriter by michael wolff/holly blake

Bulgari's lion queen

How does Italian jeweller Bulgari top campaigns starring naked Julianne Moore alongside a sulphur-crested cockatoo and the next season, some adorable lion cubs? With a campaign for the company's brand new Mon Jasmin Noir fragrance starring another naked American actor, Kirsten Dunst, opposite... a full-grown lion. Behold what frockwriter understands is an exclusive preview of Bulgari's Mon Jasmin Noir campaign that is being released later today. It was shot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott at Villa Balbianello in the exquisite Lake Como region just outside of Milan. Working alongside lion cubs is one thing, but even with the behind-the-scenes imagery (below), we're not convinced that Dunst happily nestled snugly against a real lion and/or that Mert + Marcus managed to get both it and Dunst to 'love the camera' at the same moment - and that's it's not a Photoshop mashup. Then again, Dunst is an old hand with big cats. Some movie sites list her as the voice of young Nala in Disney's 1994 animated feature The Lion King (IMDB has Nikete Calame voicing the role). The following year, she co-starred in Jumanji, opposite Robin Williams and some scary - albeit computer-generated - lions. 

 all images: supplied to frockwriter by bulgari

Black Cat

Yesterday frockwriter mentioned that Australian supermod Catherine McNeil had just undergone a rather dramatic change of hair and is now sporting a short black bob. Well here are the first images of said do, courtesy McNeil's New York agency Next Model Management. This is all Next would release, ditto the only other info: that it was cut/coloured by "a friend". Which may be code for McNeil's hair having been done on a recent job that has yet to be unveiled. Just as fellow Aussie and Chic/Next stablemate Abbey Lee Kershaw recently had her hair cut by Chanel during the shooting of the Fall/Winter 2010/2011 campaign. It's an interesting look for McNeil. Almost a little Beatle-esque. Or should that be... Bieber-esque?

all images: supplied exclusively to frockwriter by next model management

Bob's your uncle: Catherine McNeil also gets the chop

nicole bentley, vogue australia september 2010 via TFS

Yes that’s a wig that Catherine McNeil is sporting in this Vogue Australia September 2010 editorial, above. But apparently the world #12 liked the look so much, she’s gone and had it replicated. Well, kind of. By all accounts, McNeil's new do is not a "long, choppy" Abbey Lee Kershaw bob, aka a "Kob", but a bob nonetheless and black to boot. There is as yet no hard photographic evidence beyond a bunch of Facebook photos and the shot, below, published on October 21st on the blog of McNeil’s model mate Stephanie Carta, together with the caption, “Yesterday kitty cut her locks off, Sorry, died them black! Meow”. UPDATED 29/10: HERE ARE SOME FIRST SHOTS. Not even McNeil’s Sydney-based mother agency was up with her hair news when we enquired earlier this week. But after days of buzz on model forums, Stephen Lee at McNeil’s New York agency Next finally confirmed the earth-shattering news to frockwriter overnight: yes, McNeil has definitely cut her hair. Lee added that McNeil has been enjoying a month’s break of “total normality” from the modelling business. 

"It's nice to be able to see how a short break from the business can rejuvenate and revitalize that spark that everyone, no matter what their business, needs" said Lee. 

That’s a second break, presumably, after McNeil already took some time off from the world’s runways late last year and then began to make a return at New York Fashion Week in September, only to mysteriously disappear off the Spring/Summer 2011 circuit in London.

   

Perhaps McNeil was also inspired by the deluge of publicity that followed the recent decisions by compatriot and Chic/Next stablemate Kershaw to not only cut her hair, but later dye it platinum blond. In a business that's all about 'the look', a new haircut could be a great career move.

carta is back

 

Juliette Hogan's morning attire

Beehives, cats' eyes, pussy bow blouses, floral shirtwaisters and tweed Princess coats...there was a definite Sixties vibe to Juliette Hogan's 'The Morning After The Night Before' show at New Zealand Fashion Week. See frockwriter's Posterous for more photos. 

The Kob crosses the Pond - Charles Anastase Spring/Summer 2011

charles anastase SS11/style.com

No sign yet of Australian supermodel Abbey Lee Kershaw at London Fashion Week. But frockwriter did do a double take while watching this video, below, of yesterday’s Charles Anastase show. Not only were the models showcasing the collection's fluid chemises, floral teadresses and silver foil clamdiggers and shifts, every last one was sporting what looks very much like Kershaw’s new haircut (which has now of course been dyed peroxide blonde). Described by various Australian beauty aficionados as a long choppy bob, aka "the Kob" or "Chanel Bob", as we previously reported, it’s caused a bit of a run on local salons from consumers wanting Kershaw’s look. Supposedly inspired by 60s/70s icons Jane Birkin, Francoise Hardy and Jane Fonda, Anastase’s hair stylist Lyndell describes the look as being “like virgin hair...a backlash against try-hard, dip-dye, pastel and over bleached hair, this girl is cool without trying”. To achieve it, the wigs were dyed four times and then razor cut. Frockwriter suspects that we might not see Kershaw in London until Tuesday morning at 9.00am. That’s the show time of iconic British brand Jaeger London and Kershaw is of course its Fall 2010 face. In the meantime, a new video of the Jaeger campaign has surfaced starring Kershaw and male model Ollie Edwards, below. And for those who can’t get enough ALK, here’s another new video - taken backstage taken at last week’s Anna Sui show in New York, which shows Kershaw, together with model mates Freja Beha Erichsen and Behati Prinsloo.

Did Mexico's drug violence kill Rodarte's mojo? Spring/Summer 2011

With its avant-garde homespun aesthetic and ethereal eveningwear, Rodarte is normally considered a highlight of New York Fashion Week, an event better known for commercial sportswear than creative bravura. But this has been a peculiar event, with more than one designer delivering a low-risk, (they hope) sure-sale collection. In spite of the fact that several influential American fashion critics have lauded the Rodarte collection as some kind of breakthrough for sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy, loving it is a pretty big ask. That’s not to say there were not a couple of pretty pieces. Supposedly inspired by the northern Californian outdoors, a clever, collaged wood grain print was used in a terrific shift dress with deconstructed sleeves and a shell top with stiffened peplum; and there is one striking blazer, also with a stiffened pannier peplum, in a Delft China-like blue microprint. But to frockwriter’s eye, the rest of the collection looks like a snafu of plaid, gold brocade, kimonos, cheongsams and togas – the kind of costumes that Maria Von Trapp might have whipped up for Ridley Scott’s next swords and sandals epic.  

“Kate and Laura Mulleavy are in total command of making wearable fashion” noted WWD. While The LA Times’ Booth Moore hit the nail on the head when she noted, “It was undoubtedly their most commercial outing yet”.

According to The New York Times’ Cathy Horyn, who described the collection as “undoubtedly a hit of New York Fashion Week”, editors, buyers and The Lord of The Rings star Elijah Wood rushed to congratulate the designers post-show.

Some of Horyn’s readers do not seem to share this enthusiasm.



Noted “GSK”:

“Wouldn’t wear this stuff to a dogfight”.

Bob from Philadelphia:

“Maybe Frodo thought he was escaping Mordor. The model looks like an elf-Ent hybrid, clad in fabric remnants from a Trolls' quilting bee”.

 WSS:

“These aren't fashions that any woman would wear.  They're nightmares”.

And Hutton:

“I did not know that they had a licensing agreement with Project Runway”.

To be sure, these are still difficult times in retail. 

Although US retail sales are improving, consumer confidence has been extremely slow to recover. In spite of last year’s CFDA Womenswear Designer of the Year award, red carpet buzz and a star turn as ballet costumiers in the new Darren Aronofsky film Black Swan starring Natalie Portman, Rodarte reportedly boasts a mere US$2million turnover and has incurred losses. Speculation continues to mount that LVMH may acquire equity.

You have to wonder to what degree the recent controversy over the brand's Fall 2010 collection may have rattled not only their cashflow - but their confidence.

The collection was inspired by a Mexican road trip and notably the drug violence-shattered border town of Ciudad Juarez, the epicentre of the Mexican drug war, which has claimed the lives of almost 30,000 people since President Felipe Calderon commenced a crackdown on drug cartels in December 2006.

Not that the Juarez connection appears to have caused much, if any, fuss in reviews of the runway collection in February. But when MAC chose that specific Rodarte collection as the springboard for a beauty JV, even flippantly calling two nail polishes “Juarez” and “Factory”, it was the blogosphere that called the collab out, led by The Frisky’s Jessica Wakeman, who asked:

“Juarez is an impoverished Mexican factory town notorious for the number of women between the ages of 12 and 22 who have been raped and murdered with little or no response from police. Most of the young women are employees at the border town’s factories, called maquiladoras, and disappeared on the way to or from work.... Why would MAC and Rodarte — which are both hip, with-it brands — name their nail polishes so tastelessly? Even if they were donating the proceeds to justice for Juarez victims’ families (and I haven’t read that they are), it’s a weird way to raise awareness about violence against women. What’s next, a lipstick called Bergen-Belsen?”  

After a public apology and an offer to donate partial proceeds to Juarez victims, MAC pulled the plug on the beauty collection last month.





all images: getty via daylife

An army of Abbey Lee Kershaw clones at Preen? Spring/Summer 2011

 

On Thursday frockwriter reported that some Australian hair salons are seeing an influx of customers wanting the “choppy long bob”, aka the Kob or Chanel Bob, worn by Australian model Abbey Lee Kershaw – which we revealed was cut by Chanel’s hair stylist for the brand’s Fall 2010 advertising campaign. On Friday, we reported that Kershaw died her hair platinum blonde on the eve of New York Fashion Week. And yesterday, we wondered if the decision could in any way be proving problematic with her work options at the event. Surely not, given her stature in the industry by this time, but even some of Kershaw’s fans over at The Fashion Spot are asking the same question. Overnight Kershaw walked in two more shows, Derek Lam and Preen, bringing her total New York Fashion Week show tally thus far to five (Jason Wu, Alexander Wang, Derek Lam, Preen and Rag & Bone – which she closed). But while Wu put Kershaw in a turban and Wang plastered all of his models’ hair with white clay, both Lam and Preen left Kershaw’s bold new do down. And dang if Preen’s other models didn’t look like ALK clones - notably those with the shorter hair. According to makeup director James Kaliados (below), the beauty look was inspired by Catherine Denueve in the 1964 film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, which would of course match the 60s vibe of Preen's structured white shift dresses - white being another major early trend on the SS11 runways. Preen's hair stylist Luke Hersheshon put clip-on bangs in every (other) model's hair. Only problem with the Deneuve reference: she didn’t have bangs in that particular film.









all images: style.com

Make that The Blonde Kob...

@modelinia

Just yesterday frockwriter mentioned that a number of Australian hair salons are reporting a spike of interest in the new “choppy” longer bob, aka The Kob, sported by Australian model Abbey Lee Kershaw (now the world number five according to models.com) - whose long, bohemian locks were trimmed by Chanel for the company’s recent Fall/Winter 2010/2011 ad campaign. Well perhaps those salons should be en garde: snapped a matter of hours ago at a Chanel cocktail party at New York Fashion Week, Kershaw has just died her hair platinum blonde. Yes we know there are far more pressing matters on the global agenda than a model’s hair colour change, but the fashion world does tends to exist in its own bubble. “OMG!!!! Abbey Lee has gone blonde!!!! LIKE BLONDE and looks amazing!!!!!” noted Canadian photographer and blogger Tommy Ton on Twitter – a Tweet, together with this Chanel party snap, above, taken by US model-dedicated news site Modelinia, that is rapidly spreading across the Twitterverse. Kershaw’s hair was coloured by high profile Cuban hair stylist Orlando Pita, Kershaw's mother agent Kathy Ward tells Chic frockwriter, but there are no changes to the style. We're now wondering if perhaps Chanel wanted to keep Kershaw under wraps until the soiree. Kershaw, Chanel's current advertising face and a star of every Chanel 2010 fashion show, did not show up at Tuesday night’s Fashion’s Night Out show at the Lincoln Center produced by Vogue (while compatriots Catherine McNeil, Ajak Deng and Julia Nobis did), even though she was featured in one of the FNO promotional videos.

Chop shop: Salons report a run on Abbey Lee Kershaw's bob

david jones SS1011 backstage

We’ve seen The Pip and The Pob, make way for The Kob – aka The Chanel Bob. That’s the short, choppy bob currently being sported by Australian supermod Abbey Lee Kershaw. LifeStyled editor Paula Joye christened it The Kob in her David Jones show wrap, noting that beyond the Mark McInnes sexual harassment scandal, Kershaw’s do was the talk of the front row at the August 3 show in Sydney, which starred Kershaw, Catherine McNeil and Nicole Trunfio as replacements for pregnant Miranda Kerr. “It’s a modern, long bob and I think a lot of the people in the front row have already booked in for an Abbey chop” Joye told frockwriter. “I think this the beginning of the return of the fringe. Kim Kardashian has just cut one. Lea Michele was sporting an extra long one at the Emmys. Leighton Meester, she’s had one cut as well. That long bob and that serious fringe that’s cut from quite far back". So have people in fact been booking in for Kershaw’s look? Update 10/09: Chameleon Kershaw now a platinum blonde.

“Her [Kershaw’s] 60s style fringe is a big request and so is the long bob, which is a great care-free look for summer’ Sharona Short from the Gold Coast salon Oscar Oscar told The Gold Coast Bulletin on Tuesday. 

And it seems Sydney’s most high profile hair salons are also feeling the Abbey Lee love.

Harold Samu, salon manager at the Renya Xydis City salon reports that at least 15 women have asked for Kershaw’s bob in recent months. Notes Samu, “They ask for a choppier bob. My senior stylist Ryan Mitchell has named it The Chanel Bob, as made famous by Abbey Lee”.

According to Joh Bailey, “It’s having a huge impact. I think she’s single-handedly reinvented the bob and the blunt fringe, particularly the blunt fringe. It’s definitely being consumer-driven and they’re definitely mentioning her name. I think it looks fabulous. We’re doing a lot of that look in the salon at the moment”.

Well might Ryan Mitchell call it The Chanel Bob because Kershaw’s mother agency, Chic Management, tells frockwriter that it was in fact Chanel’s hair stylist who cut Kershaw’s hair - for the brand’s recent Fall/Winter 2010/2011 campaign (below).  

Perhaps Chanel felt Kershaw’s previously long locks were a little too boho (not to mention Gucci) for its haute couture image?

“She looked more Seventies disco queen than high fashion model” notes another high profile Sydney hair stylist, George Giavis. Giavis reports that although he hasn’t vetted any calls for Kershaw’s new bob per se, a number of clients have come in to his salon with magazine tear sheets of Kershaw asking for her distinctive “sun-kissed” hair colour which, according to Giavis, “looks like she’s spent a week in the Bahamas”.   

chanel FW1011/zinio via TFS

Kershaw’s new choppy bob may even be catching on with men.

Overnight, coincidentally, Dutch stylist Jean Paul Paula blogged photos of himself sporting a new do which he is calling The Manbob:

jean paul paula

The extreme cheek of Italian Vogue

screen cap vogue italia

Frockwriter loves the fact that the late Alexander McQueen finally did what more than one scifi makeup artist must have dreamed of doing for his Spring/Summer 2010 ‘Plato’s Atlantis’ show last October: use prosthetics in runway makeup. But we really didn’t anticipate that the alien-esque look would be adopted quite so literally by the fash pack. Imagine our surprise, then, to check into Vogue Italia’s website and spot the headline, The Now Idea - Focus on cheekbones, accompanied by a gallery of backstage images from the show, a video and the following instructions, which naturally squeeze in as many plugs for Vogue advertisers as possible:

“A rebuilt face, yes, but just for one night. Implants become toys you put on your cheeks to change your features and live a special night as if you were a creature from outer space or a nymph who escaped from the forest. In a soft version they are more structured types of foundation that create a smoothing and reconstructive effect, while soins help features to get lifted.

Cheekbones Volumizer by Pupa acts with a lipo-filling cosmetic action which increases volume thanks to Volufiline and Kio Pulp Complex V10. You will already see the effect after a few applications.

For the treatment of the whole face, there's the Recompacting High Definition Foundation SPF10 with anti-wrinkle action by Collistar. The special formula extends your features and strengthens the facial contours, while the marine collagen acts in the tissues giving you a long compacting action”.

alexander mcqueen SS10/vogue.it

Hilariously, the story sits directly opposite a second beauty story entitled Beauty Victim, which warns about the dangers of too much plastic surgery:

“Cosmetic surgery can dramatically improve our physical appearance. But be careful not to go in for too many operations in an attempt to achieve an impossible model of aesthetic perfection. Don't become a beauty victim.

This is what happened to American socialite Jocelyn Wildenstein, also known as Catwoman, who spent four million dollars on plastic surgery. The outcome? Her face was radically altered, giving her a grotesque, unnatural look”.

Boots and all: Kirsten Carriol plans to bring back lanolin, one lipgloss at a time

Australia might not be a world leader in the beauty business (yet) but it is the globe's largest wool producer. Now Kirsten Carriol is aiming to harness both industries, with her line of lanolin-based beauty products. The following story ran as a full page feature in last Saturday's Daily Telegraph newspaper here in Sydney. Although Lanolips is a year old this month, the new news peg was Carriol's UK distribution deal, which will see this by all accounts hugely successful beauty startup take its first international steps in September. The shot of Carriol, above, was taken in May last year during her last visit to her family's Corryton Park property in South Australia. The shot below shows her mother and uncles as children on the property, with her grandmother and a wool harvest. Head to the Lanolips website to learn more about the products.



A young Polish immigrant by the name of Helena Rubinstein founded a cosmetics empire in Melbourne with a lanolin-based moisturiser. A century on, Sydney mother of two Kirsten Carriol aims to be the next Australian beauty entrepreneur to find fortune off the sheep’s back.

Carriol did not launch her company with face creams but rather, a small line of tinted lip balms called Lanolips.

The products are made using a top-of-the-line medical grade lanolin and Carriol refers to the products as “lip ointments”.

But while her key ingredient might be expensive, Carriol made her price points deliberately accessible – $13.95 each for five tinted balms up to $17.95 for the plain, ultra medical grade multi-purpose 101 ointment that she uses on her children’s faces and rashes.

“My plan was to bring lanolin back as an ingredient - to be the person to do it and to show everybody in the entire world…because noone in the whole world has a good quality lanolin brand that’s kind of a little bit cool to use” says Carriol. “Also I’m really proud to be bringing an Australian and New Zealand ingredient to the world market and to be flying that flag”.

Lanolips currently sells through 900 Australian retail outlets, ranging from pharmacies up to department stores David Jones and Myer. Priceline is her biggest customer, where Lanolips sells through 300 doors.

And selling it has been. Carriol has just secured distribution through UK pharmacy giant Boots, which has over 1400 outlets in the UK. Boots will trial the brand in its 22 top stores from late September and also offer it online. If sales in Australia are anything to go by, Carriol could be in for windfall.

Launched in June 2009, Lanolips rucked up $1million in sales in Australia within eight months reports Carriol, which is almost unheard of in this market.

“I haven’t seen that sort of figure before with of the clients I’ve worked with in the cosmetic sector – it’s phenomenal growth” says Austrade senior export advisor Denise Eaton.

She adds, “The overseas cosmetics sector is incredibly competitive, but every week there seems to be a new brand coming to me saying that they’re looking at exporting. I’m always surprised at a point of difference that these brands are continually coming up with. Their innovation is amazing”.

Carriol is part of a rapidly expanding contingent of export-focussed Australian beauty entrepreneurs that has emerged over the past 15 years and whose products generated $363million in export sales in 2009 according to Austrade – up 3.39percent on 2008. Lest you wonder what percentage of that figure could be comprised of raw ingredients such as essential oils, according to Austrade branded products account for 97percent.

Among those taking their beauty products to the world are skincare specialists such as Aesop and Jurlique and makeup brands including Napoleon, Bloom and ModelCo.

Carriol’s idea was, however, a little riskier than most.

A natural, greasy substance found in wool, the first use of which is believed to date back to 1,600 BC, lanolin began being widely adopted by the cosmetics industry in the 1880s. Older Australians would remember a time when every household had a tube of Fauldings lanolin cream.

Lanolin fell out of favour, however, as a mainstream cosmetic ingredient after a 1953 European study claimed it caused allergies.

The latter findings have since been refuted by other studies, but still lanolin has remained a no-no in the mainstream beauty industry – in spite of the fact that medical grade lanolin is widely used in hospital burns units and maternity wards in nursing creams.

“It’s safe for the mouths of newborn babies - you can’t even say that about water” says Carriol. “It’s so safe and yet the cosmetic world has promoted this myth that lanolin is an allergen, therefore stay away. Their loss is my gain.

“We don’t actually make a lot of money from this product because my view is, for anyone to buy lanolin again it has to be at an affordable price - I knew people wouldn’t pay a premium for lanolin, it had such a bad name” says Carriol, who knows a thing or two about sheep.

The Adelaide native spent all her school holidays on a sprawling 800 hectare sheep and cattle property called Corryton Park located in Lucindale, near Mount Gambier in South Australia. The property was sold last year just before the Lanolips launch. Sadly, Carriol’s grandfather passed away on the day that Corryton Park moved out of the family’s hands.

In addition to her farming background, Carriol also hails from a family of scientists.

Her father is Professor Leigh Burgoyne, a molecular biologist with Adelaide’s Flinders University – who praised the virtues of lanolin for years.

“Dad always says to me the molecular structure of lanolin most closely resembles your skin lipids” says Burgoyne, whose mother Judy Burgoyne was a scientist with the CSIRO for 30 years.

Sister Laura is an anaesthetist and her brother Mark, a chemical engineer.

“I always felt like the dumb one” quipped Carriol, who studied communications and marketing before launching her own successful beauty-specialist PR agency in Sydney called Buzz Consulting, where she employs four fulltime staff and two casuals.

Carriol’s in-laws haven’t harmed her chances of success either.

Carriol is married to Jean Marc Carriol, the son of Michel-Henri Carriol, who moved to Australia from France in 1966 as a trade attaché at the French embassy. In 1973, in Sydney, he founded Trimex, now one of Australia’s biggest cosmetic distributors, which controls some of the world’s best-known cosmetic and fragrance brands in this market, including Clarins, Versace, Prada, Thierry Mugler and Nina Ricci.

Not only is Lanolips now part of the Trimex portfolio in Australia, Jean Marc, who is a director of Trimex, has also consulted on the brand’s international distribution.

In what sounds like a scene from an upcoming instalment of Sex And The City, the beautiful, blonde Sydney PR girl and her French beau married in 2004 in a French chateau. They live in Sydney’s eastern suburbs with their two young sons, Casper and Dalphin.

In spite of having access to some of the best advice in the business, it nevertheless took six years to bring Lanolips to market, with Carriol in negotiations with six factories in Australia and also Italy. Many were reluctant to take the product on.

“They wanted to substitute it all with chemicals and recommended using five percent lanolin so I could say it had lanolin in it. I wanted to use 70 percent” says Carriol, who considered giving up the project at one point. “There were many tears”.

Now that Lanolips is a roaring success, Carriol’s biggest hurdle right now is juggling motherhood and running two businesses – her PR agency and Lanolips, which is growing rapidly. Body and hand/nail creams were added to the range this month. Later in the year Carriol will also launch a new organic lemon oil-based lip ointment and body range.

“Being a mother is the hardest job in the world. Being a working mother is even harder. Having your own business and being a mother at the same time is incomprehensibly hard - 10 times harder than working for someone else” says Carriol, who does the school run every morning and afternoon.

She adds, “I always say to the girls in my office, beware if you want it all because you have to do it all.”