Gok Wan Launches Beauty Brand for Boots

High-street retailer Boots has announced that Gok Wan, presenter of How to Look Good Naked, is to launch a beauty range for the firm.

The fantastic fashion expert, Gok Wan is on a mission to make women love their bodies by launching a range of bath and body products to add to his growing empire of books, bras and slimming knickers.

The former stylist to the stars has become a household name and hero to millions of women for his championing of real bodies. And now Gok, 34, has created his own lotions and potions which he says he has fragranced to smell like sex.

Gok is permanently surrounded by groups of mostly female fans. Not that he minds; “I’m passionate about my girls,” he said, and always has a hug, showbiz kiss or compliment for the giggling women. It’s this huge popularity that Boots recognised when they approached him to collaborate on the toiletries.

As well as How To Look Good Naked, he’s had success with Gok’s Fashion Fix and Miss Naked Beauty with Myleene Klass.

Earlier this year he also presented a documentary, Too Fat Too Young, which looked at the rising number of obese children and touched on his own unhappy childhood as a 21-stone teenager.

His own experience obviously influences his empathy with the women suffering from low self-esteem and in desperate need of a makeover who contact his shows in their thousands.

And while he’s a whizz at transforming duff wardrobes and turning the frumps into foxes, the Gok treatment also involves getting a huge dose of confidence.

His energetic, positive and warm personality is infectious and, unlike many of the other TV makeover experts, he refuses to make personal comments about the subjects of his shows.

The Gorgeous by Gok range is an extension of his desire to encourage women to love their bodies.

“It’s about women having a new relationship with their bodies,” he said.

“One of the things I found when I first started on How To Look Good Naked was women wouldn’t do things like use a body butter because they were afraid of touching their body. They had a fear of what was there.

“They wouldn’t look in a mirror or moisturise. So one of the things I do on the show, off camera, is I buy them moisturiser and say, ‘Use this.’ Because they start moisturising every single day, they realise ‘I’ve got a little bit of a bump there but it’s fine, I know it now and it’s there and it’s just one of those things.’ So it is about boosting their confidence.”

His background in skincare was a huge help when it came to developing the products, as well as an understanding of the feel- good benefits of pampering.

He said: “It comes from originally starting out as a hair and make-up artist where I had to know about body, skincare, that kind of thing. So I kind of knew what women wanted.

“But then working on the TV shows and making over these women, there’s a massive grooming element to the programmes that I make because I want to know the hair’s going to be done, book them into the spa, making sure we’ve got the right treatments for them.

“I get involved with all of that so I knew what they wanted and needed to make themselves feel better. I’ve hopefully translated that into a range so everyone can feel they can have a bit of the process.”

Finding the time to add another project to his long list of commitments wasn’t easy, but Gok took to the work with his usual enthusiasm and ended up pestering his colleagues at Boots for more and more involvement.

“It was the right time to do it because I could invest a bit of my time into it,” he said. “Then it turned into more time and more time. The girls I worked with on the range have been great but I have driven them mad. I’ve been involved in every single stage.

“We’ve had massive meetings but I wanted to be involved in all of it, from designing the bottles to the feel of the bottles and their shape. Obviously the smell as well and then the product.

“It’s been a long process but I’m so proud. I don’t think we could have done it any better.

“The other thing was to make sure it was cost effective, I didn’t want to make a range that was expensive and not everyone could have. So there’s a 10-minute makeover, a 20-minute makeover, then a half- hour and one hour package, then a full one at the higher price end.”

The scent in particular was important to him. He said: “It’s sex, that’s what I wanted to go for with the fragrance. The nicest part of sex is right at the beginning.

The smell of the linen, the beauty products, the musk. I wanted every woman out there to have the opportunity to feel sexual and empowered.”

Gok joked that he can even make shower caps look sexy and although that might be beyond even his magic touch, he’s included one in the range. It must be the most unglamorous thing he’s ever put his name to.

“The reason I designed the shower cap is because my sister always wears these and I hate them. I decided to design one that was really kitsch and glam and we’ve almost got there,” he laughed.

The rest of the range is for being pampered, getting ready for a big night out and feeling great about yourself. With such a wide range of fans, who does he think will use it? He said: “When we started I said that I didn’t want to make a range just for 35 to 55 year olds because to me it’s not fair.

“On How To Look Good Naked we are one of the only shows on TV that doesn’t have a demographic, because everyone from school kids up to grandmothers watch it and we have generations of families watching the show.

“So hopefully when people buy this, they can be spread around the family and they can all try it out.”

Gok’s favourite item in the collection is the shimmer body balm. He said: “It’s light and doesn’t leave a film. It’s beautiful on all skin tones as well, everything on a paler skin tone to a black skin tone.

“I often found when I was working as a make-up artist, you buy those kind of products and the glitter would be so big and thick that you would see it, whereas I wanted it to be a nice sheen.”

Outside of the beauty range, work continues to be busy, although he will be taking a well-earned break soon.

Gok said: “I’ve just finished Fashion Fix and now I’m back on set for How To Look Good Naked and we’re filming 21 episodes, so I’m on set until February.

“I’m planning a holiday in August and I can’t wait. I’m going to Hong Kong where my family are from.

I’m going to see some of my cousins, do some shopping and eat some proper noodles. I absolutely can’t wait.

“Then when I come back, this range will launch and it’s going to be manic.”

The Gok Wan range is available from larger Boots stores from September 14.

The range, called Gorgeous, will comprise of bath and body products. They will initially be available as a limited edition for Christmas 2009.

Products include body scrub, shimmer shower cream and hand cream. Gift set prices range from £12 for a body wash, spray-on moisturiser and shower cap to £35 for a set of minis in a vanity case. A ‘Hey Gorgeous’ selection of ‘regimes’, in a pull-out style case, will sell for around £40.

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