how the flipping heck does Nigella look like that?

[donners312]

She looks so gorgeous?

How?????

Don't under estimate the skill of the lighting techs (or whatever they're called)

She did lose a lot of weight though, didn't she? I remember an interview where she said she lost a lot when she fractured her foot and couldn't carry plates of food to the sofa so had to stop snacking. That made me think she seemed like a normal person . Definitely dressing gown envy here too, though.

No idea. If she has had work done then she's kept it simple and not gone overboard, because in some paparazzi pictures she does look more her age, which just endears her to me.

I think her personality helps a lot as well - she seems like someone who you could have a great boozy lunch with and her recipes are generally easy to follow. I like her commitment to saving time by sometimes using ready made stuff!

I met her in person at a signing and she really is lovely.

Well she wears a wig, which helps....

Her face definitely looks noticably younger than her neck/throat. I'd say she's had a very good face lift, a la Joan Collins - not just done some rookie dabbling in Botox and fillers. But I'd agree about the clever lighting and also sun-avoidance being significant too.

She's never been a yo-yo dieter, but before she lost the weight (couple of years ago?) she did say that she worried her face would collapse if she were to drop the pounds. Looks like she needn't have worried!
Nigella is naturally good-looking, but she also has a certain je-ne-sais-quoi, that works no matter what age she is.
She also said that she only eats bread when in France!

I met her in person at a signing and she really is lovely

They're all lovely when they've got something to sell!

She does look great. Naturally beautiful face and skin, and she's no doubt had some help but looks good on it. I have no idea how she doesn't stuff her face when she spend so much time working with food!

Very jealous here!

I thought this thread was going to be “how does she look like that when she eats so much butter, sugar, salt and shite?” not a detailed analysis of her looks.

re. studio lighting, yes it makes a difference. The lighting on RTE / TV3 (Irish TV) is shocking. All I can see is badly done botox...

And 50 mins’ prep/bake/cooling time =/= “emergency” brownies. Plus my home brownie recipe bakes in 15-20 min for a big tray of them, same as Nigella’s mini batch, prep time is the same whether you make 2 or a tray. Surely better to bulk bake & freeze. Frozen brownie + 2 min in the microwave - now that is an emergency brownie.

Very good surgeon / aesthetician
Natural beauty
Amazing lighting. Seriously good.
Great make up artist
Cracking bone structure
It’s nearly all shot on an angle - very little straight on - and the light bounces off her angles. A good director and camera operator have worked on this.
Good colour correction done in the edit
Subtle hair extensions / Hair pieces
She’s happy to look like a woman in her 50’s

It's easy to look like that - just do 3 hours high intensity exercise every day for 6 months, while limiting food intake to max 1000 calories per day, hire a stylist and make up artist and make sure all the filming is done in a dark kitchen with lots of candlelight..............
and dye your hair and wear really good support garments.......

I love Nigella! the day she liked/retweeted a photo of me in my kitchen was awesome!

in terms of recipes - I've made the Turkish eggs featured on todays show a couple of times and they are gorgeous - a revelation - would never have thought of poached egg and greek yoghurt!

Bernard I was second in the queue (so no "she'd been there for hours" excuse) at a Delia signing for DP's present a few years ago. She signed in silence whilst a PA type person chatted to me about Christmas.

There is an ancient episode of Nigel Slater's Real Food from 1998 with Nigella as a guest cooking roast chicken. It was on the Good Food channel the other day. She is gorgeous but you can quite clearly see how much subtle work she has had done over the years - her teeth are totally different to now.

Good lighting and make up and an excellent bone structure

She's a beautiful woman, but so are a lot women.
It's the soft focus lighting and the expert makeup that makes her glow more than real women in real life, just like the phony food looks more beautiful than real food in real life.
She doesn't look the same when she's snapped by photographers in the street.
As we know, the whole domestic goddess persona and lifestyle is a complete fiction. Personally I find the whole performance really creepy and her unnatural mannerisms make me cringe.
Good luck to her though. She has an amazing brand and a great business.

Money.... Lots and lots of money.

There's no 'if she's had work done'
She's obviously had work done. There's only so much good diet, lighting etc can do.
It's just good work and not necessarily lots of Botox and fillers. Maybe a good facelift, lasers etc.

SinglePringle

Is the last line of your post meant to be ironic?

She clearly takes after her mother.

I'm in agreement with chocdog the whole show made me and my kids cringe and I'm a fan I've already bought the new book! this overstyled performance was way too creepy and the cupboard performance!! and as if they would sit on those flimsy pink garden chairs for dinner. was it a set design sponsored by ikea or wilko?

I saw her at a book signing a couple of years ago, she looked good but not remotely like she does on TV

To be fair, her life hasn't been all privilege. Her first husband, the wonderful John Diamond, died of cancer, and she would have been barely 40 then.

Then her second one was spotted physically abusing her in public, before the divorce.