Tom Daley was every bit as wholesome and adorable as I hoped he'd be. After being ushered into a hotel room in East London for our chat, the Olympic medal-winning diver bounded over to greet me with a huge bear hug.
Dressed casually in a pink knitted cardigan, jeans and a bead necklace, the diver lit up as he spoke about his four-year-old son, Robbie, with husband, Lance. “He's just started school,” Tom beams. “He's actually really enjoying it, which has been nice. He runs in, he doesn't even look back. It's more upsetting for me,” Tom confides.
But alongside getting little Robbie safely ingratiated into school life, Tom's been busy working on another project which we're here to talk about. He's just been announced as Rimmel London's first ever global male ambassador, and also the face of the brand's Match Perfection foundation.
Why, I ask him, was it so important to take on that role? And what has been his experience of beauty and wellness? Here he talks breaking down barriers and traumatising run-ins with fake tan…
Rimmel is such an iconic brand. You look back at all the people that have come before [Kate Moss, Adwoa Aboah, Cara Delevingne] and to be their first global male ambassador is so cool. Growing up, there was never really the opportunity to see another guy wearing makeup. But it's just opening things up and being like ‘everyone is welcome’, I just think there's something so powerful in breaking down those gender norms, and those boundaries and stereotypes.
The thing that I love about the Match Perfection foundation is that it's not a separate product [for different genders]. It’s the same product for everyone. It’s really inclusive – it matches 99% of skin tones. The nice thing is that it's medium coverage so you can still see your skin underneath. I think that’s a great way of making it feel natural while still giving you a little bit of something. Right now, I’m 402 because I just went to Greece, but I was 301 before I went away.
I think a big thing to notice is, when you see guys on TV, whether it's the footballers, pundits or anyone, all of those guys are wearing makeup. It's just not really spoken about. And I think that's what's great about what Rimmel is doing. They're trying to make it more of a topic of conversation, and making it more the norm and more mainstream for people to just have that extra layer of confidence. It’s about visibility. It’s not necessarily about having a drastic face of makeup to change the way that you look, it’s more just giving you that extra layer of confidence. There’s a nice way to subtly weave it into everyday use.
I didn't really have a beauty routine at all, like 15 years ago. And as I've gotten older and figured out how horrendous things like chlorine are for my skin, I've taken better care of it. When I wake up in the morning, I have two glasses of water to rehydrate. I exfoliate my face and cleanse it, then I put on a bit of vitamin C serum, followed by an SPF moisturiser. Then depending on what I'm doing, I might put a bit of concealer or foundation on. But if I’m just dropping Robbie off to school, I’m not going to put on loads of stuff. So, just keeping it really simple. If I’m getting ready with my friends to go out (which doesn’t happen that much now we’re getting older), we’ll take longer. Maybe do a face mask, maybe have a disco nap…
Every now and then, I also love a cold face mask. You know, the ones that have the eye and nose holes. I love waking up in the morning and putting that on my face because I always wake up so puffy. I have those gel globes that stay really cold as well.
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I’ve tried fake tan a couple of times in the past and it doesn't go that well for me. There was one time we went on a photo shoot and I got a spray tan beforehand. I was like, 'oh, I haven't been away in ages, I'll do something just to give myself a subtle little boost'. I thought I’d waited long enough and washed it off properly, so I went to the gym. Where I’d been sweating, you could see where it had all come off. And the shoot was in speedos! We carried on – a bit of body makeup and it was fine – but I haven’t used fake tan since, I’m still traumatised haha.
I've always had a really difficult relationship with my body. Especially in the world of sport, there's no-where to hide in diving. For a long period of time I was always told that I had to lose weight, and get smaller and be skinny, so it was very difficult for me. I had a difficult relationship with food. It’s really ingrained in you, especially from such a young age. It can be quite damaging. I think the sport is now taking steps to go about it in an easier way for people to understand and giving people the proper resources to make changes. But it has been a transition from training every single day for the Olympics, to being able to do my own thing and kind of train when I want. It’s an adjustment to have to get used to the different way of life.
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Whenever people ask me who my beauty hero is, I always say my mum. I think she's so naturally beautiful – but you know, I would say that because she's my mum – but I love the fact that she's always doing things that just kind of maximise what she already has. She’s able to be herself, then occasionally put things on to make herself feel special. I think there's something that's really cool in that. She would embrace both sides: being herself without anything on, then also being able to get a little bit more glam when we go to do something special.
I still bloody love knitting. At the moment I'm working on a couple of hats because my husband is going to New York at the end of this week and I think it might be cold. But, honestly, knitting is my reset button. If I feel overwhelmed, or anxious, just sitting down and having a knit for 5-10 minutes just gets me out of my head. When I’m creating pieces, I like using chunky wool because it allows me to make things quite quickly. Especially now coming into winter and there's so many things to make. But for crochet, I also love a traditional granny square – like those little blocks that create patchwork.
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When I first started off with diving, being in the public eye and things like that, I would always worry so much about what other people thought of me. But as I've gotten older, I've gotten to a place where I’m like, ‘who cares what everyone else thinks?’ As long as my friends and family are happy and healthy, that's the most important thing. It takes you a while to get to that point and you realise what matters. Becoming a parent was a turning point. Robbie is my be all and end all. You have to put so much attention into him, you kind of let go of all of the periphery, but also I want to set a good example for him.
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One of the big things that I really believe in is that, in everything – whether it's sport, fashion, beauty – that there is a space for everyone, and that nobody should ever be excluded from anything. We should be trying to welcome in as many people as possible – no matter the differences – to be a more inclusive and accepting place for everyone.
I think we're gradually moving in the right direction, but I also think that there's certain aspects of the world now – and different areas politically – that are moving backwards. One big thing is that we can't get complacent with what is going on in the world thinking, “oh no, we're fine, they're never gonna take that away,” because they will. So it's constantly pushing forward to fight for equality for all.
Most of the feedback I get is like “yeah let’s do this,” but there are of course, people that are negative – mainly on Twitter. But you know, it's one of those things that you just have to stick up for. Not everybody's gonna agree with you that everybody should have the same opportunities and equal rights, but it's something that I'm passionate about and something that I believe in, so it's worth fighting for.
Tom Daley is Rimmel London's first male ambassador and the new face of Match Perfection foundation.
For more from GLAMOUR's Beauty Editor, Elle Turner, follow her on Instagram @elleturneruk
