“WOW! YOU TWO ARE CO-ORDINATED!” says the waiter at The Electric, in Portobello, a few minutes after make-up artist Kay Montano and I meet for lunch to discuss her new contract with Chanel.  Kay is wearing a black and cream coloured twinset, looking very Chanel indeed.  I am in an oyster blouse with black buttons and a black skirt.  But that’s nothing. 

“You should see our coats!” I laugh.  Already discarded, on the sofa, lie two fake leopard coats.  

Thank goodness we’ve arrived separately, otherwise, as Kay quips, we’d look like “Josie and the Pussycats”.   “Who?” I ask.  ”It’s a Hanna Barbera cartoon.  Very few people remember it and I don’t understand why.  They were fantastic!” 

Matching outfits aside, Kay Montano is looking well.  Maybe it’s the Chanel contract, which she shares with Mary Greenwell and Lisa Eldridge and which she is justifiably proud of or maybe it’s the fact that with the weekend’s Bafta events looming she’s “doing” two of the hottest actresses in town - Amy Adams and Thandie Newton, but Kay is unstoppable right now.   It turns out it’s neither of these. 

“I’ve had food poisoning for 24 hours,” she says cheerily.  ”I’ve been chucking up, really it was awful.  And I was at work, and I had to pretend I wasn’t ill.  Purging, I swear, it’s so good for looking youthful. ”  She laughs heartily at what she has just said.  ”How perverse does that sound?!” 

It’s a little drastic admittedly, but she wears it well.  As she does the leopard.  ”The key is,” she starts, “not to wear too much make up, otherwise it all goes a bit Bette Lynch.  So I keep my hair back, my skin bare, and remember… NEVER wear red lips unless you want the men to run for the hills.” 

“Are you wearing fake lashes?” I ask.  Her lashes curl up so beautifully at the corners that I think they can’t be real. 

“No,” she says, “but if you’re doing that corner lash extension thing, Ruby & Millie do a great pair of eyelash curlers just for the outer lashes.  A little extra mascara at the edges and that’s all you need.” 

To put the Chanel contract in perspective, from a personal point of view, as a beauty writer you can receive hundreds of delectably wrapped packages, full of lotions and potions that would make other women weep with envy, but as jaded as you can become, nothing quite beats the black and white of Chanel.   Their make up collections are always spot on, their “star product” effervescing with wow factor.  I remember going backstage at the shows in Paris years ago and watching Stephane Marais at work for Chanel, and it was always thrilling, the high point of any backstage experience. 

“Stephane Marais, for me… well, he’s the one,” says Kay, paying tribute to the Brittany-born legend of make-up artistry.   ” He starts with an original template which he pushes, always finishing with something truly beautiful.”  Other make-up artists she rates highly are Linda Cantello and Pat McGrath.  ”She’s very inventive, ground-breaking really.  It’s as if she came along and re-interpreted how make-up was applied.” 

Kay’s coming-along started in 1983 at the precocious age of 16, when Kate Garner, then starring in the band Haysi Fantayzee, introduced her to photographer Jamie Morgan. 

“My first job was with Ray Petri and the whole Buffalo gang.  That would never happen now, giving a job like that to a complete beginner.. it was incredible!” 

She confesses to having been a complete nerd at school, spending her free time looking at Bruce Weber pictures, familiarising herself with the models and the make-up . 

“By the time I was 16, I knew all of the models,” she says. 

Self-taught, she now finds most of her friends have the confidence and know-how to rarely make mistakes with their make-up, but if she could ban a few fatal flaws she would include: wrong cover-up  ”Touche Eclat does not work for everyone!” ; a fear of foundation “Use it minimally, only where needed”; wearing the wrong shade of lipstick “Women with thin lips should not wear dark lipstick!”  or matt bronzer “it’s been trowelled on by the WAGS and it’s time to let it go!” 

In her own make-up bag she keeps… Chanel’s blusher in Rose Dust, their Vitalumiere foundation in 40; a Chanel eye pencil in Brown (”it’s the best rich brown, great for expressing a cool, smudgy look”); their liquid liner in Black, L’Ombre D’Eau eyeshadow in a taupe-y shade, which she loves for its slick effect, and Chanel mascara in Black.  She doesn’t like wearing lipstick but uses a Chanel clear lipstick to keep lips looking moisturised. 

It’s nearly time to put the leopard coats on, so I ask her about the forthcoming Baftas this weekend.   What look  will she be doing for Amy Adams?

“She is so cute and pretty with very pale skin that suits a classic 50s eye, with the eyes outlined, a little bit smokey, and an upwards lift in the corners.   She’s so 1950s. We had such a laugh.  She reminds me of a showtunes girl.  I got her to do Smells Like Teen Spirit in the style of showtunes.  She does all the moves and she knows all the words.  Then we moved on to Deep Purple.”

“Where was this?  In the make-up room?” I ask, trying to imagine Amy Adams in her Enchanted dress, waltzing around to Nirvana. 

“No, we were in her hotel suite.  I swear though, she could have a whole new career going for her.  I kept saying to her she should do it on Letterman.” 

Kay uses Chanel No 10 in Clair on her porcelain skin, with some lip liner on her “rose-petal lips” then applies Chanel’s Exceptionel Mascara on Amy’s naturally thick lashes. 

And for Thandie?  What look does she have in mind? 

“Oh I won’t know until the actual night,” says Kay. “Thandie hasn’t decided on her outfit yet.  She is truly a champion for the British fashion industry, she’s willing to take risks and will never compromise on what she wears.  She’s so beautiful I just don’t understand why British Vogue hasn’t put her on the cover yet.  It doesn’t make sense to me… if she was blonde, she would be!” 

“Maybe they feel she’s over-exposed? I don’t know, she’s always out at parties,”  I offer, not convinced myself that that’s the reason. 

“But that’s the thing.  She hardly ever goes out, and trust me, I know her well enough to know she’s usually at home with the kids.  But when she does go out, she’s guaranteed to be photographed because she’ll always be wearing something original and always be looking beautiful. She’s such a celebration of British fashion… we need to celebrate her a bit more.” 

And with that, we make our exits - separately of course.  We can’t both walk out at the same time in leopard print coats, we’d look ridiculous.  Although Kay says she doesn’t mind. She really liked Josie and the Pussycats.  

And when I get home, I look them up on line, and decide I rather like them too.