Interview

Interview with Elize – August 2017 – “Glitter and Glamour is one of my biggest weaknesses”

When you are looking for new outfit, what are the most important things you look for? Most important is the comfortable. Sometimes I see something I’d love to wear, but then again, it has to be comfortable. I’ve had clothes on stage that limits me, and that’s the worse. Like too tight leather pants, corsets that’s too tight or high heels that slip of my foot when I jump. I’ve made that mistake many times, so now I try to play it simple. I also think a lot about how the fabric feels against the skin, and how it looks in the stage light.

When you are shopping do you prefer to shop online or to go into the store? I prefer to shop online, the pieces I buy are usually hard to find in regular stores. There are lots of nice things online, and I can try them on at home, which I like more than going shopping these days.

Do you have a favourite outfit from tour and least favourite outfit? I absolutely do. Haha, I get very fast tired of my clothes, and usually already after a few shows they get worn out. Since I don’t wear them like most people do. Hehe.

What items are always in your makeup bag? I always bring concealer. That’s it. It’s always in my purse. Sometimes, during winter, I also bring a blusher, my favourites are the small round ones from The Body Shop in pink tones. In the summer I use their sun powder, which I like a lot.

With your crazy schedule, how do you manage to keep your skin looking so healthy? Thank you! I try to live healthy, because as they say, beauty comes from the inside. So for example I avoid alcohol and I definitely don’t smoke. I know what’s good for the skin, and what’s bad. I also clean my skin every night before going to bed. And I use hydration in the morning (day cream with sunscreen 20) and Night Cream every day.

Matte products are becoming more and more popular – especially lip colour. Do you prefer matte or gloss? I prefer Matte nowadays, I used to like gloss more.

Would you like to design your own range of dresses? Yes, I would love it!!

Where is the best place to shop for cosmetics in the world? I’d say Germany. And New York, probably mostly for the inspiration. But what I like with Germany is that there are lot’s of great Animal-friendly, Vegan, Natural brands that I rarely find anywhere else.

On recent tours you have worn some amazing jewels and big necklaces how do you feel wearing this glamorous and edgy attitude jewels and is it easy to find the perfect jewellery? It’s actually really hard to find jewellery for stage. I did find a brand called Rock By Sweden a few years back, which I love, who make these big, glamorous, edgy pieces. It’s made by a female designer, Laila Bagge. She’s a real fine Rock chick! Big jewellery on the other hand is very heavy around my tiny neck, so therefor I always have to take it off after a few songs into the show. No jewellery is made for crazy head-banging, I’ve noticed that. And in general, with my long hair, it’s very tricky. I lost a lot of hair because it got stuck in my necklace AND the bracelets, and Olof’s Guitar.. gahaha! I always loved Bling Bling, and like my elders always said when I grew up; If you want to look fine, you’ll need to suffer in pain.

Your hair always looks healthy and shiny – do you have any top tips? Haha! Well thank you, besides that it is now mostly a part of my jewellery. Actually, I use a lot of conditioner, not so much shampoo, lot’s of leave in treatment, different kinds of oils. I never use heat tolls on my hair anymore, such as curler or flat irons, since I noticed how bad it is for your hair. If I do, I use heat protector first. Also, I rarely brush it. I use leave in conditioner and detangle it with my fingers instead. I also eat B-Vitamins, since it’s supposed to strengthening the hair and be very good for your skin.

You wore an amazing dress in the video from Enshrined in my memory with Timo Tolkki’s Avalon – where did the inspiration come for this style? It came from myself, I guess. Since it wasn’t like the songs we perform with Amaranthe, I figured it would be nice to show that little bit more sophisticated style. I think it was a fit for the song and the location. I love to wear these kind of clothes when I get the chance to. I don’t know why, I guess I’m a girlie girl, I actually enjoy the Victoria Secret Fashion Show, Drag, and stuff like that. Glitter and Glamour is one of my biggest weaknesses.

A couple of years ago you took part in Melodifestivalen – you had the most stunning dress, how did choose the dress? I choose it together with my stylist, Sara Biderman. It was the most expensive dress we could find in Stockholm. It was bought at Milagro, who’s mostly know for delivering clothes to the Swedish Royal Family.

You recently took to the stage in amazingly fierce red outfit! How did you find this outfit and how did it make you feel to wear it? Let me think.. Oh you mean that one I wore in Finland.. I think it showed a little bit too much ass, which is very dangerous (kidding). I’m glad you liked it! I chose to wear it mostly because of the extreme heat that day. It’s a body I found at Zara, that I put together with a pair of shorts underneath, stockings, a belt and that jacket, also from Zara actually. Red is one of my favourite colors. I now wear read boots from Mango, and a red Jacket from Guess. I am still trying to find the perfect red stage clothes. It’s not a bad idea to maybe contact some of the designers out there! Because I noticed, in general, it’s not so easy to find clothes in red.

In the Boomerang video, you wore a short haired wig, would you ever cut you hair short or maybe wear more wigs to experiment with your style? I been thinking many times to cut my hair. Especially in the summer, since it get’s so warm with long. But I stopped myself from really doing it. I bought a wig instead. In that way I could get a feeling of how it would be like to have short hair. Then after few hours, I was ready to go back to long again. I would love to be Beyoncé, and change my hair all the time. On the other hand, I want to stay natural.

You recently had a nightmare when your luggage went missing at the airport! What was going through your mind when this happened? Oh, first of all I was concerned because I knew I wasn’t gonna get any time to rest before the show. I was already so tired, since we played a show the day before and we only got few hours in a hotel, before we had to leave again. I thought also, ok. I can’t do the show. But then I thought, but.. it’s not the clothes that should be the most important thing. I mean, look at the boys, they wear the same jeans and T-shirt on stage as they wear in private. So that day, I did the same. I went shopping, since I felt that I needed at least a little bit of stage make, and toothbrush and dry shampoo. I found this grey one-piece which I though looked very comfy, so I bought it, and that’s what I ended up wearing on stage. I also bought a cool leather jacket, a pair of shiny high heels and sunglasses. Hehe. 🙂

You wore a beautiful ballerina dress in True, where did you find this amazing outfit? Omg! I can’t say! That’s gonna stay my secret forever..

Do you keep all of your outfits? Have any been lost or stolen? I keep all of them! Except a pair of boots which I forgot on one tour with Kamelot. They were my first stage boots, which I wore on all the first Kamelot and Amaranthe tour, AND in the music video for Hunger!! I asked many times if I can get them back, apparently they are in a storage room somewhere in Germany. I really hope I will get them back. Cause to me, everything I wore on stage or in music videos is holy. There’s so much history in them, and very personal to me. I miss my boots. Can you believe, they’re in the first music video we ever did with Amaranthe. Omg, and I also lost that leather Jacket from the same video in Mexico, after the show with Kamelot, when I had an infection in my leg. I was a bit unfocused so to speak, so I forgot it there, behind the stage, and I never got it back.

Have you ever had an on stage outfit disaster? Yes. Haha! Like when you think afterwards, “why the hell did I wear that”. But not any worse than that, so far…

In the Amaranthine video you had amazing curly hair – did you enjoy having your hair in curls and would you wear it like that again? I used to enjoy it a lot! But it’s very hard to make curls on my kind of straight hair. It takes several hours and a lot of hair-spray! Maybe again, yes, I will do it. 🙂

Do you prefer to wear high heels or flat shoes? High heels!! I get pain in my back if I wear flat shoes. It’s totally strange I know. But it’s true.

Thank you Elize, hope you had fun!

Thank you!! This was a lot of fun! Much love to you! And thanks for the interview.

Interview by Amy