Actress and singer Toyah Willcox didn't raise an orange eyebrow when she had to strip in front of Britain's greatest actor, Sir Laurence Olivier.

But ask the flame haired former punk to step outside without her lipstick and she feels more naked.

The 32 year old's collection of lipliners is so exclusive it's valued at £4,000 and on show at London's Theatre Museum in Covent Garden.

"I can never go out without lipstick. It makes me feel more confident and sensual," says Toyah.

Some of her older sticks have tremendous value - they were handed down from her mother.

"Lipsticks made by Leichner or Max Factor 40 years ago were much waxier and thicker. You have to scrub hard to get them off. They haven't aged a bit and I still use them.

"But my favourite colour now is a fiery orange because it goes with my hair."

The actress, soon to play a scheming record executive in Channel Four's Midnight Breaks, has used more than 40 colours since stepping out as the princess of punk in the seventies.

"I used to wear Biba purples, blues or greens then. I spent six years being laughed at but I didn't care."

Now she's a firm believer in animal rights. "I go for Beauty Without Cruelty or Cosmetics To Go but never anything French," she says.

You could say she's doing more than paying lip service to the animal world.

Daily Mail, 1989
Thanks to Jenny Parkin