STATESIDE SUCCESS - 'I USED TO BE SO SELF-CONSCIOUS, I WOULDN'T LEAVE THE HOUSE'

SAM FAIERS ON TAKING HER BEAUTY BRAND TO THE US, HER NEWFOUND CONFIDENCE, MUM GUILT AND EXPANDING HER BROOD

From Rodeo Drive to the Beverly Hills Hotel, Samantha Faiers looks right at home in our Los Angeles photo-shoot. Posing in an open-top car, by the city's signature palm trees and in some Audrey Hepburn-style shades, the reality TV icon is every inch the Hollywood starlet. "I love the photos!" Sam giggles post-shoot.

And there's a special reason the 32-year-old has been living the good life in the US, even enjoying an ego-boosting shout-out from a passing tour guide at one point: she's pursuing her goal of becoming an international businesswoman. Sam's ground-breaking beauty brand, Revive Collagen, recently launched in Saks Fifth Avenue and will launch in 1,800 stores across the USA in August. She's also just signed a very high-profile celebrity as her Stateside ambassador.

Having succeeded on home turf - Revive sells a box every 90 seconds globally and Amanda Holden is its face in the UK - it was always Sam's goal to make it in America. But growing the business, which was established in 2020, hasn't been an easy process and for Sam, the stakes couldn't be higher.

"When we first decided to create the ingestible skincare brand, I put all my savings into it," she tells us. "We didn't take any investment. It's a huge risk, when you've got years of savings, and at the time we were renting in Surrey and searching to buy a house. That put me back from buying a house for a good year and a half. But the reason I did that is because I believed in it. I wanted it to be the crème de la crème of collagen. In my heart I knew I had something special. It's like all of my dreams come true."