Cameron Diaz looks beautiful on the cover of ELLE this month. We love her pretty make-up and soft piecey hair so much we had to know how to get the look...pronto! So we called on make-up artist Lisa Houghton and hairstylist George Northwood who were on hand at the shoot in Los Angeles to reveal the secrets behind the cover look.

‘The make-up is a part Hippie Chick, part Beautified Grunge rather than being too polished or obvious,’ Houghton told ELLE.

This make-up look is all about texture, ‘a very red matte lip pressed on with my finger, glowing radiant skin with lots of high shine on the cheekbones - playing one finish against another’ she explained.

Loughton used Dior Rouge Pur Couture The Mats in 203 Rouge Rock, £23.50 and Dior Foundation Le Teint Touche Eclat, £28.

While Diaz has struggled in the past with acne, Houghton told ELLE that her complexion was flawless so she really wanted to accentuate that.

The eyes were kept simple – a shimmery taupe (Dior OmbreSolo in Cashmere Brown, £21) with no harsh lines and just a little mascara on the top lashes.

‘A bold red nail polish added a sophisticated charm’ said Houghton. You may remember back in May we reported that Cameron Diaz’s cropped hair made her cry. 'There was a little misunderstanding. I said I just wanted a little bit cut off and it went from here to here, 'she told Jay Leno. 'It was one of those moments where I just couldn’t … I just burst into tears.'

Cameron has grown to love her shorter hair and we love the return to the style made famous when she starred in There’s Something About Mary. Northwood told ELLE, ‘it was a good shoot to do, I really enjoyed it’.

To get the look, Northwood recommends you, ‘rough dry your hair with Pureology Pure Volume Blow dry Amplifier Mousse, £19.50 (lookfantastic.com), to give your hair guts. It’s a gentle mousse so when you dry your hair stretch it up with your fingers to give extra volume’.

Next take a ceramic brush and smooth. ‘Don’t try too hard you don’t want the hair to look too neat, this should be an amateur blow-dry!’

To get that piecey texture Northwood recommends straightening random sections before plying the hair with Redken Powder Grip 03, £11.15 (at feelunique.com). ‘This gives the hair a matte, gutsy texture – to avoid it looking too dry use a little Kerastase Elixir Ultime, £34.50 (at lookfantastic.com), on the ends for shine’.

The December issue in on newsstands now. Find out what's in the ELLE this month here...