Beauty icons #1 - Jennifer Lopez

I love J-Lo! There, I've said it. Her look may not be the coolest out there, nor the most adventurous, but this is a woman who knows what suits her, and knows how to make the best of what she's got. Before fame and fortune, Jen was what could have been described as plain - pretty, yes, but quite plain, with unruly dark locks that didn't really flatter her, and questionable dress sense (but hey, didn't we all back in the 90s?!) - though she always had that fab curvy figure.

But check her out here a few years down the line, a bronzed beauty with luxe locks and that fabulously bling dress - not many of us could carry off one-shouldered leopard print but Jen does so with aplomb. I think she looks lovely here, feminine, pretty and sexy, not an easy trio to pull off!

I love the fact that J-Lo embraces her femininity - she's proud of her curves and rightly so and although some of her outfits may be revealing (see third photo below!) she rarely looks tacky. In a sea of small, skinny Hollywood startlets that all seem to look the same, Jen to me stands head and shoulders above - always looking glamorous, elegant, and healthy with her glowing skin and curvy but toned frame.

J-Lo has definitely been a beauty and style inspiration to me over the years - my look definitely veers towards shiny and bling from time to time.  My wardrobe contains a healthy smattering of animal print and shiny stuff, I rarely wear non-gold jewellry and one of my favourite make up and hair looks is golden straightened locks with a softly glowing face, tres J-Lo. I also adore Grecian drapes and have a few tops and long dress that I like to think wouldn't look out of place on La Lopez.

But besides the bling, I also appreciate Jen's beauty aesthetic - she always looks groomed, glowing and above all healthy. She doesn't drink alcohol much, which probably contributes to her amazing skin and sparkling eyes. And another thing I love about J-Lo is that she seems to look better the older she gets, inspiration to us all! But I'm sure she works at it, hard.

I don't like J-Lo when she's being too 'street' - too 'Jenny from the block' - I'm talking the crop tops and billowing pants with heeled trainers. It was fine once upon a time but now I think J-Lo's getting, much as I hate to say it, too old for this look. I'd love to see her do a video which embraces Hollywood glamour, for me this is one of the looks she pulls off best.

Off the top of my head, I can think of at least dozen J-Lo looks that I've loved. Some more of my favourites are below:

This teal Temperley dress on Jen blew me away - it could have been made for her, and I adore her hair and make up too.

J-Lo looks godess-like in this divine Marchesa dress - it suits her figure perfectly and the colour and jewelled detailing are just so elegant. I love J-Lo's hair and make up here - she could have easily gone for long waves and this is different and classy - in fact, she is almost unrecognisable here.

Wowser - this is even more daring than I remembered. J-Lo's Versace dress at the 2000 Grammy Awards was one of her definining moments. And yes, she did pull it off!

Another red-carpet do, another Grecian show stopper, another runaway success! The dress, the hair, the clip, the glowing skin, DIVINE! The dress suits Jen's figure perfectly. I'm going to be chanelling this look at a wedding I'm attending this weekend, perhaps will post a pic so you can judge how well I did!

Okay, J-Lo does wear alot of Grecian dresses, but when she looks this good, who can blame her?? (easy on the fake tan though!)

But it's not just Grecian J-Lo can pull off - check her out in this white gathered dress with fab 40s hair and red lips that would make Gwen Stefani proud!

And this sixties-style shorter colour block dress looks perfect on J-Lo, showing off her super slender pins. I love the tousled hair and natural make up too.

Okay okay, she is only human (despite being J-Lo) and of course there have been a few mishaps along the way, I'm thinking that velvet rouched abomination she wore to a music awards ceremony recently! But I'm not here to dwell on those - there are plenty of magazines out there ripping female celebs to shreds without me adding to it in the blogosphere. The fact is, with J-Lo's face and figure she can carry off just about anything.. and she knows it...

All hail J-Lo, queen of bling-beauty!

Do you love J-Lo?? Who are your beauty icons. I plan on a whole series of these with some pretty eclectic choices in there, so I hope you enjoyed reading.