Emma Holmes crowned The Face We talk to Emma Holmes, the 18-year-old beauty who has just won the first series of The Face, about Naomi Campbell, Max Factor and dreaming of Chanel Emma Holmes is on top of the world, and rightly so; she's just beaten 23 other beautiful women to be crowned the UK's first winner of The Face. I'm excited, I'm really excited! We filmed the final in mid-June so it's been really hard to keep it a secret," she told The Telegraph of her newly-confirmed model status. I told my mum, one of my friends and some family that came to the final, but other than that I haven't really told many people. The willowy half-Dutch, half-Jamaican 18-year-old will now star in a nationwide Max Factor Christmas campaign for the brand's best-selling False Lash Effect Mascara after beating her fellow finalists, Elaine Nturo and Eleanor Corcoran to the coveted prize. READ: Kate Moss for The Face? "A lot of girls at my age are just starting their career - for me, it's an amazing opportunity to be a brand ambassador of Max Factor already because I get to start a bit further up the chain," she says. But what makes Emma's victory that little bit sweeter is the fact that her mentor on the show was Naomi Campbell, an executive producer and founder of the show, which is already onto its second series in the US. Campbell was Emma's idol as she grew up in sleepy Canterbury. "I am so proud of my Emma!" says Campbell. Not only is she uniquely beautiful, she's also bright, and I think you will have seen how much she developed throughout the series. Becoming the face of Max Factor is an amazing jump start to what can be a very successful career for her. I had a fun time mentoring her (sometimes more fun than others!) and know we'll stay in touch. The pair's relationship wasn't always as firm as it appeared in the final episode - Campbell was undoubtedly the show's toughest mentor, and Emma wasn't one to hold her tongue - but they are now good friends. In fact, Emma really does have her on speed dial and called her on the set of the Max Factor campaign following an initial pang of anxiety. The moment Emma was announced as the winner of The Face. Photo: Sky Living I walked into this huge studio and there were so many people there and I was thinking, 'oh my gosh'. I was so worried," she remembers. So I called Naomi and she said, 'you'll be fine, I have every faith in you' and from that moment I remembered everything she'd taught me. Indeed, Campbell's tough love approach seems to have made quite an impact on the fledgling model: "She said to me once: 'Emma you can always work harder, you can always be doing more. You think you're working your hardest but you're not.' At the end of the show, that's when I kind of realised how true it was because the more that you push yourself the better you'll become. She's also keeping her notebook - which Campbell notoriously requested each of her contestants to carry at all times to jot down her tips and advice - close by and carries it in her handbag. Since the show, which was filmed as she was taking her A Levels, Emma has been working on her portfolio, building it up so she can make the most of the launch pad she's just been given. She's got some more projects in the pipeline but they're all hush-hush at the moment. Emma with her mentor Naomi Campbell and her fellow finalists - left, Eleanor with her mentor Caroline Winberg and right, Elaine with her mentor Erin O'Connor. She's also adapting to life in the Big Smoke, having relocated from Canterbury, where she lived with her mum, in order to work as a model full-time. Of her fellow The Face contestants she's still in touch with Jessica, Nina and Eleanor, the latter of whom made it into the final with her. One thing she certainly shares with her iconic mentor (as well as enviably long limbs) is an innate sense self confidence - this girl knows exactly where she's going, and she's aiming high. "Chanel for me is the ultimate," she says of the brand she'd most like to work for. I remember it was the first designer I saw when I was 14 - I was in France with my mum and I was like, what shop is that? It was so perfect! For me that would be the designer to work with. Are you reading, Karl?