Leona Lewis unveiled as new face of the Body Shop

Grammy and Brit award-nominated singer Leona Lewis has signed as the face of animal-friendly cosmetics firm The Body Shop, with a new Cruelty Free collection.

Set to arrive in selected stores from March 26, the limited edition cruelty-free makeup and fragrance collection was created with pop-star Leona Lewis.

A vegetarian since her childhood, Lewis won PETA's Sexiest Vegetarian award in 2008, the year she hit the big time with her win on the UK version of the "X-Factor" TV talent contest.

"I'm so excited to present my first ever make up collection, designed to celebrate cruelty-free beauty at The Body Shop," said Lewis. The collection includes two shimmer palettes, a synthetic blusher brush, four shades of high-shine lip gloss and a white musk perfume, a "wild, liberating fragrance" according to the star. The products will retail for between £7 and £16 (€8-18).

Founded in the UK in 1976 by the late Anita Roddick, the Body Shop now boasts 2,400 stores around the world. After sustained campaigning by the company, earlier this year the European Union announced that it would be following through on plans for a blanket ban on cosmetics which have been tested on animals. Some international markets, including China, do still require govenment mandated animal testing for safety reasons.

Leona is not the only pop star getting in on the cosmetics game. Just last week Rihanna announced that she had been working on a series of collaborations with MAC Cosmetics in the US, set to be released throughout the year.