Eddie Borgo [jewelry designer]: We’ve lived here, in this apartment, since 2008. I think that it can either be totally cool—because Keegan freelances and I’m at work early—or it can really be not cool, if we’re getting ready at the same time, in our one bathroom.
Keegan Singh [stylist]: Fashion week can be a nightmare.
EB: So I think the dream is to have two bathrooms, or at least an additional half-bath. I mean, we don’t have that much stuff—we don’t hold on to a lot of stuff. We have a lot of books, and Keegan always has his styling stuff, but besides that we have very minimal clothing, minimal furniture, minimal toiletries. I try to wash my face every day, and maybe sometimes before I go to sleep, but not really. I love Aesop products—all the Primrose stuff, they make this primrose shampoo and conditioner. It’s really really good. The way it feels—the way they’re formulating it—it’s really done well. I used to work at Barneys and got introduced to Aesop there. I was using the mandarin products—it’s kind of like orange peel—I don’t know exactly what’s in it, but I’m obsessed. REN moisturizer is really good too.
KS: I love that stuff.
EB: I actually just bought it—my best friend uses it. When we were on vacation together, I tried hers. But I don’t really get into like, the whole ‘five steps’ thing. I’m like, two steps.
KS: And you use that Lancôme stuff all the time.
EB: Oh yeah, and I also use this stuff that I got from Julia [Restoin Roitfeld], Génefique. It’s really amazing. And also the Mousse Radiance—it’s foam! You pump it out and scrub your face with it. I love exfoliants. I feel like in New York you pick up so much dirt and dust in the air all the time, and it just feels good to get it out of your skin. And then Keegan, Pamela Love introduced Keegan to this stuff called Just Be.
KS: It’s all I use. There’s a facial cleanser and it’s all-natural. So it’s like almonds, goat milk powder, I don’t know—it’s so crazy, this stuff. There’s this weekly glow mask I use too, a scrub, and an oil. The line is made by a facialist called Negin Niknejad. She does Reiki on me as well when she gives me my facial. She’s the coolest person I’ve ever met. Well, one of the coolest people I’ve ever met. I’m hooked. I see her every two months, or something like that. And then the most important thing that I’m obsessed with is rosewater mist. I get it at Lifethyme or Integral Yoga. I spray it all over my body.
EB: And it’s really cool for the beach, too, to have around when it’s hot out, because it cools you down.
KS: Negin says to spray that on first, and then I put on the oil. And I love Skin Trip coconut moisturizer for the body. So everything is pretty natural for me. I wasn’t very conscious of it before; I was all La Mer-ed out. Actually, Pamela introduced me to this vegan girl and she got me on this natural trip, because I’ve always been into my skin and health. If I wasn’t a stylist I think I’d be an esthetician. It’s all about skin. I go through phases, like when it was all about that Laszlo Lift or whatever, some crazy thing that they had at Bergdorf a while ago. Now Negin’s got me taking all these vitamins for my skin, and she told me to put egg whites on my face before I go out—just until it dries, and then I wash it off. It brightens, it tightens, and it takes out the red.
EB: He’s obsessed with grooming and beauty.
KS: Yeah, I love all that stuff. For a while Negin had me drinking three cups of water with lemon in the morning. It’s just a good way to detoxify your body. I did notice a difference—I think my skin was looking better and people were noticing—but I had to chill on that because I was like, ‘I just want my green tea right away.’ It’s really hard to drink that much water right away! I think yoga helps too. I go to The Shala on 12th and Broadway. I think that’s probably the most important skin care thing I do, just to get all those toxins out. I’ve been going to the same hair guy for like, thirteen years or something like that. His name is Astro Erle, he’s an old club kid from the Limelight days. He’s amazing. We’ve gone through a million different hairdos to get to this one. I don’t know what it is… It’s just mine. It’s shorter on the sides, longer on the top; it does what it wants to do. Right now there’s nothing in there. There’s a little buildup from like, the week or whatever, some hairspray—I only use really cheap hairspray, like Finesse. I wash it maybe once a week, because it’s bad to wash your hair too much. I have really dry skin. Some people who have oily skin think they have to wash their hair a lot more.
EB: It’s kind of better sometimes.
KS: When I do wash my hair, it’s like having a Poodle on my head, it’s so fluffy. So I need a lot of that junk in my hair to tame it. My eyebrows are pretty natural, I just do the middle bit or else I get a major unibrow. That would not be cool. I do shave every day, because I think I look better with a clean-shaven face. I use a Gilette Fusion razor and Fusion shaving cream. It’s funny because I was using the old Gilette razor forever—the Mach 3 or whatever—then I picked up a GQ which I hadn’t looked at in ages, and they were going down all the years in razor trends, and I was back in like, 1999! [Laughs] I was like, ‘There’s a new Mach Fusion? What’s going on, it’s got three razors on it?’ And I was like, ‘Wow, I need to read GQ more often! I’m way behind the times on shaving!’ But I love this Mach Fusion. It gives me a really smooth shave. I don’t put on anything afterward. I know some people have to, but I’ve got tough skin or something.
EB: I shave pretty much every day—I don’t shave if I don’t have a meeting, but these days I pretty much have some meeting to go to every day.
KS: He looks really unprofessional when he’s not shaved. [Laughs]
EB: [Laughs] Yeah, I look pretty bummed out. But yeah, I feel like there was a time when I needed to put something on after I shaved, like in high school. But then your skin kind of gets accustomed to it. I guess it’s like shaving your legs. Like, at first, you have to take special care and then eventually your skin kind of gets used to it or something. We don’t have the same razor. I have the older Mach…the dated Mach! I keep it if it works. I think I’ll keep using that razor until they stop selling it.
KS: There’s times when I’ll forget my razor and I’ll use Eddie’s razor. It’s not the end of the world.
EB: My hair situation is pretty easy—I go to Chelsea Barber, in the lobby of the London Terrace [apartment building]. It’s really amazing—they give you the full treatment for thirty-five bucks: they clean up your neck, trim your hair, and put warm shaving cream on you, and shave your face. There’s always a wait, so you have to be prepared to sit there for between thirty and forty-five minutes. My haircut is a little bit weird because I have them hold the top part, and they just cut the sides. It’s kind of like a skater haircut. I think that there are people who are hat people, and I’m one of them—I’m always in hats. It’s funny, I feel like some people have to be drinking before they ask me, but they ask me if I’m bald, or if my hair is falling out. [Laughs]
KS: No way!
EB: Yeah! Like people think I’m covering up a bald spot or something. I actually have really really thick hair. It’s crazy.
KS: I’ve never thought about that. [Laughs]
EB: Probably the only time I’m not in a hat is when is when I’m working out. I do the elliptical machine for about 45 minutes, and then I do sit-ups, push-ups. I think the elliptical is girly but I don’t mind. I started going to the gym with my friend Aliyah, and she’s like, ‘Look, just do the elliptical,’ and you burn a lot of calories on that thing! I like it because it breaks it up, and then I go on the treadmill and run. I really like the gym, it’s just expensive in New York. I feel that now, more than ever, since I turned thirty, I have to work towards it more. Especially because I’m not as active as I used to be—like when I was freelancing, I was running around a lot. It’s a different thing, so I have to watch what I eat, but not in an intense way. Keegan’s a little more strict about his diet.
KS: I definitely watch what I eat, to be healthy and also to be lean. This is not a dessert home. We eat a lot of raw stuff, we have a lot of soups and salads. And sushi—we love sushi, we eat it like crazy. We go to Izakaya Ten—there are so many great sushi places near us [in Chelsea], so we go eat sushi at least once a week.
EB: Keegan is more into like, the hardcore raw food. He goes to One Lucky Duck, and Organic Avenue. He’ll do cleanses, which I am not willing to do.
KS: But I’m not that hardcore, because then I’ll have a steak or whatever. But in general I think a balanced diet is important, because we live in an urban city, and it’s really easy to overlook vegetables and fruit and stuff that you need to live and be healthy. Because you could just eat junk all the time and have it delivered. [Laughs]
EB: Near my office, there’s no food. It’s not about getting Hale and Hearty soup, you know what I mean? We were just driving back down to Manhattan from upstate, and it’s so nice to be in the country, where you have the accessibility to all these wonderful fruits and vegetables, and amazing homegrown food. Then you come back to the city, and we stopped at some gas station to grab snacks, and we were all walking around in the gas station like, aimlessly looking for something to eat! I think we got granola bars or something, but it’s difficult. After a while, your body really rejects that kind of processed food. When I eat it, I feel really really full and sick, and I don’t feel healthy at all. We try, definitely.
—as told to ITG
