Alessandra Codinha, Eye Reporter, WWD

Alessandra Codinha
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Alessandra Codinha
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Alessandra Codinha
Alessandra Codinha
Alessandra Codinha
Alessandra Codinha

“In any department store, my favorite place is usually the beauty floor. I find it immensely comforting. I like Bergdorf’s a lot, I’m so happy there, oh my God—versus any other floor in that building. I’m not hugely experimental; I tend to stick with the stuff that I like. I love the way Chanel products smell, and their colors are great for me, so I’m pretty loyal to them. But if something is recommended to me enough, I’ll go check it out.

I use Cetaphil, because it’s the best. It’s simple, it’s nothing—I have really really sensitive skin, so Cetaphil is perfect. Moisturizer—I’m really into the Chanel Sublimage stuff. The Sublimage Essential Regenerating Fluid is my summer and fall one, because it hasn’t been that cold yet and it’s quite light. Then there’s this other thing that I’m obsessed with— Hydramax + Active Serum. It absorbs into your skin and it’s just like, literally giving your face water. It’s so amazing. It’s blue. It’s weird [laughs], it’s really blue. And I’ll use exfoliant if I need to. I’ve been using vbeauté; their exfoliant is really good. I don’t like it when they’re too harsh. I use Vaseline or Aquaphor as a basic chapstick. My mother swears by Aquaphor, so I grew up with that. It’s good for your hands and feet—sometimes I’ll put it on my feet and sleep with socks on. It’s a good old moisturizing treatment. There’s also this body balm that I bought at a drugstore, called Egyptian Magic, which I love. All of the ingredients are very natural, and it’s hard at first and you have to warm it up in your hands. It’s not like, a greasy body oil, you know? I had a friend who used to use baby oil, and it just gets everywhere—and you have to sit and marinate, which I don’t have time for.

As far as makeup goes, I’ll usually blend in a little Chanel Perfection Lumière foundation, and then Clé de Peau concealer, which is the best concealer in the world. YSL Touche Éclat is good if you’re halfway through fashion week and you have huge under-eye bags. I use a little bit for under-eye brightening, but because it’s quite pale, if you use it as concealer, it’ll actually draw more attention to the problem. I don’t wear bronzer, but I’ll do a little of this highlighter stuff— Soleil Tan de Chanel. I don’t really do much eye stuff. I do liquid eyeliner, pretty much every day—that’s like, my thing. It’s funny, because it doesn’t, to me, feel that strange looking. It’s not like I do cat eyes. I have thick eyelashes, and it just sort of bases it out, and it’s easier for me than a pencil eyeliner. Artliner by Lancôme is fucking amazing—it’s like a felt-tip pen, it’s so easy. Then sometimes Guerlain Terracotta Kôhl is cool too—it’s like a big kohl crayon, if you want to get all messy and smoky. It’s not something I do a lot, because it tends to end up places, you know? [Laughs] That’s another thing I love about liquid liner: it rarely moves. Oh, and mascara—I like MAC Haute & Naughty Lash. It’s weird but kind of great—you can pull the brush out two different ways to give you more or less product. I don’t normally do a strong eye because I frankly don’t know how to apply eye makeup, at all. [Laughs] Like, I can do liquid eyeliner and I can do mascara, but shadows—I just don’t really get it. I tried, someone gave me a palette, which was great, but it just doesn’t do much for me.

Lately I’ve been really into red lipstick. Tom Ford’s are beautiful. The packaging is amazing, and the colors are great— Scarlet Rouge, Crimson Noir. Pretty much when it comes to reds it’s like, the darker the better, and I think MAC Ruby Woo and Russian Red are the two best ones. Ruby Woo will not leave your mouth. It’s amazing. And it’s matte—it’s not shiny and gross. I have a really big mouth…if it's shiny I look like Amanda Lepore pretty quickly, and she looks great, but that’s not my thing. The NARS lip pencil in Cruella is another really good lip thing. You just line and then fill in, and it stays and it’s beautiful. That’s more of a winter color…the bluer, bolder tones. Ruby Woo looked better in the summer because it’s pinker.

I have dry shampoos, but I don’t like them. In my opinion, at least with my hair, it doesn’t make it look clean…it feels weird to me—like, product-y. I’d much rather just shower and get my hair wet. I switch up shampoo a lot. I use Pantene Pro-V a lot, I love it— the classic Pantene Pro-V. And the Neutrogena Anti-Residue Shampoo once a week or so. And Aesop has a really good-smelling hair wash that I like a lot: Gentle Scalp Cleansing Shampoo. I don’t use conditioner most of the time because it weighs my hair down. With hair, I honestly do believe that you should switch it up as much as you can—at least on my hair, it has a definite effect. Like, hotel bottles I always steal. The Bristol has Hermès Eau d’Orange Verte—I have like, five hundred things in my bathroom. Bulgari does a really great smelling bath collection—I don’t know what it’s called though—but I’ve never seen it in stores, just hotels. I find with hair and body products, you can get quite sick of them if you use them too much, so hotel sizes are perfect.”