"I grew up outside of Kansas City, Missouri in a small town called Lee's Summit, playing in fields and catching grasshoppers, butterflies, and frogs in the creek. My sister watched a beauty pageant on TV and told my dad she wanted to do that. She found this modeling school in the Yellow Pages, and because I was two years younger, he kind of just enrolled us both. I didn’t tell my friends I was going, but I secretly kind of had fun trying on outfits with my sister. We put on a big fashion show in Kansas City, and after, all these agents wanted to meet with me. I was like, ‘What?’ I was only like 15 at the time—this lanky, awkward tomboy—but I went to New York that summer and saw the agencies. And then when I was about 17, I packed my bags and was like, ‘OK, let’s see if we can make something out of this.’ I immediately started working with Gilles Bensimon for Elle magazine, but when I met Juergen Teller and Craig McDean in Paris, that was really the start of it all. My schedule was: Wake up at 8AM, go to my castings till 5PM, come home, take a nap, wake up at 10PM, go to the clubs, come home at 3AM. I was still a shit-kicking tomboy who liked to drink beer and smoke cigarettes, but now I was opening all these runway shows, and I was surrounded by these incredible characters, and traveling to really exotic places. Like, I remember going to Bali and being amazed by all the wood and the smells, and fruits I’d never seen before. It was this crazy circus of fashion, kind of like Alice in Wonderland, and I was just like, ‘Wow! Where am I?’
CAREER
When I was only 23 I had my son, and he wasn’t planned. I thought my career was over. Oftentimes the industry is like that—you’re living in this perpetual fear of it being over, or not being wanted anymore. But after having my son, I felt this inner sense of power and purpose that I didn’t have before. I became much more selective about what I was going to do, and what I was not willing to do, and what I wasn’t willing to compromise in my life. This industry is very focused on the external, and there’s a lot of comparison, and it can be very vain. On the other side of that, these people from all around the world with such great personalities and energy and creativity are coming together with a blank canvas, and making something. I really appreciate that creative process. I loved the Galliano show where we all looked like we were from the romantic period—there was this waterfall that I walked through, and it was very theatrical. There’s the cover that I did with Pat McGrath and Craig McDean where I was laying on the floor, and she just took a black makeup pen and drew all over my face. And all of the Jil Sander I did with David Sims was amazing. I think I was one of the first people to ever have their eyebrows bleached off—I looked like this weird creature, but it was really cool in the photos.
WELLNESS
Even though I appreciate the city, I’m a full on country girl. It’s funny, I came out to California originally because I started acting. Someone told me about Topanga, and I was like, ‘This is where I’m living.’ One of the things I really love about living in California is that of course you’ve got the arts and Hollywood, but you also have the world of health and wellness, and amazing technology and sustainability. My father’s a retired pharmacist who’s more into natural modalities of healing—he’s a big advocate of health and mystic ways of healing. And my mother was also in the medical field. She was a med tech, but then she became a massage therapist. She home-birthed most of us, and she was always making our face products herself. Now I do a lot of natural body work. I do raindrop therapy with essential oils where, basically, you’re putting the oils on your spine and the bottom of your feet. Sometimes I’ll go to this cheap little place down the road with my boys where they do it for like 35 bucks. You keep your clothes on, so it’s kind of a family thing we do.
I’ve gone and gotten facial acupuncture, which is really cool. It opens up the meridians in your face. I get ozone therapy from Dr. Hirani—they take a vial of your blood out, mix the ozone in, and then they put it back into your body. And I’ll sometimes do IV drip therapy, where you can get all kinds of vitamins in an IV. Bulletproof has a place here down in Venice where you can do cryotherapy, all these different red light therapies, and infrared. But I do infrared [at home]. You can just order one online. For me it was an investment worth making because I’m using it two or three times a week. I’ll use that as a time to do my meditation practice. Or in the bath—I feel like baths are almost a secret ceremony for me, when I need to de-stress or be alone from all the boys in my life.
I really took the time to explore yogic studies, and got certified as a Kundalini yoga instructor through the Institute of Integrated Nutrition. I’m so lucky that my partner Brian enjoys practicing with me. We do different breathing techniques, meditations, or chants together in the morning. My ideal thing is to wake up at 5:30AM, but trust me, sometimes I hit the snooze button and do my practice after dropping my kids off at school. If I go in the sauna, I’ll then jump in the cold pool and I’m awake. I’ll shower, and then I’ll usually get my day started. I love black tea in the morning, and I’ll also do a little cup of apple cider vinegar in some water. My kids are 16 and 13, and I always make them a big breakfast. I know if I don’t they’ll just grab a bar, or eat nothing.
SKINCARE
Living in California doesn’t help with my dry skin. When I go to a humid place, I look three years younger—but, you know, I have to work with it here. At night, I like to use my Clarisonic to really exfoliate and clean the pores. I use it with the Sonya Dakar cleanser, which I love because it’s kind of an oil. You can really massage it in and get your blood flowing, but it comes off like a milk. Your skin feels really soft, especially with the Clarisonic—you feel a difference before and after. Sonya’s kind of the godmother of natural products, but she has the chemistry background behind it—she graduated with a masters in chemistry in her early 20s, with three kids. She’s no joke. That’s why I really like her. I also love this Kat Burki mask that’s like a gentle peel, and then there’s a Tata Harper Resurfacing Mask that works. It’s kind of the color of rose, and it just tightens everything. After I take my mask off, I’ll put on all my omega oils and stem cells. That’s all Sonya’s stuff. I’m also a big fan of Weleda’s Skin Food. That’s something I keep in my bag when I travel. It’s so nourishing—it’ll heal chapped lips; it’ll keep your skin really moisturized. Really, there’s not a cream in the world that’s going to make you beautiful. All of your beauty is your radiance, your inner light—when you show up with that light, that’s what people see. If you’re searching to find your identity through the outside, you’re not going to find it. That’s what I learned in this business.
MAKEUP
For skincare I only use my own stuff, but the truth of the matter for makeup is that I use what I get from gift bags. I’ve been using this Lancôme cushion compact recently. You can apply it in layers, and it just evens out your skin tone. But my favorite is eyebrows. I use a little angled brush, and a Purepressed powder from Jane Iredale. It’s also essential to always have good tweezers. I like to keep one in my car, because when you’re in LA in traffic, you see every hair that needs to be plucked. I just pluck the loose ones out—there was a period of time where they were super thin, because that was the style back then, but I’ve let them grow in over the years.
Josie Maran’s products are argan oil-based, and I like her highlighter stick. I’ll do that around my eyes and on my cheekbones, or I’ll use this Wander Beauty On The Glow stick. This is my favorite thing—it’s like a Moroccan color-changing something, and it kind of just makes the perfect shade of blush. I like blush high up, I don’t know why. A makeup artist once taught me a little trick—he said if you take the color from your cheek and put it on your eyelid, it brightens everything up. And Pat McGrath taught me that pinching the cheeks brings blood and color [to them]. For bronzer, the Dr. Hauschka Translucent Bronzing Tint is great in the summer, and I put it on with a little brush. And then it’s always great to have a red lip—I like my Chanel products. This is Rouge Coco in Arthur. If I’m going to do a little bit of a smoky eye or whatever, I like the Chanel quads. I can pull it off. I kind of go into the crease, and I’ll do more on the lid and blend it out with a brush. And I love Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara. One last thing I have to tell you is that one time I was visiting New York, and I forgot all my makeup. I was going out, and I was like, ‘What can I do?’ I was at the Bowery Hotel, and I lit a match, and I got a little charcoal from the match and I did my eyeliner. And it worked! So, that was my solution.
HAIR
A good haircut is key. If you have a good haircut, you can kind of get out of bed, maybe take a shower, and be pretty good. Maranda Widlund cuts my hair—she’s Swedish, and she’s incredible with blondes. I have light highlights—just gentle ones. I’m not a high-maintenance girl who wants to go to the salon every three months. I’m like a once a year type of person. My hair is naturally kind of like how it is right now—it’s not curly, but it’s not stick straight. A curling iron can help blend it and make it look a little more polished. And then I use Hair Resort Spray from Kevin Murphy. It’s like a hairspray, but kind of a sea salt spray. It’s really nice. With hair, you can’t be all natural. You need a good hairspray.”
—as told to ITG
Angela Lindvall photographed by Tom Newton in Topanga on August 17, 2018.
