“My approach to beauty has always been about not adding on layers on top of what I already have, but building layers within. I’m really into a holistic approach: I’m really into diet, I’m really into acupuncture; I practice transcendental meditation. I think it’s the inner workings of yourself that can make you look beautiful, feel beautiful. It’s only recently, like the last two months, that I started wearing makeup, which is probably absurd. My parents are really holistic. Beauty is something that gets handed down to you. My mother has never worn makeup in her life…I think now, at sixty-three, she sometimes puts a bit of rouge on her lips, but she’s always been about using Sorbolene cream, which is a natural cream from Australia. And my grandmother is the same. They both have been so pure in terms of their sun exposure, and they don’t wear makeup, and they’re the most beautiful women I know. That’s the way I’ve been brought up—it’s always been about absorbing what’s around you and letting that make you beautiful, whether it’s the sea or the fresh air.

When I moved to America, I really noticed that the conditions here are different. In Australia, if you want to feel good, all you have to do is swim in the sea and let your hair dry naturally and have a glass of water, and you look great—you really don’t need to do much because the standard of living is so high. And when I moved to New York—and I adore it here, don’t get me wrong—it’s a harsher condition. The water on my hair alone was something I had to get used to. I never even used to care about what I did or didn’t wash my hair in, and all of a sudden I had to start seeking advice from all the hair specialists I work with on set because my hair looked terrible. It’s the same with skin. It’s only recently I started dabbling in makeup, and I had all my lessons from this amazing makeup artist called Chiho Omae. I’ve always admired her approach to beauty on herself and also the models we work with, so she’s given me some tips. She recommended Rose-Marie Swift’s products, which I adore. I use her coconut cream every day, and I love the Un-Coverup Foundation…but I never knew for a second that you had to put makeup on your hand first. Chiho told me if you’re using a foundation, you rub it and warm it on your hand, and then you apply it to your face. I appreciate that delicacy—it’s very Japanese, her technique. I use Armani High Precision Retouch under my eyes, in 4.5 and 3.5 and mix the two. Chiho’s all about cheap mascara, so I’m using fun easy mascara—Maybelline Volume Express Waterproof. I have to use waterproof because my eyelashes are really short; I’m half Chinese, so I have quite short and straight eyelashes, and if I don’t use a waterproof mascara, it leaks on my face.

I think when you come to New York what you absorb around you is so hectic, you definitely need to invest more in yourself, and that’s been a fun process for me. I just turned twenty-nine, and that whole side of grooming has been fun. I never got to feel like I was doing all those womanly things, and it’s nice to have some rituals. I put almond oil all over myself and take a cold shower, or at least end my shower with cold water—it’s so good for the glandular system; that’s what the Yogis teach you. I don’t blow dry my hair. The one thing I have started using is this Japanese product on my hair because my hair is Asian hair, and it’s obviously a different texture. It’s called Nano Amino Mist. But I like to be in bed with my hair wet, and I do think brushing your hair is good to stimulate natural oils. And then I’m really into supplements. MSM is actually something someone I know who had really crazy acne got me on to; it’s what people use to clear the skin structure. I have an amazing acupuncturist called Pamela Yap—she has been my saving grace since moving to New York. She’s amazing in terms of healing advice, especially if, as a woman, you’re feeling like you need some nurturing, whether your body feels strange, or it’s an emotional thing. She’s changed my life. I originally went for my back, but all of a sudden I was seeing her for my skin, for my hair. Physically, I always look really run down after travel, so she put me on this Chinese herb called the Free And Easy Wanderer, and it changed everything: I didn’t feel sullen, my eyes didn’t feel dry, and my hair didn’t look dull from all the flying and the air conditioning. I actually was a free and easy wanderer.”

Stevie is also the founder of the new online zine Shop Ghost. 

Carolyn: Since I was a little bit younger than Dylan, every Sunday was beauty day: my mom and I would do masks, and we would do our nails. I have a cool mom. So, Dylan took off her three-week-old nail polish today, and when she was sitting on the bathroom floor, we realized that today is Sunday beauty day!

Dylan: I had on Essie Turquoise and Caicos. My favorite colors are turquoise, aquamarine, and purple.

Carolyn: Dylan is more fashion-forward than I am. She has a lot more style. She really wants a pair of wedge sneakers, and I said, ‘Dylan, you’re already 5’4” at eleven years old. You don’t need to have any more height.’ She’s very opinionated, about her products as well.

Dylan: I like my banana-scented detangler [Circle of Friends Bonita’s Banana Detangler]. It takes out knots. You do it when you get out of the shower; you let it sit for like five minutes and then you brush it. My mom got it for me. We went to the store together and she said, ‘Oh, you need any of this?’ and I said, ‘Yes,’ and then I picked out that. They had chocolate and raspberry and banana. I love banana.

Carolyn: For Dylan, most of the things I want her to use are natural or kid-friendly. I gave her that Bigelow lip balm [C.O. Bigelow Merry Mentha lip balm] last week. But it’s all about a balance. You know, there are these things that are geared toward children, like the detangler, and it smells yummy. But then, she loves the Bumble and bumble Seaweed Shampoo.

Dylan: I like it because it smells good and I love seaweed.

[Emily: Really? That’s like saying ‘I love broccoli.’]

Dylan: I love broccoli!

Carolyn: She does. [Laughs] She’s a green baby!

Dylan: I wear makeup sometimes.

Carolyn: Be honest about that. When are you allowed to wear makeup?

Dylan: I’m not allowed to wear makeup out unless it’s a really really really really special occasion.

Carolyn: And then, only lip gloss.

Dylan: And sometimes sparkly eye shadow, but not too sparkly. When we went to New York, my mom bought me this palette thing-y—I’m wearing the pink one. It has purple and blue and white. It was gift from the lady at the makeup counter.

Carolyn: I was buying Estée Lauder, which is funny because the woman then recognized me and said, ‘…Why are you buying this cream?’ and I said, ‘Because I’m so dehydrated!’ Where were we coming from?

Dylan: Australia!

Carolyn: I bought Re-Nutriv Crème. She kind of looked at me after a minute and said, ‘Aren’t you…?’ There was a picture of me in there. Most of the time, people don’t recognize me, but then they think that they know me from somewhere, and then all of sudden they see the credit card and they go, ‘Oh, no, wait a minute!’ But for Dylan, when we’ve gone into duty-free, she gravitates more towards the lip glosses.

Dylan: I just love lip gloss and lipstick. I have one in my purse that I stole from my mom a few years ago. It’s Nude Rose by Estée Lauder. And my uncle Ivan bought this for me—Stila Sparkle Waterproof liquid eyeliner.

Carolyn: I don’t think she’ll be allowed to wear makeup out of the house until she is sixteen. I wasn’t allowed until I was sixteen.

Dylan: I always wear stuff in my hair. Whenever I go to J.Crew, I usually get a new headband. I love wearing headbands, especially the big poufy ones. I guess I was inspired by Lady Gaga. At Zitomer, they have this whole section where they have headbands that are really big.

Carolyn: We love Zitomer pharmacy and Bigelow Pharmacy. Zitomer’s is in New York, uptown, around 79th. It’s just so easy to get lost in there. She got a wide-tooth comb from there that she uses to comb through conditioner.

Dylan: And I use the Tangle Teezer with sparkles.

Carolyn: I brought it home from the salon and knew she would love it. You’re supposed to start from the bottom and work your way up. Tracey Cunningham does my hair, from Byron & Tracey—but this was a gift from Michael Canalé. I see Tracey for color. I love her; she is such a character. I was there last week and she said, ‘You have to be more blonde because blonde sells!’ But I saw Charlize Theron in there the other day, who was just drop-dead beautiful. So beautiful.

Dylan: These are some of my chapsticks. I have a Skittles chapstick [Tropical Skittles Strawberry Starfruit], I have a vanilla chapstick [Carmex Vanilla], I have a Fun Dip chapstick [Fun Dip Razz Apple Magic], and I have a watermelon chapstick [OraLabs Watermelon Lip Rageous]. I keep them next to my bed, with my lavender oil. It helps you go to sleep.

Carolyn: I swear, every time we go into a pharmacy or a grocery store, she’s like, ‘Can I get a chapstick?’ I mean, that’s the fun part about representing a company like Estée Lauder—they send me all the goodies. You know, I grew up with the brand—my Nana, who’s quite chic and still around, had a blue and white vanity area, and she wore White Linen, she had the Youth-Dew, so I had this nostalgia. Working with them has truly been an honor. I knew by the summer of 2001 that they were signing me, and it was huge. It’s like the Holy Grail of the industry. I get to play and I get to be a guinea pig for their products; I’m just always trying new stuff. When the company said they were bringing Tom Pecheux on, I was so excited. He’s modern, and he’s creative. I think you’re always trying to separate yourself from the pack. When it comes to the beauty industry, there is so much out there, there is so much for us to choose from. They’re an iconic brand, and I think that they’re just getting better and better.

In general, I try to keep my skincare routine simple. I’ve been using Cetaphil for years, and I’ve also been using the Weleda Almond Soothing Cleansing Lotion, which works really well. I have to use a cream cleanser because I have super sensitive and dry skin. Cetaphil is definitely not natural, but I’ve gotten used to certain things, and I believe everything in moderation. I also really believe in keeping everything super hydrated. I sleep with a humidifier by the bed; I think it makes a big difference. But, you know, I didn’t always take care of my skin. Surfing killed it—I’ve had to spend the last two years trying to repair that damage. I believe in Estée Lauder’s Advanced Night Repair. If I had to choose one product that I think is my number one, can’t-live-without item, it would be that. I swear to God, it’s the best. After thirty-five—and I’m almost thirty-nine—I think it’s about being aware and paying attention. Not that I was careless before, but I definitely had other things on my mind. Skincare wasn’t a priority because I had great skin; I maybe took it for granted a little bit, too. So now I wash my face at night, and in the morning, I splash it with cold water and that’s it. Then I put on the Advanced Night Repair—morning and night—and Re-Nutriv or, sometimes, Olio Lusso. And what Dylan and I are using right now in our hair and on our skin is this: Spectrum Coconut Oil, unrefined. We just finished a tub of it. I swear by coconut oil, and even raw olive oil. I’ve even been known to take it on the plane with me and slather it on, and people think I’m weird, but who cares? I slather it on my body, and on the tips of my hair. I’m also really into the Oribe hair mask, because my hair is bleached, and it’s curly, so every Sunday I sleep with this on. But more than anything, I believe that beauty comes from the inside out, so I’m very diligent about supplements. I travel with this kit, and I take the Omega-3s, I take Biotin and BioSil for skin and hair. I take vitamin D, which I think is super important if you can’t get 15-20 minutes a day in the sun. I take magnesium at night, which is also really great for the skin. But, you know, I’m debaucherous. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t debaucherous from time to time—I have a drink every now and then—but I just think it’s a balance. I’m realistic; I don’t want to be extreme on anything. If I’m eating well and basically supporting my body 99/98% of the time, when Friday night comes, or Saturday, or whatever, I don’t feel so bad about it.

I don’t usually wear makeup during the day, but I always want to have blush. I like the Estée Lauder Signature blush because it’s creamy; I’m not a huge fan of powder. I’m not a huge fan of foundation or even concealer, but I want a creamy blush, and I always travel with Clinique Black Honey lipstick because I think if you put that on and just have really clean skin, it’s beautiful. I use the Sumptuous Extreme Mascara. For night, the smoky eye thing is kind of new to me. It’s something that I think looks good in photographs—you know, for shoots—but I don’t know about it in real life. I feel like it makes my eyes look super small. Blazing Bronze eye shadow is the one I love; it’s my go-to. I’ve worn it for years. Or sometimes, for fun, I’ll wear Coral Chic lip gloss for a pop of color. But the most beautiful I felt was when I was pregnant. Literally the most beautiful I felt in my life. I was big—I went from 118-120 to 183—but I was glowing. The only picture I have of myself, a fashion picture of myself, hanging in the house is from when I was pregnant. Anna Wintour from Vogue was really curious about my living in Costa Rica at the time, and said, ‘I want to do an article on Carolyn, and Mario Testino is going to photograph it.’ So I show up, and Camilla and Mario, or I guess Mario, who I adore, had this bright idea that he would have me in a bikini coming out of a limousine. I said, ‘No. You’re not going to have me getting out of a limousine in a bikini and I’m seven-and-a-half months pregnant. I wouldn’t even want to get out of a limousine in a bikini anyway, even if I wasn’t.’ So, you know, leave it to Mario—foregoing the bikini was one thing, but I end up naked, just completely naked, in his room at the Mercer Hotel, in Manolo heels and Harry Winston diamonds and that’s the shot. It’s not your conventional pregnancy portrait—it’s not like I have the romantic long hair whisping over my breasts, and cradling my belly. I like that it’s rock and roll.

—as told to ITG

“My attitude toward evening [dressing] is a little bit weird now,” Olivier Theyskens confessed yesterday afternoon. “I don’t believe it’s nice to wear something that is too traditional. But a couture thing with a fresh attitude, that looks really modern? Yes.” Theyskens is standing in the music room of painter (and friend) Ron Ferry’s aerie off Fifth Avenue—the former home of Museum of Modern Art co-founder Lillie P. Bliss—and the evening being pondered is, appropriately, the annual MET Costume Institute gala. His date is longtime muse Caroline Trentini, fresh off her honeymoon in Bali. The pair hadn’t been apart for very long: the model’s wedding dress was a love affair between the two, from initial fittings in New York to final tweaks before she walked down the aisle. It was during that process that Theyskens popped the question, “Will you be my MET date?” The answer, naturally, was yes.

The duo agreed on softly shaded makeup and an easy (but “super chic”) up-do to compliment the “tee shirt-y” feel of her one-of-a-kind Theyskens’ Theory washed denim dress. Hairstylist Jordan M relied on a ¾ inch curling iron (“I’m in love with this size; you can do everything with it—from Brigitte Bardot to beach curls”) and Bumble Thickening Hairspray to give Trentini’s long blond hair some movement and hold, but left the final arrangement to the model herself. “Last year, a hairstylist put some product in, and said, ‘Just tie your hair.’ Sometimes it looks the best when you do it yourself—you know your own head shape.” Theyskens’ signature mane got a quick freshening up with Prep spray, a paddle brush, and a blast of hot air, the designer’s only request being, “Just give it some shine.”

NARS makeup artist Cindy Rodriguez “worked off the subtle 1920’s wave in the hair, and the bejeweled top” from Trentini’s look, focusing on textural eye shadows and an emphasized brow. “Makeup is about balance. I didn’t place color on the entirety of the brow,” she said, alternately brushing single shadows in Blondie, Bali and Coconut Grove through for a natural look. Lids took on a finger-painted, three-dimensional quality with a base coat of cream shadow in Corfu, followed by a layer of Nepal and “topped off with a little Portobello, keeping the shape rounder and a bit diffused—truer to that 1920’s smoky eye.”

With ten minutes to go, Trentini slipped a tube of Gold Digger lip gloss into her clutch and retrieved a pair of well-worn Louboutins from her carry-all. Theyskens, taking one last sip of champagne, nodded his head in approval: “That’s the best choice, you know? To have shoes you know are comfortable.” Rules to live by, for any formal occasion.

“I’ve had long hair my whole life, basically, and I don’t do much to it. I’m naturally blond and the sun helps. I might do a haircut soon…I’m thinking I might just cut it off. I’m trying to think, because every time I put on a t-shirt and it gets stuck in my t-shirt, I quite like the way that looks. I just want to do something different. There is a hairdresser I go to in London whenever I have a party to go to and feel like having it up or doing it braided—French braided—called Paul Edmonds. It’s really super swanky and fun.

In general with beauty, I don’t believe in spending money on things where you don’t know what’s working. I’ll spend money on something because I’ve heard from a friend it’s good; just word of mouth. I go to this place called Face to Face in LA, to this really nice woman called Marianne who Liberty Ross actually told me and Robbie about—my boyfriend goes with me. And Liberty has the prettiest skin, so I was like, ‘I want to do whatever she does!’ [Laughs] And I drink a lot of water and exfoliate. I actually got that that little vibrate-y brushy thing, the Clarisonic. I love that! I’ve only just gotten into facial stuff; I like Shu Uemura Cleansing Oil for taking off my makeup because it’s like a moisturizer as well, so it makes your skin very oily which is great because my skin is so dry. Every day I use a moisturizer, Bliss Fabulous Face Lotion with SPF 15. If I use this oil, the Shu Uemura Oil, I don’t really use a moisturizer after because it feels so moist already. I don’t want to overload. I get paranoid about overloading my face with products, you know what I mean? Clogging it up so that it can’t breathe.

My cover up is Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage, and I just got into MAC Studio Finish. It’s not really a foundation, it just makes your skin glow. And there’s another thing that Liberty Ross told me about: NARS Illuminator in Orgasm. She uses Super Orgasm because she’s more tan. There’s Orgasm, Super Orgasm, Copacabana…she’s a Super Orgasm girl! I’m too pale for that. You rub it in with some moisturizer and put it on. And I use Maybelline Volum’ Express The Colossal Mascara. That’s pretty much it. I don’t really do eye makeup, because I’m bad at it. But a lot of mascara on me, because I have lots of lashes, ends up looking like eyeliner. I want to have lessons so I can be really good at doing eye makeup—I’ve found loads that are like eight-week courses about learning about skin types and blah blah blah. I literally just want to do eye makeup. I just need to find someone who will teach me. It is just like painting—painting your face.

I’ve been worrying about how I want my hair and makeup done for my wedding. It’s only four months away now! My dress is still very much a work in progress. Pam Hogg—she’s a Scottish lady, super sweet—is making it. I’ve always been obsessed with French braids, so I’m going to try to incorporate that into the beauty look. I think they’re so sweet. But, who knows if that will work. We’ll see. I’ll have a veil and a train—got to have that. I think it’s a necessity. It’s the only thing I know I want, actually, are those two things. [Laughs] The rest of it is all very up in the air. I guess I want natural makeup. That’s quite obvious…I guess everyone does that. I’m going to go as natural as I possibly can. But, that is really hard. Natural makeup is harder to do sometimes than intense makeup. So, hopefully, I’ll have a makeup artist.”

By Rachel Chandler Guinness for ITG 

Let’s give some credit where credit is due: Deborah Lippmann put glitter nail polish back on the map. When the superstar manicurist and entrepreneur (her collection of lacquers includes collaborations with Renee Zellweger, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Cher) rolled out Happy Birthday—a “party in a bottle”—a few years ago, the nail art trend was just gaining momentum and girls were embracing the possibilities beyond the crème color du jour. Rather than taking your run of the mill, arts-and-crafts glitter and shaking it up in a bottle, Lippmann went full-on and churned out a brew so thick with oversized metallic sprinkles, you almost have to chip it off (she’s the first to admit that glitter polish is not a quick change situation; recommends her Stripper to Go remover mitts).

Season after season, she ups the ante with new variations on the theme. Boom Boom Pow, a bottle of multi-sized gold flakes floating in a clear base, was an early ITG favorite, and Glitter in the Air, a smattering of baby blue and pink flecks in a milky translucent base, was my nail obsession for a good three months after seeing it backstage at a show. Never one to sit still for long, Lippmann is now exploring “3D Holographic nail lacquer”. The pink (Sweet Dreams) and blue (Ray of Light) polishes, on the nail, look a little like a child’s Jelly sandal: sheer but with some volume, heightened by subtle flecks of glitter. Equally impressive is the new hyper-pigmented crème On The Beach—a “rich Riviera blue.” “Whether you wear one shade on your nails, the other on your toes,” she says, “or use a glitter polish on one nail and a crème color on the other four, the creative options are endless.” Spoken like a true innovator.

Okay, okay. It’s not summer yet. In fact, it’s been freezing in New York, when all I want to do is wear one of the eight pairs of cut-off shorts I’ve collected over the past three weeks. The compromise was to meet up with Brian again and lop off a good four inches of hair. Dry cut, with a razor—quick and easy, down and dirty. I was inspired by a couple of models: Kati Nescher, the twenty-seven year old overnight sensation who I spotted at the beginning of fall shows (backstage at Alexander Wang), and Marte Van Haaster, the Dutch Prada/Miu Miu darling with a haphazard “Lob” (long bob).

Until the past couple of months, I haven’t felt inclined to mess with my hair because there’s not a ton that can be done with it. It’s dead straight, and while “shiny” and “healthy” are generally pluses, I long for dry, tousled, wavy texture. Coincidentally, Noshin, an ITG reader from London, emailed over the weekend asking for tips on “achieving second or third day hair on newly washed first day hair.” Well my friend, this is something I’ve learned a thing or two about. I suggest mixing a thickening lotion (like Redken 06 Body Builder) with some styling cream (Bumble and bumble and Shu Uemura are two favorites) in the palm of your hands and working that through towel-dried hair, to start. After blasting it off with a dryer or air-drying, spray Oribe’s Dry Texturizing Spray through sections—from root to tip—and let that settle for a minute before raking your hands through it. Throw it up into a half-knot ponytail (or little messy bun) on and off throughout the day, so it gets little bends and kinks in it. And then don’t wash your hair for three days—a good head shake and a blast of dry shampoo should be all you need. It should just keep getting better and better.

Photos by miss Natalie Joos. Jacket by 10 Crosby, top by Zara, jeans by Rag & Bone. 

Is that a red lip or a pink lip? “Red” lipstick, as we know, runs the gamut from MAC’s Ruby Woo to Tom Ford’s Smoke Red, can have blue undertones or lean towards orange, and turns many a visit to the makeup counter into a multiple choice test for which no one—I’m convinced—knows the answer (I shake my head ruefully anytime a friend asks for a personalized recommendation). I say: if you like it, if you feel like you look good in it, go for it and wear that color with confidence.

Buzzing around a makeshift backstage area at the Plaza hotel in March, Diane Kendal told me that “Thakoon wanted to focus on the lips this season. We’re using a fuchsia pink, which is not an obvious color for a bold lip.” To achieve the ultra-vibrant hue, she hand-painted NARS’ Heat Wave semi-matte lipstick (a “bright orange-red”, in fact!) onto models’ lips, then patted an intense pink pigment powder on top. Oh, makeup geniuses and your magical layering tricks.

What struck me about this look [shown here on French beauty Othilia Simon, who posed for an impromptu photo shoot in one of the hotel’s gilded hallways] more than anything is how a pink (red? Orange-red?!) lip should be worn: with clean, sheer, glowing skin. Any more foundation or concealer would have taken it into “uptown” territory, but Kendal, ever the minimalist (and modernist), kept the face totally fresh and bare save for that intense pop of color. In a copycat move, I’ve been wearing MAC’s Girl About Town and NARS’ Funny Face—two of the most famous fuchsias around—with a tap of Eight Hour Cream on my eyelids, brow bones, and brows, and long, feathery lashes. Now all I need is Odile Gilbert Kérastase-ing my hair into a sleek updo, and one of Thakoon’s gorgeous fall party dresses…

Othilia is wearing her own Alexander Wang sweater.

“I moved to London almost ten years ago now. I’m from a really small town called Wolverhampton; it’s near Birmingham right in the middle of England. My approach to beauty has always been experimental, but when I was fifteen I found my look and I have literally stuck to it ever since. Now, I’m twenty-seven years old and I still wear black eyeliner, eyebrow pencil, and some lip gloss, and all that’s happened over the past twelve years is that my products have gotten more and more expensive. We have a brand in the UK called Rimmel, it’s what every teenager starts using—I’ve been using a Rimmel eyebrow pencil since I was fifteen, when my cousin decided to shave my eyebrows as everyone does when they’re a kid when you’re testing stuff out. My mom went mental and she helped me fill in my eyebrows with a pencil and kind of since that day they’ve never grown back. And I really love thick eyebrows—my brow icon would have to be Brooke Shields. If I could have those eyebrows, I would cry.

When I wake up in the morning, I wash my face with Dermalogica Special Cleansing Gel and then I’ll pat it dry. Then, I kind of have a merry-go-round of moisturizers depending on if I’ve been drinking the night before—my skin will be really dry—but the one I’ve been using daily lately is the Kiehl’s oil-free one, the one in the little blue bottle. I brush my teeth while my moisturizer is sinking in, because if I try to put makeup on straight away, it just goes all greasy. I use that Marvis toothpaste in Jasmin. I love it—you can buy it from Liberty. Then I put my makeup. I’ll use MAC Studio Fix Foundation in NW50. Then I’ll do a sweep of black eyeliner with Bobbi Brown’s Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner. Then I’ll put on YSL mascara. Before I had a baby, I never used to wear lip color—I was always just a Vaseline girl, like bare Vaseline on my lips—but then when I had a baby and I didn’t feel so glam, I felt like lipstick was the quickest way to instantly make my face look good. So, I’ve started wearing lipstick. The one that I wear most to spice my face up is MAC’s Ruby Woo, which is a classic red one, or a YSL nude one, Nude Beige. I prefer a nude every day, because I like my lips to be almost the same color as my skin, does that make sense? I like it when it looks quite ‘60s, like when your lips are the same as your skin and just an eyeliner is popping out. I like that. And I love Yves Saint Laurent because of the packaging. I won’t buy a beauty brand if I don’t like the packaging, which is really bad. I love Aesop because I love the branding of it, and I use a lot of Kiehl’s. I kind of want my bathroom to look a certain way, which is white, gold, brown. There’s a photo on Into The Gloss that I just thought, ‘That’s my bathroom inspiration!’ where the girl has all of the Yves Saint Laurent mascaras on the fur—Lisa Marie Fernandez. I love her swimsuits. I love her aesthetic. When I saw that photo, I was like, ‘Yeah! That’s totally what I’m into.’ So, yeah, that’s kind of my face. You know what else I love? A little bit of Vaseline on the eyelids. Sometimes I feel like it makes my makeup move around but if I put it really close to lash line, like one dot, you’re good. I just love that glossy eyelid look. It’s, like, so 2002 or something.

I get my hair done by Alex Brownswell at Bleach London; we share a salon with them. They basically brought out this dip-dye trend that exists now—it wouldn’t be mainstream without Bleach London. My natural hair is kind of like chin-length and then she puts in extensions, some Brazilian hair. The only thing I ever do is use Moroccanoil. So, I’ll wash it with Kiehl’s Amino Acid Shampoo and then I’ll use that cheap Aussie conditioner. I use loads of conditioner on it and then sometimes I’ll use coconut oils or treatments or conditioners from the afro hair shops—there’s so many afro hair shops in the square mile of my house. Every day I just rub a bit of Moroccan oil on it and I brush it. I recently watched Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, have you seen that Russ Meyer film? I was like, ‘The girls in that film look incredible!’ There’s a black girl, a redhead girl, and like a blonde-y brunette and their hair is so big and amazing. So, I did my hair a bit thicker this time. Like, I put more extensions in it and I curled the bottom bit because I wanted it to have that kind of seventies big curl bounce, do you know what I mean? I get a lot of my inspiration from films, to be honest, for almost everything. Like, when I was fourteen and watched that film Jamón Jamón with Penélope Cruz in it, and all summer I just wore espadrilles and a-line dresses. I love a woman in a film for makeup, hair, clothing inspiration.

When I was younger, I always painted my nails myself. I used to watch Clueless and I’d want my nails to match my eye shadow to match my hair accessories, so I remember painting them lilac all the time. And then, when I moved to London and started university at Central Saint Martins, I started getting them done at salons, but they were never like great. I remember seeing this one shot of an entire hand in Vogue, and the nails had a white base with a neon pink tip and a neon green moon—it was incredible. And I ripped it out and put it on my wall. But I was so frustrated with the fact that I could never go to the nail salon and they would just do something out of the box without a fuss. Like, sometimes they just wouldn’t do it, or sometimes they would do it but kind of begrudgingly. So then, when I graduated, I had a really good year of styling. I used to assist Nicola Formichetti, who was the fashion director of Dazed and Confused magazine back then—he was always so successful. And then I started styling my own stuff—I was styling loads for Nike and Levi’s, lots of really good commercial work, so I was earning good money. And then I just had the idea to open a nail salon, because I had another crap nail job. Like, I wanted a Dior-red base with white tip or white half moon and they just wouldn’t do it. I was so angry—when my boyfriend picked me up, I got into the car and slammed the door and said, ‘You know what? I’m just going to open my own nail salon!’ And that was that! And then he actually found the location, which was a couple of doors down from where we lived at the time. And when I look back, I was so naïve…I don’t know what I was thinking. I took the lease on the building, and we had no money left to fit it out by the time I paid the lawyers out for the lease—I was like, ‘Oh, I didn’t think about that bit!’ So, we had to fit it all out ourselves. My boyfriend literally poured the concrete on the floor and I painted all the walls, everything.

I found my staff, then I had a few little private ‘thirty girls come get your nails done’ type things and that went crazy. WAH finally opened July the 31st, 2009, and the party was packed. Like, it spilled out onto the street. And all the convenience stores and the corner stores—like, there’s a fish and chip next to my shop—they stayed open two hours extra because they had so many extra customers spilling in from the party. It was so funny. Then what happened is, the salon is huge—it’s cavernous, when really all I need is four nail desks that take up a quarter of the space. So I met these super cool girls, hairstylists—one of them just came and got her nails done and she said, ‘I really love the salon. I really wanted to open one to be like this.’ And I kind of thought, ‘Oh, lots of people have kind of imitated the idea and tried to copy it,’ so I was really surprised that she came right out and told me that she wanted to do one like it. Like, once we started doing nails, girls just started popping up doing nails that had never been doing nails before. The fact that she outright told me that I was her inspiration for it, and didn’t have any qualms telling me, I said, ‘Well, why don’t you just have it in the back of here to start with if you want.’ So they were like, ‘Yeah, that’d be really cool.’ They’re my closest friends now. They opened Bleach in the back of my store on our first birthday, so they were just born and it was our first birthday. And the flyer we did, I did the flyer, I did a gif where it was Lil’ Kim and Courtney Love crouching down in the same pose, because, to me it was like WAH was like Lil’ Kim and Bleach was like Courtney Love…they’re like two sides of the same ‘90s experimental girl coin.”

Photographed by Rachel Chandler Guinness 

I’m also a humongous fan of Fred’s blog Cut by Fred, now translated into English.

Happy Friday!

xE