“I’m the editor-in-chief of L’Officiel, but the writing editor, not the fashion editor. I also present a TV show for French TV called ‘Green Trip’—I go all around the world to find eco places. It’s unrelated to L’Officiel, but we have a travel edition to L’Officiel called L’Officiel Voyages. So, when I go for my TV show and film, I also write a story on L’Officiel Voyages. I just discovered Henri Chenot—he is the guy who discovered phytotherapy forty years ago. He has a place in Italy called Chenot and he’s doing detox therapy; it’s a big center for detox. I spent a week there alone for New Year’s. You have to stay a minimum of six days, you don’t eat too much—you eat 600 calories a day—you do some baths and some treatments all day long. You do yoga, and all day long they do blood tests, and they put some oxygen in your blood...they didn’t do it to me because I was quite healthy. [Laughs] All the athletes go there, like Zidane. Daphne Guinness was there; I couldn’t recognize her because you’re not doing your makeup everyday and she was wearing slippers only. [Laughs] For me, it’s the best thing I’ve done in a long time. They just made this new beauty line that’s going to be sold soon—it’s very medical. They had products in their spa, but now they are making products to sell all over. I love the Chenot Active Detox Bath Elixir. You can do the ‘relax’ one or the ‘energizing’ one, so yin and yang. It’s based on Chinese medicine. They react to all of your energy. So now I’m a Chenot addict.

I really like Aesop stuff, especially all the Parsley Seed products. I like the smell. And I like their Fabulous Face Oil. My routine now, I clean my face with Eau Micellaire from Chenot, then I put some moisturizer from Chenot also—the Oxygenating Moisturizer. Normally, I don’t wear too much makeup, but if I’m very tired I put on this concealer, which is Lancôme. I always have bags under my eyes; I’ve always had that, since I was born. The skin there is very thin so it’s transparent so I always look tired and sad. Nothing really helps. Sometimes they give me some cream to help hide it, but honestly, I don’t think it works—it just makes it bigger. You just have to accept it. And the thing I say is, ‘It’s romantic!’ When people tell me, ‘You have this,’ I say, ‘Yeah, but it’s romantic, you know?’ Romy Schneider, this actress, she always had that and she always looked sad, but people would think she looked beautiful because she had a sadness in look.

I always admired women with black eyes, ‘yeux charbonneux’ as we say in France, but I’ve never known how to do it—the way they do eyeliner…I was always wondering how they make this black eye with a little bit coming down, you know? Before, I was putting on some mascara but I thought I really didn’t look nice with mascara. Then I went to India and met the community of the Bishnois—it’s a very small amount of people, they live in a village, and they are the first eco people in India. They put some kohl on the eyes of babies to protect them from the sun. So, anyway, this community, they teach me how to do makeup. They have a really basic kohl—it’s a powder and they put it on with a brush or with their finger. So they taught me how to do it and gave me some pure product from there called ‘kohl’. When I came back from Paris, I couldn’t find it anywhere. I could have gone to the Indian Market and found it, but I went to Guerlain and I found this—it is their kohl. It’s some black powder around this little stick and you have to get close to the mirror and you close your eyes and do it. I don’t smudge it, I just leave it.

My mother tells me not to wear too much makeup because it doesn’t suit me, and also, I think wearing too much makeup can make you look older. So I just wear the Terracotta for Guerlain. It can last me years and years. And sometimes I wear lipstick, red, and I like red nails. I can’t go to green and to blue and to black like all the girls do, it doesn’t suit me, so I’m still in red. I’m quite basic. Chanel Pirate is what I always use. There is one I like from Essie too, it’s Pouf Daddy. Just the name I like. And my assistant brought me Nailgrowth Miracle by Sally Hansen in Stunning Scarlet from America; she said it was the best.

Because I’m doing ‘Green Trip’, I try not to use too many chemicals; I try to be eco and organic. Here, in France, they are not very obsessed with organics. And also, the products are not very good yet. So, every time I go someplace for my TV show, Israel or Lebanon or India or Argentina, I always meet some people who make some products or plants or essential oils, but completely natural. They manage to convince me, [laughs] so every time I come back with so many things. When it’s back here, I don’t really use it anymore because I feel like it loses all its magic, or when it arrives here, it smells bad or not very nice. Also because I travel so much, I collect all the things from the hotels. I have my Chanel dopp kit where I put all the products I stole from hotels. [Laughs] I go to the gym and I like to have little cosmetics. This is a brand I really like, it’s called Cowshed, that I discovered when I went to the Soho House in London…I like the ones ‘ Dirty Cow’ and ‘ Cow Pat’, they are to moisturize your hands. They have a very good spa. I also have my perfume, Daphne, from Comme des Garçons. It’s made for Daphne Guinness. I don’t wear it everyday because it’s too strong. And the Bonpoint fragrance—I love it! It’s for babies, but they made it stronger for women.”

—as told to ITG