'I'm an actress, and I have a movie coming out called Warm Bodies. I’m really proud of it—essentially, it’s a movie about how love can breathe life back into people. It is definitely a wacky concept [a zombie-human love affair], but the director, Jonathan Levine, pulled it all together and ended up making a great movie. I’m excited because I fought hard for the role—I went to a bunch of auditions and meetings and I felt really connected to the material. I thought it said so much in such a unique way—there are these really subtle messages about society and about love and about the power of human connection.
In addition to doing that, I have a website called Your Zen Life, which I started with my friend Phoebe [Tonkin] a few months ago. Basically, it’s an online scrapbook where people can come and share their passion about wellness and health—it’s a community for encouraging each other to live our happiest, healthiest lives possible… I’m really into healthy living any way I can. Australia, where I’m from, lends itself to a healthy lifestyle; it’s a very outdoorsy place. We all grow up running around outdoors and eating fruit in the summer…and I’ve become even more health-minded since I moved to Los Angeles. There’s a huge veganism community here, and people are very aware of that kind of stuff. I am not vegan, myself—I call myself ‘sea-gan’ [Laughs] because I still eat things from the sea, but I don’t eat any dairy or other animal products. I keep saying I’m transitioning into veganism, but basically, I’m a vegan until I feel like eating fish!
People think I’m a hippie—and I’d like to think I connect with the quote-unquote ‘hippie’ lifestyle—but no, I’m not really. I’m not all about free love and you can have sex with every single person, you know. I definitely have boundaries. [Laughs] But I do like to dress a little hippie-ish, and in my beauty products, I’m all about the more natural, the better.
First of all, I always use an oil on my skin—either avocado oil or something like argan oil is very good, too. I like trying all different kinds, but there’s a sort of thickness to the avocado oil and a scent that I like. I got mine at Whole Foods; I love the beauty department at Whole Foods. And I like oils because my favorite look for my face is dewy, and an oil will make you look glowy…and you don’t have to wear nearly as much makeup over it. I’ve actually been using it since I was 15 years of age: I would go to school, I wouldn’t put any makeup on, just some oil on my skin—I was just using my mom’s cooking oil at the time! [Laughs] Since then, I advanced up to coconut oil and now I’m using avocado oil, which also helps get rid of redness or any little dots. Or if you’ve got a pimple, it gets rid of the scars. It’s great.
In terms of my routine, I cleanse and moisturize my face twice a day—I’m really religious about it. In the morning, I’ll use a foaming cleanser, and then at night, I’ll use either sweet-almond or avocado oil to take off my eye makeup, just a tiny bit. And if my eyes are still puffy after I clean my face with cold water, I’ll get caffeinated tea bags, soak them in water, freeze them, and take them out 15 minutes before I’m doing my makeup or getting it done for an event. You put the bags on your eyes and the caffeine gets rid of the puffiness—oh, my poor, puffy eyes. [Laughs]
I really love the no-makeup makeup look, which is why I usually use a tinted moisturizer. I like how thin they are and how natural you look. Then, I use a Concealer Stick from Artistry, which is a beauty brand that I’m the global face of, on any blemishes and under my eyes, because I get quite dark circles; it’s hereditary. I’ve tried to fix it with my diet—adding things to my diet, taking things out of my diet, different makeup and face creams, whatever—but it is, unfortunately, something I have to live with. I also try to eliminate salt as much as I can, since salt makes you puff up and my body tends to hold the water, and I see it mainly in my face. Before a photo shoot or a press junket, I do not eat anything with salt in it… I once read an interview with Julianne Moore where she talks about it, and she called it ‘sushi face.’ Like, when you go and have sushi the night before, you wake up with sushi face. It fits! A ‘seagan’ with sushi face—that’s not too appealing. [Laughs]
Anyway, I always fill in my eyebrows with some eye shadow and pencil because I have a mega gap at the end of my brows. And if I’m doing makeup-makeup, I’ll use the Artistry Escape to Paradise Palette. It has everything I need: cheek, eye, daytime to nighttime. The gold shade is really nice around your eyes, and you can use it to add shimmer or highlights. I’ll even use the gold on the tops of my cheeks—a tiny bit, dusted over the peachy-rose shade. A multi-tasking palette is essential for me, since I can get kind of lazy with my makeup regimen; I don’t like taking more than fifteen minutes to put it on. So, if I can just whip out one palette, do my eyes, do my cheeks—which his exactly what this Escape to Paradise palette is—I can get it all done quickly.
What else? I always curl my lashes. I only discovered it a couple of years ago, but now I feel naked without my eyelash curler. I don’t’ have very long eyelashes, so it’s really important for me to do before mascara. I do the top and bottom lashes—I think it opens them up and add definition. For my lips, I usually make my them slightly more pink than what they are naturally, but only one or two shades; I like subtlety.”
—as told to ITG
Teresa Palmer photographed by Emily Weiss in Los Angeles on January 3, 2013. Her film Warm Bodies, co-starring Nicholas Hoult, hits theaters today.
