'When I was in high school, I was trying to balance modeling and basketball and it was so hard. One time I was at an away game in Toronto and my teammates and I were playing a really hard team and things were getting rough, but I had to leave early for a test shoot. The locker room was closed so I couldn't change...I was there with my basketball shorts and jersey, my modeling bag, my school bag and I just ran out of the school. People outside were making fun of me like, yo, she’s leaving because they’re losing! I was like, no—I have to go take a picture! I couldn’t explain that to them. This was back home—I grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, but I live in New York now. When you guys first interviewed me, I had just moved here and was living out of a suitcase. I was like, oh my God, this place!

If you asked me what kind of hair and makeup I wanted back then, I would have told you to ask Riccardo [Tisci] and tell me what to do. [Laughs] Now I have a sense of it—I like picking out makeup and outfits. If I’m not working, I wear foundation 50-60 percent of the time...except for when I'm on my vacation, and then no. I love Bobbi Brown especially because I can apply that on myself. I’ll use Guerlain Terracotta not for contour but for bronzing, and then I mix up YSL Touche Éclat, MAC Select Cover-Up, and a Nars Color Corrector. All three of them together is like a cocktail. For mascara, I just got the double brush from MAC—the thick and thin one. The thick separates so well so I really like it. I used to use those Chanel mascaras because they have the best combs that just glide through your lashes. Everything for my eyebrows is from Anastasia Beverly Hills. I just have to fill them in a little bit more. So I use a mix of pencil and gel.

I love a good lip color. For red, I like the Chanel Rouge Coco. Then Nars has a really good plum pencil— Palais Royal. A friend of mine suggested using the Lip Bar for new colors. The founders were on Shark Tank and they came up with these vegan, organic lipsticks—but the colors! The plum, the purple, the fuchsia... My next adventure is not fuchsia but somewhere in that pastel pinky purple area.

For skincare, I have sensitive skin, so I really just use Bioderma Créaline to take off makeup. I use Embroylisse Lait-Crème Concentré—it's a little heavy for summer, but it works now that it's cold. I do have Dermologica Daily Microfoliant, the little powder that turns into a scrub, and that stuff is really good to use once a week. I had a sample and then I fell in love and I bought it. This is why samples are great and people should not be afraid of giving out samples. I use coconut oil for moisturizer now, too...I was looking at natural scrubs and then someone said coconut oil is good for scars and stretch marks anywhere and then I started using it on my body and I was like why wouldn’t I wear it on my face if it’s so good?

OK, let’s talk hair. I believe that if you give a lot of attention to what you wear, you should give that much attention to your hair. For products, Oribe has a great styling cream. I use that when my hair’s curly. You put it in when your hair is down. I’ll use Fekkai's Mending Elixir, and it’s like an eyedropper—I do a little drop. It’s like this replenishing serum. That stuff's amazing. For conditioners and shampoos, I’m addicted to DevaCurl. It defines my curls after all the heat.

For exercise I don't just do basketball anymore—I do everything. I need to do something different every 30 seconds actually. Those high intensity classes are always good for that. There's the integral training, and you mix it up with Pilates, kickboxing, spinning, basketball, bike riding...at least 3-4 times a week. And I have a lot of at-home exercises. If I have a call time at 8 or 9am, I can do stuff at the house and get a really good workout inside. I love that kind of stuff—I used to want to be a doctor in the NBA. That’s where my head was until [my agent] found me and got me to commit to modeling. I wasn’t ready for it. But it's always been fun for me. I had to learn so fast and I appreciate it—without it I probably wouldn’t be the same person.”

—as told to ITG

Grace Mahary photographed by Tom Newton.

Malaika Firth gets her makeup inspiration from YouTube videos, Georgia May Jagger experiments with Japanese gel exfoliants, and Jasmine Tookes ices her face before bed in The Face.