"French girls pretend they’re not into beauty when they are, obviously. Everyone has their routines, and I have mine—but it's not very elaborate. I actually do a lot of things that aren’t good for my skin—I smoke, for example. And I love the sun and to go to beaches... I’m actually taking Phytobronz capsules to get tanned because I love being tanned. A friend told me it works, so we'll see in a month if I'm still tan. But it's those things that made me more interested in face creams that are for girls like me—city girls who like the sun. I like things with SPF and that protect my skin against pollution and stuff like that.
In the morning I cleanse using Gommage Visage Pulpe de Coco Face Scrub from My Little Corner. It’s very gentle, and leaves your face very smooth. The thing I’m most obsessed with is face cream. I cannot go out without face cream. I have very dry skin, so I use a lot of it! I use Phyt’s Soin Nutri Protecteur but I also like Lierac. I wouldn’t say I care about organic ingredients—what I really care about is my face not being dry, and that what I use doesn’t give me pimples. If it doesn’t give me pimples and makes me less dry then it’s good! [Laughs]
My makeup is very simple. When I’m tan I don’t use any face makeup—just a little bit of Touche Éclat, it’s the best! It’s so light you don’t even see it and it works. If I’m not tanned, I tend to have a lot of dark circles, like a zombie. So I use a tinted moisturizer—either Caudalie Radiance Tinted Moisturizer Broad Spectrum in Light or La Roche-Posay Rosaliac CC Cream. Then I use blush—Guerlain Terracotta—and lipstick. My favorite lipstick is YSL Rouge Pur Couture Mats Collection in Prune Virgin. I put on a little bit with my finger and it looks like just-bitten lips. Now I have on MAC Sheen Supreme Lipstick in Good To Be Bad [ed note: no longer available—try Zen Rose or the deeper Quite The Thing!]. It’s sheer and a little bit more like a lip balm. I can’t leave my house with bare lips, even though I use very little. I think darker colors are the most natural for my complexion and hair color. I like UNE Natural Beauty Sheer Lip Gloss. It’s very old, but I like it, it’s very '60s. A bold red is different. A bold red, I can wear sometimes when I have a party or when it’s nighttime. I like my lips to be really lined when I put on a bold red, but not over-lined!
At night I use Bioderma to remove makeup. Sometimes I use this Caudalie Make-Up Removing Cleansing Oil but only when I’m out of Bioderma! Afterwards I use Caudalie Polyphenol C15 Overnight Detox Oil sometimes before I go to sleep. It feels fresh and smells medicinal and when you wake up your face feels really smooth. I love it. Another face cream that I like is La Roche-Posay Effaclar Duo. It’s more for when you have small spots. I like Melvita Brume de Beauté Rose Bio—it’s a face spray and it smells like rose. I use the Caudalie and then the Melvita.
My hair is my obsession, I take the most care of it. I cut it because I wanted it to look more '60s. I think this is pretty much the look I want to keep for now. I don’t wash it every day, more like every two or three days. And it's dyed, so I only use Redken for blondes or L’Oréal Professionnel Silver Gloss Protection. It prevents my hair from getting green or yellow. Before I dry my hair I use Redken Frizz Dismiss, which makes it really smooth. When I wash it I blow-dry, but just so that it’s not full of water, and I don’t brush at all.
I’ve been wearing the same perfume for 10 years—Tam Dao by Diptyque. Diptyque is very cool and chic and the perfume smells like santal and fig. For deodorant I use Etiaxil Quotidien Déodorant Anti-Transpirant—it’s a spray, and it’s the best deodorant in the world. You don’t sweat at all! It doesn’t smell like anything. I love scents but I hate bad scents! I always tell my friends to buy it. One day I was in a pharmacy, and I asked for the best deodorant where you don’t perspire at all. That was five years ago and I’ve been using it since!"
—as told to ITG
Sabina Socol photographed by Tom Newton at her home in Paris on March 9, 2016.
ITG à Paris: Read the Top Shelves of noted Parisians Claire Thomson-Jonville ( Self Service EIC), Anna Schiffel (French Vogue stylist) and Catherine Deneuve (the inimitable).
