"My first job was for Comme des Garçons when I was 16. It was a beautiful story. But my idea of modeling was Claudia Schiffer for Versace, and I didn't know how, but I thought that somehow, they would transform me into that. Then I arrived on set, met Pat McGrath, and saw this white mask with black bananas all over it. I was like, 'Oh well.' [Laughs] It was great. It taught me so much—the idea that beauty has no barriers. I think that's part of my success... I had no limits about what beauty was. I didn't care.

Now, I'm not good at beauty. I'm a very Roman woman—I know how I see things and how I want to project myself. And I'm a mother now, so I have less and less time to devote to it. Most of my routines have stuck with me, but I'm adding stuff and trying to get better. My own mother was a great beauty. When I grew up, she would bring me to the Roman hammam baths and we'd scrub and go have a meal. It's far from the Moroccan hammam but a little similar. I still do it—I'll use this Borghese Body Scrub all over in the hammam. Borghese is very old school Italian, very good quality. It's named for Princess Marcella Borghese, who was this modern, cool princess. A very particular beauty.

It’s quite sunny in Rome, which is a problem for me because I don’t like the sun. I always use SPF 50, every day, even in the winter. I don't want to tan. I like the La Roche-Posay Anthelios, or I use the Avène with the tint. Then I spray a purifying vitamin mist from Virgin Vie [ed note: no longer available]. I do a heavy, heavy moisturizer as my base for the day—Borghese Acqua Ristorativo. I love their Active Mud Mask too. It clears your skin, and when you take it off, you get a glow. It's like you have baby skin, so I put some on my body, too. That's good for pre-party.

My makeup depends on what I wear, but it's usually a very little smoky eye and a lip. I like to draw my lips and smudge them. I use my fingers, too, because otherwise I would not know how. Pat does it like that. Do you see how she applies lipstick? No one else can do it like that. She has the perfect lipstick finger. It never translates the same way when I do it myself. I like the Nars pencils for lips. My red is MAC Ruby Woo, the really bright one. I use both the stick and the liner, and I tend to overline my lips, just a little.

My favorite mascara is Givenchy's Noir one, brown or black, and I use it every day. You can put it on the top lashes and it looks like you're not wearing anything. It just opens up your eyes. I also use Burberry Kohl in Stone on the inside of my eyes to make them a little brighter. I might also put Chestnut Brown on the tops of my eyes. No blush or bronzer, I don't like them. They always look cheap on me. I like to look like a porcelain doll.

I have a little bit of a hair problem—the problem being that I have a lot of hair and it’s very crazy. I always have to wet it with a conditioner [when I style it], so I use this new vitamin conditioner from Redken. Then I brush it through with a Mason Pearson, or I use my Tangle Tweezer. No, no—Tangle Teaser! I use that for my daughter and myself a lot. I wash almost everyday, either with Redken Clear Moisture Shampoo or Coppola Shampoo. And I get it colored twice a month. It’s simple to have your hair black—I like the contrast with my skin.

These days, it's important to balance inner serenity with outer beauty. Treating yourself to a hammam and a mask is adding to your beauty not because of the ingredients, but the fact that you're taking care of yourself for 20 minutes. I’m very lucky right now—after 15 years of living in New York, I have a living room finally, and I'm cooking more, going to the market and getting veggies... Before I had my baby all I had was a bottle of champagne in the fridge. I found myself with this little creature and I thought, ‘I don’t think she can drink champagne quite yet.’"

—as told to ITG

Mariacarla Boscono photographed by Tom Newton in New York on April 26, 2017. Makeup by Wendy Rowe. Hair by Franco Gobbi.