The #ITGTopShelfie interview series focuses on the beauty routines of Into The Gloss' lovely, accomplished, and loyal community of readers. Submit your own on Instagram—post your Top Shelfie (tag us @intothegloss!) and include the hashtag #ITGTopShelfie for a chance to be featured on ITG.
"My name's Melati (@illumelati) and I live in New York, although I'm from Jakarta, Indonesia. I consider both cities home. I'm one of the digital designers at Glossier, and I make sure that everything that you see online aligns with our brand and our vision. I'm also a kind of liaison between the different teams to make sure that everything ties together digitally. That's my favorite part—working with so many people. I also love learning and talking about beauty, which I was super ignorant about before working at a beauty company. For me, it's not about the trends that you see on Instagram, but it's definitely something that you can apply on a personal and spiritual level. It's more about being happy and comfortable with whatever you want to do with yourself—with makeup, without makeup, bra, no bra, filter, no filter. It's about being an individual, and about making choices that make you happy.
I'm embarrassed about this, since I work in beauty, but I don't even own a makeup brush. But I'm trying to focus on skincare. My mom is super diligent with her skincare, and at 53, she looks like she's in her 30s. [Ed note: It's true.] My other skincare inspiration is Alicia Keys. I just love how she looks without makeup. I have nothing against makeup, I love it, but I want to be able to feel good with and without it. I'm still working on it.
The first thing I do every morning is wash my face with Glossier Milky Jelly Cleanser. This is also the last thing I do every night, no matter how hard I go. It's honestly my best friend—my face wash knows me inside out and it's witnessed my most vulnerable moments. I follow it with Glossier Priming Moisturizer Rich. Then it's serum. I use hyaluronic acid and vitamin C, but I'm not loyal to any particular ones. Currently, I'm using Borghese for hyaluronic and Dr. Dennis Gross Vitamin C, which I got from my mom. At this point, it's just about using things that are convenient. SPF is a must—lately I've been using Glossier Invisible Shield.
After my skin routine I move on to lips and eyes, which is honestly the most straightforward makeup routine ever. I'm currently obsessed with Sephora's Rouge Lip Tint. I have it in almost every shade, but my favorites are Coral and Brown. It looks different on every lip, and it gives this watercolor stain that lasts for hours. I've eaten a double patty JG Melon burger and it stayed on! I sometimes top that with Dior Lip Glow in Berry since I'm a sucker for dark lips and berry tones—I owe that to Nadine who introduced me to it. The only thing after lips are my eyes–I use Boy Brow in Black to fluff up my brows and then go.
When I'm going out, however, I do a little bit more. I use lipstick as eyeshadow sometimes—a bit of MAC Russian Red across my eyelids for that effortless Soko look and pair it off with Generation G Lipstick in Cake. I also recently got Laura Mercier's Caviar Eyestick in Tuxedo when I'm feeling especially brave. Smearing a matte black shadow across your lids is more of a statement than red, if I'm being honest—pulling off a Taylor Momsen eye requires a bit of courage, but the caviar stick makes it easy to apply, and I can just use my fingers to blend the pigment over my lid.
I've wrecked my nails by getting gel manicures for four months straight, so I'm letting them breathe for now. Just like my approach to skincare, I'm trying to strengthen the canvas, so if ever I decide to go crazy with the pigments, my nails are still healthy and look good bare. I recently purchased Quimica Alemana from Amazon—a lot of my friends recommended the product to me and I've read a lot of great reviews. I'm still early on in the process so I can't tell if it works, but I'm being optimistic. As for the rest of my skin, I use Kiehl's Creme de Corps Body Butter followed by the Creme de Corps Lotion. Overkill, I know, but not to humble brag, I've gotten a lot of compliments about how smooth my skin is since I've started that. Don't neglect the rest of your body! It'll make you feel so good about yourself. When I'm feeling down I rub my arm and go, 'Damn, I'm silky soft.' Then I go about my day."
—as told to ITG
