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.
"Hi! My name is Estelle Spirig (@esteast), I’m a photographer from Geneva, Switzerland. Most of what I do is fashion and beauty photography, so I’m always looking for beautiful and interesting clothes, creative makeup, textures, and colors, colors, colors... Anything I find visually interesting influences my work. Sometimes it’s silly things, like the little colorful hair clips I once found in a thrift store in South Dakota, and based a whole photo series on. Lately I’ve been trying to find a balance between health, natural things, taking care of the environment…and the part of me that loves makeup and fashion. My approach to beauty is still a little clumsy because I’m still learning and experimenting. The time I use to take care of myself is important–putting on little masks, cutting my nails, exfoliating, washing my hair. When I feel good in my own body, I can get back to work.
Every day first thing, I drink a glass of water with my activated charcoal pills. I love Kiehl’s–I use their Pineapple Papaya Facial Scrub once a week. There is always one morning when I feel like my skin and pores need a gentle clean up and that’s the perfect product to do it, plus it smells good. My skin feels all tight and soft like a baby after I use it. I always finish my shower with cold water, I love it. Nothing better than cold water to feel alive. After I shower I’ll do Glossier Super Pure–which my friends ship to me from the States–a little Nuxe Contour Des Yeux Prodigieux for my eyes, and moisturize my whole face with the Glossier Priming Moisturizer. I hydrate my neck, chest and the rest of my body with either some neroli hydrosol followed by argan oil, or the Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse.
Then it’s Boy Brow in Black and some eyeshadow from Bourjois in Citron Givré on my brow bone and on the very top of my cheeks to give some shine and highlight. I like this blush from MAC in Mocha, but you have to make sure your skin is well moisturized since it’s powder. The shade is soft and not too extravagant with my skin tone, and that’s where it’s at. My favorite eyeliner is Lancôme Eyes Artliner in Noir, because it has a spongy brush and it is easy to keep the same density on the thickness of the line on your eye. Once I’ve done all that, I spray my face and chest with a hydrosol–either a rose, orange blossom, or lavender one. At night, I use Biosource Biotherm to take my makeup off. It’s the best! It really takes everything off without burning or irritating my skin.
My perfume is Santal 33 from Le Labo–I know, everyone wears it, but now I can barely smell it. During the summer, I like to use the perfume oil version, it feels more intimate and it is nicer on the skin. Actually, when I was still too young to use products, my parents would give me little empty bottles of old perfumes, and I would use them for rose water and a basic moisturizing cream. My grandmother would always tell me to put a little drop of eau de Cologne on my little pimples to dry them out before bed. Retro.
Really the best thing I have come to learn is how many everyday things you can use to make your own beauty products. I love tea tree oil because it has so many uses–it works when I get little hormonal pimples, on itchy mosquito bites, and I also started using it in my hair a few years ago when I stopped using shampoo. But my favorite cool trick is for dandruff. You boil some fresh rosemary in water, then let [the water] cool off, and rinse your hair with it after your regular shampoo. After doing that a couple times, your scalp feels much better and the dandruff goes away. I’ve also heard if you massage your scalp with rosemary oil, that works too!"
–as told to ITG
