Fran Miller, Founder, F. Miller: We definitely met in an After Dark setting.
Jackie McKeown, stylist: I used to bartend in Toronto and one of Fran’s close friends worked with me there and introduced us. And then I courted her.
Fran: [Laughs]
Jackie: We just really got along.
Fran: I’m a product junkie! I have a problem…
Jackie: You have to try every single beauty product.
Fran: I have to.
Jackie: We have thousands of full products in our bathroom. Just drawers and drawers and drawers of it.
Fran: God help us if we ever pass a Sephora.
Jackie: I’ll be like, “We don’t have time for Sephora right now.” But she’ll say, “But can we just…”
Fran: Just a couple of minutes! And then a half an hour later, Jackie gets mad at me.
Jackie: I can tell right away when it’s not going to be quick.
Fran: But Sephora’s also tough because it’s so overwhelming. I don’t really look for advice, so it does take a lot of time. What have I discovered recently? This Tata Harper Purifying Mask is one I’ve been liking—for both of us, there’s that certain time where you break out. Sometimes it’s before the period, sometimes it’s after, but it’s always a week’s worth of time where I’m kind of broken out. So I find that that’s nice to keep things at bay.
Jackie: We’ll mask together and make tea… sometimes we’ll do mani-Monday.
Fran: Mani-Monday is a thing.
Jackie: I really like it when Fran does my nails. We just got a shade from Uslu Airlines—why is it called that?
Fran: They have cute colors though.
Jackie: They have a cute punchy red. We share all of our products. I don’t really wear makeup—only two or three things—but if I need to do my makeup for going out or something, Fran does it for me.
Fran: I would say I acquire the products and Jackie uses them all. [Laughs]
Jackie: I’m always like "What’s this? Tell me about that…" She does make me try different things, but if I had my choice, I would literally use just her face oil.
Fran: I go into my studio, which is in our basement, and I’ll see a jar that’s been secretly touched. I’ll be like, “Did you…?”
Jackie: Yeah I’ll go and make myself some products… In terms of my skincare routine, I just wash my face with Fran’s F. Miller Cleansing Oil, which I really like. I don’t really like soaps on my face. Before I met Fran, I just didn’t wash my face—I would just wet it and put cream on it…
Fran: To which my reaction was, “Sorry—you don’t wash your face?!”
Jackie: I just didn’t like soap on my face because I’m dry already. Then I went through a hardcore coconut oil phase. It never made me break out, but it’s just so heavy. So the cleansing oil was nice because it doesn’t lather that much and then I feel like I’m already hydrated when I wash it off. I don’t need much after that. The Toning Mist is nice too. And then a little bit of concealer under my eyes. Where is that RMS one?
Fran: A classic. I think especially with drier skin types, I’m leaning towards everything creamy.
Jackie: I’ll also use mascara—we just got this W3LL People one, which is brown. My eyelashes are pretty light so this works better. That’s pretty much it.
Fran: You’re pretty low-maintenance. [Laughs] I’m pretty simple, too. For me, going wild is a brighter pop of color on my eyes or my lips. It’s not really crazy at all—Nars Heat Wave is my colorful one. Sometimes I’ll throw Cloud Paint in Dusk on my eyes. I find it lasts longer that way. Or a dusting of the Nars Mata Hari. Or in the summertime, I like Exhibit A. On Jackie, I’d probably do a highlight and a bronzer…
Jackie: Oh yeah you did give me a highlight that last time.
Fran: I really like Glossier Haloscope for that. I like the Topaz because it’s sort of a two-in-one, bronzer highlight situation. My daily is some sort of multifunctional stick—so it’s great for that.
Jackie: I’ve been really liking the Ilia Polka Dots & Moonbeams Illuminator.
Fran: Yeah that’s really nice—sometimes I’ll put that on top of the Haloscope. Or I’ll add some of the Make Terrazzo Bronzer.
Jackie: That one is really pretty.
Fran: She has flawless skin, so it doesn’t take much. Like, I don’t know how to contour. I understand the theory of it, but when I try to apply it, I’m always very confused. It doesn’t seem like I’m ever doing anything right. I do have a really easy go-to solution for my hair, since it tends to get greasy quickly. It’s this low bun. It photographs well, for one. I don’t really blow-dry my hair and use minimal hair products. I do my Hair Oil when I get out of the shower and then some texturizing spay once it dries.
Jackie: What’s in this bottle?
Fran: That’s your Kerastase Spray. You told me to put it into a tiny travel container, so I did!
Jackie: Oh! I had no idea. I never would have thought that this was my hair stuff. It's good before you straighten your hair.
Fran: You’re welcome. [Laughs]
—as told to ITG
Photographed by Tom Newton in New York on November 10, 2017.
