“I don’t go out. [Laughs] No, I do—I just have to schedule it. Usually when I go out these days, it’s for a friend’s birthday, or my own birthday, or a wedding. For vibe, I feel like the ‘90s have kind of given way to the early aughts. I’m thinking about the Chloé ads with Mini Anden, and the girls are all oily and laughing. Their hair’s all wet—it’s very sexy, very J.Lo ‘Waiting For Tonight,’ where she’s in the jungle. That's how I found the dress—I was searching eBay for Chloé vintage and found this from the Phoebe Philo era, around 2000. It was like $200! And the shoes I found at a vintage store in San Francisco for $100—Nicolas Ghesquiere for Balenciaga, from around the same time. With them, I want to use a lot of body oils and creams, and have a bit of shimmer on my body. I don’t want to be all powdery going out—I want to be smudgy.
Before an event, you want to make sure you’re super well hydrated and well moisturized, because it also helps your makeup look good. If I know I’m going out, I sleep in a thin layer of a super moisturizing mask the night before, like our Moisturizing Moon Mask or the Valmont Renewing Pack, which I just picked up at Rescue Spa. And I always use Solution before makeup, because it makes an even texture for makeup to go on. I don’t want any dead skin on the surface—I want to be very cleansed, exfoliated, and moisturized. So I do that, and then the Oxygenating Serum from Biologique. I think it helps with congestion and buildup—I like preventing rather than treating. Then I slather on Priming Moisturizer Rich.
I also like to take a bath almost every night, even on nights when I’m going out. I’ve read a lot about bathing—in different cultures, bathing is more of a soak, not necessarily to clean. So I take a shower before I take a bath. In the shower, my favorite, favorite body product is Body Hero. I love the smell, I love the texture—it feels extremely luxurious, and it doesn’t make me dry at all. I think having something that smells really amazing—it has this incredible fresh orange scent—is really ritualistic. I do a lot of things with scent. Every morning I light my Palo Santo incense from Peru. I buy it in bulk from Incausa, which is a co-op that imports and works with different local communities in Brazil and Peru and Asia to create different products. It’s a very cool company. I love the scent memory—knowing that in the shower, it smells like Body Hero. It’s like an emotional anchor.
Before events, I like to use St. Ives Apricot Scrub, which I hear is very controversial. But I only use it once in a blue moon for arms, legs, and the rest of my body. I can’t help that it’s really effective! I like that it doesn’t leave any residue at all, it just rinses straight off. And it doesn’t destroy your shower with splatterings of grains everywhere. For my face, I use Milky Jelly Cleanser if I’m already wearing makeup. If I’m not, I go straight to the Tracie Martyn Amla Purifying Cleanser that I’ve been using for years. It’s very gentle, and it’s slightly foaming, but it has an acidic exfoliating property. Then when I get in the bath after, I make it as hot as I can stand. And I always do at least two pounds of Epsom salts. It makes you sweat like a maniac. It’s a workout without moving. Then I either add essential oil or a little bit of bubble bath from Santa Maria Novella. I stay in there for at least 45 minutes.
I’ve never used foundation all over my face. I don’t have anything against it, it just doesn’t look that good on me. Instead, I like to use Stretch Concealer in Medium and blend it out with my fingers. I put it around my nostrils, under my eyes, and in the middle of my forehead because I have melasma. I just cannot figure out how to get rid of it. I’ve done laser like five times...it just comes back when it’s hot.
My makeup look tends to be a very concentrated eye—I like things to stay pretty close to the lash line on my eye shape. And I like to stick to a single color—I either do a single color eyeliner or a single color eyeshadow. I don’t do a cut crease or anything like that. Just an eyeliner plus a Lidstar. I think eyeshadow has been so tied to technique—it’s all about ‘this one goes on the lid and this one goes wherever’—when I think the real job of eyeshadow is just to enhance your eye subtly. For me, there wasn’t a product that gave a glistening, wet look from something that dries down. Once it's set, Lidstar does not move, but it looks very fresh even after it’s dry. And the colors just enhance, they don’t distract. Right now I have Cub buffed up to the crease with a brush. Then I did Moon in the middle, and took it all the way up to the brow. I don’t have a preference when it comes to liner. This one is NYX. I did it all the way around on the waterline, and outside the eye in the corner, really pushed into the lash line and smudged. If I’m doing a liner it’s mainly black, or brown, or gray, and sometimes a navy. Or actually a dark burgundy—so really, any color. [Laughs]
The mascara I’m wearing is Lash Slick! How many years in the making is Lash Slick? Like, friggin' since we launched. We always knew that we wanted to do a mascara, to have a very natural lash. I used to really love the Kevyn Aucoin tubing one—I really like a lot about that one, except for the tubes. But I did like that the tubes made it hold the shape, and made it very well defined and sleek, and it lasted all day long. Lash Slick does all of that, and it comes off super easily—it just washes off. The hold is incredible with this mascara. For a 12-hour day, or a 12-hour night—I don’t remember the last time I did that… You know when you come home and the rest of your makeup is sliding off your face? Usually, by the time you get home, your face kind of looks like a hot mess. Let’s be real. With this, I find that my lashes are in the exact same place. It’s always such a surprise to see them lifted and not smudged—it’s like a little surprise and delight moment.
The last time I was in LA, I got this spray tan from a woman named Ana Maria—she comes to you for $75. It was great. I want to look like that again. Body Hero Perfecting Cream is formulated for this very moment—when your arms are out, your legs are out, and you want them to look sleek, svelte, glow-y, not glittery. I’m also using Topaz Haloscope on my legs and clavicle and shoulders for extra J.Lo. On my face, I put Burberry Fresh Glow bronzer—it’s liquid-y and easy to move around—on the outside of the face, the bridge of the nose, the brow bone and on my neck, because my neck is always lighter. For contouring, I stop in the hollows of my cheeks, where I have dimples. The full Kardashian is where you go all the way to the mouth with the contour shade. I don’t go quite that far.
You know how people say that their deodorant stopped working? Mine just stopped working. I was using Dove Clinical Strength because my mom got it for me, and it was working so well for probably a year. I was like, ‘I found the holy grail, I never get B.O., this is great.’ And now…I need to find a new one. Maybe my body just wants to smell.
I’m very bad at hair. My hair is very fine and straight, so I usually let it air dry. People say you can’t go out of the house with wet hair, but I don’t think that makes a lot of sense. Earlier today I had hair that was very masterfully crafted by Cecelia Romero because I did an interview this morning. This is leftover hair—the best hair. Think of any time you’ve ever gotten your hair done for a wedding, and then the next day you’re hungover, but you look great. Then I sprayed it with Soothing Face Mist so I didn't have to actually wash it. It just loosened up all that great product buildup.
On my lips, I only really wear Balm Dotcom or our lip gloss. That’s my lip look. I have a lot of lip color naturally, and when I try to augment my lip color, it doesn’t look good. I did it for a long time—I love Leo and Cake—but lately, my thing is just lip gloss. Again, it’s that early aughts look—it’s just so good. I love Birthday Balm Dotcom—it’s just great, and I never get sick of it. When it launched, I was like, ‘Surely I’m gonna get sick of it.’ Now I use it before I go to bed. All the time.”
—as told to ITG
Emily Weiss photographed in New York by Tom Newton on April 24, 2018.
