“I grew up in a town of 100 people in rural Ohio—the nearest mall was an hour away—but when I was 13 my dad won a trip to New York City. He was allowed to bring one person and he picked me. I was obsessed with the city from the moment we took our first taxi ride. I got scouted on that trip, but being from rural Ohio, my dad said, ‘Absolutely freaking not.’ I got scouted again at a coffee shop in Cincinnati. I signed up for an old school modeling school that taught you things like how to walk and do your makeup. When I got my first job modeling nursing scrubs, which was really exciting, the girl who was running the project offered to connect me to people. She sent me to New York to meet with agencies and here I am, still modeling and doing jobs for brands like Fenty Beauty, Calvin Klein, Skims, and Aerie, which was incredible because the billboard appeared in Times Square. Seeing myself three stories high? Just thinking about it makes me emotional because I think of that 13-year-old who came to the city for the first time and what she would’ve thought if she saw herself.
At the end of the day, I’m a model, but it’s important for me to continue saying that I’m a curve model to emphasize that we’re still in the industry and representing curvy women. I never saw that growing up. I even remember Googling curvy models to see girls who looked like me but I could never find any. And by the way, I don’t mind being called ‘plus-size.’ I’ve always been strong and thick. When I came to New York, I had an agent ask me about my ‘weight gain story’ and that really threw me off because I’d always been this size—and it’s that way for a lot of women. There’s not necessarily something that ‘happened.’ We are women. We are curvy. That’s it. So, how did I get here? Well, I was just born. [Laughs]
I’ve had to learn to take care of my skin well since I’m on set a lot. That means I don’t use a lot of active or really intense ingredients because I have eczema and psoriasis, and my skin can flare up pretty easily. That said, one of the best parts about being a model is that I get to try all sorts of products. Every makeup artist swears by different things, and somewhere along the way I heard about La Roche-Posay’s Cicaplast Balm. It’s changed the game for me. It’s so thick and hydrating, so I slather it on overnight when my skin is unhappy, and by the morning, my skin’s texture is a lot better.
I always go back to Bioderma’s micellar water to take off my makeup—it never leaves a film. My eye makeup remover—the Bi-Facil from Lancôme—is a little oily though. It’s what I grab when I wear heavy eye makeup at work, but it’s gentle at the same time. Osea’s Ocean cleanser is really gentle, too—and it smells really good.
My aesthetician—I see Gosia at Williamsburg Beauty Spa every two months or so—recommended that I use Biojuve’s Living Biome serum once a week because it has live probiotics, which are helpful with rosacea. I follow it up with the Activating mist, which is supposed to ‘activate’ the serum. And Weleda Skin Food Light is my go-to moisturizer year-round. It always leaves me with a beautiful base for makeup.
I’m going to be honest: I don’t wear sunscreen every day. I’ve had a hard time finding one that doesn’t break me out. But if I know I’m going to be outside for more than 20 minutes, I like Supergoop!’s Every Single Face SPF 50. I love that it’s really watery and goes on smoothly.
When it comes to body cleansers, I recently discovered Avène’s XeraCalm A.D cleansing oil. I feel like a lot of body washes leave your skin dry, but this one is not stripping at all. And I use Eucerin’s Eczema Relief Cream every morning and night, but especially when I have a photoshoot. It leaves this really beautiful glow on my skin but it doesn’t make me look shiny either. Oh, and the Aquaphor healing ointment? I use it on everything: on my lips, on my hands, on my elbows. Sometimes I use a tiny bit to slug if my face is super dry.
By the way, I self-tan every two weeks, maybe a little bit more frequently in the winter because I’m typically shooting summer campaigns then so I need to have some color on me. I’m a pro at tanning by now. My favorite is the St. Tropez Self Tan Express Bronzing Mousse. It fades so gradually, it’s great.
Tools-wise, I love my TheraFace. I use it to prep for shoots. It has so many attachments, but my favorite is the cold ring. I use a lot of ice on my face—sometimes I’ll dip my head in a bowl of water with a bunch of ice—but if I have enough time, I’ll grab the TheraFace or my gua sha cryo sticks. The TheraFace also has a hot ring that feels so great on my masseters, which tend to hold a lot of tension. And I love the Omnilux contour red light mask so much. I try to use it for 10 minutes every night and it helps so much with my rosacea. Even if I have windburn, if I use it before heading to bed, it’s gone by the next day.
On a normal day, I don’t wear makeup. I like to let my skin breathe and have a rest from all the makeup at work. If I do wear something on a day off, I just curl my lashes and apply lip gloss and mascara. But I only wear tubing mascara because I struggle with raccoon eyes. The first time I discovered it, I literally wanted to cry because I used to carry around concealer and makeup wipes with me every day. Caliray and No7 make great ones. Caliray goes on a bit thicker so I use that one for more glam looks, whereas No7 is better for castings because it’s less dramatic. It helps too that I tint my lashes every two weeks. I never thought I would do that myself, but then I had a makeup artist tell me it was really easy and she was right. It takes five minutes, too. And Fenty Beauty makes my favorite gloss, the Gloss Bomb in Fu$$y. The shade’s not that far off from my actual lip color—and I never want to stray too far. Oh, and for a little extra touch because I don’t have defined lip lines, I love Mac’s liner in Stripdown. It’s a ‘90s classic.
If I’m wearing a bit more makeup for a casting, I go for the Nars Soft Matte concealer. It blends really well and gives me good coverage. I have a couple of different shades because I like to mix them to really match my skin. Then I use the Nars Laguna bronzing cream in Laguna 02 on my eyelids. I picked this up from another makeup artist: If your eyelid is a little bit darker than your under eye, you look like you don’t have dark circles. The tails of my eyebrows don’t grow as thick as I’d like, so I fill them in with the Kosas Brow Pop Nano pencil in Medium Brown. Then I do a little touch of Merit’s highlighter in Bounce, too. It’s a little pink and not too shimmery. For blush, I love Nudestix’s blush stick in Bare Back, a cool nude that looks so, so natural on me. And I like to depot all of my face products and lipsticks into Vueset containers. It’s so much easier to travel or go to castings with two containers that are smaller than index cards than to pack a bunch of bottles.
On the hair front, I go to David Bullen at Pearlita for cuts. But I don’t dye it—anymore. I went through a phase in high school where I dyed the bottom half of my head in all kinds of colors—the bottom was mom saying ‘yes’ to dyeing it and the top was to make my dad happy. But pink, blue, purple… You name it, I had it. That was enough for a lifetime. [Laughs]
I wash my hair almost every day, but if I wasn’t on set all of the time, I would wash it twice a week. I love the Pacific Salty Wave shampoo and conditioner. They’re my secret find. A bottle of each is only $10. They don't have sulfates or parabens, but the shampoo still lathers, which is important to me because I don’t feel like I actually washed my hair otherwise. And the saltiness gives my hair great shape and volume. For styling, Redken’s Max Hold is the best. I love the nozzle because it sprays in a triangular mist, so it’s not too aggressive. And the ends of my hair really love the Badger herbal oil. It smells like almonds, which honestly is probably what really gets me.
On the fragrance front I love citrus-y, musky-but-light scents. I ultimately want something that blends well with my skin and doesn’t stand out too much. I recently discovered Lunamaris from Diptyque. It’s supposed to remind you of moonlight—it’s inspired by the moon reflecting on the ocean—and I guess it does. It has pink peppercorn, incense, and rockrose. I’m quite conservative in spending, but it was worth the splurge. The same goes for Santa Maria Novella’s Cinquanta. I bought it in Florence last November. It’s meant to be a blend of Japanese and Italian culture, so it’s got bergamot, grapefruit, and orange blossom as a nod to Florence and green tea as a nod to Kyoto. I found the brand through TikTok actually—everyone was posting about it in Florence—and it was my first real introduction to high-end fragrance. It’s insane that they’ve been around since 1221. 804 years? That’s crazy.”
—As told to Daise Bedolla
Photographed by Shana Trajanoska in Brooklyn on February 18, 2025
