What are three of your daily reads?
I check a ton of beauty sites and magazines but because I'm so immersed in the topic I usually just skim the content. Probably the one I enjoy the most is Glamour's beauty blog—for my site it's all about the headlines and I find Glamour does such a great job of writing them. They always suck me in to wanting to read the posts. Aside from that my guilty pleasures are Crazy Days and Nights and Get Off My Internets. The former is a gossip site that has wicked blind item reveals, and the latter basically just calls out bloggers on the internet for their narcissistic behaviour. It's hilarious (and keeps me in line!).
What is your daily beauty routine like?
If I'm at home writing, I'll apply a series of masks instead of putting on makeup. For events I'll put in some more effort, although I'm still pretty low-key (read: lazy). Always sunscreen, and then I spend the majority of time on whatever combo of BB Cream/primer/concealer/foundation/powder that I feel like that day. Then just mascara, nude eyeshadow, sometimes liner, blush and a lip gloss or lipstick. Because I am paranoid about my hair colour fading, I usually just let it dry naturally and spray in a ton of dry shampoo to give it texture.
Three must have products for the summer:
1. I can't live without SkinCeuticals sunscreen — it's the best mineral one out there and doesn't leave a white cast or make you greasy.
2. Bright nail polish. My pick of the season is Camera by Essie—a pinky coral.
3. That mascara-waterproofing product I mentioned above... it's called Lash Genius by Anastasia.
1. Camera nail polish by Essie
2. SkinCeuticals sunscreen
What is the best purchase you ever made?
I finally got on board the Retin-A train this year after years of interviewing dermatologists and hearing them tell me it's the gold standard for anti-aging. I'll let you know how that goes in five or 10 years, but for now I've noticed better skin texture and cleaner pores—so that's something!
What do you keep in your makeup bag?
At home I have waaaay too many products to fit in just one makeup bag (it's a real problem), but in my purse I carry fragrance, concealer, stick blush, a nail file, a hair brush/mirror compact, blotting papers and about 40 different types of lip products. (How they all get in there I don't know!)
Which modern day icons do you look up to?
I love Emma Stone for her beauty risk-taking. She always gets it right without looking overdone. Olivia Wilde is great too. For hair, I have a special place in my heart for the strawberry blondes, so I'm always saving pics of Amy Adams (and now this C-lister called Holland Roden) to take to my hairdresser.
Are the most expensive products better than the more affordable ones?
It really depends. Everyone should have an antioxidant serum in their skincare regimen, and they don't come cheap. I also think foundation, fragrance and high-quality hair tools are worth splurging on. Most other categories have perfectly fine drugstore offerings... so it's really a matter of prioritizing based on your needs. Will the Tom Ford lipstick be nicer to use than the Rimmel one? Of course. But nobody's going to know it's Tom Ford when you're walking down the street!
What are some of the biggest mistakes you see women doing?
I really wish women would get over the blonde highlight thing. It's so dated-looking now to have such obvious streaks with an ashy base. It's far more flattering for most people to do a darker, warmer all-over colour on their base with subtle, tone-on-tone highlights. I also think women wear too much makeup in general when they go out at night. When the outfit is sexy, your makeup shouldn't be over the top as well.
Name your top three songs:
Well according to my iTunes here are three that have received some of the most plays:
Tenderness by General Public (cheesy I know)
Ice Skating Girl (Linus Loves Remix) by Rekindle (I heard this in Anthropologie and Shazam'ed it)
Teenage Dream by Katy Perry (the pinnacle of her oeuvre, right??)
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