Janet Mock Shares Her Everyday Skin-Care Routine, and the "MVP" of Her Makeup Bag

[gentle music]

[Janet] Hi, I'm Janet Mock.

I'm gonna walk you through my everyday skincare

and makeup routine.

First step is my cleanser.

I truly believe in really being gentle on your skin,

you don't pull, you don't tug, and you don't rub.

So I'm just always patting, and patting, and patting.

I learned that somewhere,

probably in one of these Beauty Secret videos.

[laughing]

The next thing I like to do is use

these little kind of Power Glow Peels.

So I just kind of lightly...

I started really struggling with acne

when I was in the 10th grade,

probably right after I really went hard and deep

into my transition, you know, dealing with hormone therapy.

It can kind of do a number,

in addition to being in puberty, right?

So it was just, I remember my first products

that I thought I was so fancy about

[laughing] was Proactiv, but it was my starter kit.

It really helped me have a three-step skincare routine

like kind of anchored me.

And so after that, I do this little Feelings Mist,

which I love so much.

It has some peppermint, patchouli, and sage, and chamomile.

And it's actually, [facial mist spraying]

also for a really great cause.

It's made by survivors of domestic violence.

I put that kind of all over

and I like the tingling sensation it has on,

it centers me, it helps me breathe.

It reminds me to be in my body and

to really kind of awaken.

I really do believe that what skincare does,

it's really a great moment to just focus on yourself,

reminds you like, this is who I am,

this is my face, love myself, here I am.

You know, I have some marks here,

I have this and I just kinda just live with that.

And the next thing that I love to do is, use

this little tool from NuFACE.

It's like a micro-current tool, you need a

little protecting on at first. Right?

So I use this gel primer from them.

I go all the way to the highest power.

My favorite time to do this is usually when

I'm watching some like really great, delicious reality TV

because I'll find myself lost in the TV

and then also just pulsing my face

and I'll do it for like an hour, not even knowing.

Because I've already done so much exfoliation,

I really love this toner.

I am really strict with myself on my skin,

I think it's probably the one most indulgent thing I do

in my life.

It's not so much clothes, maybe jewelry a little bit

but my skin it's like, I have to be very strict.

There's not a night that I'll ever sleep with makeup on,

there's not a night where I won't do every single step

of my stuff.

And so I do my vitamin C serum.

I liked this super one, a couple

like one, two, three, four, five.

I have a big head, so you know,

girl needs all of it but I also suffer...

Not suffer, I live with hyperpigmentation.

So like I had this little, little breakout

so I popped her out a little bit and so she could get dark.

So I have to make sure that I'm vigilant about brightening

and keeping that all in, without lightening my skin.

After that, I do some eye cream.

I like this one here.

I also like to put a little lip balm on.

So I put a little hyaluronic acid on.

This is my little...

[laughing]

There it went.

You know, I don't usually use that much, I kind of

put a lot on there, but you know, as Elektra says on Pose,

I don't want a little, I'm want to be more.

More jewelry, more finery. God, that show.

You know, I remember my first day on set

in October, 2017 and seeing that cast

for the first time, being fussed over by all the

hair and makeup people, the costumers, the DP,

the lighting folks, like just seeing them be centered

in that way. It was pivotal for me.

It was pivotal for me because I had never seen it before.

And so to say goodbye to this show that has

celebrated family, and that has celebrated what it means to

be different and to embrace yourself, what it means to

celebrate each other in a world that often

doesn't celebrate you.

I'm going to miss it.

I'm going to miss writing for those characters,

but I'm really excited about our new season,

our final season.

This product here, I really love.

It helps me with my sebum, which I guess

is what causes acne.

It's called Acne Stop.

I just do like a pump of it,

and it's basically my moisturizer.

The next thing I do is give some tender, loving care

to my décolletage.

I like this one from Charlotte Tilbury,

actually it's like a mask, it's a balm,

it's a cleanser. It's for baby glowing skin

and it smells delicious.

And it gives your skin, this sheen.

Being from Hawaii, I love the sun.

And so I'm like always trying to achieve my

bronzy, sepia goddess toned, Lena Horne fantasy.

Don't forget Dorothy Dandridge too.

The most important step... Sunblock.

You may not think you need it, black people, but you do.

Growing up in Hawaii.

I didn't wear a touch of sunscreen and I was crispy and dry.

And it probably also why I had a lot

of those acne marks that I ended up happening.

I think that when you grow up, you know, with acne

you never feel like your skin is good.

It's always bad.

And so, I still don't think I have good skin.

It's like in my head, I always just see

like the little things I can't stand.

This is the best my skin has ever looked,

and I'm really proud of it.

I put a lot of work into it and money into it

but I do like the reminder that it gives me to love

on myself, even with my flaws, even with the little things

that only I noticed in my mad head,

but I think it's a good lesson for all of us.

Put a little eyedrops in.

I love these ones that my best friend Wendy got

for me when she goes to Paris

and stuff for fashion week.

She's a really talented makeup artist

and she taught me everything I know.

I just put one drop in there.

And it really, I guess, some reason the blue cancels

out the red. I mean it makes my eyes look...

or maybe it's just a placebo effect in my head,

but it makes them look so bright.

And then I like to put a little lip plump

on, to like set my lips.

And I love the tingling sensation it eventually gives you.

Addicted to that.

I just put a little GrandeBROW on

for the struggle nineties brows that I had growing up.

And I throw that all in there,

it's a little hair growth serum.

My little bridge... bridge products to bring it

between skincare and my makeup routine.

And so for my base

I like to mix Laura Mercier tinted moisturizer

with Charlotte Tilbury.

A little bit in here.

A couple of like one, two drops.

I think I watched some documentary

with the Makeup artist, Pat McGrath,

and she loves to use her hands.

And Wendy uses, you know, hands on my face

and her hands have been on my face since I was 12 years old.

I met her when growing up in Hawaii

and we were in middle school together in the seventh grade.

And she came up to me and saw me.

And at this time I was presenting as a boy.

I hadn't gotten the courage yet to embrace myself

and tell myself my truth,

and Wendy was just a mirror and a reflection.

She came right up to me and said,

I see you, I know who you are, stop pretending.

She didn't say it exactly like that,

because she was only 13 years old

but it felt like that, the interaction felt like that.

And she was so passionate even then

about makeup and skincare and all of that stuff,

and the first thing she did for me was my eyebrows.

And that is why I still have trauma

in my eyebrows because the bitch took all my eyebrows out.

But it was the nineties, so it makes sense.

Those memories of discovering femininity together,

good makeup and skincare and hair,

and all of that stuff is my fondest memories.

The act of supporting and loving each other.

That's what sisterhood is, right?

Concealer. I like this Pat McGrath LABS one.

I'm so proud of the transformation of the industry.

When I was growing up, you know,

there weren't many cosmetics brands that were making,

you know, colors

and hues for all kinds of different ranges of skin tones.

We spent so much time at the Mac counter, not only

because of how those sales people looked, like

they just looked super cool, but they also had a range

of colors.

But they were like really the only that we could find

or had access to in Hawaii.

And so I'm so glad that now we have Pat McGrath

and we have Fenty Beauty, which I also love...

out there doing this,

you know, important work of like inclusive beauty and

making us all feel like we're deserving of

having and taking up space

not only in the world, but in the little things like

in Sephora, like at, you know, blue mercury,

at any kind of makeup counter that you're in,

that we matter and we belong here

and we deserve to have products that, you know, reflect our

range of beauty.

Mascara that I like to use is

this Benefit magnet one.

And I could do this all day,

like, it's my favorite step.

It's the only thing when I'm in glam

and get like other people are getting me ready.

I have to do my mascara on my own.

I have to curl my lashes on my own.

I just don't trust anyone else to do it.

When I was younger

I used to love like a beat, like just beat my face.

I don't want to see not even a pore,

I don't want to see any glimpse of a skin.

And I think it was largely probably

because I had such like trauma from struggling with my skin.

Right. And like you think cover, cover

cover up and that'll help me look prettier

or like I have better skin.

But you know, when you take care of your skin,

you don't have to wear as much.

I'm not a big eyeshadow person

but I do like these little tools from Glossier.

It, I like super simple stuff and I like to mix colors

and I like to just kind of need to do a couple of drops.

So I love this bronzer and I kind of use it...

It's a Mac.

I like to use this Fashion Fair, like a deeper color.

And I use kind of like a fan brush like this.

And I just go into the hairline just

a little bit to kind of create a little definition.

[soft piano music]

Like my face, it's so interesting,

as I've gotten older I realize,

how much I look and resemble my mom.

And some of the things I got

from her is definitely these cheekbones

which she still has and my eye shape

and those are the things that I love the most about my face.

It's kind of nice that I can say that considering

that I couldn't stand how I looked when I was younger

you know, the struggle that trans people go

through with their bodies

or some trans people, not everyone, but, you know

I used to struggle so much with just accepting myself

and looking at myself and saying that who I am and how I am

and how I'm presenting right now is the truth to me.

And it feels correct.

And it feels right,

and you know, today we're struggling so much with this idea

of giving space specifically for trans youth, right?

Currently under attack.

It's disappointing that adults are using them

as wedge issues, right in political stuff.

And not knowing those little intricacies

of the struggles that young people period go

through accepting themselves and being a young person

that's also trans trying to just navigate puberty

and childhood and adolescence and all of that stuff.

And trying to accept yourself in a culture

that's constantly telling you

you don't belong and we don't want you here.

And so I think that messages and the presence of folks

like Laverne Cox and MJ Rodriguez and India Moore and all

of these amazing black trans women specifically in media,

I think really helps elevate the lived experiences

that I think a lot of people are missing in this.

I feel like blush and bronzer and mascara

and skincare and everything just wakes you up.

[laughing]

But this, this is the MVP for me, this and the bronzer,

it's like, those are the two things for me

at least in my head are like

I cannot leave the house without those two things on,

if I want, like my best face forward.

I like to set it in, with just is a little

like a pop of cheek color.

This is Jay Manuel.

I just love... Look at this color.

Just... [taps brush]

So when I set my

under eyes with this Fenty Beauty MVP.

Another MVP in my routine.

And then I like to hit my brows

with like a one, two punch.

I love this Boy Brow.

So that gives you a little, give me like a little darker

but not without like making it look like, you know

you have like Sharpies on your forehead.

In the parts where I have the little, I'd like to

call them my struggle brows.

That's where I'll add a little pencil.

So I like this on Anastasia one, I just love

how tiny it is.

It's like, you can be just so surgical about it.

So I like to use this Mac, kind of like,

it's like a pencil and you can just wind it up,

but I can't wind it up anymore because

I don't have any more left

but I wanted to show you all.

It's super sheer.

And I add a little...

You gotta have the Fenty beauty, like come on, pop it on.

And then of course, got to plump her up with the Lancome.

My little Glossier...

Haloscope.

I hope you guys enjoyed it.

It was so nice to share this space with you.

Thank you so much for watching and listening.

Be well, love yourself.

Take your time.

Be present.

Love your body.

It's important.

Take care.