Jessica Henwick on Acne-Fighting Skin Care, Minimalist Makeup, and Celebrating Our Differences

[relaxed music]

Good morning, I'm Jessica Henwick

and I'm going to walk you through my skincare routine.

And, we're gonna do a makeup look that I do sometimes.

This is my day-to-day cleanser that I use from Shiseido.

I'm a big fan of Japanese and Korean beauty brands.

I find that it works with Asian skin well,

in that I have kind of oily combination skin, but I like,

I really like cleanser and this does the trick.

This is like a cloud on my face right now.

I'm obsessed, I've been using this for years.

This is the toner I use, the Shiseido treatment softener.

This is a skincare regime that I have honed in on

in the last five years, I would say.

My mom has amazing skin.

And so, I just, and she doesn't do anything to it.

And so, I thought that would be me for my life

and it wasn't.

And, I kind of rejected skincare a long time, like,

Well, my mom doesn't use anything and she looks great.

And, I had a real aversion to overstimulating it.

And, when I was 16, I got my first acting job.

The makeup artist was like,

No, you need to start skincare now.

And, she put me on this 10 step routine

from a very well respected brand and it destroyed my face.

I had burns all over my skin, it peeled.

If you go and you look at that TV series,

you'll notice they never give me close-ups

because the texture was so bad.

And, that kind of sparked a eight year battle

with pretty bad acne.

My 111 Skin, rose gold face mask.

I put this on before any event or press day,

just cause I find it really gives you that

dewy, glowing look.

So, I'll leave this on about 20 minutes.

Oh, that's good.

While the face is still a tiny bit damp,

I'm gonna go ahead and put my moisturizer on.

After I had that really bad burn experience

with the skincare regime,

I decided to kind of flip to the other end of the spectrum.

And, I would only use things that I found in my fridge.

So, I put baking soda on my face, yogurt, blueberries,

lemon, honey, all amazing things.

And, you should probably eat them,

because it's gonna do more for you internally

than it will on your face.

And, the thing that really took me out of that

cystic acne cycle was this trilogy

certified organic rosehip oil.

I don't use this all over my face as much now.

I use it as spot treatment to an extent.

This is the last step in my skincare routine.

This is the gua sha.

I'm sure you've seen it all over Instagram.

I don't do the full face thing,

but I just try and do this and kind of get that

lymphatic drainage going, so.

I'm gonna put a little bit more moisturizer on,

so that there's enough glide there

and I'm not tugging at the skin.

Being in the public eye and suffering from acne is,

I mean, I just wish that there was more

transparency about it.

I remember going to my first ever London fashion week,

my first and last.

I wasn't good at makeup.

I'm still not good at makeup,

so I didn't wear any makeup.

And, there's photos out there of me

and my cheeks are covered in acne.

But, I remember seeing that photo in a magazine

the next day and they'd Photoshopped my cheeks

and made me look flawless.

And, I have to admit I was relieved

that the facade would continue,

but I also, I look back and I'm sad

because if I had seen actors that I look up to

in magazines with acne, that wasn't Photoshopped out,

I think that would've made me feel less alone.

I'm gonna use this oil that I have,

which is really calming.

It's called Eleven.

When I'm stressed out, [laughs]

I just dab a little bit of this.

It's very lavendery.

A little bit of this oil.

On to the makeup.

First off, I'm gonna prep my lips with this

Glossier rose lip balm.

The first step in my makeup routine is the YSL primer.

If you've never used primer before,

it's just to smooth out any texture.

And, for me, I kind of see it as a barrier

between my skin and the makeup.

I find it, I break out less.

So, the foundation I use is YSL's TOUCHE ÉCLAT.

This has been a struggle to find

a foundation that matches my Asian skin

and works with the kind of yellow undertones.

When I was starting out,

I was working with a lot of makeup artists

who just didn't work on any Asian actors or actresses.

And so, they were using a lot of products,

which weren't right.

So, if you wanna go down that Getty hole, [laughs]

you can find photos of me at early events

where the makeup is terrible.

It doesn't match my skin tone at all.

The longer I've been in the industry,

the more diverse it's become.

And, there's also some amazing Asian makeup artists

out there that I've worked with.

I tend to use my hands and not a sponge,

because I'm too lazy to clean my sponges.

And then, I know it would just make me break out.

I'm also just a big fan of minimalism in my life.

And so, the fewer products needed

and the fewer things to carry, then the better it is.

Concealer.

I do think the industry is changing for the better.

We've never had more awareness

of Asian representation in cinema.

And so, I'm really proud to be a part of that

in some small way.

And yeah, I hope it continues.

When I first started acting.

Everyone made such a big deal on that job

of me being the first east Asian actress

to be the lead on a British TV series, blah, blah, blah.

It kind of scared me, honestly.

It felt like a lot of pressure

to not take stereotypical roles, which, I mean,

that's all that was available to me at the time.

I went the other direction and I stopped taking

any Asian roles out of fear of the community [laughs]

turning on me.

It's only recently in the past five or six years

that I felt comfortable and realized,

No, it's really important that I take Asian roles

and tell that story.

And, it is such a specific story.

I've had a journey with my brows.

I did not like them growing up.

And, I still sometimes wake up and go,

Why can't you be more normal?

But, I'm trying to practice self-acceptance. [laughs]

So, what I'm gonna do today is just use this

Glossier, the Boy Brow, just to brush it up a little bit

and keep it in place, so I don't have to worry about it.

This is the Glossier Sky Wash.

A big part of my skincare journey

was learning how much lifestyle plays a part in it.

I had to kind of analyze my face

and realize what was triggering each section.

So, hormonally, it was always gonna be my chin.

And, if my forehead was breaking out,

then I usually had had too much dairy.

And so, cutting dairy way down

really cleaned up my forehead.

Besides adjusting my diet

and drinking way more water,

exercise really, really helped for me.

Thankfully, I've done a lot of roles, [laughs]

which have forced me to exercise,

'cause I don't actually enjoy it that much.

When we shut down for COVID during The Matrix,

we didn't know if we were gonna go back.

Of course, I hated that idea.

I wanted to complete the story

and I'd like, I'd just shaved off hair.

And, I was so down.

And, I'd been training.

I was ready to go.

So, when we shut down and none of us knew

we were gonna go back,

the only thing that got me through it

was just exercising every single day

and training as if I had that target ready.

As if I knew I was gonna go back and film.

Glossier Lash Slick.

Blush, Glossier Cloud Paint.

Again, you can't go wrong with this

and finger application as best because it is a liquid.

I try not to wear makeup on most days,

because I have to wear so much for work,

that when I'm off work,

I just want my skin to breathe and heal.

Lips, just this YSL lipstick, the color's pretty cute.

I do a soft edge.

My mom, because she has no skincare routine

and doesn't really wear makeup,

always said to me, over and over,

Embrace your natural beauty and try and be

as minimalistic as possible.

And, even though I do love seeing makeup,

I think it's like art sometimes,

the amazing, you know, eyeshadows and eyeliners

and colored mascaras.

Like, I think it's really cool,

but I, I love it when I see people without, you know,

foundation and you can see freckles

and their skin texture

and what their natural eyebrow color is. [laughs]

Like, I like celebrating our differences.

I don't think it's that healthy

to compare yourself to others.

I think you should really embrace your own skin journey

and your own makeup style and see what works for you.

Okay, I have to go to work.

Thank you so much for watching guys.

I'll see you around, bye.