Lea Michele's 'Funny Girl' Skin-Care and Makeup Routine

[soft upbeat music]

Hello, gorgeous. Welcome to Funny Girl.

We're backstage in my dressing room right now

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

and then give you a behind the scenes look

at my glam to play Fanny Brice tonight on Broadway.

So let's do it.

I wear so much makeup every single night in the show

so I start my skincare routine

with my Barbara Sturm cleanser.

I use a lot, so Barbara's probably like cringing right now.

[soft upbeat music]

I've always had to have some sort of skincare routine

just because I've had terrible skin

since I was in high school.

I have PCOS

and so I've had to deal with acne my entire life.

Luckily now that I've gotten my PCOS under control

and I've gotten my acne under control,

my skincare routine can now focus more on clarifying my skin

but also anti-aging stuff and more of the fun things.

I really love, love, love these Elemis pads.

These are their Dynamic Resurfacing Facial Pads.

[soft upbeat music]

After that, I love using my Barbara serum, Clarifying Serum.

I do like two drops.

I pretend like I know what I'm doing,

like when you're getting a face massage

and they go like this.

[Lea chuckles]

Started doing musical theater when I was eight years old

and then working on television for, you know, 15 years.

I've really put my skin through a lot,

and even at 36, still getting breakouts,

but it's like, What can you do?

And then I use Barbara Sturm's face cream.

This is how much I use.

It's light, but it really, really really helps

keep my skin nice and moisturized.

[soft upbeat music]

I am a huge, huge self-care person.

I really believe in, you know, if I'm taking care of myself

and I'm doing all the things that are good for me

and good for my body,

then it really helps me do my job best,

but it also helps me be a really good mom.

Laneige lip mask, and really,

I think supposed to use it before bed

'cause it's a lip mask, but I love it so much

and smells so good and I'm addicted to it.

I love Dr. Dennis Gross so much,

and these body treatment pads are amazing.

Usually I do it when I get right out of the shower

and I have no clothes on,

but we have to keep this PG right now.

What also is really, really, really great with these pads

is for your hands.

You can see already, like, the winter

is, like, destroying my knuckles

and constantly using hand sanitizer backstage.

So I exfoliate my hands with these pads.

I do these like before bed.

You wake up and your skin is like a baby the next day.

This La Mer hand cream is one of my,

I think like if I had to list

in life my top five all time favorite,

stands the test of time products,

it's this La Mer hand cream.

It's just one of the best products

and it truly, truly saves my skin.

So now I'm ready to become Fanny Brice.

My first step is foundation,

and I love this Giorgio Armani foundation.

I've been using it for years now.

I think if I were doing my makeup at home, like, to go out,

I would focus a lot more on contouring

and highlighting, stuff like that.

But the makeup for the stage is very different

and especially because the show

is not called Gorgeous Girl, it's called Funny Girl.

I'm not so overly concerned with contouring so much

and with making an everything look,

you know, super glam.

[soft upbeat music]

Armani powder.

So just, I mean, I'm kind of using a lot.

I don't want a lot of shine.

I don't really want a lot of glow.

I want more of a matte coverage.

So that's what I do with this.

I make sure that I'm setting in my foundation

and I'm also making sure

that I am kind of getting rid of any of the shine.

With stage fright, I've just sort of noticed

that, like, maybe when I'm not nervous anymore

is when I shouldn't be doing this anymore

because I think that there's something

about the nerves that, like, it's the excitement

and it means that there's really something on the line here.

So I try to embrace it

and what I try to do is I try to use it in the show

and it's easy for Fanny, especially in like the first act.

She has a lot of nerves and anxiety.

I'm using my Anastasia brow pencil.

She is the brow guru.

I do my brows myself.

This is gonna be a little bit thicker

just because this is for the stage.

Anastasia Clear Brow Gel just to sort of set them.

Now I'm gonna take this Tom Ford bronzer.

Makeup by Mario,

this is their Master Mattes eye palette.

I start with this really pretty

sort of like pale peach color just all over my eyes.

A little darker.

I'm mixing two darker colors here and here.

I definitely relate to Fanny so much.

I mean, I was told to watch this movie

by our director, Michael Mayer,

when I was going through a breakup when I was 20 years old.

It was very much Fanny Brice

and what she, you know, goes through.

Now as an adult I look at this character

and I look at her drive and her ambition

and that's definitely something that I can relate to,

especially when I was younger.

She's, you know, becomes a wife

and a mother throughout the show.

I'm a wife and a mother as well,

someone who's been performing since I'm really young.

So there are so many aspects of who she is and her life

and her journey that I, you know, connect and relate to.

This is the hardest part of the makeup for me,

is the black liner.

So I take the darker liner.

She's got this.

She can sing, she can dance, and she can do eyeliner.

[soft upbeat music]

I also have this amazing Maybelline mascara,

and the real thing for me with mascara for this show

is that it just has to be waterproof

because there is a lot of sweating,

there is a lot of crying.

Look at the no mascara and mascara.

It's pretty good.

I just think this is the perfect timing

for me to be doing this show.

I'm 36 years old.

I have the most incredible two year old at home.

My husband and I just relocated back to New York City,

and I feel so grateful.

I feel like I am in this really wonderful

and incredible place in my life right now,

and the fact that this opportunity came

at kind of while all of that was happening

for me personally in my life, I'm just really grateful,

and I feel like I have the real understanding

to play this role now and this responsibility.

It's real.

It's an honest dream come true.

I think everybody knows that,

everybody knows that, you know,

I've wanted to do this for so long,

and I can't believe I'm here.

[Lea laughs]

[soft upbeat music]

After everything is done, I take one really close look

and I just kind of do one extra little touch up.

If you are not here,

I would definitely be listening to music.

I have my Taylor Swift on vinyl over there.

I'm on my record player.

I brought all of my favorite records here to the theater.

I have some Barbra records.

I have Bon Iver.

I listen to Fleetwood Mac a lot before the show,

and sometimes some people will,

like some of the cast will come in and say hi and chat.

The great Laura Mercier,

I've been using her products for years.

I love this blush so much.

[soft upbeat music]

Last step, lips.

I have the great Charlotte Tilbury lip liner.

[soft upbeat music]

Makeup Forever, and this is the Rouge Artist.

There's a lot of kissing in this show.

There's a lot of mouthwash that goes on.

[soft upbeat music]

I would never mess with him

and have an onion bagel before the show.

'Cause if someone did that to me, I'd be so pissed.

My makeup is all done and I'm gonna get my wig on

and then I will come back when I'm all done as Fanny Brice.

I'm back.

And this is my Fanny Brice wig.

I wear this at the top of the show

and then I wear it at the end of the show.

And if you ever, ever feel like

you wanna cut your hair drastically,

best thing to do is to buy a wig

[Lea laughs]

and get everything out of your system.

Brian Murphy's coming back this week to see the show,

which I'm really excited about.

Darren Criss came, Jamie Lee Curtis was here,

John Stamos, oh my gosh, so many great, Olivia Rodrigo.

I had, like, a total fan girl freak out.

Hillary Clinton was here.

The great Anna Wintour was here.

I like begged Anna to come when I saw her.

I was like, You're coming, right?

She said she was going to see another show,

and I was like, Anna, you have to come to 'Funny Girl.'

And she did, and it was wonderful.

I'm gonna make myself some tea right now.

I'm going to call my son and say goodnight to him.

It's super important for me to do that before the show

just so that I know that he's in bed

and asleep and then mommy goes to work.

Thank you so much. This was so much fun.

Come and see Funny Girl and buy her soundtrack.

[lips smack] Bye.

[soft upbeat music]