Padma Lakshmi’s Guide to Hyperpigmentation and Camera-Ready Makeup

[ambient electronic music]

Hi Vogue, I'm Padma Lakshmi,

and this is my beauty routine.

I use Christine Chin cleanser.

I'm going to clip my hair back

because this next part gets messy.

I've been using honey for years.

It has anti-inflammatory properties,

and it's a smoothing agent.

It's an exfoliant.

This is the honey I use. I make my own honey.

I have a little beehive on my terrace in New York City.

So you wanna do it on a dry face.

You just wanna rub it in,

and then you wanna kind of tap your face.

It's really sticky,

and the suction pulls out all the impurities.

When I film,

I also am eating a lot of weird funky foods.

When I'm home, I make sure that

half of my diet is fruits and vegetables.

I'm 51. And I think that's why my skin now looks good

is because I've nourished it properly.

And I also drink two to three liters of water minimum a day.

Christine Chin toner.

I've been going to Christine Chin loyally

for, gosh, over a dozen years.

Some firming serum from Tracie Martyn.

Another thing that I do for my gut health, especially,

is drink a glass of lassi.

Lassi is Indian drinkable yogurt.

People always ask me what I put on my skin,

and sometimes it's not what you put on your skin topically,

it's really what you put in your body.

So what I'm trying to do is just push out all the fluid

and get my lymph nodes activated

and just pushing everything to the side and down.

Christine Chin, moisture cream.

I also will put it on my eyebrows to condition them.

I'm lucky for every eyebrow hair I have

because I was one of those models

in the 90s that was plucked like a chicken.

And if you can believe it,

in college before I started modeling,

I used to have a little unibrow.

But one of the things I will use it's this Revitalash,

but it's actually for the brows.

I just put a little serum

on to condition them and to help every little

strand of eyebrow hair hold on for dear life.

And now we can move on to my makeup, which I love makeup.

I use this Laura Mercier primer.

I never used primer before

but when I started doing Taste the Nation,

I did my own makeup on that show.

So I realized that I just need some primer

so that the makeup stays on.

And this Laura Mercier primer also has some SPF in it.

I've always had a lot of problems with hyperpigmentation.

I'm Indian.

I've had these dark circles since I was a child.

I really love this Armani, luminous silk

but I use two colors because it's hard

for me to find my own color.

So I'm using it just in the outer part of my face.

I'm bringing it down.

I really like to use my fingers because I feel

like the heat of my fingers helps warm up the foundation.

When I first started modeling,

I would actually have to bring my own foundation

because makeup artists never had my color.

Now I'm using the Armani eight.

I take this and I put a little bit under my eyes

and in the lighter parts of my face.

So I don't want to totally mask my skin,

but I do want to even my skin tone.

Now for the fun part,

I love this Dior Show eyebrow pencil

I've been wearing eyeliner since I was seven days old.

It's part of my culture.

If you're like me and you're getting a little blind,

you need this mirror.

This mirror is from Zadro,

and I don't thread my eyebrows.

I don't have them shaped.

I do them myself.

I just have tweezers in my makeup bags.

In fact, I used to do my mom's eyebrows

for allowance, and I first charged her three dollars

when I was nine to do her eyebrows.

And then I raised my prices when I was like 12

or something to five dollars and she got all mad,

but now she still likes me to do her eyebrows

every time she comes.

A wash of golden bronze color from MAC

I just put this all over

the eye.

I'm gonna do concealer,

because my bags are really bothering me.

So I use NARS.

This is the makeup that I would do

if I had, you know, a Zoom meeting.

When I'm going on camera,

I just make sure that my face is extra even,

but when I'm not on camera

I don't really wear that much makeup.

I try to let my skin rest.

This Laura Mercier, number six,

and it has two colors, which is why I love it.

I use the darker color

just under my chin here,

just around my mouth.

And if you want even more coverage,

you can just use it up here

where I have some hyperpigmentation as well.

And I use a Bobbi Brown, yellow loose powder,

and I put it up here because as you can see,

I have a domed forehead,

everyone in my family does.

And it just catches the light, no matter what.

And I'm not using it all over,

I'm just using it in the T-zone,

and to set that concealer around my hyperpigmentation

in my chin.

I use this little guy.

Pinch My Cheeks in Raspberry from Origins.

I've been using this for 20 years.

This is how much I use; literally that much.

And I love this product

because it just gives you a glow and I'm a brown person.

So, you know, you don't really see me blush

but this is what I look like if I did blush.

I use this. It's a oil that hydrates your lips

and it has a little color in it,

and I just let that soak in.

This is just to really get them moist

I'm using the Sisley.

I love purple on brown skin.

I think it actually works as a neutral.

And so I want to work that eyeshadow up like that.

So the one beauty product that

I can't live without is this

Urban Decay blue eyeliner. It's called Sabbath.

If you've got brown skin or darker skin,

this Navy blue eyeliner is wonderful.

It's really soft.

So you want to sharpen it to get a really nice point.

If you don't get it exactly right, it's okay.

I use these little tiny Q-tips.

I always have these in my makeup kit.

They're from Muji.

They're really great because you can go in

and you can just shape your eyeliner perfectly.

And then I put it, believe it or not inside.

Sometimes if I have to reinforce the contour

I will use this MAC color called Sketch just here.

And then I just curl my eyelashes.

Thrive Mascara which I actually

just discovered on Instagram.

And I just take this metal comb,

and I comb

through my lashes.

Well, I used to do this with a safety pin,

back in High School.

When I'm not working, I try not to do my hair

because I need to give my hair a rest.

For my lip I will use

NARS, Dolce Vita.

I like a matte mouth.

I don't like too shiny of a mouth.

I think it looks weird when you're eating

and I'm eating so much on camera

and this will stay put.

I did a collaboration with Matte Cosmetics.

The one that I really love is this contour palette.

I used the highlighter just with my finger,

just a little bit right there.

And then you have to really rub it in.

Pat McGrath actually taught me this secret

of highlighting the Cupid's Bow of my mouth.

You just wanna go like on the edge

where the border is.

Rub it in, so it's not so obvious,

but it does catch the light.

And then I'm going to go

over it with that NARS again.

I will just use this Clinique chubby stick

and a whole lot of honey and go over the NARS.

And it just gives it a little moisture.

But as you can see, it's not super shiny.

I usually keep it in the pocket of my camera operator.

And then he gives it to me when I need it

between bites of food.

I've done all that concealer and I still have a little bit

because today is one of those days.

And I'm just putting it right there where I need it.

I use, again, the contour palette

and this angle brush.

Take a little bit like that.

And I just create a little bit of definition.

I don't want to change the shape of my nose,

but I do want to give it some definition.

Kevyn Aucoin when I first started modeling

in Milan and Paris taught me how to do this.

Whatever I have left, I do a little bit here,

and a little bit here,

but I don't really like that much contour.

I take this beautiful hydrating essence by Tata Harper

and I just will spray a little bit on.

And then I will take a tissue, take excess off,

so it looks a little natural.

Smells are really important to me.

I think the reason that I'm in food

and I know how to cook well is because of my sense of smell,

which is very acute and not always a blessing.

So I make my own perfume,

and I mix it up and I put it in this vial.

This has pure organic essential oils

of neroli and geranium and you know,

some rosemary black pepper.

That is my beauty routine and makeup.

I hope that was helpful.

I hope that some brown girls out there found some tips.

Thank you so much.

Take care.