Rachel Zegler on Her Wellness Journey, Preventing Breakouts, and Her Go-To Glam

[soft upbeat music]

Hi Vogue. My name is Rachel Zegler.

And today I'm gonna walk you through my skincare routine

and my go-to makeup look.

Well, the first step is usually

to use some makeup removing cleanser wipes.

Just want to make sure that we are all clear on my skin

Lately, I've been wearing a lot of makeup

because I'm doing lots of press

for my upcoming movie West Side Story.

So next step is my cleanser,

which I've been using since sophomore year of high school,

which seems like eons ago.

I have always had a very easy skin to take care of.

My skin is not very temperamental.

I tend to use products that's for normal to oily

because I have an oily T-zone,

but otherwise I only get blemishes once in a while,

but then I scar really easily.

So I try to avoid those blemishes as much as I can.

Time to wash this off.

So next we're moving on to toner.

I use this and I just put it on a pad like so.

When you make movies,

people come up and retouch your hair and makeup all day.

So what starts out as very light skin makeup

turns into 13 layers of concealer by the end of the day.

And that really takes a toll on your skin

so you want to do as much as you can to soothe it

and avoid any breakouts, avoid any spots or bumps,

'cause I have very textured skin when I get bumps.

So, you know, you try to avoid that

'cause bumps are harder to hide on camera.

Next up is this mask that I have actually

been using since middle school.

Today, because my whole face isn't acting up,

I'm just gonna put it on my forehead and my chin,

which tend to be some problem areas for me at the moment.

All right, imaginary watch says it's been 15 minutes

and I'm going to wash this off.

So next up is this LED mask.

I use this one, I don't know if you can tell,

but it is a bright pink color.

So this mask is for breakouts and collagen.

I've noticed a difference ever since I started using it

and maybe you will too.

Next step is lips.

This is really important step for me

because my lips get chapped very easily.

And so I use this superbalm

that you can actually use on your skin,

but my skin's not thick enough for this thick material.

So, basically you have to warm it up in between your fingers

before putting it on your lips.

And then you just keep it on for the rest of your routine.

I am a lip balm fiend.

I have a lip balm in every pocket, every purse, every coat.

I refuse to have chapped lips in public.

I was working as a wedding singer

through all of high school, and I started a YouTube channel

where I covered a bunch of songs from my bathroom

and my childhood bedroom.

And it started gaining a lot of attention,

but I didn't really burst onto the scene

until I received the role of Maria

in Steven Spielberg's West Side Story.

It was a year long audition process.

There were 30,000 other people in the mix

and it was crazy stressful and I somehow made it [chuckles]

to the other end of that.

One of the most important things

on my mental health journey, as well as my skincare journey,

has been making sure that I feel as comfortable as possible

so that I can do my job to the best of my ability.

Next up is my serum, which I use every morning.

This is a vitamin C serum.

Then I like to go in with moisturizer,

don't like to use too much, especially in the morning.

I definitely use a little bit more at night.

Next step is face oil and I like to use this

and just put it all over my skin.

I think something that a lot of people don't know

about my wellness journey is that a huge chunk of it

has to do with my voice as well

as how I'm feeling physically.

When I was making West Side Story,

I felt a lot of pressure to constantly be on my game,

that mostly manifested vocally.

And when you're very stressed out,

it can affect your vocal chords.

But I cut dairy out of my diet, I cut a lot of caffeine out

because caffeine can dry up your vocal chords.

But ever since I wrapped West Side Story,

I am very happy to incorporate my cup of coffee

in the morning now, so that's been a godsend.

Next step is my eye cream.

There's a huge obsession with appearance and beauty

in Latin American countries.

Even though we're like supernaturally beautiful,

we wanted to look like Selena Quintanilla.

So a lot of times we were focused on this beautiful, dark,

beautiful hair, and the big red lips

and that's something that I remember a lot

from my childhood, I definitely want it to look like Selena,

I wanted to look like Shakira,

who's from the same city as me in Columbia, the Barranquilla

and as I've grown older, I've just been able to appreciate

more of those beauty standards in Latin America.

So next step is my sunscreen.

I think it's something that a lot of people

fail to incorporate into their beauty routines.

This is tinted sunscreen, it's SPF 40.

And I like to put it on my skin.

I always wore sunscreen growing up,

even though my skin never burned,

I was very aware of the damage that the sun could do

'cause I was always scared straight

by all of the commercials on TV.

So I did always wear sunscreen.

And now onto makeup.

So first up is this tinted moisturizer that I use

as a foundation, the more layers you use,

the more pigmented it is,

but I don't really use a lot of it.

And I like to put it on my hand here.

So you're gonna take a little bit on your brush

and then you're just gonna go.

I have had the hardest time trying to find colors

that matched my skin and I started really to notice

when I was doing photo shoots that the makeup artists

would just mix so many different colors

and we don't all come in a standard shade of anything.

And that's a beautiful thing but it's also very frustrating

when you're trying to buy makeup.

Next step, I would usually do concealer,

but when I do an eye look,

so that I don't ruin the concealer prematurely,

I like to go in with the eyes first.

So I'm gonna do that right now with this cream eye shadow.

Not to flex, I have discoloration on my eyelids

that kind of make them look like a darker brown.

And a lot of people are asking me

when I'm not wearing makeup at all,

whether or not I'm wearing eye shadow

and the answer is most obviously no.

But therefore, like colors like this look pretty good.

I like to go in with concealer under my eyes

and then any problem areas that I'm having on my face.

I tend to use my foundation brush to also apply my concealer

because it tends to disperse it more evenly.

And I don't like when it's a very obvious,

bright highlight underneath my eye.

So using this brush is actually a lot more helpful.

Well, now I'm gonna go in with some bronzer.

This is Georgia Armani, it's my favorite bronzer

because it's not too harsh and it's very easy

to just layer if you want more.

I tend to put it right where my natural shadow

from my cheekbone is and just try to accentuate that.

I put a little bit on my nose, not too much.

And then a little bit on my jaw.

And then if I'm feeling like I'm having a fivehead day,

I go in on my forehead

and just try to put a little bit of shadow there.

I did my own makeup for every show I ever did

up until when I did Shrek the Musical,

I had to have that green put on me because the quick change

into my ogre self happened mid show.

It was the worst and my skin was tinted green

for about two or three weeks after.

And the day after we closed Shrek was my first rehearsal

for Steven Spielberg's West Side Story

and I showed up looking like I had jaundice.

So next step, I'm gonna go in with blush.

This is my favorite blush from Chanel.

I like it because it's a more natural color.

I know a lot of people like bright pinks or reds,

but I'm very much of the idea

that it should compliment your natural skin tone.

And I just like to put it on my cheekbones

so it kind of serves as a highlight as well

and then it makes my face seem a little bit more narrow.

Probably the thing I get complimented the most on

is my eyebrows, they're very thick.

I've kept them thick my whole life. I like them thick.

Something that helps me to accentuate that thickness

is this Chanel brow pencil.

And I just like to go in and not fill in the whole thing.

I just like to go in and get a good line in the front.

I get them threaded every now and then,

but I like to let them grow

so that I don't lose the thickness.

And when I go to get them threaded, I'm like,

I just want them to be clean, like that's all,

I just want them to cleaned up a little bit.

And my eyebrows have been very important to me

my whole life, they've served me well.

Then I just brush it through.

And if I feel like anything is out of place,

I go in with the Bare Minerals eyebrow gel.

It just helps to keep everything locked down

and adds a little bit more fullness if I so please.

I'm a big fan of a nude lip.

So I'm gonna go in with a liner.

I do overline my lip a little bit on the top.

I'm gonna also go in with a lipstick.

It's been an incredibly wild couple of months.

I feel like I haven't really sat down since September.

I wrapped Shazam and then came home to New York

and immediately went to the Met Gala,

which was my first red carpet, which was absolutely insane.

I was just walking with Pete Davidson for some reason

[chuckles] and all of these interviews and walked the carpet

and had my photo taken by so many photographers

for the first time and people screaming my name

and even knowing my name was crazy.

And then sitting with so many celebrities that I admire,

actors and singers and activists that I adore.

It was such a fun time.

I can't believe still to this day that I even got to go.

I don't know why I was so surprised about how human

everybody really was at the end of the day

for the most part, everyone that I interacted with

was just so real and we had real conversations.

I had such a nice conversation with Megan Thee Stallion

and a very inspiring conversation with Lorde.

And just to be able to talk to these people that I admire

and these people that I usually only see on social media

or on late night TV shows

and to see them in front of my face, talking to me

and being just the loveliest, most personable people

was so inspiring and just a reminder

of why I love being a part of this community so much.

And I'm really grateful to the Met Gala

for allowing me to have that experience.

So for the last step, it's my eyelashes.

So I tend to go in with a curler and then I follow it up

with, this is my trusty NARS mascara that I actually used

on set of West Side Story.

So this is technically Maria's mascara.

When I was on set of West Side Story,

I had to do a lot of crying.

If you don't know, Maria goes through a lot of stuff

and all of that stuff makes her cry.

It's her natural human reaction and it's also mine.

So it was very easy to access that,

but that also meant that we had to be very,

very careful when it came to mascara

'cause you need mascara when you're working on a film.

People need to know you have eyelashes

because lights and cameras can tend to drive that out.

And it's very important that we find a mascara

that didn't run when I cried 'cause I cried a lot.

We tried so many different mascara's on the first day,

cried on all of them to see which worked the best.

And this NARS mascara is for the scenes where I didn't cry.

So, you know, the most iconic image as of right now

is of me at Dance at the Gym

and I am wearing this NARS mascara.

Also don't like to put too much on

'cause if it gets clumpy or starts to look spidery,

then I haven't done my job correctly.

The clips come off, we are ready to go.

Thank you to all of you for coming along on this journey,

hope you learned something,

not only just about how you look, but also how you feel

because that is all to do with beauty.

Thank you so much and see you soon.