Sam Smith on Fresh Skin Care, 4-Step Makeup, and the Beauty Procedure That Transformed Their Look

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Hello, Vogue.

This is Sam Smith here,

and I'm gonna be walking

you through my skincare routine.

My daily skincare routine,

and what I do to attempt

to look fresh and beautiful every day.

I'm really excited to do this.

The first thing I do whenever I'm looking

after my skin, in the morning,

or the evening, is something that my dad

and Pharrell Williams taught me,

which is splashing really cold water on my face.

It makes me feel really good.

And I'm hoping that the cold water

on my face is gonna keep my youth

as I get older.

I'm only gonna figure this out when I hit 50,

but it feels good.

So that's the first thing I'm gonna do right now,

I'm gonna wet my face with cold, cold water.

And then we get this.

It's called SkinCeuticals.

And this is a Simply Clean Gel.

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When I was younger,

I definitely didn't take care of my skin.

I used to wear a lot of makeup

when I was a kid.

From about 14 to 18,

I had full makeup on every day to school.

So it looked pretty awful, to be quite honest,

I would do my eyebrows,

and I'd put on fake eyelashes,

and contour and everything as a kid.

As I started to go into music,

I started to, just from the constant traveling

on the plane, and constant touring,

and just the stress, I guess, of it,

my skin was getting really dried out,

and just not fun.

So I got into just daily skincare routine,

that just made me feel fresh,

and plumped up my skin a little bit

when I'd been on a plane all day.

So I put this on my face.

This is the cleanser, it's really sticky.

So I put it on for a little bit,

leave it for a little bit, maybe sing a song.

Maybe sexy dance to Beyonce.

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To be honest,

I feel like I need to figure out

how to not touch my face.

'Cause I read this thing

that Meryl Streep said.

Gonna get in my eyes.

To not touch your face,

that's how she remains looking so young.

So I need to figure that out at some point.

And then the next thing I do,

this is again,

SkinCeuticals, and this is called

Phloretin, Phloretin CF.

Just drip some on my cheek here.

And I drip it over my head.

Put some here.

Trying to not let it drip.

Basically, mix it in really, really quickly.

Really, really, really quickly,

just using the tips of my fingers.

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So after the Phloretin, which we just put on,

I will then go to another SkinCeuticals brand.

This is my favorite thing of all time.

I run out of this so quickly.

I use way too much,

but I feel like it's a good thing,

because, this to me, is the key no spots.

Under here, it's so smooth on my face, I love it.

And it's all because of this.

And you just get a bit.

I mean, I get way too much.

Put it on my hand.

Just put this all on.

It's like velvet on your hands.

It's amazing, and you can just feel

your skin drinking it.

It's absolutely incredible.

Again, let that sit.

For me, a massive part

of my daily routine, skincare routine, is music.

I have to have music on in the bathroom.

I play so much Beyonce.

'Cause you gotta let it sit for a bit.

So a little dance in between

every single product is kind of the aim.

So this one,

this is my next thing I do after my hydrating,

I put, this is called Orveda, it's amazing.

I love this color green.

It's beautiful.

And this is an eye cream, basically.

I put a little bit on under here.

I put it on the bone, my cheekbone, really.

I got told to do this, maybe I'm wrong.

People are gonna be watching this saying,

you're doing it completely wrong.

But I'm open to help.

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There's also something for me

about skincare, and about touching your face

that is, it's really quite a lovely,

it's like every morning,

you're just like, hello,

I'm gonna look after you, you're my friend.

It's like, we're all flowers, right?

And we're all watering ourselves,

and keeping ourselves fresh,

so we can grow tall and strong. [laughing]

So that's my skin kind of, all the basics

done to my skin.

Which, I feel great after that.

I feel fresh.

For me, when I'm not performing,

And every day, just walking around the street,

this stuff is incredible.

It's a tinted SPF.

I put quite a bit on, to be honest.

There you go, that's enough.

Then I rub it into my hands.

And I put it on my face.

It can get caught in my beard,

and in my eyebrows,

and then it kind of goes really orange

over the day.

So I really rub it in.

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So look, that's all on now.

How nice is that?

I feel it's so glowy.

Makeup has been quite a huge part

of my life, actually.

When I was 15, I mean,

I came out when I was 10 years old.

And when I hit 14, 15,

I started to really question my gender,

and started to really want to express myself

in ways that I felt like I had to,

as a form of survival, to be honest.

And makeup for me, was the way to do that.

There was a girl in my friendship group

called Nerissa, who was amazing.

And she was obsessed with MAC makeup.

And we'd go to the MAC stores,

and she'd buy everything.

And I just remember feeling so left out,

because I was like, this shop isn't for me,

makeup isn't for me.

And, Nerissa, this wonderful, wonderful person,

basically taught me that makeup is for me.

And it doesn't matter, whatever gender you are,

you know, it's a form of expression,

and it feels nice.

It's the poster of your life,

really, every single day,

when you meet people.

And to have that time,

and take that time each day,

to touch your face,

and put things on your face.

I don't know,

I think it's really, really special.

And for me, makeup just became,

as I was getting older,

it just became more of a way

to express my gender.

And then last year, two years ago,

when I changed my pronouns,

and really spoke out about my gender expression,

and my gender fluidity,

I started falling in love with makeup all again.

And I started having the flicks on my eyes,

and going out, I went out to Vegas one time,

and put so much glitter

all over my eyes,

and had these massive flicks,

and contouring, and lip.

And it was just such an amazing feeling.

When it comes to shows,

and performances, and all of that stuff,

I absolutely adore to dress up,

and just to feel it on your face.

The feeling of fake eyelashes

on your eyes, to me,

is the best feeling in the world.

And then also at the end of the night

when you take them off, stunning.

Absolutely love it.

This is kind of how I go out every day.

I just feel like it's a healthy look.

And the tinted moisturizer under the eyes

really just helps my tired eyes sometimes.

What I will do though, every day,

as well, is this.

This is a brow setter, from MAC.

And this is great.

I use this in my eyebrows.

I love my eyebrows.

There's many things about my body

that I do not like,

and I've learned to accept,

but my eyebrows is one thing

I absolutely love.

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I mean, when I was 15,

I would put MAC eyeshadow on my brows,

and they'd be kind of ridiculous, actually.

It'd be like, massive, boom, like, bang,

bang, really angular.

I was going for like a romantic Boy George vibe,

when I was younger.

And then when I moved to London,

I hated waxing my eyebrows.

It felt so painful.

So when I moved to London,

my best friend, probably once every two weeks,

I just lay on my bed,

and I'd just hold my eyes like this,

and pull the skin, and she'd pluck.

But they're pretty bushy now.

And they just grow the way that I want them to,

which I feel very lucky about.

I will also use this during the day,

because I love the motion of mascara.

Because I feel like a queen.

I will put that on my eyelashes too.

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This is how I do it.

I just really, I probably get in too hard,

but I like to flare them out a bit,

as you can see.

But this is with the clear stuff.

When I was younger,

I loved the really cheap mascara,

that was really clunky.

And I have this amazing memory

when I was a kid actually,

doing makeup for school every day,

and I'd get my mascara,

and it'd be so clunky.

And then the end of the mascara brush

would just be covered in clunky mascara.

And I'd dot it on my wall, above my mirror.

And then basically, after a few years,

my whole wall in my bedroom

was just covered in black dots.

It was kinda gross,

but also looked really cool, in the end.

So that's me walking around

every day, feeling fresh.

If I'm going out by myself,

I will basically have these two little weapons.

One is this mascara.

It's called Too Faced

Better Than Sex Mascara. [laughing]

And then I will also use

this Haus Laboratories Gaga lip gloss.

Gaga for me, Gaga is probably the reason

why I actually came to terms with my gender.

I was 15 when The Fame came out.

And I was obsessed with Lady Gaga.

And for me, she gave me complete permission

to be myself, and to be proud of my queerness.

It was a form of expression,

but it was also weirdly, a form of protection.

It was a way of almost saying

to the homophobes and the bullies,

stay away from me a little bit,

'cause I'm confident,

and I'm powerful in my queerness.

So, mascara, I would put on not a lot,

just put on a little bit.

And I only really do it on the top.

It's not really about how you look

at the end of it.

It's more about the motion of doing it.

You feel like you're, I don't know,

something about mascara's so beautiful.

It's like the windows to your soul, right?

So I put a little bit of mascara on.

This Gaga gloss, I love what they've done.

I love the packaging.

And this gloss for me is a really light gloss.

It depends what I'm wearing,

but this is like a daily.

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Well, for me, my beauty icons, I mean,

Gaga would be one of them.

Rihanna.

I'm just absolutely in love with her.

She knows this.

And I adore her so much.

And everything she's done with Fenty

is just so inspiring.

For me, my mum as well.

So my dad was a house husband.

And my mum worked in the city.

So my mum's very non binary, to be quite honest,

she's very, very strong, and powerful.

She wears suits most of the time,

high waisted trousers, all dark colors, black.

And when it comes to makeup as well,

it's powerful on her face.

And I was always very, very inspired by my mum.

And, I'm now obsessed with real beauty,

real people, real faces, imperfections.

But my standards of beauty

over the last three years

have really, really changed.

But this lip gloss is great.

I feel great.

Then I will use this.

This is the setting spray from Urban Decay.

So you just spray this on your face.

To set everything in.

Make sure it doesn't fall off your face,

in a gay club.

My hair is actually very, it's been

a touchy place for me, actually.

So, I haven't actually spoken about this before.

So I'm gonna speak about it,

'cause I don't actually feel

like I have anything to hide.

But I was losing my hair, here,

about two years ago.

And so my hairdresser Paul basically said,

he think it would be a good idea

for me to get a transplant, and to look into it.

I looked into it,

and I went to Ireland,

and I have had a hair transplant.

How stunning is it?

It's nice to have hair.

But also, if I was bald,

I would still own it too.

Because bald is beautiful.

And then I've got this wax.

Shu Uemura, I think that's how you pronounce it.

And I put the wax on my hair.

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When I put on weight,

which I do a lot, like Rihanna said,

I have been blessed with a fluctuating body.

For me, me when I do put on weight,

it always happens on my face first.

On my face, or on my boobies.

That's where it happens.

And so what really helps it for me,

I shape my beard,

so that it can just cut off here.

It kind of hides it.

Yeah, that is kind of, that is me.

And I gotta say, I felt like I'm glowing.

This is nice.

I'm all set now.

I know everyone knows this, but for me,

the biggest key to your skin,

and to life really, and feeling good is water.

Drinking water.

Sometimes, when we're anxious,

and we're feeling down,

or just feeling shit in general,

you've gotta think of yourself like a child.

Do you need feeding?

Do you need water?

Do you need sleep?

What do you need?

You know, asking yourself these basic things.

And I think you can put whatever

you want on your face,

but if you're not looking after your mind,

and your heart, and your body,

that also shows.

Because when I've been abandoning

my mental health, it kinda comes out on my face.

So this is my final look, Vogue.

I hope that was okay.

I watch these things all the time.

And I hope that this was a fun one to watch.

I feel great.

I hope that helped.

If you're looking for tips from me.

But yeah, thank you so much

for having me, Vogue.

And to anyone watching this, have a lovely day.

Look after your skin,

look after yourself.

Peace out.

I'm gonna go down.

Bye.

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