When it comes to modern day beauty icons, there is one lady that instantly springs to mind, Gwen Renée Stefani. Our ultimate girl crush, whose music speaks to our very soul, and whose relationship with Blake Shelton was the best thing to come out of 2015.
So it’s no surprise that Revlon have snapped up the queen of the red lip, to be their new global brand ambassador.
We caught up with Gwen to uncover some of her secrets to looking so damn good, but don’t worry we’ll share them with you too, ‘cos we’re nice like that.
1. LIGHTING HAS THE BIGGEST IMPACT ON YOUR MAKE-UP.
“Its funny because when I used to come to the UK, I would come there and think ‘wow my make-up is not working over here’. That’s because it’s a different type of sunlight to LA, that’s why I’m always up for trying something different and changing my look.”
2. THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS THE PERFECT RED LIPSTICK.
“Everyone my whole entire life has always asked me, ‘what colour red do you wear?’ Well I don’t wear one colour red you know. I love to mix it up. I love to experiment so right now I’m super into this colour, ‘Lava’ (Revlon Ultra HD Gel Lipcolour launching in February). It’s almost like a pinkish red which is something I haven’t worn a lot.”
3. “KILLING” YOUR HAIR HAS IT’S BENEFITS.
“I was always really obsessed with golden Hollywood starlets and their retro hair looks. I would watch their movies religiously and think ‘how did they make their hair stay like that?’ Because when I curled my hair, it would never stay, or look like that. But the secret is you gotta bleach your hair and once you do, it does a lot more. Once you kill it (laughs), it works. I learned that I could do a lot more with my hair once it wasn’t in its virgin state. It’s really fun to be able to do the old Hollywood looks I’ve always admired, but they’re very hard to do when your hair is not processed.”
4. MAKE-UP CAN BE A SECRET WEAPON.
“I do my own makeup whenever I play live. I don’t know what it is, but something about that whole kind of war paint, you know putting it on, building the confidence. Once I get the makeup on, its show time, I’ve said that for years and its so true.”
5. FIND A SWEAT-PROOF FOUNDATION.
“When you’re on stage you sweat and thats one of your big worries. You want to be emotional and connect with your audience, rather than worrying about your makeup. That’s why the formula of the Revlon ColorStay Makeup is so incredible.”
6. YOU DON’T NEED TO SPEND A FORTUNE.
“I’ve always been into grocery store make-up. From a little girl going to Sav-on’s (the American version of Boots according to Gwen). I would find myself down the aisles, fantasising about make-up. Thats whats great about Revlon, they’re all the same products as high-end brands and they work just as well as the expensive versions.”
7. PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT.
“I used to be a make-up artist in my 20s behind a counter at the mall, but they never trained me or anything like that, so makeup has been an incredible journey for me and I’ve learned so much. I did my own make-up for years because I literally hated anyone doing my makeup. I would always be like, you make me look worse than I look. So I just always did my make-up myself. Then, as I got more successful, I got to work with make-up artists who were really talented, but I still only limit myself to certain people.”
8. BROWS ARE THE WORST.
“Im really patient when it comes to my beauty routine, I’m the girl that wants to sit in that makeup chair. I genuinely love doing makeup, but brows are my least favourite thing to do because it’s the most time consuming part but they are so important. I could just wear brows and lips and that would be enough. My favourite thing right now is the Revlon ColorStay Brow Crayon, £6.99 (available February). It’s really easy to work with and it doesn’t move.”
Inside Gwen’s makeup bag:
Gwen, we heart you.
Originally appeared on cosmopolitan.co.uk