What’s the best beauty hack you’ve ever learned, and from whom?
The best beauty hacks I’ve ever learned are probably from my aesthetician and any sensible person, which is one, drink your water, which I’m not always that good at. And two, double cleanse. I double cleanse. And it’s great because the first layer of cleansing doesn’t clean completely, the second layer does.
I encourage all of you who go to sleep in your makeup to please take off your makeup before you go to sleep. Please, please. It’s so good for you. Take it off. Let the skin breathe – put it on again in the morning.
Who’s your Pride icon?
An artist from the 1970s called Sylvester. He made a song called You Make Me Feel. Sylvester just didn’t get the shine and the love that they were meant to get. That song is iconic.
How has beauty and makeup helped your personal identity?
I think beauty and makeup gives you time to just be with yourself and take care of yourself, whether it’s in the morning with your cleansing – I like to give myself facials. It can take anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes, if I don’t have anywhere to go I’m taking ages.
I guess if we’re talking about all over beauty, my nails are something that I take great care of and take great pride in, and I love them because not only do they make me happy and I think they’re my calling card at this point, but [because of] the time I get to spend with the wonderful woman who does my name, her name is Rose Heckle. She comes up with all these ideas.
I can’t take credit for how beautiful they look because she’s the one that creates them. The wonderful thing about beauty is that sometimes you can allow other people to create. You can become a canvas for someone else and you can allow someone’s creativity to grow. And that’s one of the things that I love about beauty and makeup.
What does Pride mean to you?
To me, Pride means the audacity to exist fully… to be proud of all of the facets of who you are and to share that with the world.
What would be a message to your younger self about your journey as a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community?
My message to my younger self would be… That feeling that you have right now, if you’re fifteen, is real. You’re not crazy. And also you’re really fabulous, so just keep going. It’s going to be a good, good time. You’re going to be fine. And probably don’t change anything right now, just keep going. You’ll get there.