Dua Lipa knows what works for her, both on- and offstage. And now the British-Albanian singer-songwriter and actor is sharing some of those secrets with Vogue.
Lipa has been trying to figure out her skin since she was a teen. “I really started struggling with my skin quite a bit,” she admits of the barrier-disrupting combination of heavy makeup and sweaty dance moves that came when she started touring. Waking up in the morning after a performance, Lipa always had “some kind of blemish of some sort,” which impacted her confidence. Now she’s taken control of her routine, especially the skin-care portion.
Of course, cleansing is her first step. She likens a swipe of Bioderma Micellar Water to “pressing the reset button on a laptop.” Next, it’s time for a big reveal that she’s “very excited to announce”: a trio of products launched in collaboration with cult skin-care brand Augustinus Bader. “I wanted to create my own skin-care line, and I felt like the only way to do it was to really team up with the very best,” she says while pulling out the Dua Powered by Augustinus Bader Balancing Cream Cleanser. She still likes a mix, layering IS Clinical’s Pro-Heal Serum Advance+ before a couple of pumps of her Supercharged Glow Complex, which has passed the “real test,” she says: “When I get on tour and I see how my skin’s going to react to it, that’s going to be the real telltale sign.”
Next, Lipa takes her vitamins and minerals—in liposomal form—like Akasha Superfoods Liposomal Sea Moss Gel, which she chases with a few swigs of Evian water. The mind-body balance is important, after all. “For my mindset, waking up every morning doing a workout of some sort of Pilates or yoga” is essential, Lipa says. “If I don’t have time, really don’t have time, then I’ll take 10 minutes for meditation or a stretch.”
She calls her Renewal Cream “so cute” and explains that the formula has “a natural pinky color to it, and that’s because of the vitamin B12, which really helps protect the skin barrier.” When it comes to makeup, she’s still using tricks she learned while working at a club in London. “I started experimenting more with eye shadows and eyeliners and different colors and what works for me and what really doesn’t,” she says. Today, she likes to build dimension from the jump with a bronzer like Vieve Modern Radiance Cream Bronzer and always primes her brushes, a tip from her makeup artist Katie Jane Hughes (who gave her an early sample of her new KJH.brand Nano Set Brow Gel, which also launches today). Lipa loves the tiny brush and clear formula that “freezes” brows in place.
On a normal day, we’d hear a scene-setting soundtrack playing: “If I am getting ready for a night out, I definitely have to play some tunes, a bit of Madonna, maybe some ABBA,” says Lipa of setting a mood. “Hello, sun-kissed!” she jokes while brushing on YSL Beauty Make Me Blush. There’s more powder, more glitter, and “always a kind of disco element to the makeup looks that I like to do onstage,” and after a show she winds down from “all the adrenaline” with a bath and some Epsom salts.
“This is kind of a new discovery,” Lipa says of her “nose-contouring trick” using a freckle pen. The high-low experience is essential, even for pop stars: “This isn’t an ad for CVS,” she promises after singing the praises of the Physician’s Formula Butter Bronzer she found there in a pinch. “It smells amazing.” Scent is part of the experience: A few dabs of her Glow Complex offer a “clean girl” highlight, and a spritz of YSL’s Libre Eau de Parfum gets Lipa out the door (barely!) for band rehearsal. Call it a “French Exit.”
Shop Dua Lipa’s routine, below.
Director: Gabrielle Reich
DP: Andy Flores
Editor: Michael Suyeda
Associate Producer: Lea Donenberg
Line Producer: Natasha Soto-Albors
Production Manager: Kristen Helmick
Production Coordinator: Tanía Jones
Global Video Director: Lauren Mendoza
Postproduction Supervisor: Alexa Deutsch
Postproduction Coordinator: Holly Frew
Supervising Editor: Kameron Key
Assistant Editor: Andy Morell
Filmed at: The Setai, Miami Beach
