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When it comes to beauty, Toni Braxton declares she’s “a simple basic girl.” Still, her above-the-neck regimen sees the 52-year-old Grammy award winning singer-songwriter employ a unique combination of drugstore products, high-impact cosmetics, and one innovative tool: “Okay, it is a vibrator! But I call it a face tingler,” Braxton admits, as she glides the bright-purple silicone device over freshly washed and moisturized skin. “We are going to be cute today!”
From there, she moves onto color cosmetics, sharing the application tips and tricks that she gleaned while playing Belle in Broadway’s Beauty and the Beast. “I love doing my own makeup; it kind of relaxes me,” she says. After subtly filling in her arches—“[In] the ‘90s I had a really thin eyebrow look… [but] 2020 gotta have something a little bit heavier,” she explains—she reaches for a liquid eyeliner that she picked up at Walgreens followed by a set of faux eyelashes. “I never used to wear lashes…but then I learned about Brigitte Bardot and her lashes were everything.”
“I know this is the backwards way to put on your makeup, but it works for me,” Braxton confesses, as she smooths Bobbi Brown’s contour stick across her face and over her mouth, before brushing on NARS’s creamy concealer, a bright orange blush, and powder to bake it all in. Here, the “Queen of R&B” pauses to reflect on her epic three-decade career, which kicked off in 1993 with the release of her debut album. “The 90s was everything! It was fresh, it was about music, it was about big budget videos, it was about being an artist, and being as grand and big as you could be…” she recalls with a smile. “It was just the best decade to be an entertainer of all time… Everything was glamourous.”
Of course, in Braxton’s hands, next-level glamour still reigns. Unclipping her long waves, which she affectionately refers to as “Sam”—“I name all my wigs,” she reveals—she peers into the camera with freshly glossed lips: “I’m all ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille.”
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