Anna Sawai’s Fresh Makeup Look

[bright music]

Hi, Vogue!

This is Anna Sawai, and I m gonna walk you through

my morning skincare routine and my fresh makeup look.

I m gonna clip my hair first.

I m gonna wash my face with this.

I m only gonna use that much.

[relaxed music]

Never drag the towel around your face.

You don t want friction.

We re gonna use this face mask today.

I ve had this routine for maybe the last four years,

since I got into the acting industry properly.

[Anna laughing]

I can t smile in this. I look crazy.

So these are my tools. I start off with the big one.

You have lymph nodes around the neck,

so I d like to just target that area.

[relaxed music]

Okay, so I also like to go into my scalp.

Now, this is not scientifically proven or anything.

I feel like I discovered this when Deborah on Monarch,

she does my hair.

She was massaging my scalp,

and I just felt like my face kind of lifted,

and it looks different after the massage,

and so I was like, okay, I can start doing this on myself.

Let me just use the tool that I have,

and then with the small one, I ll go around my eyes.

[relaxed music]

I hate wasting what s left in the mask,

so I ll just put it around my neck.

Next up is the vitamin C serum that I love from Farmacy.

They don t have fragrance in it.

When I was in elementary school,

my sister was in middle school,

she had already started doing her skincare,

and she told me that I should start early,

so I probably started when I was like 10.

Some moisturizer.

[relaxed music]

I am very good with my skin.

I will not sleep with my makeup on.

No matter how sleep deprived I ll be,

I still do my skincare routine.

Next step, very important step is sunscreen.

This is from Korea. There s no white cast.

It s very moisturizing, so it almost just feels

like you re putting on another layer of cream.

[relaxed music]

Last step is my Tatcha lip mask.

I ve been using this since Shogun,

and we would prep my lips with this,

and it has a very cute little pink tint.

So first step is my foundation.

Actually, this is probably like a skin tint.

My grandma used to put on a lot of makeup,

and I was probably around five or six,

and I would ask her to put lipstick on me,

and she would put a little bit of blush as well,

and I was just so excited to go visit her,

cause I knew that I d be able to play with her makeup.

On Shogun, the makeup wasn t too heavy.

Back in 1600, they didn t have a lot of options for makeup,

so we did very simple, very white, pale porcelain skin

and some red lips.

[relaxed music]

Concealer, just a little bit under my eyes.

I feel like there s some darkness,

but I m not gonna put it at the rim,

because I like to keep a little bit of the darkness,

cause it looks like I have eyeshadow,

and I can just skip the eyeshadow step.

[relaxed music]

I m gonna go in with some contour.

So I just do that, and I can already see the shadow,

so I just apply it on top of that, and when I blend it in,

I m swiping upwards instead of dragging it down,

cause I feel like that kind of helps keep it lifted.

[relaxed music]

I feel like the way that Japanese people do makeup

and people in the States do makeup is very different.

So Japanese people like to keep their face very pale.

There s not a lot of contouring.

Foundation is usually a little bit lighter

than your actual skin tone, whereas here in the States,

everyone likes to use bronzer,

they like to contour their face.

I m also gonna put some in the inner corner,

a little beneath my brow,

so I m just gonna create some shadow

and pretend like I have a high bridge nose.

[relaxed music]

So next up is brows.

I use a color that s not as dark as my brows,

so it s gonna look like that.

Just adding where I need it.

I m gonna apply this MERIT blush.

I usually like to just do it directly,

because this one s very sheer.

The response that I ve received from children

has just been so very meaningful to me.

I think the ones that mean the most

are the ones that I get from Japanese women,

and not necessarily older women, but some younger women

who feel like they ve been pressured to act a certain way,

and people expect them, because they re Japanese,

to be very sweet and to be quiet, but that s not everyone.

There are many stories that I feel need to be told,

and I m very excited to slowly get into them.

Next up, I m gonna put some powder blush.

[relaxed music]

I m also gonna put some on my eyes,

because I want to do a fresh sweet-ish look.

I m gonna apply some highlighter.

I like using cream products, because I feel

like they just give you a more natural finish.

Apply a little higher than the blush, but not too high.

Just the tiniest bit.

When we re shooting, I always enroll in a yoga studio

that s nearby and just go on the weekends, go after work,

and that s how I calm down and just stay sane.

I m gonna curl my lashes.

I love this eyelash curler from Addiction Tokyo.

It makes a really big difference.

I m gonna put some eyeliner on, and what I like to do

is just put some in the inner corner,

don t put any in the middle,

and then put it in the outer corner.

[relaxed music]

We re gonna use a thin angle brush,

and I m gonna put some product on it,

and then I m just gonna flick it out.

Lash primer.

If I don t put any primer,

my lashes are literally gonna touch the floor.

[relaxed music]

So the next step is mascara.

I m just gonna put it on the tip of my lashes.

cause we have eyeliner,

and we don t need to accentuate the root.

I always take a spooly and just comb it through,

cause I really don t like clumped up mascara on the lashes.

I want them to look very wispy.

I m gonna powder my face, so I d like to put it on the lid

and make sure that the brush has everything it needs,

and I ll go press on it.

[relaxed music]

After the powder, I usually put some brow gel,

just at the end.

I m gonna bring that up a little bit,

but I do it after the powder, because I hate it

when you do it before the powder, and once the powder s on,

it has white, clumpy gel on your brow.

I hate that.

And then the last step is the lips.

[relaxed music]

Actually, this is the final step.

I m gonna go back in with some of the contour

that I used earlier, and I m just gonna use the tiniest bit

and just put it a little above my lips

and a little below it.

I have a very big secret to tell you.

So when I sleep, I sleep on my back.

I do not sleep sideways,

because there was one time that I napped,

and I m not even kidding you,

this side had the deepest line ever,

and I was like, I am never sleeping on my side,

so I just use a nice, soft towel,

this one I brought from home.

I travel with it, and I ll roll it up,

and I ll just put it behind my neck and sleep like that,

and we were just facing up all night.

That s my best beauty secret. Hi!

All right, guys, that s the final look.

We did a very fresh, everyday look.

I hope you liked it,

and I m about to go celebrate my Emmy nomination.

Thanks for watching!