Padma Lakshmi’s Guide to Hyperpigmentation and Camera-Ready Makeup

[ambient electronic music]

Hi Vogue, I m Padma Lakshmi,

and this is my beauty routine.

I use Christine Chin cleanser.

I m going to clip my hair back

because this next part gets messy.

I ve been using honey for years.

It has anti-inflammatory properties,

and it s a smoothing agent.

It s an exfoliant.

This is the honey I use. I make my own honey.

I have a little beehive on my terrace in New York City.

So you wanna do it on a dry face.

You just wanna rub it in,

and then you wanna kind of tap your face.

It s really sticky,

and the suction pulls out all the impurities.

When I film,

I also am eating a lot of weird funky foods.

When I m home, I make sure that

half of my diet is fruits and vegetables.

I m 51. And I think that s why my skin now looks good

is because I ve nourished it properly.

And I also drink two to three liters of water minimum a day.

Christine Chin toner.

I ve been going to Christine Chin loyally

for, gosh, over a dozen years.

Some firming serum from Tracie Martyn.

Another thing that I do for my gut health, especially,

is drink a glass of lassi.

Lassi is Indian drinkable yogurt.

People always ask me what I put on my skin,

and sometimes it s not what you put on your skin topically,

it s really what you put in your body.

So what I m trying to do is just push out all the fluid

and get my lymph nodes activated

and just pushing everything to the side and down.

Christine Chin, moisture cream.

I also will put it on my eyebrows to condition them.

I m lucky for every eyebrow hair I have

because I was one of those models

in the 90s that was plucked like a chicken.

And if you can believe it,

in college before I started modeling,

I used to have a little unibrow.

But one of the things I will use it s this Revitalash,

but it s actually for the brows.

I just put a little serum

on to condition them and to help every little

strand of eyebrow hair hold on for dear life.

And now we can move on to my makeup, which I love makeup.

I use this Laura Mercier primer.

I never used primer before

but when I started doing Taste the Nation,

I did my own makeup on that show.

So I realized that I just need some primer

so that the makeup stays on.

And this Laura Mercier primer also has some SPF in it.

I ve always had a lot of problems with hyperpigmentation.

I m Indian.

I ve had these dark circles since I was a child.

I really love this Armani, luminous silk

but I use two colors because it s hard

for me to find my own color.

So I m using it just in the outer part of my face.

I m bringing it down.

I really like to use my fingers because I feel

like the heat of my fingers helps warm up the foundation.

When I first started modeling,

I would actually have to bring my own foundation

because makeup artists never had my color.

Now I m using the Armani eight.

I take this and I put a little bit under my eyes

and in the lighter parts of my face.

So I don t want to totally mask my skin,

but I do want to even my skin tone.

Now for the fun part,

I love this Dior Show eyebrow pencil

I ve been wearing eyeliner since I was seven days old.

It s part of my culture.

If you re like me and you re getting a little blind,

you need this mirror.

This mirror is from Zadro,

and I don t thread my eyebrows.

I don t have them shaped.

I do them myself.

I just have tweezers in my makeup bags.

In fact, I used to do my mom s eyebrows

for allowance, and I first charged her three dollars

when I was nine to do her eyebrows.

And then I raised my prices when I was like 12

or something to five dollars and she got all mad,

but now she still likes me to do her eyebrows

every time she comes.

A wash of golden bronze color from MAC

I just put this all over

the eye.

I m gonna do concealer,

because my bags are really bothering me.

So I use NARS.

This is the makeup that I would do

if I had, you know, a Zoom meeting.

When I m going on camera,

I just make sure that my face is extra even,

but when I m not on camera

I don t really wear that much makeup.

I try to let my skin rest.

This Laura Mercier, number six,

and it has two colors, which is why I love it.

I use the darker color

just under my chin here,

just around my mouth.

And if you want even more coverage,

you can just use it up here

where I have some hyperpigmentation as well.

And I use a Bobbi Brown, yellow loose powder,

and I put it up here because as you can see,

I have a domed forehead,

everyone in my family does.

And it just catches the light, no matter what.

And I m not using it all over,

I m just using it in the T-zone,

and to set that concealer around my hyperpigmentation

in my chin.

I use this little guy.

Pinch My Cheeks in Raspberry from Origins.

I ve been using this for 20 years.

This is how much I use; literally that much.

And I love this product

because it just gives you a glow and I m a brown person.

So, you know, you don t really see me blush

but this is what I look like if I did blush.

I use this. It s a oil that hydrates your lips

and it has a little color in it,

and I just let that soak in.

This is just to really get them moist

I m using the Sisley.

I love purple on brown skin.

I think it actually works as a neutral.

And so I want to work that eyeshadow up like that.

So the one beauty product that

I can t live without is this

Urban Decay blue eyeliner. It s called Sabbath.

If you ve got brown skin or darker skin,

this Navy blue eyeliner is wonderful.

It s really soft.

So you want to sharpen it to get a really nice point.

If you don t get it exactly right, it s okay.

I use these little tiny Q-tips.

I always have these in my makeup kit.

They re from Muji.

They re really great because you can go in

and you can just shape your eyeliner perfectly.

And then I put it, believe it or not inside.

Sometimes if I have to reinforce the contour

I will use this MAC color called Sketch just here.

And then I just curl my eyelashes.

Thrive Mascara which I actually

just discovered on Instagram.

And I just take this metal comb,

and I comb

through my lashes.

Well, I used to do this with a safety pin,

back in High School.

When I m not working, I try not to do my hair

because I need to give my hair a rest.

For my lip I will use

NARS, Dolce Vita.

I like a matte mouth.

I don t like too shiny of a mouth.

I think it looks weird when you re eating

and I m eating so much on camera

and this will stay put.

I did a collaboration with Matte Cosmetics.

The one that I really love is this contour palette.

I used the highlighter just with my finger,

just a little bit right there.

And then you have to really rub it in.

Pat McGrath actually taught me this secret

of highlighting the Cupid s Bow of my mouth.

You just wanna go like on the edge

where the border is.

Rub it in, so it s not so obvious,

but it does catch the light.

And then I m going to go

over it with that NARS again.

I will just use this Clinique chubby stick

and a whole lot of honey and go over the NARS.

And it just gives it a little moisture.

But as you can see, it s not super shiny.

I usually keep it in the pocket of my camera operator.

And then he gives it to me when I need it

between bites of food.

I ve done all that concealer and I still have a little bit

because today is one of those days.

And I m just putting it right there where I need it.

I use, again, the contour palette

and this angle brush.

Take a little bit like that.

And I just create a little bit of definition.

I don t want to change the shape of my nose,

but I do want to give it some definition.

Kevyn Aucoin when I first started modeling

in Milan and Paris taught me how to do this.

Whatever I have left, I do a little bit here,

and a little bit here,

but I don t really like that much contour.

I take this beautiful hydrating essence by Tata Harper

and I just will spray a little bit on.

And then I will take a tissue, take excess off,

so it looks a little natural.

Smells are really important to me.

I think the reason that I m in food

and I know how to cook well is because of my sense of smell,

which is very acute and not always a blessing.

So I make my own perfume,

and I mix it up and I put it in this vial.

This has pure organic essential oils

of neroli and geranium and you know,

some rosemary black pepper.

That is my beauty routine and makeup.

I hope that was helpful.

I hope that some brown girls out there found some tips.

Thank you so much.

Take care.