I woke up this morning at home in Montclair, New Jersey and the first thing I did was let my dogs out in the backyard. Currently, we have an exchange student from Italy staying with us so I prepared breakfast for him and my youngest son while sipping a double espresso. Today, I made a coconut kale shake before I headed into the city.
It’s so easy to make: you just throw some ice, coconut milk, cocoa powder, chia seeds, vanilla protein powder, frozen organic banana and kale into a blender and that’s it.
I travel abroad and across the US at least two or three times a year. I love meeting my fans from across the world as well as my local make-up artists. Their feedback is extremely important to me when I’m developing new products. As a make-up artist, my goal is to develop products that cater to different beauty needs for women around the world. Our line is designed to give women of all ethnicities, skin tones and skin types options that work for their individual look.
Otherwise, I spend most of my days working from my office in SoHo, a trendy neighbourhood in downtown Manhattan. It’s a really laid-back atmosphere that I absolutely love. To me, it’s important that my staff work in a friendly, open and healthy environment where they can really be creative.
On some days, I also like to work from my studio in Montclair, New Jersey, which serves as a think tank, a retail space and education centre for the brand.
When I’m at work, I like to keep my look casual and classic. I’ll usually wear dark blue jeans, a T-shirt and sneakers or loafers. I also keep my eye make-up pretty quick and easy by applying my staples: Creamy Concealer, Skin Foundation Stick, Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner, really black mascara and blush.
Today, we hosted an event for press
at a nearby hotel so I wore dark blue jeans, a maroon cotton shirt, a navy blue blazer and black lace-up wedges, and I wore a silk scarf around my neck to dress up my outfit.
Before heading over to the event, I lined my eyes with Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner in Black Ink and layered different mascara formulas (it’s a quick and easy way to get the look of false lashes).
It takes a little less than an hour to get to my office in SoHo so I do as much as I can during my morning commute. This morning, I had a conference call and then did some paperwork.
Once at my office, I had meetings all day. I met for about an hour with each of my teams, including Creative, Marketing, Social & Digital, Education and Product Development to discuss the current season’s programmes and brainstorm new products. I’m always trying every product on myself to make sure it’s quick and easy to apply and provides instant results. I also met with a journalist from Korea to talk about my beauty philosophy and upcoming spring ’14 collections. To me, it’s important that my “be who you are” philosophy reach women from around the world. I want women to use make-up to enhance their natural features, rather than change them.
Later in the afternoon, we hosted an intimate press event for US editors to introduce the second iteration of The Pretty Powerful Campaign for Women & Girls, an awareness and fundraising campaign that promotes empowerment of women and girls through job skills training and education.
Most nights, I like to go home to my family and cook dinner with them. Today I left the office around 6pm and went straight home to Montclair, where my husband and I cooked dinner. We had grilled fish with quinoa, beans and veges.
The reason I do what I do is to empower women. Helping women is my passion. Since the beginning, I wanted to give women the knowledge and products to help them to look and feel their best. I am proud of the many women I have helped either through my products and artists or through my philanthropic work.