Model and actor Andie MacDowell is one of L’Oréal Paris’s longest-serving spokespeople. She spoke to British Vogue’s senior beauty and wellness editor, Lauren Murdoch-Smith, during a trip to Cannes with L’Oreal Paris, the festival’s official sponsor.
On her approach to everyday skincare and makeup
I moisturize a lot—non-stop! I also can’t leave the house without doing my eyebrows. Something that happens when you age is you start to lose your eyebrows so don’t pluck your eyebrows which is something I tell my daughters. I always fill in and build up my brows and that helps frame your face—it just wakes you up, brings your face alive. I also like a little blush but so it looks like I’ve been in the sun or I’ve been working out because I always like how I look when I’ve worked out so I’ll hit different places than people would normally apply blusher.
On glam makeup
When I’m doing glam makeup, I really like to wear a strong eye. I like what my makeup team did last night [at the amfAR gala]. You think when you get older that you can’t do brave things like that, but I don’t think it’s true at all. I think you can do it forever. I mean, look at Vivienne Westwood. She looked fabulous. You know, I think it’s good to be brave. Sometimes I want to go for a softer, more gentle, fresh look but sometimes it’s good to be a bit provocative. Wear a stronger look and bring that energy out. I love that, too.
On seasonal beauty
I always moisturize, and I also wear a lot of sunblock because I live at the beach. I have to smear it on. I don’t really change that much from season-to-season but sometimes I do change my nail polish! I think summertime calls for corals or peachy colors and you also need to think about your skin tone if you’ve got a tan and then of course during the winter or around Christmas it’s going to be red, right? Going into the fall you might think of more autumn colors. You might even consider that with lipstick. So the colors that I use sort of dial into how my skin is. You might want to do a little gold shimmer depending on if you get sun or not. For me, I can’t help but catch the sun–even if I put on sunblock–I absorb the sun so my skin will tan. That’s really how I wear color, by looking at the color of my skin and enhancing my skin with my makeup.
On any beauty or wellness lessons passed on to her daughters
I think they absorbed many things just from growing up in my house. But you know, I always want my children, all three of my children, to wear sunblock because my dad had some skin cancer, so it runs in the family. And I have to be cautious about that too. We both [Margaret] do yoga, love our sleep, and eat really well. She was a dancer too, so she’s very disciplined.
I used to do spa times with both of my girls, which was fun—some of the sweetest times. It’s my greatest memory with my girls—they would always sit and talk to me when I was in the bathtub, they would put their feet in and we would be there for a long time. I miss those days—I should talk them into coming over some time and do it again!
On the feature she loves most about herself
I’m not ashamed to say—because I was thinking that could sound, you know [arrogant]—but because I know how many people I’ve helped by embracing my curly hair, it has to be my hair. I have people all the time come up to me and say, “You helped me like my hair!” I think it’s not always the most popular. Mine’s very, very curly, but also kind of frizzy. I don’t mind—I like it and I helped women embrace theirs. My hair is very curly, and it’s very fluffy, very curly and I like it! So if it helps other people say, “Oh, okay, I like it, too,” then I like mine too. It’s interesting as a lot of women struggle with that. They don’t feel it’s pretty. It’s fun to go and have your hair blown out for events but I would never do it in my everyday life. I look forward to washing my hair and just having it be its curly self and just letting it do whatever it wants.
