Lupita Nyong’o has been gone for too long!
We miss seeing her on the red carpet and on magazine covers all the time, so hurray for this Redbook interview!
It’s not quite the same as a cover and spread, but we’ll take it! Plus, Lupita dishes on all her beauty habits!
[ Related: Lupita Teaches Elmo A Lesson About Skin On Sesame Street ]
Read on to learn more about this dazzling queen!
She doesn’t really feel pressured to look perfect every day:
“No! I’ve always cared about how I look, but to dress to the nines all the time is to have no life.”
But even on casual days she wears a bit of makeup. She said:
“I’ll do defined brows and natural eyeshadow, then I put on a plum blush, which gives my cheeks a healthy look. On dark skin, it’s easy for blush to be too obvious. And I love lip balm because you can just grab it and go.”
She talks about wearing bold makeup looks on the red carpet:
“Well, I hadn’t been on any red carpets before, so I didn’t know what the rules were. I just gravitate toward what I like. My makeup artist, Nick Barose, has grown my confidence in playing with color. He’s gotten me to wear some pink lipcolors that I would have never picked out on my own.”
She explains that shaving her head when she was 19 was a well thought-out decision, saying:
“[I]t wasn’t on a whim├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥I spent days thinking about it first. Once I did it, it was very liberating, but I also felt very naked. When you feel the wind on your scalp, it’s like, Oh, my God. But I’ve kept my hair short ever since.”
The actress also touts the benefits of short hair, saying:
“It’s easy. As a teen, my hair caused me so much anxiety. When I wasn’t happy with how my hair looked, I’d spend recess in the bathroom because I was so embarrassed.”
Lupita even reveals her skincare secrets!
“My skin tends to be very dry, so I use avocado oil to take off my makeup, which helps keep my face moisturized. Then I use a light cleanser, eye cream, and Lanc├â┬┤me G├â┬⌐nifique serum, which I love because you can dab it on top of makeup too.”
Surprisingly, her skin adapted quite well to the humidity in New Orleans while filming 12 Years a Slave:
“Actually, it was in such good shape during filming. I grew up [in Kenya] near the equator, so heat and humidity are my friends. My skin was very sad to leave Louisiana!”
Think you’d ever been bold enough to shave off all your hair?
Maybe some things only Oscar-winning gorgeous people can pull off!