[soft music]
- Hello, Vogue, [in foreign language],
this is Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,
and I am here to walk you through my skincare
and red lip routine.
So I'm really excited to spend my morning with you.
Let's do it.
I have not gotten much sleep last night at all,
welcome to life in politics.
We are trying to get people healthcare,
making sure that they are taken care of in a pandemic,
people are fighting too much
and so I have bags under my eyes.
And so I always start with a toner.
This is just one that I happen to be using right now.
So I just apply some toner and
just wet my face.
I am following up with some vitamin C.
I just add a little bit of moisturizer.
So I get questions all the time on my Instagram stories
about skincare routines and makeup and what I do,
and the reason why I think it's so important
to share these things is that first of all,
femininity has power.
And in politics,
there is so much criticism and nitpicking
about how women and fem people present ourselves.
Just being a woman [giggles] is quite politicized
here in Washington.
There's this really false idea that if you care about makeup
or if you care, if your interests are in beauty and fashion,
that that's somehow for the least.
But I actually think these are some of the most substantive
decisions that we make and we make them every morning.
And so moving on,
I've got SPF.
If you are at all a melanated woman,
it's really hard to find sunscreen
because a lot of sunscreens have a white cast.
And I think that a lot of women know this,
to look at how, you have to be really generous
with sunscreen.
Don't play games, don't play games with sunscreen.
You'd always rather put too much than too little.
So don't forget your ears, don't forget your eyelids.
I travel between DC and New York
pretty much every single week.
This is kind of one of the most taxing sides
of being a member of Congress is that
Congress when it's in session,
we're in DC about four days a week,
and then we have to fly back home to work in our communities
three days a week.
That's seven days a week.
That's a lot of traveling.
It is also a huge toll on skin and so, you know,
I oftentimes will put on like kind of
a clear moisturizing mask when I'm in the train,
but the other aspect of it is carrying your products.
I still have my makeup routine
and I often have to carry it once a week.
And so it's not worth packing and unpacking,
I just keep it here and unzip it
and I will start with a tinted moisturizer.
So I get photographed just everyday to work.
It can be kind of exhausting.
I love beauty,
but also I try not to have a full beat every day[laughs]
and so some days I choose to go in with a bare face
and other days, you know, when I wanna feel glam to glam.
So these are the two foundations that I use.
I use a double wear,
when I know I'm going to be taking a lot of photos
and when it's going to be a long day
because it never goes anywhere,
but I love, love, love, tinted moisturizers.
They aren't as taxing on your skin.
It's a lot lighter and it's great for your day.
So one of the reasons why I even started wearing a red lip
was when I was running in my primary election the first time
and outside of our community,
no one knew who I was and we were out,
we were knocking doors,
we were making sure that people were being heard.
And one of the things that I had realized is that, you know,
when you're always kind of running around,
sometimes the best way to really look put together
is a bold lip.
And of course, being Latina,
this is like very much our culture where we come from,
I will wear a red lip when I want confidence,
when I need a boost of confidence.
So after this, after I painted on,
I just blend it in.
Our culture is so predicated on diminishing women, right?
And kind of preying on our self esteem.
And so it's quite a radical, my opinion,
it's quite a radical act
and it's almost like a mini protest to love yourself
in a society that's always trying to tell you,
you're not the right way,
you're not the right color,
you're not the right, you know, whatever it is.
And when you stand up and you say, you know what,
you don't make that decision, I make that decision.
It's very powerful,
but that doesn't mean we can't have fun.
As I said, I didn't get much sleep
so I am applying a color corrector.
And sometimes I just add it around the nose,
then I will put on some concealer.
You know, I kind of learned this on my own,
and as a millennial, through YouTube as well.
I really like starting to blend with my fingers
and then I'll go in afterwards and polish it off.
I find that the warmth from my fingers
really just helps bring product to life.
I went from working in a restaurant
to being on cable news all the time,
and I was really not used to that kind of a shift.
And,
you know, I think
I initially really struggled with that.
I really did.
And at a certain point,
I just learned that
you cannot get your
feelings of beauty and confidence from anyone but yourself.
You, that is one of the most ultimate gifts
that you have to give to yourself.
And so, you know what?
I just decided I'm not going to waste my time
and if I'm going to spend an hour
in the morning doing my glam,
it's not going to be because I'm afraid of what
some Republican photo is going to look like.
If I'm gonna do an hour doing my glam,
it's because I feel like it.
And that's really the difference,
my body, my choice[laughs]
And I do a light little contour
and so I will use, of course the classic Fenty beauty.
I use, I believe this is a contour stick.
For me, I'm an Accentuater.
I'm not trying to change my features or shape shift,
I'm just trying to accentuate my existing features.
Because then again,
you start getting into that self confidence game of like,
when you try to totally like, I'll do a very, for example,
I'll do a very light contour of my nose
where those kinds of lines already are.
I'm not trying to make it look bigger,
I'm not trying to make it look smaller.
I'm not trying to get low taller or longer
or anything like that.
I'm just trying to show people what I got[giggles]
Of course, they're still going to be like some fits,
some just general tips that you might go for.
Like, one thing that I learned was that
you might wanna set your contour a little bit higher
because when you blend it,
it kind of falls a little bit.
So instead of doing it like down here,
if you do it up here and you blend it, it ends up down here.
I'll go in with a little bit of cloud paint.
So that's pretty much my base.
I'm gonna go in with the brow.
You know, I'm very lucky now, at least in 2020,
'cause it's in Vogue[laughs]
I'm very lucky because brows are in,
you know my family has brows.
Like many people in my family are born with one brow
and we have to turn it into two brows
and I am been naturally blessed in this department,
and so I'll just go in very lightly
just to fill in the outer parts just a little bit,
I'll do a little highlighter as well.
The more time I have the more steps I add[laughs]
So this is...
Today is a little more involved than usual,
but I'm having fun.
I've been lately be playing with a lot of eyeshadows,
I go in with a little kind of a lighter color
and I just wash it all over my lid.
One of the things that's pretty wild to me is that
first of all, if you are a person that needs a tampon,
or if you are a person that needs a pad
or menstruation product of any kind,
you are often subject to what's known as the pink tax.
And it's not just menstruation products,
it's almost any product or service
that differentiates by gender.
And so dry cleaning is a perfect example.
Let's take a look at this.
If you're dry cleaning a men's shirt,
a lot of times it will be less expensive.
And in many States less expensive
than dry cleaning a woman's shirt.
In my opinion a pink tax is not just about money,
it's also about time.
And I think right here,
what we're talking about is a perfect example.
If waking up in the morning
and doing your makeup gives you life,
then that is amazing and you should do it.
But what we are also seeing all too often
is that women who wear makeup,
if there are studies that show that women who wear makeup
or regularly wear like a decent amount of makeup,
kind of show up to the office in glam also make more money.
And so at that point,
it stops being these calculations and decisions,
stop being about choice.
And they start being about patriarchy [giggles]
where if we look attractive to men,
then we will be compensated more.
And that's, to me is the complete antithesis
of what beauty should be about.
I think beauty should be about the person
who is applying it.
And so these things add up over time
and of all of that
we're not even paid at the same level as men.
And so our expenses are higher, our time is less
and we're not even getting paid at an equal rate.
Can't catch a break.
We live in systems that were largely built
for the convenience of men.
And oftentimes were designed with the subjugation of women
and queer people in mind.
And so every time we make a decision,
when you make a decision for you,
when you're like, you know what,
I'm going to do this,
I'm not going to do this thing that's expected of me because
if it's expected of me just because it's been the norm
who has the norm been serving?
I think that the queer community
has really paved the way on this, you know.
The way that they use beauty as a form of self expression
from drag Queens, to just
to, you know, non-binary people
and how they choose to use beauty
to express themselves is a lesson to everybody.
And I think it's really amazing.
I'm really incredible.
Okay, so I'm gonna go in, chrome my lashes,
when it comes to an everyday look,
I do remain pretty consistent,
but I also love to experiment.
And so one area where I recently
that actually recently went very well was
glitter in eyeshadow.
You know, I used to think that I wouldn't be,
I would be taken less seriously
and as you know, as the youngest woman in Congress
and as a woman of color, it's so hard to be taken seriously.
It's just, you know,
it's like any workplace where sometimes it feels like
you have to jump up and down for anyone to listen.
It's just really difficult
because some people are just born in bodies
that are naturally taken more seriously, you know.
I used to think that glitter or shimmery eyeshadow,
here I'm just using this ballet right now.
But there's others that I use
that are like even louder sometimes.
And I would think, Oh man, like this isn't going to,
this isn't gonna help me out, right?
Like people already try to diminish me
diminish my voice as young and frivolous and unintelligent.
And so first of all, I tried the shimmer
and it looks fire, it looks good.
It helps me feel better.
And I feel like it helps like make my eye pop a little bit.
So, you know what?
I was totally wrong.
I'm adding a little bit of bronzer
just to kind of warm up everything brings it all together.
Whenever you see me wearing a red lip, most of the time,
it's this one Stila liquid lipstick in basel.
And for me, the key for a lipstick
as much as I love experimenting
with a lot of different formulas,
whether it's a liquid lipstick
or a different kind of lipstick.
One of the things that I love is
about a liquid lipstick like this is
formulas that stay all day
because I really don't have time to be running in
and out of the bathroom to be doing touch-ups
and all this other stuff.
And so I really prefer liquid lipsticks
that just are indestructible.
I just go right in.
I start in the low risks zone actually.
And again, I start small and I start working my way out.
Voilà!
And it just,
boom!
It's like a nice little shock
and even I feel a little more oomph with the red on,
you'll deal with the hair later.
If I had to give one piece of advice,
it is that the key to beauty is the inside job.
The key to beauty is feeling beautiful
and no amount of money or makeup
can really compensate for loving yourself.
And so make sure that you do that.
That is the one foundation of everything.
And if you need a little boost
or if you're feeling particularly challenged that day,
look in the mirror and say, I'm the bomb
and I will make the world a better place
in my own little pocket, because that's what I'm here to do.
You are a blessing to the world.
Your talents are a blessing to the world.
No matter who you are,
there is something that you bring and you need to know that.
And that is the best beauty secret of them all.
Alright, I got my blazer on and I'm ready to seize the day,
make sure that you,
make sure that you kiss someone that you love.
That they give you a little love
and that you're ready to go.
So this is Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,
I hope you feel beautiful, however you are,
and let's go seize the day and find the power.
[soft piano music]