AOC Makeup Routine for VOGUE

*YouTube

"You cannot get your feelings of beauty and confidence from anyone but yourself. That is one of the ultimate gifts that you have to give to yourself." My favorite line from Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez during her makeup routine video for Vogue.

She starts with applying her daily Sunscreen, which I was so proud of to see. SPF is so important! For her base, she'll choose between Estee Lauder's Double Wear (when taking photos) or NARS Tinted Moisturizer for usual days.

She moves on to use the following in her routine:

• Beauty Blender for blending her tinted moisturizer or foundation

• Color Corrector under eye and around nose - she likes using fingers because the warmth of fingers breaks down product

• Tarte's infamous Shape Tape Concealer

• Fenty Beauty contour stick, accentuating existing features as she doesn't try to change the way it looks with contour

• Brushes brows upward with what we like to call a spoolie aka a brow brush

• Anastasia Beverly Hill (ABH) brow pencil fill in lightly

• ABH GLOW highlighter palette (one of my faves!)

• Tarte shadow palette all over lid from the Flirt palette

• Pencil eyeliner on lash line

• Eyelash curler

• Tarte mascara

Cortez goes on to admit she loves to experiment with glittery eyeshadows but she used to fear those shimmery colors, afraid she would be judged by her colleagues and it would diminish her voice. "As the youngest woman in Congress and as a woman of color, its so hard to be taken seriously."

I really commend her for showing us her routine to show that every day women, who are not professional makeup artists, like myself, actually CAN do their own makeup. Even though the MUA in me really wanted to pass homegirl a blending brush through the screen for her eyeshadow. But still...kudos to AOC! She did a great job. So great that I was pleasantly surprised at how well her winged liner came out...with a pencil.

During her grand finale, she shares with us the popular red lip color we've seen her wear multiple times in the news. The Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick in Beso by Stila Cosmetics. It's her go-to for longevity since she doesn't have time to touch up throughout the day. She reminded us of our days of knocking on people's doors during her preliminary campaigning and she knew the red lipstick would help her shine, and bring out her confidence. After all, red lips is the Latina way! Her technique is a smart one for a lip color of this texture: she starts in the middle and works her way out.

If there's anything to take away from this video, it's "The key to beauty is an inside job...No makeup can compensate for loving yourself...That is the one foundation for everything."

Wedding Guest Makeup

Meet my God Sister, Jacqueline. She attended the same wedding my company was hired for hair and makeup last week. If you're up for laughs, check her prior makeover video on my IGTV. 😝

𝐒𝐤𝐢𝐧:

🌟 Jacqueline here has a few sun spots from all her years spent on sunny 🏝 vacations. The easy way to prevent them is a face SPF. 🧴

🌟 Got them already? You can apply a brightening serum & moisturizer during the day, which usually has 🍊 Vitamin C. I like those that contain Vitamin C ESTER – because its more potent than traditional Vit C, less acidic, and safe to wear in the sun.

🌟 I recommend the @PerriconeMD Vitamin C Ester Photo Brightening Moisturizer (contains SPF 30) and the @OneLoveOrganics Vitamin C Serum (which can be used as a moisturizer as well).

𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧:

🌟 If you have sun ☀️ spots, I recommend a full-coverage foundation. I used the Ultra Foundation in # 8 by @FaceAtelier – she’s pretty tan right now but most of my Latina clients 👩🏼👩🏻👩🏽👩🏾fall between a number 4 and 7 range with this line. My friend Stacey put me on to this foundation about 3 years ago and I never went back.

🌟 I usually use it on my 👰🏾 bridal parties since it is pretty water resistant and lasts longer because it’s silicone-based. So it’s great for long ⏰ days…

🌟 It is a dewey 💦 finish, but if you’re oily like me and Jacqueline, you’ll want to set it with a powder. My fave setting powder? Easy. Translucent Setting Powder by @LauraMercier.

𝐄𝐲𝐞𝐬:

🌟 In case you were wondering, I used 2 colors from the 👁 35V Stunning Vibes eyeshadows, one of the original @MorpheBrushes eyeshadow palettes.

🌟 Lid: color “In The Zone” · Crease: “Vixen” · and A LOT of Black Eyeliner.

Puffy Eyes?

If you have puffy eyes from being a stay-at-home mom for the last 6 months, here’s a few tips below you can try. 👉 𝐑𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐥𝐮𝐢𝐝 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐬.

🌟𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬. Apply a wet, cold 🥶 washcloth under the eyes for a few min.

🌟𝐄𝐲𝐞 𝐆𝐞𝐥 𝐏𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬. I love the Rejuvenating daytime patches by Patchology because they have caffeine 🍵 which reduce puffiness, and the Cucumber eye gels by Peter Thomas Roth, which are also cooling and detoxifying. Leave on for 10 min.

🌟𝐂𝐮𝐜𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬. Make sure the cucumber 🥒 is cooled from the fridge and after cutting in slices, apply them on your eyes until they they no longer feel cold.

🌟𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐓𝐞𝐚 𝐁𝐚𝐠𝐬. Because the caffeine ☕️ increases circulation, this is a great home remedy. Wet the 2 bags and refrigerate for 20 min before putting the eyes for about 15 min.

🌟𝐄𝐲𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫. Roll back and forth to reduce inflammation. You can also do this with your eye gel patches on! 😉 I like to keep my roller in the fridge as well.