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Beauty Secrets We Learned From Vincent Oquendo
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In high fashion, there’s almost no such thing as effortless beauty. From facial treatments that leave your complexion dewy and luminous to the perfect winged eyeliner, experts reveal their most-trusted, insider hacks for CR‘s series, Beauty Secrets.
When Vincent Oquendo worked in the sunglasses department of Saks Fifth Avenue, he found himself enticed by the makeup counter. “It almost felt like a puzzle piece clicking into place where I thought, wow. This feels good,” he tells CR. “At the makeup counter, it’s not like people are going on the red carpet. They really just want to bring out their eyes and make their skin look its best. Even working with the clients that I work with now, whether it’s a pop star or an A-list actress, or a brand new budding starlet, it’s my job to make them feel like their best selves.”
Oquendo grew up with three older sisters and a mother who dropped out of beauty school, but he ended up being the one who went into beauty, working under Pat McGrath after his stint at Saks. “Her makeup is very aspirational, and that’s what I consider my makeup style to be as well,” he says. “It’s what women want to wear. I always question myself when I’m creating a bigger makeup look and think, is this aspirational?”
Here, CR catches with the beauty expert on his most-loved makeup trend, how esthetician Georgia Louise changed his skin, and his approach to self-care.
Walk me through your skincare routine.
“In the morning, I don’t wash my face. It dries the skin out typically, so I’ll use the Georgia Louise pH Perfecting Tonic. I used to have true combination skin, but somewhere in my early 30s, it changed, and now I’m dry. After that, I will use the Royal Fern Ampoules and then, I will put on the Barbara Sturm Eye Cream. I also am using the MC1 Cream from Barbara Sturm. At night, I use the Shiseido Future Solution Extra Rich Cleansing Foam. It’s one of my favorites, and I love to travel with it. I’ve been kind of going back and forth between the REN Skincare Ready Steady Glow AHA Tonic and the Georgia Louise Tonic. I use the Supersmile Whitening Toothpaste, the dual phase. Every morning, I use the Lumify Eye Drops, as well. They’re anti-redness drops but it really makes your eyes very white. I’ll shave with the Shiseido Men’s Shaving Cream and the Art of Shaving razor. At night, I take magnesium and alkaline, and every morning, I take liquid oxygen, and these amino acids. I have peels and masks that I use sometimes. I love the Mario Badescu Botanical Exfoliating Scrub. I’ve been using the Biore strips since I was in grade school and I love that very clean feeling. I am super self-conscious about my pores because I work so closely with people, so I feel like they can see all my business. I love mist. I’m a mist-aholic. I love the Jurlique Mist. And I love the Byredo Hand Cream, the rose one. I use that in the morning because my cuticles get wildly dry.”
Have you noticed a change in your skin since taking supplements?
“Oh yeah, absolutely. Here’s the thing, self-care for me comes from the inside. It’s not just skincare, it’s the drops that I put in my eyes and [my toothpaste]. So, we see someone in the street, we shake their hands, and we’re like okay, your hands are dry, your cuticles are busted, your eyes are red, and if they smile, and their teeth are yellow. You’re like, I don’t trust you. It sounds incredibly vain, but I smile really big, I’m a vegetarian, and all of this stuff for me is a no-brainer. It’s putting your best foot forward. Most men show up to work with polished shoes and a sharp suit. For me, it’s making sure that I look like my best self, because that’s my job. It’s like if you go to a hair salon and you sit down and your hairdresser has a bad haircut. You’re like, Oh girl I gotta go.”
What about for pore size?
“I go to Georgia Louise and she does all these ultra-violet and frequency waves. Every time I know that I’m gonna do something on camera, I always make sure I’m go in and see her. It helps tighten my skin and make my pores look smaller. She’s one of the only people in the universe that can do an extraction and not mark me, or not even make it look red. I also have gone and gotten vampire facials from Dr. Senderoff. It was amazing. Don’t get it twisted, it hurts, and there’s downtime. A facial will make me look really great for like three or four days. But this…my skin looks amazing for like six months. It was insane.”
Favorite makeup look you’ve done recently?
“I would say Hailey Bieber for Balenciaga. I did a winged eyeliner with a neon orange highlight in the inner corner and these little graphic dots underneath her eyes. That is my signature makeup summed up in one look. The eyeliner reminded me of graffiti, which is very true to how I was raised. I’m a Puerto Rican from Queens and that graffiti art with the urban type of look, but with that refinement. It was in Paris, her skin is amazing, but with the makeup, I really created that supple, glowy skin and that natural, defined lip. There are multiple textures in that look and you can see that there’s a high concentration of color on the inner corner, but there’s iridescent highlight over it. The brows are defined and feathery and full. It’s my aesthetic in a nutshell.”
What about five products you’re loving?
One of the staples in my kit is the Maybelline Tattoo Studio Liners. I’ve been using a ton of colorful liners, whether they’re pastel or navy blues. I love these eyeliners, because they’re easy to apply, go on smoothly, and high-impact. A really good mascara is the Shiseido Controlled Chaos Mascara. It comes in four colors, because I’m obsessed with using liners and then using a mascara in the same exact color. I just did it on Sasha Lane for the Hellboy premiere. She wore a custom Prada gown that was navy blue and I matched that color in her eyeliner. I’ve been feeling that super monochrome look. Even on Lilly Collins, she was wearing a cool mint green outfit and I did a big graphic mint green eyeliner. Then, I would recommend the Lumify drops. I use it in my eyes and in my client’s eyes, and it gets rid of any redness. The Shiseido Waso Mega Hydrating Gel Cream, and I recommend the Mario Badescu Rose Water Mist. It’s out of this world. It’s so good. And, the Burt’s Bees Lip Balm. It depends on what kind of look I’m going for. If I’m going for a slight shine, then I’ll use the Eos Crystal Lip Balm. If I want a matte lip, I’ll just use the regular Burt’s Bees stick.”
Favorite beauty trend?
“I’ve been loving all of these colorful eye makeup looks. Hung Vanngo just posted a really cool look on Selena Gomez. It was this green metallic eye. I love this adventurous use of color. It’s right up my alley. Another friend of mine, Jessica P. Smalls, who regularly works with Janelle Monae. She was with [Monae] at the Kid’s Choice Award and she did some cool mascara on her and I thought that was really awesome. Really joyful use of color. That’s one of my favorite things, so I’m really glad to see other artists doing it as well currently.”
What would you like to see go change in the beauty industry?
“It’s kind of going away, but overly made-up skin. Foundation that’s so heavy that you can’t see the pores. I don’t love that because, unless you need it, because your skin is in really bad shape, there’s beauty in the realness of skin. Even if there are blemishes. Sometimes with my clients, I’ll conceal a blemish, but you can still see a little tiny bit of it. I don’t completely ever cover their skin. I wanna see their pores, because that makes them real and that’s what makes the makeup beautiful. For instance, I work with Winnie Harlow. If I covered her skin, she would not ask me back. She would take it off and she would ask me to leave. That’s what makes her an individual, and I think skin should be a celebration because that’s what makes you unique. When I put makeup on my clients, I just am enhancing what they have, not completely covering it and changing it. Your face is meant to be the picture frame to a gorgeous work of art. The picture frame doesn’t change the art that it’s showcasing, it just enhances it.”
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createdAt:Thu, 11 Apr 2019 18:32:45 +0000
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