Already Decided
Beauty decisions that don't need a revisiting
I am not a crazy beauty person — and I mean this sincerely. I can go weeks without makeup, I don't refresh my shelf every season, and I don't have a "routine" in the way beauty content presents it. My way of communicating myself is dressing up. Beauty is a necessity, and it can be fun if I'm in the mood. My employees say I only put on makeup for meetings with investors or dates — which are basically the same thing: seduction.
What I do every day, regardless of who I’m seeing, is take care of my skin. That’s a different kind of seduction — the one directed entirely at myself. It has nothing to do with being seen.
And yet I’m not indifferent to what’s happening in the beauty world. I just have a slightly strange way of following it: I listen to founder’s interviews for the business. It’s extremely saturated market and I’m very curious to follow their logic: how they spotted a gap, how something became iconic, what their margins look like. It’s one of the few ways I actually find out what’s launching. Probably not a very typical way, but who cares if it works.
However, what ends up on my shelf is a very specific, very deliberate set of things that work. And once they work, I prefer not to change them.
THE SYSTEM
Since I turned 33, I do not experiment with skincare. My skincare is Biologique Recherche, and it was a conscious choice. I knew it wasn’t just expensive skincare — it’s a beauty clinic first and foremost, so I visited three different aestheticians before settling on my particular bundle. If you're thinking about walking up to a counter and picking something that looks promising: please don't. Go to a salon, get a proper consultation, and then decide. I'm 37 and I receive more compliments on my skin now than ever before.
My belief about skincare is simple: the products that matter are your lotion and your serums. Everything else — your cleanser, your moisturizer — can afford to be more flexible. A cleanser should give you a nice feeling; I love when my skin feels very clean, not flaking, not dry. A moisturizer should moisturize, as simple as that. Unless you have specific concerns or you’re deep into an anti-aging protocol, it genuinely doesn’t need to be more complicated. This is, apparently, a controversial opinion. But those are the products I allow myself to experiment with.
If something works, I don’t change it. Why try to improve on the best? This is the part of my life I prefer stability over chasing curiosity hunger.
One more rule that expresses my personality: I almost never buy a brand whose packaging I don’t like. The product has to perform like an actual magic trick for me to overlook bad design.
THE EXCEPTION
As I said, experimenting with skincare is not my thing. But sometimes something works before you have a chance to get skeptical. Summer Fridays Jet Lag products are not recommended by any aesthetician — it's Instagram brand, it's mass market, it's for a much younger lady. And yet I have it across every single bag I own and restock it regularly. I travel with those masks, I wear them at home for a full day, and this last Sephora visit I finally tried the Ultra Rich Moisturizing Cream — because sometimes my skin feels drier than usual I just need something generous and uncomplicated. It delivered exactly that.
This is what I mean by allowing discovery in very specific categories. The system holds precisely because it has room for one exception. Without that, it’s not a prison rather than a system.
MAKEUP
Most days I don't wear makeup. But my makeup bag has to look right — beautiful products, and only the ones I actually use.
I have been a NARS loyalist for years, and I still am. Yesterday in Sephora a lovely Italian woman at a counter spent considerable effort showing me the magic of a Givenchy concealer. It really looked good on my skin. My response was: “Is there anything in NARS that gives the same result?” She didn’t find anything, and I ended up not buying anything. That’s easy.
My makeup bag is NARS and Westman Atelier, with some additions that simply works and earns its place. Even when I want to find any new product, I go back to the brands I already love — or I take a very long time researching anything else. These days I keep my eye on Victoria Beckham Beauty and Jones Road - it will take years for me to choose something from their though.
HAIRS AND BODY
Kevin Murphy. Only! I order littre bottles from Amazon because I cannot imagine using anything else. Best shampoo of my life, best conditioner of my life, and the styling products are excellent. I have a short cut, which means I sometimes have to work with texture — and that’s where I allow myself a little experimentation. Even then, I stay within a very small circle of brands.
Body is Aesop, and it has been Aesop since I’ve discovered it. I saw that Dries van Noten launched a body line. Noted it and moved on.
WHEN I WANT TO HAVE FUN:
I do have a wishlist of products to try. It exists just in case I’ll be in the mood for experiments. But it doesn’t make me anxious, and it doesn’t threaten my system. It’s just a list of things I’m curious about — products I’ve noticed or heard good things about. When I’m in the mood, I’ll try one or two and maybe they will stick.
I really enjoy that beauty is a kind of island of stability. I restock it every two or three years, when things run out, and I’m happy to spend a good hour in Sephora when I’m in the mood for discovery. It’s surprising how comfortable it feels — a corner of life that doesn’t need rethinking, doesn’t need optimising, doesn’t need a new opinion every season.
When you don’t have enough stability in your life, even a shelf can give you some.
Yours,
Miri