For those navigating the complexities of beauty and self-expression, particularly amidst life’s significant changes, discovering a routine that balances practicality with artistic flair can be a considerable challenge. While conventional beauty wisdom often advocates for strict regimens and predictable outcomes, artists like Grimes offer a refreshing perspective, demonstrating how skincare and makeup can be deeply personal, experimental, and even a form of ongoing creative exploration. This unique approach, as seen in her candid beauty secrets shared in the video above, prioritizes individual comfort and artistic vision over rigid adherence to norms, providing a compelling solution for individuals seeking authentic self-expression.
Decoding Grimes’s Skincare Philosophy: Addressing Unique Challenges
Grimes, known for her distinctive artistic vision, approaches skincare with an honest and evolving perspective. She openly discusses the dramatic changes her skin underwent during pregnancy, describing it as becoming “super red and constantly covered in stuff,” akin to rosacea. This experience underscores a common yet often unaddressed reality for many individuals: skin can be highly reactive to internal changes, necessitating a flexible and responsive skincare regimen. Her emphasis on hydrating mists and a specific Korean essence highlights the importance of targeted ingredients for sensitive or reactive skin conditions.
Hydration and Protection: Core Skincare Principles
Her routine commences with fundamental steps, including a thorough face wash, followed by a hydrating mist to prepare the skin. Subsequently, a Korean essence is applied, which she credits with significantly alleviating her pregnancy-related skin issues. Korean essences, renowned for their concentrated formulas and ability to penetrate deeply, deliver nutrients and moisture, proving particularly beneficial for stressed skin. This step is crucial for enhancing skin barrier function and improving overall skin resilience, especially when dealing with redness or sensitivity.
The Role of Serums and Sunscreen in Daily Care
Following the essence, Grimes incorporates a Vitamin C serum, acknowledging its popular reputation for sun protection, although she admits to not having “verified any of this scientifically.” Vitamin C is widely celebrated in dermatology for its antioxidant properties, which help neutralize free radicals generated by UV exposure and environmental pollutants, thereby supporting skin health and brightness. Concluding her core daytime routine, a distinctive Japanese sunscreen is applied. She favors this product due to its “no texture” feel, emphasizing comfort and seamless integration into her regimen. This preference highlights a common desire for sun protection that doesn’t feel heavy or leave a white cast.
Addressing Specific Concerns: Eye Cream and Travel Skincare
For the delicate eye area, a Korean eye cream is used sparingly, intended to maintain a “fresh and youthful” appearance. Eye creams are formulated to address concerns such as fine lines, puffiness, and dark circles, providing targeted hydration and nourishment. Furthermore, Grimes shares a practical tip for combating the dehydrating effects of travel: applying ice to the face. This simple yet effective method can reduce puffiness and invigorate tired skin, especially after long flights or touring, underscoring the importance of adaptability in beauty routines.
Grimes’s Experimental Makeup Artistry: Beyond Conventional Beauty
Grimes’s approach to makeup is inherently experimental, often veering into “psychedelic” and unconventional territories. She candidly admits to frequently doing her own makeup, which sometimes results in her “looking insane,” yet she embraces this journey of self-improvement and artistic exploration. Her philosophy challenges the notion of perfection, advocating instead for authenticity and creative freedom in personal presentation. The artist’s commitment to self-expression is evident in every brushstroke.
Foundation Choices: From Tinted Sunscreen to “Hardcore” Coverage
For daily wear, Grimes opts for a tinted sunscreen, particularly when not pregnant and experiencing less redness. This choice prioritizes minimal coverage and sun protection, aligning with a desire for a “chill vibe skin.” However, for more elaborate looks, or when her skin requires additional coverage, she turns to “Fenty stuff,” describing it as “pretty hardcore” and “really thick.” This versatility in foundation choice reflects an understanding that different occasions and skin conditions warrant varied product performance. Consequently, her beauty routine offers flexibility for diverse needs.
Embracing Unconventional Features: Lip Liner and Eyebrows
Her signature makeup elements include a black lip liner, applied just outside the natural lip line to create the illusion of fuller lips, an unexpected yet effective technique. This daring choice transforms an ordinary feature into a statement. Moreover, Grimes expresses fondness for “big eyebrows” and laments having “wrecked” her once-present unibrow in high school, stating, “I feel like unibrows are super cool now.” This sentiment reflects a growing appreciation for diverse beauty standards, challenging the historical pressure to conform to narrow ideals. The use of an eyebrow product that only colors the hairs, not the skin, further showcases her preference for enhancing natural features subtly while maintaining her unique aesthetic.
The Allure of “Tears of Darkness” and Smudgy Eyeliner
Grimes’s eyeliner application is distinctively unconventional. She favors Pat McGrath eyeliners, specifically because they “sort of like come off throughout the day and then they like come down your eyes.” This intentional smudging contributes to a “rock and roll” and “edgy look,” embodying her concept of “tears of darkness.” Rather than removing eye makeup completely, she often allows it to fade naturally, appreciating the “day after makeup” aesthetic. This deliberate imperfection contrasts sharply with the pristine, high-definition makeup prevalent in mainstream beauty, instead cultivating a raw, lived-in appeal.
Strategic Application: Emphasizing the Eyes and Forehead
Her technique for round faces involves intensely focusing eyeliner “just in here and like really in there” around the eyes, while leaving the upper eyelid relatively bare. This creates a deeply set, piercing gaze. Notably, she avoids mascara, feeling she looks “kind of dumb with mascara on,” particularly blue mascara, concluding that “it’s better without” for her. Furthermore, she intentionally cultivates “bags under my eyes” to achieve a “scary look,” sometimes adding lines to enhance a “demonic” aesthetic. This subversion of traditional beauty ideals, which typically seeks to minimize dark circles and puffiness, underscores her commitment to an alternative, striking appearance.
Inspirations and Creative Expression: Bollywood to Video Games
While she admires the “big eyes and the lips and the contouring” of Kardashian makeup, she acknowledges it “doesn’t look good on me.” Instead, she finds inspiration in Bollywood makeup, particularly the “big eyes” and eyeliner of characters like the girl in the movie Devdas. Her final touches often include “shiny stuff” for a light-catching effect and, notably, biodegradable glitter, like Bioglitz, applied to her hair part and body. Her vision of beauty is encapsulated by the concept of “being pretty but like ravaged by war,” referencing characters like Ava from Metal Gear 3. This blend of vulnerability and strength defines her unique aesthetic, fusing fantasy with reality.
Hair Care for the Creatively Bold: From Bleach Damage to Regrowth
Grimes’s journey with hair color and care is as adventurous as her makeup, marked by a history of self-experimentation and significant challenges. She began secretly dyeing her hair at 11, eventually bleaching it over years, leading to a profound change in her natural hair color. This early engagement with hair transformation highlights a lifelong dedication to personal style, often pushed to its limits. Her hair care routine is an integral part of her overall Grimes’s beauty routine.
Navigating Bleach Damage and Recovery
Her pursuit of “beautiful Khaleesi hair” through a final bleaching attempt tragically resulted in “a ton of my hair” burning off. This devastating experience led her to rely on professional colorists, now entrusting her hair to a friend, Chanel. Consequently, this narrative serves as a cautionary tale for those attempting extreme hair transformations at home, emphasizing the potential for severe damage. Interestingly, she notes that pregnancy has been “great for your hair,” leading to “a lot of regrowth,” which has “kind of been solving the situation” of her prior hair loss. This anecdotal observation aligns with common experiences of hormonal changes impacting hair cycles.
The Oil-Drenching Method for Compromised Hair
To manage her “pretty fried hair,” Grimes employs an intensive oil-drenching method. She regularly slathers her hair in coconut oil, applying it after showering, and then often adding “even more oil” upon waking. This technique is crucial for making her severely damaged hair appear “sort of normal,” illustrating a resourceful approach to living with compromised hair health. Her regimen underscores the deep conditioning and protective benefits of natural oils for extremely dry or chemically treated hair, providing a practical solution for maintaining manageability and shine. Such methods contribute significantly to her holistic Grimes’s skincare and experimental makeup routine.
Grimes’s Unconventional Beauty Philosophy: A Commitment to Self-Expression
Grimes’s entire beauty ethos transcends mere aesthetics, serving as a powerful platform for personal and artistic expression. She is a proponent of “liquid eyeliner designs,” often drawing dots, tears, or even chokers, demonstrating how makeup can extend beyond enhancement to become wearable art. This playful experimentation is not confined to conventional looks; she openly encourages her child to “use makeup” and “dye their hair,” advocating for early self-expression and creative freedom, contrasting with her own secret experiments as a youth.
Embracing Imperfection and Fluidity
Her comfort with “a notable lack of continuity” in her look reflects a fluid and unconstrained approach to identity. This philosophy contrasts sharply with celebrity culture’s typical emphasis on consistent branding and polished perfection. Grimes’s willingness to appear “ravaged by war” or “demonic” through makeup challenges traditional notions of beauty, suggesting that powerful expression can often be found outside the realm of conventional attractiveness. Ultimately, Grimes’s skincare and experimental makeup routine is a dynamic canvas for artistic exploration, inviting others to embrace their own unique creative impulses and discover their personal version of experimental beauty.
Grimes’s Otherworldly Glow: Your Q&A
What is Grimes’s overall view on beauty and makeup?
Grimes sees beauty as a personal and experimental journey, where skincare and makeup are tools for creative self-expression rather than following strict rules.
What kind of skin problems did Grimes experience during her pregnancy?
During pregnancy, Grimes’s skin became very red and sensitive, which she described as being similar to rosacea.
What are some key steps in Grimes’s daily skincare routine?
Her routine includes washing her face, using a hydrating mist, applying a Korean essence for sensitive skin, and finishing with a lightweight Japanese sunscreen.
What is unique about Grimes’s eye makeup style?
Grimes often uses eyeliner that smudges naturally throughout the day, creating an intentional ‘rock and roll’ and ‘tears of darkness’ look instead of a perfect line.
