Before I ran off to interview Carmindy, the notable make-up artist who is in town launching her third book, Crazy Busy Beautiful, I jumped into a salon to get my unkempt eyebrows waxed. I mean, there is an entire chapter devoted to eyebrows. Of course, I ended up having a reaction and arrived to greet the fantastically flawless Carmindy with blazing red eyes. But the bubbly California blonde put me at ease with a little self-deprecating humour:

“This is 5AM make-up,” motioning at her face, that looks as glowing and polished as one would assume it to be. 

So I ask Carmindy how she does it. Settle in:  I love that question. First of all I don’t wash my face in the morning because I’ve already washed it at night… slept and been rejuvenated. It hasn’t gotten dirty, so I don’t wash it again. I wake up and put on my Creme de la Mer – I’m a Creme de la Mer whore – I love it! My skin is dry like the desert. Once that sinks in I put on my second favourite thing which is Skinceuticals Sport SPF Sunscreen…the reason why I like this sunscreen is because it has great titanium dioxide; it really protects, sinks into the skin and you can easily apply make-up right on top of it without it balling up. Then I take two pumps of my Your Skin makeup, which is my line – Sally Hansen Natural Beauty inspired by Carmindy – it’s available right now in the US but we’ve been talking to Shoppers Drug Mart and it looks like they will be carrying it – so it will be available in Canada, thank god. 
I put on my foundation with a latex sponge, I then tap a little of my all-over brightener under the eyes and then I do a light dusting of translucent powder.  Highlight underneath my brows, on the inside corner of my eye and on top of my cheek bones. Then I take an eyeliner pencil and smudge it just along the upper lash line only and put black mascara on the upper lashes only. I do a little pink on the apples of the cheeks and a lip gloss. That is my five-minute face, and that’s what I rock every single day. 

Wow, that’s quite the routine! [But that’s not all….]
At nighttime – I wash my face with Alba, which is Alba C-mineral Gel Cleanser, you can find it at Whole Foods. If I have any stubborn waterproof eyeliner, I take Rodial A-list cleanser or Make Up For Ever Sensitive Eyes make-up remover and then I lightly take off whatever is remaining on the eyes. Then I use SkinCeuticals Ferulic acid – it’s a healthy dose of antioxidant vitamins and I put a layer of that on my face – and on my chest – and then I do my La Mer on top of that – and go to bed every night.

Well, you look great. 
I’m 39 years old – I think my skin is in pretty good shape and I swear it is the antioxidants. I eat tons of salmon – I don’t smoke – I rarely drink – I ingest antioxidants in powder form, in vitamin form, food form. I drink green tea, I don’t drink caffeine – I choose antioxidants in my products. That’s my routine.

Shit, I gotta work on mine. What is the wackiest beauty treatment you’ve heard of? The meat mask, it’s in the book. I guess in the 1920’s or 30’s – they published a beauty manual and one of the tips was to go to the butcher with a cut-out of your face. He’d give you strips of raw beef that you would then go home and lay on your face. It was supposed to be the enzymes or the iron interacting with your chemistry – that was supposed to make your skin glow. 

Have you slapped meat on your face?
The meat mask I haven’t tried – I dare anyone to try it, let me know how it goes – be my guest.

What about that tip in the book about putting glue on your nose? 
I tried the Elmer’s glue, that did work – it didn’t work as intensely as a Biore strip – but it did work.

Any other juicy weirdies? There was one tip about using snail slime – to cover up zits – actually there is an element of snail slime that is found in a lot of french skincare. 

[Although I wanted to, I decided not to bring up the rumour I had heard regarding Russian women washing their face with urine.]

What do you consider to be your greatest beauty asset? My attitude, hands down – and that’s what I try to teach women. I didn’t always have the right attitude and it made a huge difference in my life. 

Were you a high school beauty queen? I was an overweight kid, I had braces, I had dark freckles – which I should have been celebrating,  instead of hiding from and being teased. My mom permed my hair – so I had this fro on top of  a fat face. I was ridiculed and made fun of. I was called every name in the book, especially from guys. Growing up in southern California, which is a very image focused culture – I was teased relentlessly. By the time I got into high school, my baby fat started going away.  I started learning how to eat well and exercise. I remember thinking ‘you know what – I can’t carry this negative self-talk with me’ so I started looking in the mirror everyday and instead of saying “ugh, I hate my fat cheeks’ or “ugh, my lips are too thin” I was doing mirror mantras and affirmations. 

How do you get other women to feel this way…positive and confident about their beauty?   There’s a really great slogan in the NYC subway – it’s about terroism and it says “If you see something suspicious report it” and I kind of adopted that in the beauty world, if you see something beautiful – tell the woman about it. 

What if they don’t believe you? I like to tell women this, this shuts them up really fast: “You have one life, are you going to spend your whole life beating yourself up and hating yourself? How boring and what a waste. When you are 89 years old and you are on a rocker on your front porch – you are going to be kicking your own ass thinking “why was I not celebrating the fact that I was young, gorgeous and had beautiful skin?” 

In Crazy Busy Beautiful you rant about how hideous lip-liner is, do you consider this to be the biggest beauty faux-pas? Heavy lip liner with a lighter lipstick or no lipstick is the worst thing you can do. It’s ring around the mouth – it looks like you’ve been sucking on a bar of chocolate all day. It’s awful , unattractive – women do it because they are trying to draw on this false idea of what lips are supposed to look like. Lips are beautiful – crooked, quirky, small and large and everything in between. If you actually take a litttle gloss or colour and enhance it – your lips will be beautiful-not drawing on some ridiculous shape that they aren’t. 

What’s the one must have beauty item we should own?  In terms of skincare  – it would be sunscreen. In terms of make-up, it would be mascara. Mascara is the quickest way to frame your eyes and make yourself look a little more polished if you are running out of the house.

How do I manage a red lip at the office, without it smearing all over my face and staining my teeth? If you are going to rock a red lip at the office – I would do almost nothing on the face – except a little highlight around the eye, maybe a little liner on the upper lash with mascara, then take your lipstick – and with your finger tip – push the red into your lips. That’s the way to do it. Nothing says confidence more than a red lip  – and if it’s done properly at work – it’s more of a lip stain.

Anna Wintour has a signature look, I want one too – how do I do that, Carmindy? It’s really about playing up your best features. When Anna Wintour got that hair cut it probably showed off her face in the best possible way – I know a woman who”s signature is her red lipstick and that’s because she has beautiful lips and she talks all the time. It’s about finding your best feature and playing it up. I’m looking at you – and what I love about you is that you have beautiful eyes and you are rocking a rock n’ roll smokey eye liner – which is exactly what you should be doing – it makes sense. If you are a beachy/bohemian girl you should do bronzer and lip gloss. If you are kind of a rock n’ roll chick sport the eyeliner. You’ve got to think of your personality as well as your features and then find your signature look.

What is the most rewarding part of your job? Watching women bloom into confidence and empowerment. I’ve seen women change their whole lives once they believe they are glowing and shine and are impeccable just the way they are – and learn how they can use make-up and hair to showcase their personality. Their lives change – they get better jobs – better boyfriends – move to a better city – their happiness goes up- they suddenly spend more time on their self. They become a better parent and spouse when they work on themselves. That is what is rewarding and why I stopped working on celebrities and concentrated on regular women. 

Is there anything else we should know about you?
A lot of people don’t know that I’m really rough and tumble. I love hiking in the Adirondacks with like a forty pound knapsack – and then bathing in a stream.

There you have it, this rough-and-tumble babe tells it like it is – and you will enjoy her book full of beauty secrets, moneysavers and how-to’s from body basics to brows that wow. I’ve already made, like, ten changes thanks to Crazy Busy Beautiful.