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How Kat Graham Keeps Her Skin Healthy During Paris Fashion Week

Photo: Kat Graham

Fashion Week is an incredible — and incredibly busy thing to behold: Staving off jet lag, running between shows, and attending parties that last way past your bedtime. The ability to see so many beautiful designers debut their new collections in one place is worth it. And no one appreciates this more than multi-hyphenate, Kat Graham.

The actress-model-singer-dancer recently attended the Dior show at Paris Fashion Week. Her beauty and skin-care routines are simple, and guided by her belief that what you put into your body and how you deal with stress are as important as the kinds of products you use. Also very important? Peanut butter, of course. (For snacking, not for skin care). Read on to hear how she got ready to attend the Dior show.

What’s your nighttime beauty routine like? It consists usually of taking off my makeup and then kind of locking in some moisturizer. I’m a pretty big fan of Neutrogena and Aveeno wipes, but I’ve noticed that sometimes I need a little bit more because a lot of the makeup I wear is long-lasting from being on set or at a photo shoot or an event. After the makeup remover wipes, I usually go and use the Dior Hydra Life makeup remover. It’s insane, I don’t know what’s in it but it’s pure magic to me. I thought I lost it once and haven’t felt that kind of panic in a while.

When I have a big day where I might have a lot of press, I’ll juice during the day. There’s a lot of really great juices that really bring out your skin. I didn’t juice all day today, I snuck in a few French fries, but I did drink a lot of aloe as well. I’ll also do a face mask, I love a good charcoal face mask, and I’ll do that the night before a big event. When I’m jet-lagged I use a little lavender oil under my nose and it makes me sleep like a baby.

Do you stick to the same beauty and skin-care products or do you like to experiment and switch things up?
I’m a big experimenter when it comes to makeup and am known to try really bizarre things, but in terms of skin, I’ve never really needed too much. After I went out of my pimple phase as a teenager I was pretty fortunate. I mean I have to protect my skin even though I’m a black woman because I will still get a lot of sunspots and freckles if I don’t take care of my skin. I like a lot of drugstore products, to be honest. I mean I like SK-II and Laura Mercier, as far as fancier things, but I really love argan oil on my hair or my cheekbones for an event.

Photo: Kat Graham

What’s your best piece of beauty or wellness advice?
You’ve got to eat well. A lot of people think they’re going to have great skin just through topicals, and sure, there are plenty of products that can get you to a really great place. But if you’re not eating well, if you’re not drinking enough water, if you’re leading a stressful life, if you’re smoking, if you’re sponsoring your bad habits, your stress and anger will show and it will manifest into a pimple, or redness, or an extra wrinkle you don’t want. How you treat your body and deal with the world is huge.

If you don’t need to wear your makeup all the time, then don’t. The second I’m on a plane, my makeup is off. Most of the time, in fact, I don’t wear a lot of makeup. One of my favorite people is Winnie Harlow, she’s just a work of art and you can tell she takes really good care of her skin. What happens when you actually make a choice to show more of your skin and you actually look like yourself? As a woman I think it’s really important to feel like we aren’t hiding under our makeup, but can play with it, and enhance what we already have.

What’s something people might not know about you? I play the bass guitar and I travel with it everywhere that I go. And I’m really into meditation, I do it about an hour a day.

Her bass guitar goes everywhere with her. Photo: Kat Graham

Okay, Rapid-fire questions:

Matte lips or glossy lips?
Glossy

Cat eye or smoky eye?
Always a cat eye, for me personally.

What time do you go to bed?
If I had my way I’d be in bed by 9 p.m. I’m not a night person at all. Afer 9 I’m pretty useless. I’ll honestly go to bed around 10:30 p.m. I get up at 5:30 a.m. every day, no matter what.

What’s the most nervous you’ve ever been?
The first time I met Jean-Paul Gaultier I had to be calmed down. He’s done everything his own way and had to fight tooth and nail for his success and I just relate to that. Fashion is so hard but he’s always been about inclusion and equality and that house has always supported me. I like to play with fashion, I’ve ended up on worst-dressed lists, and I couldn’t give two shits as long as I feel like myself. He was the epitome of that idea that as long as your getting out your art, your soul is good.

What’s the last thing you binge-watched?
Escape at Dannemora. Patricia Arquette just completely blew me away. There are a few actresses that just wipe the floor with everyone else and she’s one of them.

What’s your favorite snack?
Probably anything with peanut butter. I’m vegan so I don’t do, like, normal snacks, I mean I will eat an Oreo but it’s mostly the peanut butter. [Laughs].

Applying the new Dior Addict Stellar Shine lipstick. Photo: Kat Graham

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How Kat Graham Keeps Her Skin Healthy During Paris FW