Daphne Guinness on Her Beauty Routine

 Last weekend Daphne Guinness–like thousands of other art lovers–hit Miami for Art Basel. While we couldn’t be there with her, we had the chance to chat with her and James Gager, MAC’s Senior Vice President/Group Creative Director about her new color collection. (We couldn’t really imagine the somewhat goth Daphne in Miami among the palm trees but for the record: she loves the sun and always wears a lot of sunscreen.)

The Daphne Guinness MAC line, which launches December 26, is full of shades on the cool end of the spectrum. We got our hands on it and can say that the eye shadow quad is a must-have and the sage/silver green nail polish and lip gloss are especially intriguing. We were dying to talk to the mistress of all things over-the-top about how she came up with the surprisingly wearable collection. Click through for her thoughts on guys wearing makeup, her own (minimal!) makeup routine, and why she doesn’t think very highly of trends.

Fashionista: It’s well known that you’re a muse/mentor/friend of Gareth Pugh. Is it a coincidence that your collection is coming right after his?
Daphne Guinness: Yeah, we’re a gang. He’s like one of my brothers.

Did he ask you for your opinion or help on his collection?
DG: No. It’s funny. Whomever I’m with, we normally just talk about our personal lives.
James Gager: Having worked with both Gareth and Daphne on this collection, Gareth doesn’t really know a lot about makeup. He wears it, but just on his nails and around the eyes. [Daphne] was literally mixing colors. She knew if she wanted a little more black or red in a color. She also knew about textures. Gareth was more verbally articulating colors to us. They’re really very different collections.
DG: But Gareth’s is stronger than mine.

(This then turned into a discussion about how men see color vs. how women see color.)
DG: I think we need more makeup for men. Until the 1820s, men wore makeup, and then they stopped.

Do you think men could possibly start wearing makeup? I’m talking all-American guys using foundation.
DG: I think they should.
JG: I think they should too, because some of them don’t have the best skin in the world. I think they have a lot of stigmas to get over first though.
DG: It would be better to wear makeup than to have surgery. I think there’s so many things that you can do with makeup. Just a little bit of shading. You don’t have to be in full drag.

I was reading about all the inspirations you had for these colors. Can you explain the pigeon blood a little more?
DG: It was based on pigeon blood rubies. If you’re the owner of a pigeon blood ruby, you’ve hit the jackpot. It’s very difficult to get one. It’s a beautiful red that’s got the most blue in it.

Which colors in the collection did you name? 
JG: She actually named all of them. I really wanted her to name them, and she was very interested in naming them. I don’t want it to be a lot of corporate-speak. I want whoever’s attached to the collection to really be able to speak about it.

How long did it take to create this collection, from the first meeting until now?
JG: About a year and a half.

Do you still like the collection?
DG: Oh yeah!
JG: I like it even more than when it was first done.
DG: I don’t really change very much. I mean, I’ll alter things in a miniscule way, but my rule of thumb is if something is gonna be good, it’ll be good forever. I think that a classic is really what you want to aim for. Trends are very distracting.

Are there any particular makeup trends now that you really don’t like?
DG: I don’t really follow trends. I try not to look because I don’t want to have a negative opinion about something. What works for someone else might not work for me. It’s not for me to me to say what someone else should like.

Daphne, I’ve seen a lot of pictures of you and it actually doesn’t look like you’re wearing that much makeup. Obviously there are some very dramatic ones out there, but for the most part it looks pretty simple. Is there a certain look you like to stick with?
DG: The dramatic ones are…sometimes I’ve walked right off sets to a party. It looks fine under the studio lights, then you suddenly think, ‘Uh-oh. Maybe I should have gone and washed my face.’

So what is your go-to makeup?
DG: I kind of do my makeup as fast as possible. Just shading really. It’s like dressing. I can’t actually think about what I’m going to do until I’m actually doing it. I can’t plan a look at all. If I have something in two days, I’ll do it five minutes before.

What do you think the most versatile pieces in your collection are?
DG: I think they all work together. I think you can mix them. The Hyperion, the greenish lip gloss, will cool down any of the other colors. They all work together and they can be mixed together. The quad eye shadow is the best. You don’t need much more than that.

Your collection includes nail polish, which is so popular right now. Do you ever indulge in crazy nail art?
DG: I used to. I used to do lots of that when I was at school.

So what did you think about the results of the British Fashion Awards this year?
DG: [pauses] Can I pass?

You can pass, it’s ok.
DG: I mean, I love Sarah [Burton]. I think she’s great. But I’m not part of that industry. I don’t want to offer an opinion.

{fashionista}