“It isn’t that I’m not confident now, but I was such a confident young woman. Very confident and headstrong. I had a happy childhood—a rustic, rural upbringing on a farm in the UK. I think my mum’s focus was to raise resilient, confident children who could hit a ball, get outside, and have a muck in attitude. Obviously our exposure to media was very different 20 years ago, and the standards of beauty were very different. But growing up, there wasn’t a lot of importance placed on the way I looked. Plus, I think my mum probably already saw a love of beauty and fashion in me and didn’t want to encourage it even more. I loved watching her get ready to go to work or out in the evening. Applying makeup and putting a nice outfit on changed her demeanor—that’s where I first learned about the transformative nature of beauty, and the creativity of it. Like most girls in the 90s I was all about sparkly blue eyeshadow and frosted pink lipstick. Modeling ignited that passion further. I was 16, and just so excited to be traveling and working in the industry.
Then I got out into the big world and things started to affect that confidence. By the time I hit my 20s, I was more analytical of myself. In many ways it’s a good thing, because it’s important to be self-aware, but it’s also how insecurities are bred. [For example] I had acne as a teenager, but it wasn’t until I started modeling that people started to point it out. Now that I’m older, the physical aspect of beauty has become less important than the emotional aspect. I want my children to think of beauty as how you feel about yourself, and how you make other people feel, ultimately. I feel most beautiful when I feel good about myself and happy at home and work; I notice how exhausted I look when I’m unhappy. That sparkle goes from behind my eyes.
I don’t ever like to tout myself as an expert, but I think I’m good at surrounding myself with people who are smarter than me in every way and learning from them. I’ve been sitting in a hair and makeup chair with amazing experts every day for 20 years—I think that’s an interesting POV. I knew that if there was an appetite for what I had to say around beauty, or a community that I could grow out of Rose Inc as an editorial platform, then there was a possibility that I could launch product. Starting Rose Inc was very much about getting across my deep-seated obsession so it didn’t seem like just another of the brands popping up left right and center. Plus, information I was able to pull from the platform became guardrails we hold ourselves to. My audience leans towards very versatile, multi-purpose products, in colors that are classic and easy to wear. They’re not looking for extreme, heavy makeup, or strong fashion-forward colors. That’s what the site data showed based on what was selling. I also know that my audience is very conscious, so we’ve tried hard to produce products that are as conscious as they can be without sacrificing instant, visible results.
People would probably equate me with luminous, glowy skin because that’s always what I’m striving for. But I don’t have that every day. I still have acne-prone skin, it’s often really dull, and sometimes it doesn’t look very healthy. It depends on how I’ve eaten, the climate, am I stressed, am I well-rested, am I tan, have I had a treatment… And hormones are crazy for us women, aren’t they? My skin has been horrible this pregnancy, up until six weeks ago. So frustrating. I’m always trying to manage my acne and create that luminous, glowy skin through skincare and makeup.
I start with my Radiant Reveal, a primer-meets-serum-meets-moisturizer that creates this perfect canvas for makeup application. I use something for sheer coverage, and then my concealer all over, a little bit like a foundation. [That is why] ours comes in a slightly bigger bottle with a slightly bigger doe foot. I dot it where I need the coverage and blend that out with a brush too. I’m mainly a cream product person because I find that they’re more forgiving and easier to use, but I put a bit of powder around the t-zone and underneath the eyes to set everything in place. Recently I’ve actually started baking. That’s quite good when you’re going out—I’m very into it.
I do a bit of sculpt with a bronzer everywhere, but really focus on the cheekbones, the temples, into the sockets of my eyes, and along the jawline, making sure I blend it onto the neck as well. My Blush Divine is pretty much the only blush I wear these days. I always like to pop that into the sockets of my eyes, too. A makeup artist taught me that trick and it was just a game changer. The blush enhances my blue eyes, incorporating the color across your face looks really natural and seamless, and if you’re lazy like me it’s a really easy, quick way to add color. Whenever I tell people that, they go try it and become obsessed.
Brows I spend a lot of time on because I’m really OCD about them. I use my brow enhancer gel in both clear and Fill 02, starting with the clear, which is sort of like a pomade. It gives my brows this lovely soft lift. Then I go in and fill in the sparser areas, and so I don’t continue to distribute loads of color through my brow, finish off with another coat of clear to set them in place. That way they don’t end up looking too full. I did get my brows laminated about a year ago, although, I remember Jason [Statham, Rosie’s husband] coming home and going, ‘What the fuck have you done to your eyebrows?’ [Laughs] Typical man. I liked the look of it, but he was very confused. Finally, I throw on a lip balm or a bit of my Lip Sculpt, which has this lovely matte, smoothing effect that makes my lips look really plump and sexy.”
—as told to ITG
Photo via Rosie Huntington-Whiteley on Instagram