Salma Hayek covers the January issue of InStyle – she has one solo cover, and one cover with her Like A Boss costars, Tiffany Haddish and Rose Byrne. Salma plays the maniacal beauty company CEO which buys out Tiffany and Rose’s tiny little beauty label. Shenanigans ensue, and Salma is supposed to be playing it over-the-top for comedic effect. Interestingly enough, she worked with director Miquel Arteta before, on Beatriz at Dinner, which is an absolutely bonkers art film. Now they’re working together on a studio comedy. Crazy world. Even though Salma isn’t my favorite person, I’ve always thought she was an underrated comedienne – she was really good on 30 Rock, and she seems to have had fun with this spoof of a beauty company CEO (much like Michelle Williams did in I Feel Pretty). Salma wants us to know that she also thinks deep thoughts about beauty and aging and a lot more. You can see InStyle’s cover package here.
She signed onto the film without reading the script: “I’ve never really done a girls’ film. And I’ve always wanted to. The three of us were very different from each other, and that makes for a richer experience. I just fell in love with them.”
She wanted her CEO to look crazy & fake: “First, I wanted to do Botox and inject my lips, which I’ve never done,” she says. But her back-to-back shooting schedule prohibited Botox because it can’t be reversed. Fillers, however, she could experiment with. There was only one issue: She hates needles. “My friend [dermatologist] Dr. [Maurice] Dray said, ‘I don’t know if you’re going to be happy because it’s going to hurt super bad.’ I said, ‘Well, let’s give it a try.’ He put the first needle in my mouth, and I immediately said, ‘No! Forget it! I’m done!’ So instead it became, ‘How do I make it look like I have lip injections?’ And we got these huge teeth. When you saw the film, did you notice I had fake teeth?”
Her failed beauty line, Nuance Beauty: “My goal and my dream with Nuance was to make the very best skin care for the least amount of money. They were magnificent products. I just wanted everyone to be able to have the best — my socialist idea of beauty.”
What she learned about the beauty industry: “There were so many things about human psychology I learned. Our obsession with beauty and our image has so much to do with where our heads are at emotionally, spiritually, and psychologically.”
Aging gracefully. “My mother always demonstrated the importance of aging gracefully. I never saw her or my grandmother being afraid of getting old. And so I don’t have that fear.” Her grandmother, a cosmetologist, also passed on some key beauty secrets. Here’s one for skin care: “She used to say 50 percent is the product, 50 percent is the way you apply it — so massage, massage, massage.”
Commenters on this site educate me so often on these sort of things, so riddle me this: IS 50% of skincare about the application of the product? I ask that because I don’t really massage my face and I’ve always thought that facial massages-as-skincare were sort of bulls–t. I mean… I don’t think facial massages are bad or anything. But my thought was always that they were just neutral, like “massage your face with a quartz” sort of “harmless, expensive, Goopy” thing. Yes, I basically apply my night cream and moisturizer very simply and very quickly – my objective is coverage, not massage. Perhaps I’m doing it wrong. Wouldn’t be the first time.
As for what she says about aging gracefully and hating needles and never Botoxing… I mean, I believe her to a certain extent, and to her credit, she doesn’t look Botoxed or anything. And yet… I feel like she has been subtly tweaked over the years. Is that just my imagination?
Covers courtesy of InStyle.
I mean, just make sure it’s rubbed in and you’re good to go.
On a similar point, those videos of celebs (usually) who advocate for rubbing product on their hands then kind of pressing their hands to their face to apply it – the only thing that does is keep the product on your hands. No idea why so many self-proclaimed experts insist on doing this.
Yes!! I tried this and I felt all I was doing was wasting expensive product on my hands instead bod my face. Now I just make sure I it’s well absorbed and that’s it
For a couple of my serums, especially the oilier ones in squalene, when I drop them onto my fingertips, it usually runs through my fingers, and I lose a lot of product between fingers and down the back of my hand, into my watch, etc. For those types of treatments, I lose a lot less product on my palms, so I apply those like that even though it’s a tad awkward. Some thicker ones, like niacinamide, etc, don’t drip so I just use my fingertips.
Facial massage increases circulation, but your inexpensive fingers are just as good as the expensive goopy things,
She may be tweaked, but I don’t think it contradicts the aging gracefully part. I can’t imagine she would ever go overboard.
I really enjoy the feeling of a face massage, I don’t know about the longterm effect though. But I just use my hands or an inexpensive roller, not fancy quarz sticks or that microcurrent thingy.
Side note: since when is ‘Salma Hayek Pinault’ a thing? She’s been married for years and I’ve never heard her use her husband’s name, am I wrong?
She’s been using it for years!
you have missed her using her husband’s name and money for years… Selma has been insufferable…She definitely isnt that same woman that was charming and endearing all those years ago. . .
She looked beautiful on Sunday. I know many people side-eyed her boobtastic look, but I liked it. As for what she says about skincare, I think she’s quite right. You can have access to the best, most luxurious products, but if you don’t know how to use them, you won’t be able to see much of a difference. Same goes for makeup.
I think skincare products are mostly overrated. My skin has gotten so sensitive, I had to switch to the ultra-sensitive no ingredients kind of stuff that just helps to keep the skin from feeling tight and itchy after washing. And I noticed like no difference to the other stuff I used before.
For good skin just keep hydrated, stay out of the sun and don’t smoke.
I also have super sensitive skin and after years of struggling with expensive products I found a couple of drug store products (phisoderm face wash, Cetaphil lotion, aloe gel) and my skin has never looked so good.
The few times I’ve had facials, my skin has not responded well, so I’m not going to try to massage my face.
I agree with you. I have nuts sensitive skin and some issues with acne and dermatitis. Even dermatologist-prescribed routines and products don’t really help. I was recently travelling and ran out of stuff… the home i was in had Cetaphil lotion, which says on the label is OK for the face. My skin has mellowed considerably. I’m starting to think the best one can do is keep the skin lubricated/ hydrated and protected from the sun, and all the other stuff just seems to be expensive irritants.
A lot of stuff is prevention, so you won’t see results until you’re 50, and if you didn’t do anything by then, you’re out of non-invasive options.
This is a truth that’s hard to swallow, at least for me. A lot of my products don’t have instructions.
My dermatologist says that WHEN you apply it matters most. Straight out of the shower is best
Wear sunscreen, moisturize, get lots of sleep, and drink your weight in water.You’re welcome.
More like, you can achieve a nice glow with regular massages but it’s not like a good product only works half as well if you don’t do it. No massage ever had the effect of retinol on my face for example. But the retinol won’t worn twice as well if I massage every night.
As someone above said, it increases circulation etc. A product just can’t do that.
What a beautiful woman
I’ve never been a big fan of her either, she can get on my nerves a bit (saying stuff like “my socialist idea of beauty” while married to a billionaire for example) but I like her ok as an actress, and I think she’ll be good in this role. And she is ridiculously beautiful.
I follow SkinCareAddiction on Reddit, and they advocate a lot for application, as it relates to the order in which you apply products. This practice assumes you are applying more than one product, like a serum, then a retinol, then a moisturizer, then a sunscreen. I don’t use a ton of products, but if you do, the order, and then the amount of time you wait between product application, is really important.
I’ll admit that I just sort of skimmed this. But I’m 43, definitely feeling the bite of aging and all that comes with it, and things like this just make me exhausted even more. Like… I can’t keep up with all of this. And am always feeling a little bit torn. Part of me wants to just say eff all of it, I’ll age normally and not care about anything except spf because cancer. Part of me knows that’s not realistic (at least not if I want to keep my job in tech, where my supervisor was told not long ago that her naturally graying hair was “unsettling”).
It’s not enough to buy expensive products, now I have to apply them in very specific ways? Nah.
omg…unsettling!!!!!
Lol ITA. who has the time? I’m lucky if I’m consistently following a routine to begin with 🤷♀️
This applies to makeup. 75% really is the technique but a really good product does make it easier to achieve a better application. Facial massage really helps but really using products that are right for your skin and not overdoing it also helps. I have no idea what she means by 50% technique though. it sounds like a complicated routine or something.
The best skincare advice out there is to find your skin type! Went through a phase where just because I saw someone layering expensive products and having a 20 step routine, I did it and it was the worst decision ever. I use maybe 4 products total now including a good sunscreen and my skin has never been happier. Find a good moisturizer, stay hydrated, and go to a esthetician/derm according to your needs. A lot of expensive stuff out there is gimmicky and a waste of time.
Sunscreen every single day is the number 1 thing you can do for long term skin health, per multiple dermatologists over 30+ years, followed by not smoking and staying hydrated. Sunny, cloudy, snow, rain, put on the SPF.
Also, Beatriz at Dinner was a really stunning, unsettling, interesting movie. I had never noticed that she can really act before. (To be fair, I haven’t seen all of her movies. I imagine that the Frida Kahlo one was a pretty serious performance.) I admit that I mostly saw her as the jaw-droppingly curvy vampire from that dumb Tarantino movie before. As Beatriz, the actual glow of her face seemed to emote, it was just crazy.
It was an amazing film and her performance was just so good, and it was overlooked by the awards circuit. So unfair!
She was hilarious on 30 Rock, her scenes with Alec Baldwin were great.
I miss her haircare line. The Nuance intense hydration mask changed my hair for the better. I’d destroyed it coloring pools, over processed highlights, heat styling. It bought me the time to grow out new growth and not suffer breakage all the time. Plus it smelled great and wasn’t that expensive. It was an awesome product I haven’t replaced yet (though luckily I don’t need it as desperately now)
I LOVED her/Nuance’s SPF 30 face cream, so light and non-greasy; and the retinol ampules. Wish Nuance hadn’t been discontinued.
I think her beauty comments were pretty egalitarian and refreshing. I don’t wear, but an ageless beauty consulantant at Sephora told my mother per crepey skin-neck– apply the magic potion in a gentle upwards motion towards your chin, then apply the same amount same way on back of your neck, because the overall health and tension from both sides helps the tightness. Technique probably works just as well using GoldBond (american-made magic, I hope still.) Hayek told story about her grandmother shaving her head and applying raw yolk, so I’m down with her wisdom. After all, the application aspect is free.
Also to be deeply careful not to tear delicate eye skin. Wipe up and sideways the way you want the sagging skin to go. It’s different from “pat, pat”.
I have always heard that any massaging, tugging or scrubbing is problematic, and minimizing the handling of your skin is best. One dermatologist said your facial skin is like a delicate silk shirt – another natural fabric you wouldn’t want to over-handle. The idea that one’s skin wouldn’t get enough blood flow on its own sounds like borderline GOOP reasoning …
I am not a goopy fan or even that into makeup and the like , I just like to preserve and enhance my skin. The face rollers, I have no idea what goopy says but the quartz rollers help people like me who have chronic swollen painful sinuses from allergies including under the eyes. It’s a temporary fix but it works for me and it clears my sinuses.
Former R&D Director for a skincare company here and no, absolutely does not make a difference how you apply. Increases circulatory flow is irrelevant as the circulatory system is sub dermal and if chemicals in our skincare were absorbing into our bloodstream we would have a bigger issue on our hands. As for permeation into skin, well-formualted products will automatically do this especially as many have penetration-enhancing ingredients such as propanediol. All that constant rubbing will only do two things: 1. Cause more product to absorb into your hands, thus wasting it (I mean, your fingertips will be healthy looking?) And 2. Stretching skin catalyzes the aging process so pulling at your skin (especially the under eye area which is delicate) will cause more harm than good. Just put your layers on and always wear spf. There really is not mysticism or hokey methodology needed, it’s all just science.
Aging gracefully without fear? She forgot to mention the obvious eye job she got a year or two ago. So full of it.