Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was featured in a Vogue video sharing her skin care and beauty secrets. She also talks about why she wears red lipstick. AOC says that femininity has power and that just being a woman in Congress is politicized.

She begins the video saying that she hasn’t been getting much sleep because she has been fighting in Congress to get people healthcare and making sure they are being taking care of in the pandemic. Then she applies Estee Lauder Micro Essence toner followed by vitamin C Serum, which is said to even out skin tone and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Perhaps vitamin C Serum is the fountain of youth I have been looking for. I squealed when I saw her use Acure Radically Rejuvenating Whipped Night Cream as it is the moisturizer that I have been trying out recently. It doesn’t feel heavy nor leave a white residue on my skin. And last she slathers her face, ears, and neck with SPF because you know, despite popular belief, black and brown people STILL need to protect themselves from sunbeams folks. Below is what she had to say about beauty and fashion and expressing ones femininity.

“The reason why I think it’s so important to share these things is that, first of all, femininity has power, and in politics there is so much criticism and nitpicking about how women and femme people present ourselves,” she explains. “Just being a woman is quite politicized here in Washington…. There’s this really false idea that if you care about makeup or if your interests are in beauty and fashion, that that’s somehow frivolous. But I actually think these are some of the most substantive decisions that we make—and we make them every morning.”

For the congresswoman, it all starts with a simple but effective regimen. “I have not gotten much sleep last night at all,” she says. “Welcome to life in politics. We are trying to get people health care, making sure that they are taken care of in a pandemic, people are fighting too much, and so I have bags under my eyes.” She applies toner, vitamin C serum, a dollop of moisturizer, and a “generous” amount of SPF, rubbed onto her face—eyelids and ears included. PSA: “Don’t play games with sunscreen!”

[From Vogue]

As someone with a Bachelor’s degree in Fashion Merchandising, beauty and fashion are indeed powerful ways to express yourself. I love that she wears makeup and red lipstick in a place where women are expected to blend in and be taken seriously. What I didn’t know was that, generally, women who get glammed for work make higher salaries. Say what?!

Her makeup routine is quite simple. Since she has to travel to D.C. from NYC she says it can be quite taxing on her skin. She uses two different foundations, Nars tinted moisturizer and Estee Lauder’s long lasting Double Wear Finish. That’s something I also do. On my less glam days I like to use Laura Mercier’s tinted moisturizer because it is one of the only ones on the market that has a darker skin tone range. When I really want to get dolled up, I use Il Makiage foundation because it is light weight, but smooths out my skin and pores. She also uses one of my favorite products, Fenty Beauty contour stick, to lightly contour her face. She says she doesn’t contour her face to hide things, instead she contours to high light what is already there and I really like this stance. I feel make-up should enhance what we have not hide what we deem are our imperfections.

“Our culture is so predicated on diminishing women and preying on our self-esteem, and so it’s quite a radical act—and it’s almost like a mini protest—to love yourself in a society that’s always telling you you’re not the right weight, you’re not the right color, you’re not the right, you know, whatever it is,” she says. “When you stand up and say, ‘You know what? You don’t make that decision. I make that decision,’ it’s very powerful. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun,” she adds before picking up a color corrector and a tube of concealer, which she blends into her skin with her fingers. “I learned this on my own and, as a millennial, through YouTube as well,” she says with a laugh.

“I went from working in a restaurant to being on cable news all the time,” she recalls. “I initially really struggled with that. At a certain point, I just learned that you cannot get your feelings of beauty and confidence from anyone but yourself…. If I’m going to spend an hour in the morning doing my glam, it’s not going to be because I’m afraid of what some Republican photo is going to look like…. It’s because I feel like it,” she says with a smile. Here, she picks up Fenty Beauty’s Contour Stick, which she glides lightly down her cheekbones, over her forehead, and around her jawline. “I’m not trying to change my features or shape-shift—I’m just trying to accentuate my existing features,” she says as she adds a touch of the cream-to-powder pigment to her nose. “I’m not trying to make it look bigger. I’m not trying to make it look smaller.… I’m just trying to show people what I got.”

Her beauty pièce de résistance is her bold red lipstick. She says she has been wearing it for the last two years and that it helps her feel confident. Her go to is Stila’s Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick in Beso, which she calls “indestructible.” I have to agree. I fell in love with wearing bold lips when I was a makeup artist and it definitely makes me feel powerful. I like to wear reds like Mac’s Ruby Woo or IMAN Luxury Moisturizing Lipstick, Iman Red. I also use fuschias like Mac’s Rebel or Maybelline SuperStay Matte Ink City Edition in 120 Artist.

At the end she empowers us all by telling us we are the bomb. I absolutely love her spunk. I know it is hard to be the squeaky wheel or go against the grain when you are younger or the newbie on the scene. I just enjoyed watching this young woman who to me is the future of our country and the world, loving on herself and allowing herself to be feminine. The one thing that I hope to do in this life time is not only tap into the power that is the feminine for myself but also help others to discover it within themselves. And like I always say, sometimes a bit of red lipstick does the trick of making me feel like feminine badass in the moment.

Here’s the video:

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A post shared by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@aoc) on Jun 3, 2020 at 3:29pm PDT