Gabrielle Union Shares the “Crass” Tip She Applies to Skincare—and Her “Hero Product”

Vogue

Director: Gabrielle Reich DP: Josh Herzog Editor: Michael Suyeda  Associate Producer: Lea Donenberg Line Producer: Natasha Soto-Albors Production Manager: David Alvarez Paz Production Coordinator: Ava Kashar Associate Talent Manager: Phoebe Dishner  Post Production Supervisor: Alexa Deutsch Post Production Coordinator: Holly Frew Supervising Editor: Erica DeLeo Assistant Editor: Justin Symonds Associate Director, Post Production: Nicholas Ascanio Filmed at: 1 Hotel Central Park

Transcript

00:00Hey Vogue, it's Gabrielle Union and I'm going to walk you through my everyday skincare routine

00:04and my fresh face makeup look. First step, take out the retainer when you don't wear it regularly.

00:10Don't tell my orthodontist. Me and my husband both have retainers and every night just like

00:15the CNN bring it on, we pop our retainers in and we pop ours out. This is the U-Booty.

00:21It's the U-Booty. It's the U-Beauty cleanser, which I love. And just in case you y'all thought

00:29I came in here with some kind of little makeup situation on, I did not.

00:36Uh-oh, see home girl didn't get all the makeup off last night.

00:41This is Witch Hazel, which I use as my toner. I was very lucky because I never really had

00:50crazy problem skin, not until my hormones changed. And then it was like, is it, is this acne? How do

00:58you get acne as a fully grown ass woman? But I found a way and I had to just start experimenting.

01:04And I think I'm probably like you guys, you try a bunch of different things. You see what fits,

01:09what doesn't fit. My next step is my PCA skin pore refining exfoliator. When I lived in Miami,

01:17I was, Ooh, I was like an oil slick, like, but in California where it's dry heat,

01:23I've also gotten a little dry in my older age. So I have to switch up my routine

01:30based on where I'm at. If you see someone's skin that you like, what, what are you doing?

01:36Like tell me the products, tell me the routine. Yeah. And hope that it works for you. And if it

01:40doesn't, it's like dating. You just keep trying. My aunt once said, she said it much more crass

01:46than this, but men or women are like Kleenex. You try one, you use it. Oh, look, another one's

01:55popped up in its place. Just keep trying. Next step is one, one, one skin. This is their retinol

02:00oil. I'm going to do it like the tick tockers. This is probably the cringe stuff that my

02:06daughter Ziya is talking about. Trying to do like a little skin influencer thing. Get ready with me.

02:12So some people have very strong opinions about retinol in the daytime, mainly because of the sun.

02:20For me, it's kind of interchangeable because I'm psycho about protection from the sun. The

02:24therabody face thing. And this is how you know it's mine because that something spilled in my

02:29luggage and you can use the cold function or you can use the heat function. I'm using cold because

02:36my mom didn't sleep and it stays cold. I used to just use like a little bowl of ice in the

02:43morning. You know what? The thing about ice is it melts. It doesn't stay as cold as I would like.

02:50And in this case, yes, I am going inside to outside because I'm trying to push that,

02:56that inflammation, that swelling right on out. So I am a device sucker. I love a device.

03:04So sometimes you got to go to the Shani Tartan. This is when I need backup. My whole face is

03:14vibrating. I met Shani when I was doing a little show called LA's Finest with one of her best

03:22friends, Jessica Alba. Jessica swears by Shani. And so Shani's homegirl now. If I had a hero

03:30product, it's the resurfacing compound. I started using YouBeauty in September.

03:36It's about this much I use. I've never gotten more compliments on my face.

03:42Well, I wish I was the one who got my husband into skincare. We have the same amazing facialist.

03:48The more he started doing work on TV and retired from the NBA, he was like,

03:54oh, I need to get into a routine. And he moved this beautiful chair that was in our living room

04:00into his bathroom because he really likes to luxuriate during his skincare routine. It's

04:06quite cute. This is the vitamin B brightening serum. Use exactly what the directions say,

04:13because I have a problem with that. If it says like a dime-sized girl, I'm going for a half

04:16dollar. And with all the things I've used thus far, you have to commit to sunscreen

04:22because these products left without any protection from the sun will work against you.

04:28We have the YouBeauty, the return. This right here helps to bring these girls back.

04:37Kavya is obsessed with beauty, all things beauty. She is the girliest girl ever. And she loves more

04:44makeup. She's not really into like the skincare part of it, but makeup, child, she could do a

04:48beat. She does eyes better than me, but Zaya definitely has a skincare routine. I mean,

04:53but she's also, you know, when you're walking the runways of meow, meow, she's gotten very

04:59much into skincare and the whole, like having her own beauty routine. I don't know who else

05:04out there has a problem with TikTok shop. I, I can't stop myself. The Babe Lash Lash Serum,

05:12the new organic lash serum. And I use one on one eye and the other on this one.

05:18And I just want to see which one is better.

05:23Sunscreen. I go 50 and it's invisible sunscreen gel. And it just disappears right into my face.

05:30Honestly, I didn't think black people needed to, uh, I didn't think we needed to wear sunscreen.

05:36And that was a lie because I used to think, Oh my God, look at all these freckles and moles.

05:39They're so cute. And then they started changing shape and I had to get them removed. My girl,

05:44Wenny Harlow came up with this line called K-Skin. This is her lip balm, which I'm obsessed with.

05:52Chocolate for the chocolate girls. But I also discovered probably around 40 when I was going

05:58through a lot of hormonal issues that if I give up gluten, dairy, alcohol, and caffeine,

06:05I was getting rid of a lot of inflammation. And a lot of those perimenopausal challenges,

06:09hormonal challenges kind of disappeared the more I worked on eliminating inflammation.

06:15So I'm just doing tinted moisturizer today. We're going to go with the Laura Mercier

06:19slanted brush. I'm just going to load her up like that.

06:26The beautiful thing about more people getting into the beauty business

06:31is that there's so many more options and there's so many more FUBU options for us,

06:36by us. There was a time though, where I'd go to work and they wouldn't have the shade child,

06:41and I would look gray. So you start bringing your own makeup. You start buying your own makeup.

06:47So now you're paying for things that you shouldn't have to pay for. And it's,

06:50it's completely unfair and it still happens. And there was a time where there were only a few

06:54brown girls, you know, they're like, be lucky girl. And I'm like, I don't want to be the only

06:59one. I want there to be the range of black beauty. I want you to see the diaspora on screen,

07:05behind the screens, in front of the camera, behind the camera, but it's a fight. It's still a fight.

07:11Concealer next. I use makeup by Mario, my honey Mario. I feel like I'm just going to go with

07:16the darker one. And this is number 440.

07:20I think the first time I got my makeup done professionally, I had been discovered at Trudy's

07:28dress shop. Trudy's, um, was known as the prom dress capital of the world. This lady comes up

07:34and she's like, would you ever consider being, you know, in our prom dress commercial? And so

07:41when I was getting my makeup done, it was the same product. And I was like, oh my God,

07:45commercial? And so when I was getting my makeup done, it was the same products that you could get

07:51at any drugstore, but it was the touch. It was the feeling like a star wrap. But I really loved,

07:57I really did love it. I learned to do my own makeup when I started going to the teen clubs

08:02and I was like, I want a boyfriend. I don't know if you guys are familiar with Vanessa Myricks

08:08and this is magic. So it's going to be a little yellow. So maybe I will go back over it with a

08:18little Mario. So my next thing is Chanel. It's a little blush. So sometimes, you know, when you've

08:32pulled an all-nighter, your eyes might not be as white as you'd like. And these Illumify,

08:38first of all, you can see this is my real stuff because there's not even a label and it's just,

08:49take a breath. I wasn't meditating guys. I was just, I was just thinking about fun songs that

08:55I like. I personally only love songs if they came out before 1995. And that's mainly because

09:01I know the lyrics. So this morning it was Dionne Warwick. Do you know the way to San Jose?

09:11This is the Chanel, like for a little extra, you know,

09:18center nose. What? So during the filming of Riff Raff, starring the legend, Jennifer Coolidge,

09:28I play Sandy. She is Ed Harris's second wife. And as a second wife myself,

09:36it was a little art imitating life. And this is my Mario, my makeup by Mario liner. So she had

09:41like a really, it was pretty, like a very nice neutral, you know, kind of like this,

09:48kind of like this, but with swollen eyes. You'll see.

09:54My girl RiRi. And this is a Fenty classic. And I literally have 5,100 of these in every purse,

10:02every drawer. Coffee's taken several.

10:09They're glossy. They're luscious. I still want more lip glosses. So I'm not going to be the

10:15friend that's like, Ri, where's the album? I'm not asking because I'm like, more please. So this is

10:22Damone Roberts, the brow pencil. Luckily Damone just did my eyebrows. So I don't really have to

10:30do much. I had a thin brow, y'all. And I thought it like made me more, I don't know, sophisticated,

10:40but it just made me look mean. I'm not mean. I played a lot of Mean Girls, which is fun, but

10:45I'm so my mother's child from Nebraska. I'm still trying to give my neighbors Mayday gifts. And I

10:52don't know if that's just a Midwest thing. I have been anxious since I was 19. And at 19,

10:58I was sexually assaulted, a story I've talked about, you know, many, many times. But after that,

11:03I got PTSD. And a part of that is I just had extreme anxiety about everything, which I have

11:12been working on for the last 25 plus years with the same therapist. With varying degrees of

11:18success, as I've gotten older, it's gotten a little better. It's a lifetime thing. And this

11:24is my Victoria Beckham. When I get really, really anxious, I talk to myself and I say,

11:32what's the worst that can happen? What is the absolute worst thing that can happen right now?

11:35It's not going to happen. You're okay. And if that doesn't work, it's the 10 deep breaths. Do

11:40they make me a little lightheaded? Yes, they do. But I, the anxiety slowly dissipates.

11:49I'm one of these people that this feels like a surgical tool. When people come in,

11:54right? When they come in like this, I definitely feel like you're going to get my whole

11:59lash and people have. Again, look at the mouth. Hourglass, baby. It's translucent tan.

12:10Also, I think I bought 57 of these, 57, 11 of these from Costco. Second to the last,

12:24Sakura. It's so light, but like, that's a raspberry. Like it's so good. The last thing,

12:35and this is my favorite, well, one of my favorite products from my line.

12:39It's the Styling Glaze. I could have just done with my finger, but

12:48I hope you guys enjoyed it. I hope you learned a little something more about me,

12:52the products that I use. I hope you have a great day. I will.

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