Halsey launched their makeup line, About-Face, in 2021. It’s very much centered on fun, bold colors that go with her artsy, change-it-up vibe. Like, it’s a far cry from those Urban Decay Naked palettes. I’m pretty basic and unskilled when it comes to makeup, but my friend Ameerah is an expert and she really likes Halsey’s line. As of last month, the brand is now available at Ulta and Halsey spoke to Nylon about their approach with the makeup line, beauty thoughts, and a surprise skincare tip: breast milk.
“About-Face is based on being creative as opposed to correcting your face,” Halsey describes. With the line, the “Closer” singer hopes to steer their fans away from today’s unrealistic beauty standards by encouraging them to embrace their own features instead. “I wanted to give that same power to the fans that I had found in accepting that this is what my face looks like, and I need to love what my face looks like,” they note. The fun-focused brand encourages using your face as a canvas for personal expression.
On mental health and beauty: “They definitely go hand in hand. I find that when my mental health is better, I’m looking in the mirror less and when my mental health is worse, I’m looking in the mirror more because I’m looking for external validation when I can’t find it inwards. It’s almost like when you’re feeling insecure or unworthy, you break out the magnifying mirror and you want to just feed into it and make it worse. So I try to reject that.”
On makeup vs. no makeup: “I spend a decent amount of time with no makeup on. That’s really important to me because with press and photo shoots and shows, you see yourself done up all the time and then it can be really easy to believe that you are only beautiful or worthy when you look that way. You start to build this psychological divide of what you think your face looks like versus what your face actually looks like. It’s become exceptionally more important to me to be able to to look at my face and say, ‘This is who I am, this is how I look, and that is okay and I accept that’. I want to make sure that I’m setting myself up for success as I continue to age in this industry and to be at peace with that process.”
On breast milk as skincare: “I’ve always been really conscious about what goes on my skin, but when your baby is kissing you or snuggled up against you, you become hyper-cognizant of what’s on your face. I love the Biologique Repecharge’s colostrum VG serum, which I got into when I first had my son. I started breastfeeding and I figured out that breast milk is the best skincare ingredient ever because it’s so full of antioxidants and good fats and stuff that speed up the healing process.”
I would never have thought of breast milk as skincare, but I have heard it described as “liquid gold” so that tracks. I would totally try it if I produced some. I wonder if Halsey read something about breast milk as skincare or there was some sort of spill and then they were like wow I’m glowing. Halsey says that they look in the mirror more when their mental health is bad, for external validation, but I find it’s the opposite for me and avoid the mirror when I’m feeling bad. I do like what she says about makeup as personal expression instead of correcting your face. So much of the beauty/style/fitness industry focuses on fixes as if we are broken and for me the negativity of those messages has the opposite of the intended effect — it’s not motivating. And I like what she says about accepting and appreciating yourself with or without makeup. We are the same people either way and makeup is a part of self-expression.
I like the message of acceptance but ugh can we stop with fetishizing breast milk already? It’s literally just a source of nutrition. It doesn’t solve ear infections, or baby’s eye infections (can actually make them worse), or improve complexions. There are plenty of skin creams already chock full of antioxidants. This type of stuff really just stigmatizes those who were never able to or didn’t want to produce their own milk, and it’s getting to the point where the pseudo-science of it all is like adjacent to those who eschew vaccines.
Yes. Yes please. This mythologizing of breast milk, placenta, blood, what have you — it’s just ridiculous and anti-scientific. I’d imagine reading about these elixirs in a book about medieval alchemy, but not from an educated community. I guess this is what you get from communities preached to by Madame Goop: the same nonsense that claims we should be eating like our long-extinct ancestors.
It’s basically the equivalent of apple cider vinegar — it’s not gonna kill you, and you might even like it, but stop marketing it as THE MAGICAL TIT JUICE.
EXACTLY! The phrase “liquid gold” makes me want to barf.
Thank you, ugh!!!! People just repeat these ideas because they *feel* like they’re right without having any idea what they’re talking about. Also all milk has “antioxidants”, pretty much any plant or animal food does because that word is so watered down it means vitamins at this point.
Also, a plug for processed products – I am a fairly ill person who was raised VERY holistic and it turns out most (all?) of my health issues are at minimum heavily impacted by my lifetime holistic diet and resulting deficiencies in iodine, zinc, iron, and vitamin D. There’s a reason the government started fortifying things!! Many people likely don’t need it, but some of us really need the help. I do not have the heart to tell my mom, who did her best to shield me from the evils of modernity like corn flakes, table salt, Advil, and fluoridated toothpaste.
Breast milk is often prescribed for baby eczema and acne. I’ve also heard of doctor’s recommending for baby eye infections. So she’s not wrong on that front. Although one of the reasons breast milk is called liquid gold is it can be so hard to have enough to feed your baby. So I don’t think most Moms would want to waste it on skincare.
The breast milk in eye thing is total malarky, and every pediatrician I have ever talked to implores women not to do this. It is something spread by Facebook mom groups.
.I’m not in Facebook Mom groups. I only know this info based on mothers I know who did it and it worked. But okay.
Okay. But is she a dermatologist now? And I don’t care how great it is for skin or whatever I am not putting tittie milk on my face or anywhere else.
This is the ultimate “natural” and “organic” skincare narrative. And I’m not a fan. First of all, if you’re feeding your baby and randomly apply breast milk to your face, you do you. But it’s not skincare. It is, first and foremost, your baby’s food and just like people who favor yoghurt or avocado as a face mask, I say please just don’t keep it in the fridge. Use it fresh if you want to but don’t whip up your own product. Because that’s where skincare has the edge – preservatives. I know people think they’re the devil but they’re actually not. They’re amazing and keep your face cream from getting moldy.
Having said that, if people don’t have access to medicine or cosmetics, topically applied human breast milk can absolutely help the baby with certain conditions. Therefore, I’m sure it can help mom as well.
Why on Earth would you put anything on your skin other than products which were specifically made for it? Why?
I don’t have anything to add. I had all these same reactions and just wanted to say how lovely it was that you all said my own thoughts better than I ever could! Team no thanks haha
It is for the baby.
I don’t in any way want to take the shine off of bight shiny faces, but there is this thing, it is called science.
The reason we call it “science” is because it is double-blind peer reviewed.
Another day, another stupid comment by an uneducated hollywood/celeb type of person. Also, I am pretty sure she got a buccal fat removal, and maybe a nose job back in the day, aside from the obvious lip filler. She looks completely different from her early days in music.