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One Model’s Ultimate All-Natural Summer Beauty Routine

Leiliani Bishop on skipping shampoo, dry brushing & why you should use oils all over.

Hair
One Model’s Ultimate All-Natural Summer Beauty Routine
Renée Rodenkirchen

There are a million and one ways that we’ve fiddled and fussed with our beauty routines. It’s like a never ending challenge: figure out the exact secret recipe mix of lotions and potions that will result in our best, most beauteous, most confident selves. And it becomes all the more challenging in the summer, when not only must you deal with additional sun protection and rudely exposed body hair, but there’s also the unyielding pressure to appear fresh and dewy (read: not sweaty and greasy).

It was on a recent expedition to the Hamptons (of course) that we discovered the ultimate, close to all-natural summer beauty regimen, care of a model (of course) and newly minted co-owner of an extremely adorable natural beauty shop in Amagansett (of course), appropriately named Botanica Bazaar. We suppose we should have known, but it takes someone like Leilani Bishop, all long, tanned limbs, blonde hair, and natural (but somehow perfect) laugh lines, who also happens to create perfumed oils you can’t help but want to bathe in, to make you believe that you too can make that holy grail dewy look happen. Rest assured we got all the details of her regime, so now at least an at-home attempt is possible.

 


Shaving

“I’m a fan of putting oil on in the shower to shave—then you get a really close shave. My husband doesn’t love it because the shower floor gets pretty oily. I’ll just use a Hawaiian nut oil or any plain oil. Monoi oil is a Tahitian oil that I grew up with and is great, too.”

Dry Brushing

“I use a Japanese Tawashi scrub brush that’s good. I just started using a line called Living Libations—they have great dry brushes that they sell and a breast massage oil with a breast brush, too. Your skin is your largest organ of the body, and dry brushing regenerates it, brings blood to the surface and cleanses your lymphatic system. Everyone’s skin is sensitive at different levels, so find the brush that works best for you. Dry brush first and then shower, cleanse, use your oils.”

Skincare

“When I get out of the shower, I use a toner. Tracie Martyn makes a really great one, as does Tata Harper. I like to vary my products because my skin gets used to them and I get bored, too. I like to use an oil on my face, too—I use the Pratima Rejuvenating Essential Oil, which is awesome. I just slather it on. My skin is really dry and soaks it up really well. Another one I love is Earth Tu Face Balancing Hydration Oil. I like that for wintertime because it’s a little bit thicker than the Pratima Oil. And then there’s Rodin Face Oil, which is also great.”

Makeup

“When it’s a summer day and it’s hot and I want to look my best, I just use a spot concealer. I have little sun spots, so I just try to even out my face a little bit. I like to do a concealer all around my eye—I do it under the eye and then around the eye just so it’s an even palete. I use an RMS concealer. Kjaer Weis makes great concealers as well. To apply it, I wet a sponge so that it really goes into the skin and you can’t see it.

“My staple is lots of mascara. If I’m doing more of a day look, I’ll do more of an upper lash and maybe a little bit on the corners, but nothing on the bottom. If I want my eye to pop a little bit, I’ll add a little brown eyeliner on the inside of the upper lid.

“One thing that I’ve learned from makeup artists is to use cream blush—that’s why I love this Kjaer Weis blush. It ties the face together nicely. I use it on my cheeks, my eyelids, a little on my temples, a little on my chin, and a little on the tip of my nose, as long as it doesn’t make you look red. I’ve noticed that a lot of makeup artists do that especially if you use a concealer because it brings make the natural areas of the face that have color.

I apply most of my makeup with my fingers because the natural oils help to saturate the skin a bit more and help to hydrate and keep that natural, dewy look. If your skin is dry and you want something that’s a little bit more dewy, I use Pawpaw and put it on my cheekbones and a little bit on my eye bone—it makes it pop without using a color. The light will catch it.

Another thing that I love to do in the day if I have an event is just doing a nude eye with mascara and then a red lip pencil. I love Cruella by Nars because it doesn’t run.”

Body

“For body, I’m all over the place—it depends on what I’m wearing. I love to use oils, but if I’m wearing silk or something that will stain, then I stick to lotions. Living Libations Best Skin Ever has Tamanu oil in it, which is a Tahitian nut. It’s a really good all over moisturizing lotion and is a great alternative because it has the oil in it.”

Hair

“I’m really into not washing my hair that much. One product that I really love is from Hairstory—instead of a shampoo, it’s more of a cream rinse. I’m a huge fan of dry shampoos because it gives it really great body. I’m terrible at blow drying my hair and doing stuff like that, but if I was good at it, I’m dying to buy Harry Josh’s tools. Really this summer, I want to be able to do a little bit more with my hair—even if it’s just a little bend when it’s dirty. I love how it looks after swimming in the ocean because it’s so full, but still contained.

“I love Serge Normant’s dry shampoo. And I love Klorane—that’s what is in my bag right now. There’s a really cute company that we carry at the store called Captain Blankenship—they make a really great sea salt spray and a really great dry shampoo. Their dry shampoo is a bit more of like a baby powder that you would shake into your hair.”

Food & supplements

“I’m big into super-foods. Chia seeds especially—I make really easy, yummy chia seed pudding. I’ve really gotten into Sun Potion—they take weird ingredients people into yoga use like Reishi mushrooms and Triphala—but they made it into this really beautiful line. And they have a few different powders that you can add to things. There’s one that is cocoa, which is a real brain food.

“Another thing that I’m really learning a lot about is honey. They talk about it a lot for allergies, but it’s actually a great brain food. You just want local honey. We carry Manuka Honey at the store and we also carry local honey, a company called Bee’s Needs (http://beesneeds.com/). They told me that if you take a spoonful of honey before you go to bed, there’s something in the honey that helps to shut down something in your nervous system and also helps to feed the brain.

“Oregano oil is definitely one of my staples—when I’m run-down it gives me a bit of a kick. I’ll do superfoods in my smoothies on a daily basis and I take Vitamin C and B12 daily. Olive leaf is also a good natural antibiotic that I like to take as well that really knocks out the bacteria. Colloidal silver is another really good one.”

Fragrance

“I really wanted to create single note florals and I wanted them to be oils, but I didn’t want, like, the Whole Foods oil. I wanted something a bit more elevated that felt really pretty. When you’re wearing it, I think of the woman as the carrier—I’m smelling you. I really wear fragrance for myself. If you don’t smell it, you don’t notice anything different, but when you smell something it makes an impression.

“I love scent spots. Oil and alcohol-based fragrances are different. Oil tends to blossom on the skin. You can put it on in the morning, and throughout the day it will warm up. Put it on your pulse points. Scent rises—you should have fun with it. Put it on your ankle, your inner thigh for your lover, put it on your stomach, your breast, your neck. I like to play with it.”

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