I don’t describe things as “life-changing” lightly (except when I really need the hyperbole to properly convey how good a hash brown is).
Jessica De Fino’s journalism has been life-changing for me.
writesIt’s basically a one-woman takedown of the beauty industry and I truly consider it essential reading for anyone who’s ever seen a mascara commercial.
Years ago, I used to smother my skin in various products that promised I’d be beautiful forever if I used them. I loved to look shiny, like a freshly glazed doughnut. Being “dewy” was one of my top five life goals.
Then I read something of Jessica’s and realised that the reason I glowed was that the acids in all my precious, expensive face goops were literally peeling layers of my skin off every day. And that purchasing all my hectic skincare was also contributing to the global climate crisis, helping to sustain impossible beauty standards, and funding the very sad lie that getting older is bad and scary and gross.
She introduced me to this wacky idea: what if we spent less time and money trying to “fix” our skin and just kinda had a face and got on with our lives? Wild.
I have huge, huge respect for what Jessica does. Which is why I am THRILLED all the way to the moon and back, that she agreed to speak to me.
Below is our chat. Read that!!!
And then read Jessica’s new beauty advice column Ask Ugly on The Guardian. Then this amazing article about her time working on the Kardashian Jenner’s app. And then probably everything she’s ever published on The Unpublishable.
OK. Here’s Jessica.
KATE: How would you explain The Unpublishable to someone who hasn’t read it?
JESSICA: I say it’s what the beauty industry won’t tell you, from a reporter on a mission to reform it. Or I say I used to create beauty content for the Kardashian-Jenners and this newsletter is my apology.
Have you had much backlash from it? Any furious emails from beauty publicists, skincare companies, or perhaps Hailey Beiber?
I haven’t had too much backlash for the things I’ve written on The Unpublishable actually. Articles I wrote before the newsletter, in more mainstream media outlets, that’s a different story. One brand threatened legal action against me to get an article killed before it was published. One advertiser had a piece of mine taken down. A peer once tweeted that I should walk into the ocean! But these days if something starts to get a bit of a negative reaction, I do what I call “opposite affirmations” and tell myself I am nothing, I am no one, I am completely insignificant over and over and over. I think it works!! No backlash lately. (I’m half-joking.)
You’ve changed the way I think about a lot of things: mascara, colonialism, death, my own face. Because of you, I audit my bathroom cabinet, purchase fewer products, don’t put acids on my face anymore, and question everything I’m told about skincare. How does that feel, to change people’s minds and habits?
That is such a compliment and when I really think about it, it makes me want to cry. My main goal is to get people to think about how they think about beauty, even if they don’t change their minds or habits right away, so to hear that even one reader has made the leap from “hmm” to “I don’t put acids on my face” is lovely.
Why’s jojoba oil so good?
Three main reasons:
1) It’s biomimetic! It’s 97% chemical match to human sebum, which is the best moisturizer on planet earth.
2) It’s multi-purpose! You can use it as an oil cleanser, a face and body moisturizer (apply to damp skin), a lip balm, a scalp oil, a hair treatment, anything really.
3) It’s sustainable! Jojoba bushes grow in the desert without a ton of water and the nuts are about 50% oil.
At least once a week I look in my bathroom mirror and think, because of you, so what if I look older? What if I don’t “fix” my skin? How does your work make you feel about your own appearance?
My work doesn’t make me feel anything about my appearance. The industry my work revolves around makes me feel like shit, and my work helps me understand that this feeling is not my own.
What’s your current least favourite beauty commercial? (There’s one for foundation that promises to remove texture from your face and I rock back and forwards muttering to myself about how deranged that is every time it comes on)
The one that immediately pops into my head is the Quinta Brunson Olay Night Cream commercial where she’s like, “Did you know your skin has a night mode? Skin cells renew overnight, so I wake up to smoother, brighter skin.” I’ve written about it before, but the reason it upsets me so is because it’s true! Skin does have a “sleep mode!” Skin cells do renew overnight! These things happen all on their own. These are reasons to skip the night cream, not buy another one. It just strikes me as particularly manipulative to use scientific facts about the wonder of the skin itself to sell consumer goods that deserve none of the glory. There is no need to bring products into this highly-intelligent bodily process!!
What’s the most unhinged marketing email you’ve received recently?
A pitch from a plastic surgeon’s office with the subject line “Not Your Grandmother’s Nose!”
What do your friends and fam think about you wearing less makeup and using less skincare?
My mom is a no-skincare convert, my brother tells all his friends to subscribe to my newsletter, my sister calls me when her friends get fresh lip fillers and she starts feeling bad about her own face and needs to vent, my friends worry I’m going to judge them I think, my ex-husband was like, “Baby, please, you look so beautiful with just a little more makeup on.”
You used to work in women’s magazines. I used to work in women’s magazines. Do you have any insane anecdotes about beauty culture from those days?
Oh, so many. Two come to mind: Once a beauty editor at Cosmopolitan tried to edit one of my articles and insisted that ingesting essential fatty acids would not have any effect on the skin… but the skin barrier is literally made up of essential fatty acids that the human body can’t produce on its own. Like, the existence of the skin barrier literally depends on getting fats via diet! That interaction helped me understand that beauty editors know a ton about skin products but virtually nothing about the skin itself. And once I was on a press trip hosted by the makers of Botox and a celebrity dermatologist gave me this golden quote: “One of the biggest things I tell my patients is, 'You want to look more like your filtered photos — what can we do to make you look more like them, so people don't see you in real life and go, what?'” Like, this is an actual medical doctor. I still can’t believe that quote is real.
You also! Used to work on the Kim Kardashian app!!!! What can you say about that experience that isn’t forbidden by NDA or a perfectly reasonable fear of Kris Jenner’s retribution?
I’ve said so much already! (Check out my appearance on the Peacock documentary “House of Kardashian”!) But my favorite fun fact is that we had a full-time Photoshop editor on staff.
What’s the biggest lie you told when you were a beauty editor?
Hmm, probably anytime I proclaimed a product “actually works!!!”
BOTOX, eye cream, collagen pills. They’re all ways we distract ourselves from the prospect of death. How often do you think about your own mortality?
Every day. My mother has stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. Spending time with her over the past couple years has simultaneously made me doubt my work (why spend so much time worrying about physical beauty when life and death are happening around us, to us, inside us at every moment???) and motivated to do this work (life and death are happening around us, to us, inside us at every moment!!! We have to spend less time worrying about physical beauty!!!).
And just to lighten the mood, which alleged older celebrity couple would you rather have lunch with: Anna Wintour and Bill Nighy or Meryl Streep and Martin Short?
Meryl and Martin, 100%. Meryl in Manhattan is everything to me.
ENTHUSIASM is a newsletter for people who feel strongly about things. Like, for example, potatoes, human rights and former members of the boy band One Direction. Here, we contain multitudes. You might enjoy previous posts, like An Insomniac’s Success Story or this interview with Kylie Minogue’s bass player.
Kate Leaver is an editor, author, and former professional fairy. She writes about dogs, friendship, love, pop culture, sadness, and Taylor Swift. She’s currently writing her first novel, a cautionary tale about fame. She’s represented by Jemima Forrester at David Higham Associates and she really really loves her dog.
Also: thank you so much to Jessica for agreeing to do this interview by email to accomodate my energy levels 🥰🙌
Jessica! I cry as I write this reading about your mom. I want to let you know that when I first started reading your work a few years ago, it really sunk in. I felt it. After working as an esthetician, paying 2k to try to get rid of my double chin (didn’t work), and trying manyyy experimental procedures to get rid of my acne, I knew that worrying about how I looked made me more and more sad. Instead, I tried to focus on what made me happy - which was spending quality time with my family and friends. I’m so glad your work started that thought catalyst because my dad passed away suddenly last year with no warning. I am so thankful I put my phone down and stopped worrying about how I looked so I could spend that time with my dad. Every day I think about how your work changed my life in so many ways, and continues to do so ❤️