Anok Yai On Achieving A Supermodel Glow, Meditation And Wearing Perfume To Bed
With Fashion Month in full force, we're once again turning to the runways for show-stopping new season beauty inspiration. From intricate winged liners to sleek hydro hair, we trust highly anticipated designer showcases to foreshadow the future-facing beauty moments we'll be coveting all year long – and the same applies off the catwalk. From street style to the front row, we're constantly on the lookout for effortlessly stylish, runway-adjacent hair and make-up references to add to our beauty moodboards. The name on all of our lips this season? Anok Yai.
With a repertoire spanning from star-studded music videos to Models.com's Model of the Year 2023, 26-year-old Yai's supermodel status is undisputed. The fresh face of Mugler Alien Hypersense catches up with ELLE UK to discuss iconic runway moments, vintage beauty inspiration and why she has to wear a scent to bed...
On beauty...
'I used to think that beauty was something that you put on yourself or that you had to change about yourself. Now, I realise that beauty is more, it's something that exudes out of you. It's the essence that you have as a woman, it's the way that you talk and the way that you walk and the way that you present yourself to the world.'
On childhood scents...
'My parents have a scent that they use in our homes. It's called the Bakhoor and it's scented with sandalwood. My mom would burn it and put it in different places in the house. Every time I come across it, it reminds me of home. It's a nostalgic scent for me.
I started getting into fragrance once I began growing into myself as a woman. I've gotten to a place where I wear fragrance every day. I wear perfume to go to sleep. I never go anywhere without perfume on. It's about the essence of how I feel. When I put on perfume it's like putting on an outfit. It gets to the point now where if I don't have a scent on, I just feel like I'm naked.'
On her fragrance must-haves...
'I usually gravitate towards florals. For my skin, I use a lot of rose oil and then I love jasmine. It's actually in the Alien Hypersense. That was one of the first things that I noticed when I smelled the the fragrance. Sometimes I like mixing it with like a super dark edgy scent.'
On her beauty moodboard...
'My own style is very dark and edgy. I love the flapper era of twenties and thirties. I have a lot of Nina Simone, Bette Davis and a lot of costumes from films in the Sixties and Seventies. The gowns I think are gorgeous, it's a lot of really dark fabrics, mixed with silvers and diamonds.'
On her biggest beauty moment...
'Right now, my favourite moment is when I closed the Mugler show with the long train.'
'I remember in the moment of doing the fitting, I saw how long the train was and I wondered how the fan was going to carry this gigantic thing. I was coming from a different show when I got to the Mugler show and I was so late that I missed the rehearsal. All they said was, "you're gonna go here, you're gonna pose here and there's going to be a fan and there's gonna be light and stay in the middle." The second I got on the runway, I had this mask and I couldn't see a thing and the lights were flashing and I didn't know the lights were going to flash.
People don't know this but you know how loud the music is at shows? Even though the music is really loud, the models can hear what people are saying. No matter how far away they are, we can hear it. There was a lot of "Oh my god".'
On fashion month preparations...
'I spend a lot of time in the sauna to detox and then hydrating. I do a lot of facials and focus on repairing my skin because during fashion week your skin becomes raw from the constant touching.'
On the secret to her model glow...
'Exfoliating. Anything that you find. Exfoliating gloves, scrubs, anything just to get the the top layer of dead skin off your body. It actually makes your skin glow. I exfoliate my body every day. Not roughly but it's a consistent thing.'
On self-care rituals...
'I meditate every morning. I try and work out every day. I don't really do that much cardio, I just lift weights and I eat a lot of protein. I travel so much and there's so much changing constantly that I just try to keep a few things just consistent because without it, I feel like I'm like going crazy.'
On make-up essentials...
'Every time I lose my make-up bag, I always get a perfume, clear lip gloss and a black pencil. As long as my eyebrows are done and I have mascara on, I'm fine. I don't like black eyebrow pencils. I like using black eyeliner pencils for my eyebrows.'
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