My Uniform
A Lazy Riff on Sunset Blush from a Brooklyn Botanist
Photo Courtesy of Maureen Drennan
Consider the daffodil, New York City’s official flower—but also one Brooklyn botanist’s nemesis. “They’re gorgeous, obviously, but the bulbs are flown in from Europe, and that’s quite a carbon footprint,” says Marielle Anzelone, founder of NYC Wildflower Week, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving the city’s native plants and biodiversity. “We’re working to get butterfly milkweed, a native species, introduced as the city’s new wildflower.”
Plants, Anzelone says, deliver unexpected benefits. “People think we’re so separate from nature, but there’s an emerging field of environmental psychology showing that it can be this incredible tool for well-being and health. Greening up urban lots in low-income neighborhoods has been shown to significantly decrease gun violence,” she says. “Studies show that hospital patients whose rooms look out on something green have shorter postoperative stays.”
In between projects like bringing a pop-up forest to Rockefeller Center, highlighting the crucial need for urban green space, advancing local biodiversity policy (she helped develop a bill protecting native plants in public spaces that became law in 2013), and helping schools build biodiversity education into their curriculums, the 54-year-old mom of two devotes a few minutes a day to beauty. She moisturizes like crazy with a bespoke peptide serum, face oil, and cream routine that cushions her skin all day and does a bronzy version of the viral sunset blush look. “I call it sun-kissed lazy girl,” she says with a laugh.
Photo Courtesy of Paola Chapdelaine
FOR ALL-DAY JUICY SKIN
1
I splash with cold water in the mornings, and while my skin is still damp, I smooth on this silky serum. It creates a nice base for putting on my makeup, and I feel like it’s helped even out my skin tone.
2
Next comes this face oil. It’s sooo emollient, really helps with fine lines, absorbs instantly, and leaves my skin with a nice sheen. I squeeze a few drops onto the back of my hand, dip my fingers in, dot the oil all over my face, and give myself a little face massage with it. As I’m doing it, I say nice things to myself, like, “I’m going to be productive” or “Today I’ll find joy.”
3
I layer this on over the oil. I can’t get over the light texture—and how it still somehow manages to be so creamy and incredibly moisturizing and lovely. It’s great under makeup, especially in summer.
4
Sunscreen is a daily thing for me—I like Supergoop.
5
On days when I’m not really wearing makeup, I blend a little of this bronzing gel under my sunscreen to give my skin a nice warmth.
WHY I USE TWO CONCEALERS
This concealer from Kosas melts in so beautifully under my eyes that you can’t even detect it. I keep multiple shades—darker for summer, lighter for winter. The lighter shade doubles as highlighter: I blend it under my eyes to make my whole face look brighter. On days that I need more coverage, I use RMS’s UnCover-Up.
LAZY-GIRL SUNSET BLUSH
1
I dust a bit of highlighting cream blush from Saie (my shade is Bronzeglow) at the apples of my cheeks, blending it in toward my nose.
2
Next, I layer on cream blush from Westman Atelier in Dou Dou.
3
I finish by smoothing bronzy contouring pigment from Westman in Truffle onto my forehead, nose, and chin. The combination gives me an allover healthy-looking glow that looks like I’m not wearing makeup.
