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"    As a teen, she shaved her head, hid out in her school bathroom, and wouldn&amp;#039;t be caught dead in pink lipstick. Now the actress looks pretty, pretty, pretty\u2014while still keeping things refreshingly simple. REDBOOK: You went from everyday citizen to super-famous in less than a year. These days, do you feel pressure to be made-up every time you leave the house? Lupita Nyong&amp;#039;o: [Laughs] No! I&amp;#039;ve always cared about how I look, but to dress to the nines all the time is to have no life. RB: So on those dress-down days, do you wear makeup? LN: Yes, I&amp;#039;ll do defined brows and natural eyeshadow, then I put on a plum blush, which gives my cheeks a healthy look. On dark skin, it&amp;#039;s easy for blush to be too obvious. And I love lip balm because you can just grab it and go. RB: On the flip side, when it comes to your red carpet appearances, you&amp;#039;ve broken some beauty rules\u2014 LN: Have I? RB: Well, yes, but in the best way possible. LN: Oh, goody! RB: You really embrace bold makeup. What draws you to it? LN: Well, I hadn&amp;#039;t been on any red carpets before, so I didn&amp;#039;t know what the rules were. I just gravitate toward what I like. My makeup artist, Nick Barose, has grown my confidence in playing with color. He&amp;#039;s gotten me to wear some pink lipcolors that I would have never picked out on my own. RB: Is it true that you shaved your head when you were 19 because your hair was damaged from chemical treatments? LN: Yes! But it wasn&amp;#039;t on a whim\u2014I spent days thinking about it first. Once I did it, it was very liberating, but I also felt very naked. When you feel the wind on your scalp, it&amp;#039;s like, Oh, my God. But I&amp;#039;ve kept my hair short ever since. RB: What do you love about having short hair? LN: It&amp;#039;s easy. As a teen, my hair caused me so much anxiety. When I wasn&amp;#039;t happy with how my hair looked, I&amp;#039;d spend recess in the bathroom because I was so embarrassed. RB: Tell us about your skin-care regimen. LN: My skin tends to be very dry, so I use avocado oil to take off my makeup, which helps keep my face moisturized. Then I use a light cleanser, eye cream, and Lanc\u00F4me G\u00E9nifique serum, which I love because you can dab it on top of makeup too. [Lupita is a Lanc\u00F4me brand ambassador.] RB: Did your skin freak out at all when you were filming 12 Years a Slave in hot, sticky New Orleans? LN: Actually, it was in such good shape during filming. I grew up [in Kenya] near the equator, so heat and humidity are my friends. My skin was very sad to leave Louisiana! \u2014As told to Victoria Kirby Lupita&amp;#039;s must-haves: Avocado oil; &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m loving Lanc\u00F4me Vernis in Love nail polish in Nuit D&amp;#039;Azur [$15] right now&amp;quot;; Lanc\u00F4me Advanced G\u00E9nifique Youth Activating Concentrate, $84; Lanc\u00F4me Lip Lover in Rose Contre-Temps, $23; &amp;quot;I put Miss Jessie&amp;#039;s Baby Buttercreme [$32] on my damp hair to soften my curls so I can shape them.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/beauty/interviews/a19146/lupita-nyongo-beauty-secrets/>