“Hello…buenos días,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says, barefaced and beaming. Before embarking on her day-to-day duties—including everything from delivering impassioned speeches in the House chamber to launching an effort to increase voter registration in her local community—the Bronx-born representative for New York’s 14th Congressional District is taking Vogue through her skin-care and signature-red-lip routine. “The reason why I think it’s so important to share these things is that, first of all, femininity has power, and in politics there is so much criticism and nitpicking about how women and femme people present ourselves,” she explains. “Just being a woman is quite politicized here in Washington…. There’s this really false idea that if you care about makeup or if your interests are in beauty and fashion, that that’s somehow frivolous. But I actually think these are some of the most substantive decisions that we make—and we make them every morning.”

For the congresswoman, it all starts with a simple but effective regimen. “I have not gotten much sleep last night at all,” she says. “Welcome to life in politics. We are trying to get people health care, making sure that they are taken care of in a pandemic, people are fighting too much, and so I have bags under my eyes.” She applies toner, vitamin C serum, a dollop of moisturizer, and a “generous” amount of SPF, rubbed onto her face—eyelids and ears included. PSA: “Don’t play games with sunscreen!”

Traveling between New York City, her home base and district, and D.C., where she has to spend four days a week while Congress is in session, is, she notes, taxing—especially for her skin. To counteract all the wear and tear, she often sneaks in a stealth moisturizing mask while on the train and makes sure to keep her cosmetics organized and packed in a compact case. “I love beauty, but also I try not to have a full beat every day,” she says. “Some days I choose to go in with a bare face, and other days when I want to feel glam, I do glam”—which is why she has two foundations for the job: Nars’s lightweight tinted moisturizer, which she brushes onto her complexion, and Estée Lauder’s long-lasting Double Wear finish, which can withstand even the most demanding schedules (not to mention a camera’s harsh glare).

“Our culture is so predicated on diminishing women and preying on our self-esteem, and so it’s quite a radical act—and it’s almost like a mini protest—to love yourself in a society that’s always telling you you’re not the right weight, you’re not the right color, you’re not the right, you know, whatever it is,” she says. “When you stand up and say, ‘You know what? You don’t make that decision. I make that decision,’ it’s very powerful. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun,” she adds before picking up a color corrector and a tube of concealer, which she blends into her skin with her fingers. “I learned this on my own and, as a millennial, through YouTube as well,” she says with a laugh.

Just over two years ago, after defeating a 20-year incumbent and winning what was seen as the biggest upset of the 2018 midterm election primaries, Ocasio-Cortez was thrust into the spotlight at just 28 years old. “I went from working in a restaurant to being on cable news all the time,” she recalls. “I initially really struggled with that. At a certain point, I just learned that you cannot get your feelings of beauty and confidence from anyone but yourself…. If I’m going to spend an hour in the morning doing my glam, it’s not going to be because I’m afraid of what some Republican photo is going to look like…. It’s because I feel like it,” she says with a smile. Here, she picks up Fenty Beauty’s Contour Stick, which she glides lightly down her cheekbones, over her forehead, and around her jawline. “I’m not trying to change my features or shape-shift—I’m just trying to accentuate my existing features,” she says as she adds a touch of the cream-to-powder pigment to her nose. “I’m not trying to make it look bigger. I’m not trying to make it look smaller.… I’m just trying to show people what I got.”

“I’m very lucky because brows are in,” Ocasio-Cortez notes, tracing a pencil over the edges of her arches before breaking into a laugh: “My family has brows. Many people in my family are born with one brow, and we have to turn it into two brows.” Crayon liner that she extends outwards into a flick, plus a coat of mascara, comes next—as does one more unexpected touch: “I also love to experiment,” Ocasio-Cortéz, 30, says, noting that she’s recently found pleasure in a bit of glimmer at eye level. “As the youngest woman in Congress—and as a woman of color—it’s so hard to be taken seriously.… I would think, Man, [glitter] isn’t going to help me out. People already try to diminish me and diminish my voice as young and frivolous and unintelligent.” And yet, it turns out the extra shine has had quite the opposite effect: “I tried the shimmer, and it looks fire!… It helps me feel better, and I feel like it helps make my eyes pop, so you know what? I was totally wrong.”

Now, Ocasio-Cortez moves into her last—and most talked-about—beauty move: her trademark red lip, which, she notes, she first began wearing on the campaign trail two years ago. “One of the things that I had realized is that when you’re always running around, sometimes the best way to really look put together is a bold lip,” she says. “I will wear a red lip when I want confidence, when I need a boost of confidence.” Over the years, she’s played with many different formulations and pigments, but she’s now become loyal to Stila’s Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick in Beso, which, true to its name, does not budge—a must for the politician. “I really don’t have time to be running in and out of the bathroom to be doing touch-ups, and so I really prefer liquid lipsticks that just are indestructible,” she says as she paints the formula onto her lips. Seconds later, “Boom!… Even I feel a little more oomph with the red on.”

“If I had to give one piece of advice, it is that the key to beauty is the inside job—the key to beauty is feeling beautiful, and no amount of money or makeup can really compensate for loving yourself,” Ocasio-Cortez says. “If you need a little boost or if you’re feeling particularly challenged that day, look in the mirror and say, ‘I’m the bomb, and I will make the world a better place in my own little pocket because that’s what I’m here to do’…. There’s something that you bring, and you need to know that, and that is the best beauty secret of them all.” After tossing on a blazer and kissing her French bulldog, Deco, she is off: “This is Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I hope you feel beautiful however you are. Let’s go seize the day and fight the power.”

 

Originally posted on “VOGUE” by Zoe Ruffner.