Charlotte Tilbury Puts Makeup On Before Bed

"When I went to boarding school (in England) at 13, I saw that all of the English girls wore lots of makeup. That’s when I discovered mascara. I had fair eyelashes, and I went from having this 'piggy' look on my face to suddenly having these thick, black, long lashes. After three months, I went back to Ibiza on a school break, and I was more popular overnight. Everyone was like, ‘You’ve just really matured; you look really great now.’ It was like, Oh my god. This is the power of makeup. It made a massive difference on my face. After that, I never wanted to be seen without makeup ever again. And I made that pact, from that day onwards: I sleep in my makeup.

If I’m on my own, I won’t sleep in it, but my husband has never seen me without makeup. It comes off, and goes back on again. At night, I take everything off my face and moisturize—because you have to let your skin breathe a bit—but then I put everything right back on again: a little under-eye brightener, either the Tom Ford Illuminating Highlight Pen or Bobbi Brown Tinted Eye Brightener, then the eye goes back on, and maybe a little tint on the cheeks. My mother said to me, 'You always have to keep the mystery alive…' I made the mistake of showing a boyfriend my un-made-up face once, and it was a big disaster. He was like, 'What happened to your eyes?!' And I told him, '…No, you’re right, those are my eyes, not these.' (Laughs)"

—as told to ITG, in her Top Shelf

Charlotte Tilbury photographed by Emily Weiss at the Bowery Hotel in New York on February 12, 2013.