Drew Barrymore Tells Us Her Go-To Derm Treatment, Favorite Skincare Products and the One Item All Women Need

The walls in Drew Barrymore’s NYC bathroom are covered with the happiest
kind of art: family photos, plus drawings and love notes from her two
daughters. And every square inch of the white-tiled countertop is covered
with the happiest kind of chaos: hundreds of balms, creams, serums,
and Flower Beauty lab samples, organized with military precision. Five
minutes ago, the actor/producer/author/entrepreneur shot a short, sweet
and spontaneous how-to video with her new mesmerizing Flower eye pigments. Yesterday,
she put in a 17-hour day on the set of The Stand-In, a rom-com in which she plays dual roles:
Candy, a discontented movie star, and her eager stand-in Paula. The production will wrap
just as Santa Clarita Diet returns to Netflix for its third season this spring. But right now,
at this moment, Barrymore has only thing on her mind: excavating a 10-gallon Ziploc bag
of sheet masks from the top of her linen-turned-beauty closet.

NewBeauty: I’ve never seen so many sheet masks outside of a K-beauty
boutique. How did you get so many?
Drew Barrymore: I made them! I discovered JayJun on my first research trip to
Hong Kong for Flower Beauty. I had popped into a drugstore in
a subway station underneath a weird mall and grabbed their
Baby Pure Shining sheet mask. I tried it and was instantly
impressed. Two days later in South Korea, I had already arranged
a meeting with the company, and we collaborated to launch
three masks [JayJun x Drew Barrymore] in Asia.

NB: When you’re in a foreign drugstore, jet-lagged and you don’t speak
the language, how do you shop smart?
DB: It’s almost like going into a wine shop. You’ll see a product on
the shelf and something about the label speaks to you, or maybe
you’re in the mood for that varietal. If you’re in the mood for
a sheet mask, that’s what you’ll focus on. I’m not crazy about
trying tons of color cosmetics—you can get those anywhere.
For me, it’s all about the skin-care formulas—what’s that latest
innovation you don’t have access to because it’s all the way on
the other side of the world.

NB: Congrats on winning a NewBeauty
award for your lip duo! What inspired it?
DB: What made me fall in love with lipstick was this mid-’80s
double-ended lipstick pencil from Shiseido. Both ends had the
same shade, but one side was a buttery finish and the other was completely matte. If you love a shade, how brilliant to have it
in two different formulas! And then later I would look at someone
like J.Lo on TV and wonder why her lips could so prismatically
capture the light. So I created a two-in-one, my Flower Mix N’ Matte Lip Duo ($10), with one very wearable color on one side and an
illuminating lip gloss in the same tone on the other. It won’t
change the shade at all, but will pick up the light. Actually, it’s
three-in-one: this end, that end, and the two ends together!

NB: Have you always been a beauty obsessive?
DB: I grew up in a makeup trailer, so I knew what makeup was. All of
it. But they don’t really do much makeup on kids. They put you
in a chair and put a puff on your nose and make you feel a part
of it. While we were making Firestarter, they would spray a lot of
sticky, wet, viscous glycerin on my face to look like sweat. I was
covered in fake blood before anyone ever put lipstick on me! And
then in real life, at night, I was going out with a lot of adults who
were certainly wearing makeup. There’s nothing like early ’80s
rouge! Boy George and Adam Ant were the thing. At 10, I was
at dance clubs wearing eye shadow in a straight line out to my
temples. I was really into chartreuse and gold, glittery-fine
sparkle, like olive-green snakeskin. I’ve always felt that getting
ready for a date is the best part of an evening: It doesn’t even matter if the date isn’t great, you get to take a moment and be
feminine. Put on some music and dance while you get ready and
do your makeup. I was filming all day yesterday in prosthetics and
color contacts, looking at all the glues and adhesives, and fake
noses and eye bags, and eyebrow additives. I’m into the theatrics,
the art, all the crazy stuff you can do to transform your face, age
yourself, change your hair, look like a different person. When I
would work with Kevyn Aucoin, he was really into that. He loved
making women into other women. He made me into Myrna Loy.

NB:What other tricks have you learned on set?
DB: They used to re-powder women all day long, and after 15 hours
of hot lights baking it into your skin, the makeup looked so cakey.
High-definition stopped people from piling it on, and everyone
got inspired by the rice-paper sheets. It became more about
blotting and lifting up the oil rather than trying to matte it
with more and more powder. Then there was this perfect storm where makeup in general just got a whole lot lighter. Everything
became about tinted moisturizer, instead of heavy base makeup.
And color correctors! Which was Ben Nye’s approach: he made
up all the glamorous women in film in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s,
and then created his own line 50 years ago. His kids run it today.
I love that legacy. Sometimes I like to think my girls will be
involved in Flower Beauty one day. Olive would be a chemist
and Frankie would come up with all the marketing.

NB:When did you start taking skin care seriously?
DB: When I was a teen, I washed my face with a bar of clear vitamin E
soap. Nothing. Moisturizers always broke me out. They still do
on my chin. My chin is like a completely different neighborhood
on my face, and you don’t go there after dark. Any product that
goes on my chin will screw it up. In my late 30s, I started taking
my skin seriously. I like scrubs and all of that stuff, and acids
and tingling, but I’m still a firm believer in the most gentle face
washes. I always want to have a lot of moisturizer and serum,
and that’s why I love the new Flower Beauty skin elixir ($16). The goal
was to create a formula that makes your skin look like you’ve just
left a workout class: pinky, plumped and dewy—like when you
have your own body’s blush on your cheeks. My dear friend stole
it from me recently, which is a sign she truly likes it. She called it
a wake-up for your face and makeup. I love the freshest, dewiest
face. I have a phobia of clogged-looking skin. It goes back to
watching women’s skin get baked under hot lights.

NB:You’ve tested thousands of products: what’s the one every woman
should buy?
DB: At one point in your life, you will need lip liner. That’s what I’ll
tell my girls. You won’t think you’ll ever need it, and then one
day you’ll see that lip liner isn’t just for fun. It’s a necessity.

NB: Beyond sheet masks, do you have any go-to skin fixes?
DB: I love the Clear + Brilliant laser. I do it once a year to slough away
my sunspots. I also try to get a facial once a year, but I just don’t
have the time to go more frequently. I’m obsessed with Augustinus Bader’s rich cream ($265) and Shani Darden’s Retinol Reform ($95)—it has a
little tingle when you put it on. Dr. Dan’s CortiBalm ($7) is really good
for hydrating dry lips. And my Clinique acne gel ($27). I just spot it on
any arriving friend from out of town in the form of a zit and say,
‘Go back to where you came from!’”

NB: Do you have any healthy habits you swear by for feeling good?
DB: Just behaving. Being as nice as I can. Not being a total A-hole.
Just being in a good mood at work, not losing my cool when my
kids lose their cool. Not sweating the small stuff. I’ve realized
that even when the little things aggravate you and seem really big and monumental, or even very public within your own circle
and you just wish you could hide your problems, you just can’t
lose your cool. Be nice through all of it. That’s always when I feel
the best, no matter what. Go put it out in some private corner
and then show up and just be good to everyone.

NB: Has becoming a mother changed your ideas about beauty?
DB: I do feel like I’m on an upswing. I just went through a couple of
hard years, and I can see it wearing on my face. It’s not about
aging, it’s about how I am on the inside. There’s also a very
long period when you’re raising kids when it takes it out of you.
When it depletes your ability to take care of yourself because
your new job is doing nothing but taking care of someone
else and you love it. I’m not all about working from the inside
out—I’m not big on meditation—but I do think your outside
cannot hide your inside. I’m now determined more than ever
to show my daughters that aging is a luxury. If we’re lucky, we
are all going to age. I just want them to be at peace with who
they are and not what they look like. If they are good, cool
people, that’s all I care about. That said, I feel like people—
myself included—have a 2019 new-battery recharge. I’m one
of many who are coming out of a semi-difficult hibernation.
Like in the spring. And hope springs eternal!

NB: Do you have any advice for women out there who need to recharge
their batteries?
DB: Would it be cheating if I said to face mask?