The Go-See: Michelle Lee

I’m due in February, and I’m going to work from home for that month. My nightmare would be to go into labor while I’m at the office. My hospital isn’t close enough to my office.

It's definitely my mom. She used to use what used to be called Oil of Olay. It was always in that beautiful glass bottle with the black top on it. I very specifically remember the smell of it, too. My mom also kept a little bottle of Chanel, I think it was Chanel No 5, on her dresser. As a kid, it was a little bit too much for me, but it seemed so sophisticated.

In high school, I’d wear a little bit of lipstick occasionally or do eyeliner in a totally horrific way—only on the bottom. I over-tweezed my eyebrows. For skin care at the time, there were always those Noxzema commercials with Rebecca Gayheart, and I felt like putting Noxzema on was the biggest luxury. I felt like I was having a spa day. 

In college, I think I got a little bit more experimental with things. I wore mascara, a little bit more eyeliner, and I was very into the bold lip—either a red or a brownish color. My biggest regret is that back then, I wasn’t really into sunscreen. If I could rewind time and teach myself anything about beauty, it would be to wear sunscreen.

Well, it’s like if you had a sip of wine as a kid. You’d think, “Whoa, like this too much,” even though it would make you feel very grown up and sophisticated.

Well, I still feel that way!

Even though I technically am a child of the ‘80s, my formative years were in the ‘90s. Looking back, some of my icons were the supermodels of that era. I very much loved Kate Moss, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell. I thought they were chic—the most sophisticated women. Now, I would say that I love people who take risks. I love people like Zendaya, who will wear some color. Rihanna is another—I just love seeing her hair and makeup. And I was just having a conversation yesterday about Janelle Monáe and her innate sense of style. 

But it’s funny. One of the things we’ve been talking about, especially since I’ve been at Allure, is this idea of not seeing myself represented. When I think about my childhood and teenage years, I wish that I had more Asian-American beauty icons to look up to as well. Luckily, now I think there are tons of them, but we didn’t have that growing up.

The job that I had right before this was at Nylon—obviously, a completely different brand. A really cool brand, but definitely smaller. What was really interesting coming to Allure was that because we are the beauty expert, and it is this big mass mainstream media brand, putting anything on the cover is really meaningful. I knew that it would be, but I don't think that I understood just how meaningful it would be. 

For example, in my second year here, we did a lot of really impactful covers. We had Halima Aden wearing a hijab during the height of the Trump travel ban, with a coverline that said, “This is American Beauty Now.” I knew that that was going to be a meaningful cover, but this was a global cover. We got a lot of attention for it. Later that year, we banned the term anti-aging. That was something where I don't think that I understood the power that we had. I had even heard that somebody in the UK had introduced a referendum to have the term “anti-aging” banned based on our declaration. In those moments, I realized that we can really impact culture.

A lot of times, people look at beauty and think it’s about testing lipstick and eyeliner. There certainly is that level—and I love that level.  But I also think that as a beauty brand, we actually have the power and the opportunity to change things in a much deeper way.

It's very interesting—nobody has bad intentions on any of these things. I think it's more that we have the responsibility to bring awareness and really dig down deep to explore what we actually mean about these things. What's made me so happy about the anti-aging thing, three years on, is that we’ve seen that the industry is changing. Our audience also wants to move on from the term. It’s been positive to see that so many people have caught on to it.

Yes. And also, we've seen a lot more diversity on the runways. Not just racial and ethnic diversity, but it made me really happy this past season to see a lot more age diversity, too.

It's been very interesting in the past two years, specifically, because there are so many new brands and new products that are largely driven by Instagram and the internet. It's so much easier now for people to launch their own beauty brands. I do think we're going to reach a saturation point, though. A couple of amazing brands will just naturally rise to the surface. Skin care is an interesting category for me to watch. Obviously, there's so many cool things happening in Asia; I do think that Korean innovation is going to continue to help drive some innovation here as well. 

And men are so much more open to engaging in beauty. A$AP Rocky is doing nail art; Marc Jacobs has been wearing nail art. It's a really interesting time, right? People are starting to look at beauty as self-expression, but also self-care and identity. I imagine that in the next 10 years, that’s going to continue.  I feel like 2020 is going to be the year of the body. We’ve spent so much time thinking about our faces, but then a lot of people are not doing anything with their bodies. I do feel like in the next couple of years, people will start to look at their entire body as all skin and treat ourselves in the best way possible.

Let me think. These are not necessarily new products, but these are some of my absolute heroes that have stayed in my medicine cabinet for years because I just love them so much. The Drunk Elephant C-Firma serum. For many years, I thought that I had oily skin when actually my skin is really dry. When I put on that C-Firma, it just gives me an automatic glow. I also love Peach & Lily’s Glass Skin serum. It has hyaluronic acid and absorbs nicely. Some other hyaluronic acid serums pill under makeup and it's just it's such a pet peeve of mine. There’s a subscription box called FaceTory, and I get all of these Korean sheet masks in it—and I love trying new masks. I also like Kate McLeod’s body stones. She went to pastry school and then used those techniques she’d learned to create a solid version of body oil. And there’s no packaging waste whatsoever.

My kids. Partly because I have to get them out of the house for school. But also, I feel motivated because we’re working on some really exciting things at work. When I feel excited, I feel pumped and ready for the day.

If it's a weekend and my daughter comes in and cuddles, it’s the greatest thing in the world. 

In a man, it’s kindness. My husband is a great dad and he’s incredibly kind and caring. My dad has a very ethical way of looking at things; he sets the standard of doing the right thing. I always admire that. And I admire honesty in men and women. As time has gone on, what I admire about women is having the boldness and the bravery to say certain things or do certain things. Because for so long, as women, we've been sort of put into a corner. So I love women who are willing to stand up for what they believe in. Even though sometimes they might be uncomfortable.

Thank you, Rosie!