What Makeup Artist Sir John Buys at the Drugstore

Teeth are really important. I was on a show calledAmerican Beauty Star,where I realized most of the real-estate value on your face is in your smile. Having a white smile is a cheat code, and it’s ageless, it’s timeless, it’s sexless. This toothpaste doesn’t give me a lot of sensitivity the way some other whiteners will. If you’re looking for whitening, make sure that you’re not sacrificing enamel care.

I used to have serious dental issues in my 20s. Now I have a great dentist, Dr. Kevin Sands. He’s like the Rolls-Royce of teeth. He really helped me out. I remember Cardi B said, “I got a bag and fixed my teeth.” So shout-out to my dentist.

This goes way back for me. From an editorial perspective, Eucerin is really the O.G. Some of the makeup artists I assisted back in the day used this, so I started to incorporate it into my own regimen. What it does is it flashes back at the camera. It has this glass, almost a latexlike finish. So if you have minimal scars or a bit of acne discoloration or even, say, hair bumps or chicken skin, it doesn’t appear on film. I even use this as foundation. I know that sounds really crazy, but I lather it on the girls’ faces, usually to give that super-wet, almost athletic appearance. I did it for Ivy Park. If you look atCarine Roitfeld’s fashion bookwith Beyoncé, that’s the foundation I used as well.

When I went to Seoul last January, I was really impressed with how they take care of the belly. Everything starts in the tummy. Beauty, really, starts in your biome. So these apple-cider-vinegar gummies are one of the things I take first thing in the morning just to reset my gut. Some people say that you can lose weight and stuff like that. That’s not my goal, even though I would like an extra ab or two. But I noticed that it almost works as a primer for my belly before I take other things like my vitamins and digestive enzymes. I swear by it.

Doing makeup, I’m always so close to someone’s face. The lucky part about being a hairstylist is that you’re always behind the client. You can eat nachos or Doritos, and you’re not knocking them out. But for me, I’m always within a hair’s distance of their face. So smell has always been very important to me, just making sure I have fresh breath in general. But one thing I love about this brand, TheraBreath, is that they lean into different modalities, either gum health or detoxifying from the root cause, which is bad bacteria,
or increasing your microbiome inside of your mouth. All of these things add to your breath. It’s not just about flossing — it’s about fostering a healthy environment.

This is an oldie but goodie. Growing up Black, shea butter and Palmer’s Cocoa Butter go hand in hand. It’s a classic, tried-and-true method for hydrating. The Palmer’s is not like an oil; it’s almost like a wax. It’s really great for your knees. It’s great for the summertime. It repairs scars too. I’m not just looking at hydration — I’m also looking at how even it’s going to make the pigmentation on my skin. And for me, it smells nostalgic. I’m not going to let it go, no matter how fancy things get. It’s something that reminds me of where my roots are. So cocoa butter is definitely going to be up there with all the cool contemporary shit that I have. It’s an O.G. staple. It has a community around it, and it’s just a proverbial nod that we give each other, like, “You know what’s up.”

This is something I found by accident. I’ve been using a cuticle cream as a lip balm for about a decade now. It softens the tissue like no other and makes your lips completely baby soft. So I would use Burt’s Bees cuticle cream as a primer on my lips and then a thicker, more emollient balm to lock it in. It totally transforms any texture. It’s also really great under lipstick because it doesn’t change the finish of your lipstick. If you want a matte, it’ll stay a true matte.

This is one of the things I picked up while I was traveling and then I just kept picking it up. These days, in 2026, we don’t use manual exfoliators quite as much. Remember how back in the day, we used to use that apricot scrub? Could you imagine using that on your face now? No, with what we know now. But this scrub contains these spheres that are completely round and just slough off all the dead cells, but they roll over the face. They don’t scratch. We get fissures using natural ingredients like walnut, so I don’t recommend that. If you’re going to use a scrub, it should be synthetic. Also, it keeps my beard area extremely clear and bump free. I would even use it under the armpits to detoxify from deodorant aluminum buildup. So I love it.