Honing in on Kravitz’s cool
Hollywood star on owning her power as a woman.
“I’m here, I’m alive!” Zoë Kravitz announces as she dials into our call. She’s had a busy day of back-to-back interviews, although you’d never guess it from her laid-back demeanour. The “Big Little Lies” star and soon-to-be-Catwoman (“The Batman” is set to come out next year) speaks thoughtfully, laughs easily.
Not that I expected anything less. If you were to poll a random group of people on the word they associate with Zoë Kravitz, I’m quite sure most would reply with the same fourletter adjective. You know the one, starts with C, rhymes with drool (rather fittingly) and pretty much epitomizes modern aspiration.
Cool. The word is cool. And attempts to define it can feel as futile as clutching fistfuls of water. It slips through your fingers, refusing to be studied or still. “To me, to be cool means to be yourself,” Kravitz offers simply. “What I think is cool is when I see someone doing their damn thing and being who they are, and not conforming to what society thinks you’re supposed to be.”
A list of people she considers cool: “I think my mom (Lisa Bonet) is really cool. I think Patti Smith is really cool because she’s Patti Smith, and is still making incredible art and poetry, and is an incredible writer. I think Stevie Nicks is pretty cool. I think Erykah Badu is really cool. My dad (Lenny Kravitz) is cool. He’d be like, ‘Why aren’t I cool, Zoë?’ … No, you’re totally cool,” she laughs.
All very cool indeed and all very much themselves. “That’s important to me. I want to practise that in my daily life,” says the 32-year-old.
Other things she practises: a top-notch skin care routine and an unapologetic approach to owning her power as a woman.
“We deserve to take up space and we don’t need to make other people feel comfortable in order to take up space,” she says.
Now, that is cool.
I have to say, you have the skin of a baby angel. Tell us all your secrets!
A baby angel! (Laughs) I love that! Of course, I love all my serums and all my face washes and stuff, which I’ll tell you about, but I really think that the skin of a baby angel comes from eating well, eating organic foods, drinking a lot of water, getting enough sleep, exercising. Sweating is so important, whether it’s working out or going for a steam, if you can. I think it’s really important to get things out because we have so much on our face all the time. It’s just great to clear your pores. I really like natural face washes. Rhonda Allison has wonderful ones, including a pumpkin cleanser and a brightening cleanser that I really like. They smell really yummy. Biologique (Recherche) has fantastic serums and I love the company Retrouvé, especially their serums and their eye cream. Isun has a really great SPF, which is also really important to have the skin of a baby angel because the sun is so damaging in so many ways. Obviously, we love to be outside, but it’s important that we protect our skin in that way. The rest is probably makeup, which also gives you the look of the skin of a baby angel!
What are your top makeup tips?
Well, I’ve been really into the (YSL) Touche Éclat right now (Kravitz is an ambassador of the brand), especially because it’s summertime and it’s really hot. I love the (YSL) All Hours Foundation because it stays well and has great coverage but, in the summer, especially in the daytime, it can be a little bit heavy with the sweating. So the Touche Éclat is just fantastic to brighten up under your eyes, around your nose — I tend to get a little red around my nose sometimes — and to cover any blemishes. You can decide how thick you want it; it’s light but it still gets the job done. Then highlighter is really nice to get that glowy look, and then brows and lips, and that’s all it is in the summertime for me.
Speaking of lips, what are your earliest lipstick memories?
I was really into lip gloss when I was a kid. Remember (M.A.C) Lipglass? (Laughs) I don’t think I really understood how to wear lipstick until I got older, to be honest. When I was in high school, I was really into a red lip. I hadn’t really explored different shades or understood the concept of a beautiful liner and a beautiful nude lip — it kind of just enhances your lips and doesn’t even make it look like you’re wearing a lot of makeup. Now I’m into so many shades, even browns and burgundies and different reds, like a more orangey red or a deeper one. Red to me still feels the boldest. It’s confident and fierce, but classic, too. I really think you can’t go wrong with a red lip.
On the topic of confidence and fierceness, when do you feel most powerful?
I feel the most powerful when I’m being creative because I feel like anything is possible when we’re being creative. If you’re making music or if you’re writing or acting, I think it really is magic what we’re able to do as human beings, to create something out of thin air.
What would be your advice to women on harnessing their power?
I think as women, we’ve been taught for a very long time to dim ourselves down and make other people, specifically men, feel comfortable, and I think we’ve got to get out of that mindset. We deserve to have an opinion and to make selfish choices. (Laughs) We’re allowed to be everything that we want to be. We don’t have to make anyone feel better about themselves in order to be who we are.
I love that. In a lot of ways, that’s what Black Opium is, especially this new Eau de Parfum Extreme. It’s not a discreet scent. It takes up space and asserts itself. As the face of that fragrance, what does it symbolize for you?
The thing I love about YSL as a brand is it really embraces the idea of strong feminine beauty, which doesn’t necessarily feel girlie. It feels badass and bold and even sometimes androgynous. I love that we get to play with that part of ourselves, and I think the fragrance itself feels like that and smells like that. It’s such a wonderful combination of high notes and low notes, coffee and jasmine, masculine and feminine, which is why I feel like it’s a fragrance for everybody.
OK, last question: What is your idea of a perfect day?
The thing I love about New York City (Kravitz is a longtime Brooklynite) is that you can really leave your house in the morning for coffee and come back at 3 in the morning. (Laughs) So you go and get coffee, you maybe go sit in the park, go to Prospect Park or something, or McCarren Park or Central Park, depending on where you live. You can go to a museum or a gallery or something.
The city right now is so great. There are so many great outdoor places to eat. I love Emilio’s Ballato, that’s my favourite Italian food. I think Lovely Day is fantastic. You could go to Gray’s Papaya and get a hot dog or pizza. New York is just … I would probably eat multiple lunches a day! You could go see a movie to get out of the heat and then I would go dancing somewhere. Honestly, just being in the street right now feels like you’re at a party. That’s a great thing about being in a city like this. It’s really just about walking around with a few people and having a good conversation.”