If you need a hero, if you need an anthem to give you power, the latest episode of Vogue’s Beauty Secrets featuring Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is what you need to watch.
In the feature, Ocasio-Cortez shares some beauty tricks for the working woman. A few stand-outs: Contouring a little higher since the powder falls and one of her go-to lipsticks being Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick in “Beso.”
On top of this, the major beauty tips were her views and opinion. It’s the pep talk I’ve dreamed about hearing as I get ready in the morning. It made my skin soft, my hair luscious, and my face blemish-free like no other mask.
I just had to note them down. Someone, please use these quotes for a merch line.
“First of all, femininity has power.”
“Just being a woman is quite politicized here in Washington.”
“There’s this really false idea that if you care about makeup, or if you’re interests are in beauty and fashion, that that’s somehow frivolous. But I actually think these are some of the most substantive decisions that we make, and we make them every morning.”
“If you are at all a melanated woman, it’s really hard to find sunscreen.”
“Don’t play games with sunscreen. You’d always rather put too much than too little. Don’t forget your ears. Don’t forget your eyelids.”
“I love beauty, but also I try not to have a full beat every day.”
“One of the things that I had realized is that when you’re always kind of running around, sometimes, the best way to really put together is a bold lip.”
“I will wear a red lip when I want confidence; when I need a boost of confidence.”
“Our culture is so predicated on diminishing women, right? And kind of preying on our self-esteem. So it’s quite a radical, my opinion, it’s quite a radical act, and it’s almost like a mini-protest to love yourself in a society that’s always trying to tell you you’re not the right weight, you’re not the right color…whatever it is. When you stand up, and you say, ‘You know what? You don’t make that decision. I make that decision’, it’s very powerful.”
“I went from working in a restaurant to being on cable news all the time.”
“At a certain point, I just learned that you cannot get your feelings of beauty and confidence from anyone but yourself. That’s is one of the most ultimate gifts that you have to give to yourself.”
“If I’m going to spend an hour in the morning doing my glam, it’s not going to be because I’m afraid of what some Republican photo is going to look like. If I’m going to do an hour doing my glam, it’s because I feel like it. And that’s really the difference.”
“If waking up in the morning and doing your makeup gives you life, then that is amazing, and you should do it. But what we’re also saying all too often is that women who wear makeup…also make more money. And so at that point, these calculations and decisions, stop being about choice. And they start being about patriarchy; where if we look attractive to men, then we will be compensated more. That, to me, is the complete antithesis of what beauty should be about. I think beauty should be about the person applying it.”
“We live in systems that were largely built for the convenience of men, in oftentimes were designed with the subjugation of women and queer people in mind. When you make a decision for you; when you’re like ‘You know what, I’m going to do this, I’m not going to do this thing that is expected of me because if it’s expected of me just because it’s been the norm: Who has been the norm been serving?'”
“The way that they [queer community] has been using beauty as a form of self-expression from drag queens to non-binary people…is a lesson to everybody.”
“The key to beauty is the inside job. The key to beauty is feeling beautiful. No amount of money or makeup can really compensate for loving yourself.”
“If you need a little boost, or if you’re feeling particularly challenged that day, look in the mirror and say ‘I’m the bomb and I will make the world a better place in my own little pocket because that’s what I’m here to do.'”
“You’re a blessing to the world. Your talents are a blessing to the world, no matter who you are. There’s something that you bring, and you need to know that. And that is the best beauty secret of them all.”
Ocasio-Cortez is the youngest representative ever in US Congress history.
Her impact goes beyond just her electorate of Bronx and Queens, however. With a significant social media presence and the cutting wit she uses, she’s also a voice of the millennials in a place dominated by ideals that protect the interest of a few.
Ocasio-Cortez is of Latin descent, with her family coming from Puerto Rico. She represents the diversity that the United States has yet to embrace fully. She said to NowThis: “Our district is 70 percent people of color, and we have never had a person of color represent us in American history. Roughly 50 percent of the citizens in her district are immigrants.”
Photo courtesy of @aoc
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