Beauty
Kim Petras Swears By These Two Products To Avoid “Tour Bus Skin”
Plus, the singer and MAC ambassador on depuffing tips, signature scents, and falling asleep to horror movies.
Being in the public eye and having a chaotic schedule go hand in hand — which is why we trust celebrities to know how to seriously unwind. In The Comedown, NYLON’s favorite famous faces break down their nighttime routines from blue-light glasses to supplements — and everything (relaxing) in between.
Kim Petras lights up when I ask her what shade of lipstick she has on. It’s MAC MacXimal Silky Matte Lipstick in Viva Heart, a new release from the MAC Viva Glam collection, of which Petras is the new face. “I won a Grammy wearing Ruby Woo,” she says, “so whenever I wear a MAC red lipstick, I feel like I might get lucky.”
The decision to get involved with MAC and Viva Glam was instantaneous, Petras says — she credits the charity and awareness campaign, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary, for being one of her earliest experiences learning about the fight against HIV. “I am really passionate about causes that help trans youth,” she says. “I know what it’s like being a trans kid and feeling alienated and not knowing where to go.”
Below, read on for Petras’ not-so-restful wind-down routine, including tour-bus-friendly skin care, card games, and horror movies.
What time do you usually go to sleep, and how long does it usually take you to get ready for bed?
It’s all over the place. When I’m in the studio, I usually go late, so it can be 2 or 3 a.m. when I get home. All I can really manage to do is take off my makeup and put on a moisturizer. Right now, I’m using the Farmacy Green Clean balm makeup remover and the MAC Hyper Real SkinCanvas Balm. Thank god my mom taught me to take my makeup off before bed. I would not be able to perform night after night if I didn’t do that. When I’m on tour, I sleep on a bus, so it’s really important to have moisturizer, because the air conditioning can be really drying. I already have dry skin, so I moisturize a lot. Today, I had to get up really early for glam, so I went to bed early at 11 p.m. It’s never 9 p.m.
When you’re on tour how do you wind down on the bus after shows?
It's hard. You're lying in bed with the buzz from the stage and all that adrenaline, just trying to let that energy slowly die off — but a lot of the time it doesn’t work. Thank God I have friends with me, so we usually play card games and watch The Lord of the Rings over and over in the background and talk. And we do smoke weed — it’s legal in California, so we can.
I definitely wind down with my friends, movies, and pleasant smells. I love the Diptyque Gardenia Candle — it’s kind of my little signature thing if you know me. It’s a chic one. I put it on my rider so people just put a new one in my room. And then [on the bus], I Velcro the bottom of it to a surface, so even if the bus drives for a little bit, the candle won’t do anything weird. I’m living on the edge here. My bus driver really likes me, so he green-lit it — but maybe don’t do that.
If you are up late or maybe you’ve had a boozy night, does that change your bedtime routine? Do you have any hangover-prevention tricks?
Unfortunately, it doesn’t. It makes the chances of going to bed with makeup on a lot higher. If I am going to have a night out, I’m just going to have a night out and deal with the consequences in the morning. I feel like there are little tricks, but I don’t really believe in them, so I ride it out.
But I would definitely say that something icy on your face the day after feels incredible and can really wake you up. I have a little skin care fridge, so I keep eye patches and a spoon in [there], and I just go over the eye patches with a spoon. It just makes me really happy, and it definitely depuffs.
What's the last thing you usually do before you fall asleep?
Usually, I like putting on a movie right before I go to bed. Recently, I’ve been really obsessed with To Die For with Nicole Kidman. I have been watching it over and over; it’s just one of her spookiest characters. I always watch horror movies before bed. They’re just fun to me, and I think they’re showing me it could be a lot worse. Horror movies really do it for me.
Do you remember the last thing you did or thought before you fell asleep last night?
I watched The Texas Chainsaw Massacre part 2, which is not to be recommended, but I had only ever seen [the original] The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It was not good, but what I was thinking about right before bed was about the prosthetics in that movie and just how over the top and ’80s that actress was in it, which I love.
