From next week, Hailey Bieber’s beauty line, rhode, is available online in Ireland – and we had an exclusive chat with her to find out more. Here’s everything you need to know …
What’s big in beauty right now? Model and actress Hailey Bieber’s rhode beauty line is – literally – on everyone’s lips, and from today it’s newly available to order online in five countries in the EU, including Ireland. There are three skincare products – all devoted to giving you “glazed” skin – plus lip balms called Peptide Lip Treatment, in delicious flavours like watermelon, salted caramel and vanilla.
But is rhode just for TikTokkers and teens? Bieber is in her twenties, and her skin glows accordingly; the brand’s online presence is very much aimed at a younger demographic. But I’ve been trying out the three skincare items, and find the three-step routine is good for getting a glow even beyond your radiant twenties. I like the way you can mix the formulas with make-up, for example, a few drops of the Peptide Glazing Fluid Glaze mixed with your foundation, or adding a little blush to the Barrier Repair Cream. The lip balms are silky and glossy, and work well over a lip liner or lipstick. The whole line is focused on “skin first”.
I had an exclusive chat with Bieber on Zoom this week to get the lowdown on rhode’s arrival – and the newest launch, the Peptide Lip Tint, launching on September 28. It’s rhode’s first foray into colour. It’s the same formula as the Lip Treatment, but with added sheer, silky colour – ribbon, toast, espresso and raspberry jelly (€20 each). Again, delicious flavours. I haven’t tried these, but they’re designed to be buildable, and to hydrate and nourish lips while you’re wearing it.
With so many new beauty lines being released all the time, and more celeb-driven lines than ever, we wanted to find out how does rhode compare, and what makes it stand out from the crowd, beyond its famous face? Here’s what Hailey Bieber had to say:
On rhode’s USP
“I think what’s different is that I’m bringing my point of view to the brand, and to the world of beauty. It’s my philosophy of beauty and skincare, and that’s what I think is different. Our philosophy at rhode is really focused on less is more and minimalism. It’s about the essentials only, and not overdoing it, and just having an assortment of products that are really, really curated, in the same way that you would curate your essentials in your wardrobe. So I think that difference in POV is something that the beauty world has maybe not seen a ton before, because I think there’s a lot of over-consumption in the world of beauty; I think beauty brands will launch with, you know, 25 SKUs at a time, lots of assortment and lots to choose from, whereas here at rhode we’re more interested in having a more thoughtful, thought-out and curated selection.”
On keeping things minimal
“I think that I personally go more in that direction – like, I love minimal make-up, minimal hair, a very kind of effortless, pulled-back look. The way that I really got to this as well, though, is thinking, what are those things that I really need on a plane, or if I was on a desert island? What would be the bare essentials if I had to pare everything down? I realised that’s really the way that I am with my beauty. Like, my [make-up] routine is five-steps, nothing crazy, at least on a day to day basis. And my skincare routine is really minimal and not over the top – as somebody who has a really busy life that works really well for me. I also just prefer the way I look with pared-down make-up and I just want glowy skin, and never want to over-complicate things, so that’s always something I’ll stick to.”
On getting “glazed” skin
“I think there’s a lot of people I’ve seen who love to equate food with make-up and skincare, and I think that’s really fun. I like having fun with make-up and with skincare, and for me the glazed doughnut thing was just the biggest correlation that I could make, because I think, who doesn’t want to look like a yummy hot glazed doughnut! So that just took on a life and has just stayed as a core idea around the brand. The idea behind it is just having beautiful, dewy, glowy skin – I always say, I want my skin to look like you just want to take a bite out of it! I love when my skin has that inside-out glow, like it’s glowing from the inside out, and obviously, you can have products do that for you but it’s also about how you take care of yourself from top to bottom, for sure.
“I think for me I struggle with my skin the most when I’m really tired, or I’m travelling a lot and moving from place to place. That’s when I notice my skin is the most upset at me. The way I keep my skin at its best is with routine, and that’s things like going to sleep at the same time, and getting enough sleep – I just struggle as a human being when I’m tired and I haven’t had enough sleep – and I think most people probably do. But I think that trying to stay healthy and hydrated is key to help maintain good skin. For me, sleep is probably the biggest one.”
On the brand-new Peptide Lip Tints
“The new Peptide Lip Tint is the same formula as the Peptide Lip Treatment [€20], but with a really nice little kiss of tinted colour. I’m so excited because I feel like as a brand we always saw ourselves going in the direction of colour, but obviously wanting to keep it skin and skincare first, always. I think that this being the first introduction into colour is a really good step in that direction, because it’s still a very skincare-focused product, just offering a little hint of colour.”
On where to start with rhode
“It really depends on what you’re looking for. But I’d probably start with the Glazing Milk [€35] and the Lip Treatment– it’s a really easy routine, and what I use in the mornings. In the evenings, I use all three, maybe with a heavier cream layered over. Our Glazing Milk has been a universal product – there’s no chance I could live without it at this point.”
On luxury in beauty …
“My idea of luxury in beauty would be facials and treatments – that’s definitely something I would splurge on. A great facial, or I love facial massage – I love tools, I don’t use them all the time, but if I have extra time in the evening I’ll mask, use tools, like gua sha.”
On perfume being on the radar for rhode?
“We definitely would love to go into the world of fragrance in some form. It’s a conversation that we’ve already started. I don’t want to ever do anything the same, though, so I don’t want it to be just traditional perfume, but I definitely am interested in doing body scent in maybe several different iterations, like body cream, sprays … But whatever we do in rhode we want it to be beneficial for the skin, so whatever that looks like… For myself, and for body, and candles, I’m definitely drawn to sweet-smelling things but not sugary, so I like vanilla and pistachio and things that smell nutty and delicious and warm.”
On skincare as the season changes …
“I think Glazing Milk coming out in June was such as a perfect time as you can wear just that and your sunscreen and it’s totally enough. I feel that even with my make-up prep in the summertime, it’s a little less creams, and more serum-based underneath my make-up. Going into fall/winter, I definitely add in richer creams at night. Also, in my routine in general, I swap in and out of exfoliating so I use a retinol twice a week or an exfoliating toner twice a week, so I always have some form of skin-cell turnover in there. I’m turning 27, so it’s time for retinol.”
On the trend for less foundation, more skin health
“It makes me super-happy because I feel that means people are really diving into their skin first, where that’s always really been a philosophy for me, that the canvas of your make-up is your skin, and being able to let your skin shine through. That’s really our interest at rhode, especially even as we go more into colour – I want the colour products that we make to really be skin-first, so they just enhance what you have naturally, enhance your natural features and your natural skin.
“I felt like one of the only positive things that came out of the pandemic was that people were really taking this deep-dive and scaling everything back, you know, less make-up, less hair; we were all on Zooms all day long, you know, sweatpants on the bottom! That’s so my energy and so my vibe, so I’m really glad that people were able to have the time and take that deep-dive into their skin and their skincare and their body and their health, and I think that has stayed even now we’re out of the pandemic, thankfully.”
On beauty icons …
“There’s a lot of people. Obviously in terms of beauty muses, I look at Kate Moss, you know I think she’s just such a muse for so many people. And not just because she’s a beautiful woman but because she emulated something that was very … that people would feel and that people were drawn to. That’s why she’s an icon, obviously! I love the beauty and the pared-backness of the nineties, I love the nineties make-up, the raw, fresh skin, and the vibes of all the imagery of the nineties. So I think I’m definitely drawn to that era, and that era of women.”
On beauty trends …
“Trends that happen on TikTok, like the latte make-up trend, I love stuff like that as I think it’s really fun to be able to participate with things like that. Trends like that are like little trips you can hop onto and see how it works for you, they are fun.”
On what she wishes she’d known at 18
“I definitely wish as a teenager I hadn’t plucked my eyebrows so thin! And I also wish I didn’t think that the solution to getting rid of pimples or any acne was to dry it out, and like burn your skin essentially – because I think when we’re teenagers we think, ‘oh no I’m getting a breakout, I need to pour salicylic acid on my face’, and that’s how you get rid of it. Maybe one day if I have a daughter I’ll try and help her not to burn her skin! What’s nice now, though, is that there’s so much information around – there’s lots of disinformation too – but there is lots of access to great skin routines and great recommendations, whereas when I was 13, 14 there wasn’t so much.”
On getting the best skincare advice
“I think that skincare for anybody is trial and error. The best dermatologist or aesthetician could tell me one thing, and it’s not going to work for my best friend. Everyone’s skin is so uniquely theirs, and that’s why we have our own identity and our own DNA, and so what works for me is not going to work for someone else, and vice versa. I do think there’s such a thing as universal ingredients that work for everyone, that are arguably overall great for most skin types, but I think for me it’s really been about trial and error, and I’ve had certain people who I really trust with their recommendations because they’re really focused on say, non-comedogenic, or acne-prone skin, so I have my few core people whose recommendations I would really trust.”
Shop rhode from September 28 at www.rhode.com.
