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United States Marisa Abela 'Inside my beauty bag' video
Marisa Abela may embody Amy Winehouse in new biopic Back to Black completely, but her signature beauty look is very different to that of the storied singer. "It’s quite skin-based, like dewy," Abela says in this video interview where she shares the contents of her personal beauty bag with fervour.
There's her cherished Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream and accompanying Magic Eye Rescue which help her curate a "really fresh" complexion – maintained throughout the day with spritzes of Chanel's Sublimage La Brume, a revitalising mist. Then, make-up-wise, she showcases her Yves Saint Laurent Nu Bare Look Skin Tint and Chanel Baume Essentiel highlighting balm which "brings a dewiness" to her look. (Though for something more polished she reaches for the Lisa Eldridge Seamless Skin Foundation, which was used on her in Barbie – and "if it’s good enough for Barbie, it’s definitely good enough for me!")
But with her uncanny likeness to Winehouse – one heavily enhanced by hair and make-up artistry in the new film – Abela is happy to reflect on the role beauty played in the singer's life. "Amy had such an iconic look, I really had to think about why: why was it important for her to wear that hair and that eyeliner at different points in her life? And understanding someone’s relationship to make-up when it’s being used as, potentially, a mask, or [as] something that’s really going to capture people’s attention – the opposite – at different moments."
She notes that "beauty sat in a difficult place" for Winehouse. "She was in the public eye at a time when people were quite unforgiving… it must have been an incredibly difficult time to be in the spotlight," she says adding that "rather than completely running away from any relationship to beauty, she leaned into something that turned into one of the most iconic looks of all time". That elongated beehive and those exaggerated wings of liquid liner forever synonymous with the late star.
Abela doesn't count eyeliner among her most-used items, but she shares her love of haircare – namely the Briogeo Farewell Frizz Oil Blend and Kerasilk Taming Balm which she says are saviours for smoothing her "thick, curly hair". Like many of us, she's been on a journey with her haircare. "I saw a video of Sienna Miller growing up saying ‘I never condition my hair, I only ever use shampoo’ and I was like oh great, her hair looks amazing, I’ll start doing that!" Naturally, this was an amiss move for her textured hair which ended up a matted mess, she recalls. The moral of the story? "Get to know what it is that you need for your skin type and hair type and then lean into that."
Other things she knows work for her are the Drunk Elephant Beste No. 9 Jelly Cleanser which she shows in travel size ("I’m on the go all the time and I get ready most the time at the gym – so the smaller the better"), and 111Skin's Rose Gold Brightening Facial Treatment Mask and Celestial Black Diamond Eye Mask, which symbolise "taking some time for myself" – usually "on a long drive to set or on a flight".
Abela's personal beauty philosophy is all about feeling good from the inside-out, something that's amounting as her confidence (and fame) does too. Someone once told her that 'compliments and criticism should go down the same drain, then you’re free' – which resonated. "It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks, it’s how you feel. I think it’s a process, but I’m getting better."
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