She’s walked runways for some of the most coveted designers in couture, counts Rihanna, Selena Gomez, and Margot Robbie among her best friends, was born into British high society, and just became L’Oreal Paris’ newest ambassador, but even those who don’t know Cara Delevingne’s background or family tree know her eyebrows. They are perhaps the most famous eyebrows in fashion (alongside Brooke Shields), and are credited with making thick, bushy brows a trend in 2010 after they fell out of favor in the ’90s. And then, of course, there’s her infamous Met Gala beauty look. From bejeweled body armor to a silver shaved head, rainbow jumpsuits, and matching hats adorned with bananas, eyeballs, and dentures, Delevingne is known for her daring approach to fashion and beauty, and her risqué outfits are always a highlight at red carpet events.
“Honestly, the craziest thing for me is going to the Met Ball. It’s a fun place to experiment,” she says. “As I get older and stop modeling, I appreciate the craftsmanship that goes into making amazing clothes more. When I put on those clothes, I feel like a different person. I feel like I become the character. I love wearing those clothes for a night. Will I be that person forever? No, but it’s a really amazing feeling to know how much it can change how you feel.”
From an early age, Delevingne has been passionate about experimenting with style: “I loved dressing up as a kid and the funny thing is, my mum always said that if I saw L’Oreal on TV I would copy Claudia Schiffer, so being an ambassador for L’Oreal ties in with my memories of the first time I saw a beauty product and felt what it meant.”
For the 32-year-old, emotions are very important, and working to really connect with them has helped her on her journey to finding self-love. “I’d love to say it’s all about age, and I think age helps, but at some point it comes down to the fact that if you don’t love yourself, nothing is going to fill that emptiness or void. You have to really know yourself, because once you understand who you are and who you’re not, there’s no world in which self-love doesn’t exist in some way,” she shares. “It’s about acceptance, living with pride and integrity, and really finding who you are. It takes time, experimentation, trial and error and mistakes, but I think that’s the fun part – acceptance every step of the way.”
Speaking of acceptance, Delevingne recently accepted that her emotions affect her appearance, and that includes her skin. “It’s funny, and I always want to be honest with you, but there’s no sense of perfection. Perfection doesn’t exist, inside or out. So I go through periods of terrible skin, and it’s usually because of emotions and how I’m feeling. I just did a play in Cabaret recently and the stress and adrenaline really destroyed my skin. I really couldn’t do anything about it,” she admits.
In stark contrast to her flashy hairstyles and beauty regimes, Delevingne’s beauty routine is surprisingly simple, with few rules to her routine, despite “living with recurrent acne.” “I wash my face every morning and every night and use L’Oreal Revitalift serum because it goes with everything else, and I always use Revitalift eye cream because it’s important as I age,” she admits. “I’ve also become the type of person who carries a big bottle of water with me.”
When it comes to make-up, playing the iconic Sally Bowles in the aforementioned London cabaret changed her previous ‘no lipstick’ mindset: “I never used to wear lipstick because I was scared of messing it up. But in cabaret I got used to applying my own lip liner and everything, so I’ve gotten a lot better at it, and I think a red lip is a really nice addition to my look.”
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It’s funny to think that Delevingne was wary of wearing lipstick at all. It was her idea to shave her head to play a cancer patient in 2017’s Life in a Year, but it was sparked by something deeper and became part of her journey of self-discovery. “It was really challenging because it made me look at my own beauty ideals in a different way, because I sometimes use my hair as a bit of a disguise or distraction. I love having hair and I didn’t realise how attached I was to it, so figuring out how to feel beautiful without it was an interesting and eye-opening experience. It also felt liberating in the sense that I had nothing to hide,” she says.
Her only regret from back then is that she didn’t try shaving her head more. “I wish I had played around with the short hair world more and dyed it crazier colours. I wanted to get a skull tattoo at the time (which I ended up not doing), but I thought, Ah well, I’ll just grow it out again.” Does this mean a Kara Kropf is on the way? “No, I’m growing my hair out again, but I have this weird love-hate thing about mullets. I’ve had a mullet with a wig, but that’s a different story. I’d love to see what it would be like to have red hair. I’ve done brown, but never red.”
Despite her wide range of looks, love of fashion and ability to self-reflect – from juggling multiple roles at work – Delevingne struggles with the concept of “being yourself”. “I don’t like that phrase because I think you are who you are that day. Even if I woke up today feeling really down and in a bad mood, I look in the mirror and think: Get over it. This is your job and I’m so lucky. I love playing roles, so is that who I am?” she muses. “I think we get too attached and fixated on what defines us as people. Life is a story at the end of the day and being yourself to me is being open and fluid and not stagnant.”
She has the same philosophical approach when it comes to feeling beautiful: “There is no set way to make you feel beautiful; it happens often without you even realizing it, and usually at the oddest of times. Having someone see me at an event and say, ‘Wow, you look amazing’ never makes me feel beautiful. When I know someone really well and they look me in the eye and say this, I know they’re not talking about the way I look, they’re talking about who I am. Then I feel a connection with that person and that’s what feels beautiful and joyful.”
But she’s not afraid to admit that no matter how much inner work you put in and how much self-love you have, sometimes nothing beats the stimulation of external beauty to make you feel victorious in life. “Last week I did my hair and put on fake tan to go to Glastonbury and woke up the next morning feeling so happy with myself. It’s weird because I’m the kind of person who says, ‘It doesn’t matter’ but sometimes it really does matter, because at the end of the day you’re giving something back to yourself by doing those things. So it’s a form of self-love and self-medication.”
Now approaching her early 30s, it’s clear that Delevingne is in a healthy place. She’s worked hard to make peace with herself. After decades of partying and battling depression and ADHD, she’s now publicly sober and experienced enough to understand who she really is. “It’s interesting because L’Oreal’s tagline, ‘You’re Worth It,’ is the first time that it really feels like it’s something that really means something to me and comes from love, so I felt like this role came at a really interesting and important time in my life,” she reflects. “I’ve spent so much time looking for self-love in all the wrong places, whether it be work or recognition from others, but now I can truly say that I am worthy, which is really exciting. All the other ambassadors are really inspiring to me and the brand itself shows what it means for a woman to believe in herself, so it’s really important to me to be a part of female empowerment.”
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