The almost-water-only approach to cleansing is one of two crossovers the couple shares when it comes to beauty.Late on a Sunday night in June, Chromat designer Becca McCharen-Tran has just kicked off her shoes after a party thrown by her wife, Christine, an event producer and cofounder of the social and creative collective Witches of Bushwick. Over the phone from their Brooklyn flat, the couple delights in the fact that they have little to do between partying and going to bed: just a splash of some water and makeup remover before brushing their teeth. The almost-water-only approach to cleansing is one of two crossovers the couple shares when it comes to beauty. From ultimate minimalism, as seen on Christine, who is barefaced and has sported a buzz cut since shortly after their wedding last June—“I was like, okay, my family has the photos they need. Now I’m going to shave my head,” she says—to full-fledged maximalism, belonging to Becca. Of her bold hair and makeup choices, she says, “They’re so different, all the time.” The other concession is eyeliner. “It makes me feel like I’m ready to see the world,” says Christine of the black MAC Cosmetics gel liner she uses daily, courtesy of Becca, who, in addition to having a longstanding relationship with the beauty brand for her runway shows, just collaborated on her first capsule collection with the company. It’s ultra-pigmented and fearless, much like her fashion collections. Christine only has one other daily beauty ritual—a splash of Yves Saint Laurent’s sweet, floral Mon Paris—which acts as a sugary finish to an otherwise strictly bare regimen. The scent came about after Becca took a perfume class on how to decode notes during her 2015 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund residency. “I made Christine do a blind smell test of perfumes, and this is what she picked,” says Becca of the delicate pink bottle wrapped with a bow. “It’s so funny because it’s so femme,” adds Christine. “We joke that this is my inner true self.” Though Becca would “never wear a scent that sweet,” she says, the designer doesn’t shy away from the color pink. Her hair was a trademark shade of bubblegum for years before she let her naturally dark roots grow in. “It’s been a big change for me,” says Becca. “I hadn’t seen my roots in, like, 10 years.” For the color chameleon who has dipped her lengths in almost every shade since she was 18 years old—this month, they’re blue—beauty is a creative zone to discover new things about herself. Even her signature cat eye, often created with that same MAC gel liner, knows no bounds: It comes in diminutive flicks, shapes, and graphics, which are sometimes bold and filled-in, sometimes thin and empty. No color is off-limits, no glitter too bold, but perhaps even more impressive is that Becca typically needs only five minutes to put it on. “I’ve got it down to a science.” Admittedly, Becca may linger in front of the mirror for up to 30 minutes—when the occasion calls for a more amped-up look, that is. Not that Christine minds: “I love that Becca’s experiments [with beauty] show the evolution of her personality,” she says. “I can link her makeup looks to memories—they’re as nostalgic as scents.” The admiration is mutual. “I love that Christine is so confident and fully herself,” says Becca of her wife’s light alterations that allow for appreciation of tiny beauty marks around her eyes. “They’re really cute and special.”
POST: 2023-03-22