Nicola Coughlan’s Guide to Face Sculpting, Rolling, and a Glossy Red Lip

[relaxed music]

Hello Vogue. I am Nicola Coughlan.

I'm gonna tell you my beauty secrets

and some deep dark secrets.

We're all gonna be in like a secret club together,

and we're gonna get like matching sweaters

and it's gonna be really chic.

I got a little pimple patch on.

It's not super bad.

I got these pimple patches in France in a pharmacy.

I'm gonna try and take this off now.

The thing is they do like weld to your skin,

and then okay, we're not so bad, we're not so bad.

First thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna use my new face.

I've scratched my face already, oh my god.

If you do it, it like lifts your cheek bones.

[Nicola gasps]

Oh look at that.

This is the side of my face that I sleep on

and you can really tell.

I had a friend recently at the pub and she was like,

I'm a back sleeper.

And I was like, Okay, isn't that good?

And she was like, No, 'cause I went to a facialist.

You know, all your skin is, everything's going to the back.

And I'm like, Oh my god, can women live?

But it does make a difference.

Like there's some, I was watching backs in Bridgerton,

and I was like, I can tell I really went ham on it that day.

I really went ham.

I was like the cheekbones are cheekboning,

we're good, we're good.

I used to work in Lush cosmetics

when I was like 19 years old.

All right, so I'm gonna use some serum next.

I have really, really thirsty skin.

My boss was like, You need to start using eye cream

and you need to start moisturizing your neck.

And I was like, Okay, girl, and I started it then.

But I was like an anomaly amongst my friends,

that I did that.

I'm just gonna put on a little eye cream because,

my boss, she was right, you gotta use it.

And also they told me that I should only put it on

with my ring finger.

I'm gonna use, this is so good under makeup,

the Tatcha Dewy Skin Cream.

You know, I had spots as a teenager.

I had back-ne really bad.

I remember it being so fricking painful.

But I also grew up in Galway, in the west of Ireland,

and it is so rainy there, like we never see sunlight.

People think I'm kidding when I say that,

but I do think that had a huge, huge effect on my skin,

you know, staying relatively healthy.

I think I got this in like what in Ireland we call Penneys,

just like a cheap off ice roller.

I'm doing a lot of traveling at the moment,

so you know, you get really puffy on flights

and early mornings and these are like a complete godsend.

I always have in my freezer at home.

If I'm like having a makeup artist do my makeup,

I'll wear like an under eye mask,

'cause you know, your girl gets puffy.

Do you know one big thing that is part of my beauty routine

that I did actually before I came here,

is I plucked my one long chin hair.

And I feel like unless you have one of those, are you,

you know, have you come into your womanhood?

Putting on some SPF.

Just thinking about Rihanna, it's a Fenty.

I just love Rihanna so much.

It's like, would I ever wanna meet her?

I don't know because like what if she didn't like me?

Like that would gut me.

Imagine if Rihanna watched Bridgerton,

that would be insane.

And I think people are sometimes surprised

that I am like an old crone.

[Nicola laughing] Like it's quite nice.

Being broke in my 20s was one

of the greatest things for my skin,

'cause my friends were going on sun holidays

and I was like, I'm going on zero holidays

'cause I have that no money.

But yeah, it is not worth the suntan, it's not.

I'm gonna do some makeup now.

I'm gonna start with a little concealer.

It's funny 'cause I look back on pictures of myself as a kid

and I have dark circles then.

This, it's really nice on flights,

'cause I feel like flights,

you just feel so gross when you get off them.

I love this foundation by the way.

The glam process for Pen in Bridgerton

has changed so much over the years.

In the first season, it was really,

you know, a lot about the hair.

And the late, great Marc Pilcher designed that season.

And he said to me, you know,

The notes we have for Pen is dowdy.

And I was like, love that for myself, okay.

I remember at the beginning they did some like makeup tests

where the curls were a lot softer and it was more romantic,

but they were like, no, let's fuck her up a bit.

But I was game, it's fine.

you gotta commit to the bit, you know what I mean?

It's like, if Pen looked really glam

and amazing from season one,

it's like where's the journey in that?

Where's the excitement?

And she also needs to feel

like she's not ready to join society.

Then in season two it was like they, you know,

we took her a little bit more grown up, but not too much.

And then, then the final ball of the season,

Jenny, who did my makeup and hair for season two,

she was like, I think it needs to be like a huge bun.

And I was like, Is it?

And that thing was so heavy.

And that's the scene in which Colin was like,

I would never court Penelope.

And I'm like, Is it 'cause of my huge bun?

But then in season three, it was exciting.

I felt like I had my Pretty Woman moment.

It's so wild being part of Bridgerton,

'cause I can't express enough how, in season one,

we didn't know what the show was,

and then the way it blew up was like so insane.

I'm gonna do really lazy girl.

It's gonna be just like one shade over the the lid.

This is like a really handy like Charlotte Tilbury travel,

she's well, she's well loved.

I'm just gonna use my finger.

I still love, is this not cool anymore?

I'm still gonna do it. I don't care.

Like a little light bit in the corner.

The first Vogue event I ever went to, right,

they were like, Anna Wintour's gonna be there.

And I was like, Oh my god, this is so fancy.

And my publicist was like, You're gonna have

to do your makeup, like from on your own from set.

And I was like, It's fine.

Like I feel like I can do an okay job.

It's never a good time to be like, I should do something

I've never done before in my entire life.

And I took my highlighter, this one, it's discontinued,

I'm sorry, you're gonna hate me for that,

but I just, it's really, really good,

I took it and I swiped it across my forehead here.

I was looking in the mirror, I think I had lost my mind,

and I was like,

No, that I've never seen anyone do that anywhere.

So sometimes, you know,

you can lose your mind and that's fine.

Did Anna like it?

Did she like my shiny forehead?

I actually did not meet her that night.

I didn't meet her until the Met, in '22, I think I went.

She said, Who designed your dress?

And I said, Richard Quinn.

And she said, Well, it works.

And I was like, Thank you. I'll take it.

I'm gonna do a little eyebrow pencil.

Do you love all the fingerprints on this? Are you obsessed?

The glow ups in Bridgerton,

I think like it's that poppin' fricking highlight.

And Jessie Deol, who did my makeup this season,

like she would make my skin glow in way that I can never do.

I can never, like I was seeing myself in some promos,

I was like, Is that what my skin looks like?

The answer is not really, it's makeup.

But I was like oh my god.

Everyone is damn glowy.

My sister came to visit set.

She was like, Everyone is so attractive.

I was like, I know, it's an attractive group of people.

I do love a boy brow moment.

I am gonna put on more concealer, I think.

I wanted to act.

I was like so sure about it when I was so, so young.

It's weird that I was so sure of it,

you know, at such a young age, but I just was.

I got my first like good TV job at 30 with Derry Girls.

So like it just doesn't matter.

Generations are different.

I feel like, you know,

we're different to the Boomers and different to Gen X.

And leave Millennials alone, we're trying our best.

We're not even like a mean generation, we're just like nice.

Although I saw on the internet the other day,

someone said about me, they're like, She's so Gen Z coded.

I was like, For real?

Do I have a drag alter ego? Yes I do.

Does she have an incredible name?

Yes, she does, thank you for asking.

Her name is Kylie Gender.

Kylie Gender, so I envisioned her as Kylie Jenner,

King Kylie era, the blue hair,

then mixed with like Clark Gable,

like gender bender, like pencil mustache.

I adore drag culture.

I used to go to like the tiny, tiny clubs in London

to see some of like the roux girls, like Adore and Jinx,

and I just love them so much.

And I think, I don't know, I just connected to it

in like a really, really deep way.

When I was working in an opticians in Galway,

I'd save money and go up on the bus to Dublin,

and go to the George, like by myself, and watch the girls.

I love this by the way, Charlotte Tilbury Glowgasm,

'cause it's like a highlighter and a blush in one,

and it just makes you look like really fresh and glowy,

and I just love that.

I really love watching red carpets,

and I love people like taking chances with looks.

My current massive girl crush is Taylor Russell.

I just think she's the prettiest, prettiest lady.

Course Zendaya, how could I not mention Zendaya?

I once met Laroche at a fashion show, and he was like,

Z and I loved your look.

And I was like, oh my god.

I'm very obsessed with mascara.

I put on too much.

I'm gonna do a little lip liner.

Julia Quinn who wrote Bridgerton,

I remember saying to her like,

Is her name Pen because she's like a writer?

And she was like, No, I didn't think about that.

So like our couple name is Pollen.

I have often thought is it to do with like the bees

and the whole and the thing.

And just judging by what she said,

that like, No, that's not.

So I think it's just like a really

like wonderful coincidence, happy accident type thing.

Honestly, the best way of getting ready for this season,

and like the amount of work it was gonna be,

and all of that stuff,

was literally just to like give it my all.

And it sounds like cheesy and silly,

but like honestly, I was like commit to the bit.

Like you got one chance to lead a show like this.

It's such a big show,

and it means so much to like so many people.

I was like don't look back and wish you'd committed harder

or done more, like just give it everything.

Okay, this, I love this.

This is a brush from a girl.

It's a really small business in Ireland.

It's called the Belle Brush.

And it's so nice and it's really soft.

I'm an Olaplex girly, through and through.

Just put like a little bit of the oil in it.

Not a lot, 'cause it's fine.

There's a line from Bridgerton, just coincidentally,

where Colin Bridgerton is like,

Don't live for the estimation of others, it's a trap.

But it's actually very true because it's like, you can't,

when I first started like doing red carpet events

and things like that, I was just very much like,

Oh I'm just gonna look terrible anyway.

You look back at the pictures, you don't feel good,

you don't like feel like yourself.

You don't like, why are you doing that? It's dumb.

And then if, like truly if I feel good in an outfit

and a look and people can be like, I hate it.

I'm like, Okay, don't wear it.

If you feel good in something, you feel happy,

just like, just go with that.

I think the lips are slightly more matte than I wanted,

so I'm gonna put on a little bit of my Tatcha lip mask.

This I sleep in.

That's nicer. Yeah.

Okay, this is the final glam.

I think she's pretty, she's pretty okay.

I think I'm ready for dinner with my friends.

I'm gonna go eat some New York pizza.

Okay, love you, bye. [Nicola smooching]