Victoria’s Secret Angel Paloma Elsesser’s Skin-care Routine

Yesterday, model Paloma Elsesser walked in her second Victoria’s Secret show. But over this past weekend, she was preparing in her Brooklyn home with skin care and daily lymphatic drainage massages: “Every morning for ten days straight, if I’m in town, I’m doing lymphatic drainage,” she said. “My angel Daniela comes every morning, 6 a.m. or 7 a.m., and busts me down. It really invigorates my mood.”

Over the past decade, she’s become one of the faces of a changing fashion industry. “I was always exploring clothes, but I didn’t feel the sexiest or the most desirable,” she says. “The 2000s, when I grew up, was a different time — all the thinness, whiteness.” She was the 2023 British Fashion Council Model of the Year and has been on Vogue covers, but she finds joy in being an example for younger women turning on their TVs to see the models walk arguably one of the biggest runways. “I don’t want to say it’s like a dream come true because it was never my dream. I didn’t feel that there was room when I was growing up for me to have that dream; there was no example of that.”

On the morning of the show, she was listening to Future, to hype herself up, and Missy Elliot, one of the performers of the night. Backstage, she prepped for the show with oversize rollers in her hair, her pink angel-adorned Victoria’s Secret robe and highlighter bouncing off of her skin (makeup is by Pat McGrath, the icon who discovered Elsesser). Her glowy skin is no coincidence; she’s serious about her skin-care routine, down to changing her pillows every other day to ensure the healthiest skin.

Here, ahead of the show, Elsesser shares how she gets her skin so good.

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In the mornings, she doesn’t wash her face. “I just splash it with water and use Laneige’s toner mist and my pro-heal serum,” she says. But her p.m. routine is a lot more complex than that. It starts with Biologique’s cleaning milk, a light, oxygenating cleanser that is said to remove pollutants. When it comes to cleansing, she’s very particular about how it’s done. “I have a weird thing where I don’t use water: I just go straight into my skin with this to break down everything on the skin and then I add water. For some reason, I think it attaches to the skin better.”

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She double cleanses with iS Clinical’s cleansing complex, a clarifying, non-stripping gel cleanser. “I don’t have super-acneic skin, but I get clogged pores,” she says. “This leaves me with squeaky-clean skin,” the perfect canvas for the loads of moisture she adds on top of it.

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She uses this facial booster to prep her skin for the actives. “I don’t spray it directly on my skin; I put it onto my hands and pat it in,” she says. It’s made with anti-aging botanicals and a blend of hyaluronic acids to pack hydration into the skin.

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Next, she applies Differin, a low-percentage topical acne treatment that she does twice a week, usually applying pea-size amounts. On the days she doesn’t use her prescribed Differin, she uses prescribed azelaic acid.

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Because Differin is a bit harsher on the skin, she adds another serum on top. It’s made with a powerful combination of biopeptides, vitamin B3, plant collagen, and more. It makes Elsesser’s skin feel “juicy.”

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Her skin-care rule is to go from the thinnest product to the thickest. Although this cult-classic essence is mighty thin, she layers it in between her serums because it’s not super-reactive and it leaves her skin plump.

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While some people hate the sticky feeling of serums, Elsesser loves that feeling. She uses iS Clinical’s pro-heal vitamin-C serum for brightening her skin tone and preserving her natural freckles.

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She follows that serum with a moisturizing concentrate. She always uses two pumps — it’s all she needs.

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One of her facialists, Gill Millsner, put her on to her holy-grail product, this hydrogel cream. It’s great for healing, and it’s noncomedogenic. “It has this gorgeous, super-bouncy texture,” Elsesser says, noting that it’s great for healing after microneedling but that she uses it every day, morning and night. “It’s not sexy looking, but I’m a science girlie and it works. I don’t believe everything has to be super-expensive, but sophisticated formulas get results.”

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Yes, there’s more. “I’m a moisture queen,” Elsesser says. She has combination skin so she always wants to feel “juicy and moisturized.” During the winter months, she adds another layer of moisture to her skin: Lesse’s Ritual Serum, a lightweight restorative oil with calendula and rosehip. She loves the Vintner’s Daughter Botanical Serum, too, another rich blend of restorative oils and nutrients.

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“Glacial skin is the goal,” she says. Her skin is definitely glowing by this point, but sometimes, she’ll finish off with a spritz of this Valmont spray. Usually during the colder months, when she wants her skin even bouncier, she’ll finish off with this hydrating mist. It’s also her plane secret for keeping her skin nourished while in flight.

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It’s only right she finishes off with more moisture for her lips. Her Kiehl’s overnight buttermask is almost empty; the softening formula with mango butter is what she’s reaching for these days.

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During the day, she wears Laneige’s sunscreen. She’s not picky about it as long as there’s no white cast. “A few years ago, that was impossible, but now we have options.”

During shows or when she wants to wake up with the best skin, she’ll use a Biologique combo: the brand’s VIP O2 mask around her nose and underneath her eyes “to really oxygenate those areas” and, everywhere else, its rebalancing Vivant mask, a yeast-extract mask that restores and brightens the complexion.

“I don’t believe in eye creams. Some of them have caffeine and that’s great, but we have eye patches.” The eye patches that stay in her pre-runway bag are Shiseido’s lifting and firming mask. “I’m almost always wearing these under my shades on my way to shows.”

“I did salmon sperm and PRF [platlet-rich-fibrin, a cosmetic procedure that uses a small amount of your own blood to rejuvenate the under-eye area] under my eyes.”

“It’s a household staple: Johnson & Johnson oil gel. It’s different from the regular oil; the gel texture is next level. When I have events, I always tell my makeup artist to layer it up on me. It comes with me to shows when I’m in Europe for the month, too. It’s my absolute No. 1.

“I’ve been working with Shereene Idriss for years as my cosmetic dermatologist. She helps me preserve my freckles. I do Clear + Brilliant laser with her. You really want to go to someone who knows what they’re doing, especially with melanated skin. I’ve also done Morpheus8 with her. I’ve also tried Rejuran under my eyes in an L.A. dermatologist’s office. I did Ultherapy once, which was so painful. I was noticing some elasticity on my jawline and just genetically. There are points when your face changes so much. When I was around 31 years old, I wasn’t upset; I noticed I just looked more like a woman. I looked different and had a moment, like, Okay, I’m a woman. How does a woman tend to her skin? I believe in long-term goals. You don’t want to look like a different person; you just want to look like you’re growing into the self that you’re loving, that feels good. Girls in their 30s are getting half-face-lifts and endoscopic face-lifts — I’m obsessed, I’m here for it. Next [Idriss and I] are planning to do an injection with nanofat. They take fat from your arms or your hips (all the yummy hormones are in the hips), and there are two types of fat injections: There’s one for volume, or you could have it spun and separated and they reinject it, so I’m going to do it under the eyes.”

“I stay really close to those who know and understand me, both in and outside of the industry. I have a motto: ‘Go where it’s warm.’ And I like to journal; I’m a diary girl. I like to get my words out. I’m not immune to comparison or feeling old or not feeling good enough or whatever it is. But I’m an emotionally porous person, so I feed off of people around me.”

There’s a lymphatic bed sitting in Elsesser’s bedroom. It’s certainly a part of her show preparation: “It almost feels like Reiki. I also want to feel nourished; I’m working with a nutritionist. I eat really nutritious, happy food. Mentally, I try to meditate as much as possible — meditate on my purpose, which is to carry a message, to be myself, and to know that I’m there for a reason. I also surround myself with people who love on me and show me love.”