As a four-time Olympic gold medalist, Simone Biles has become known for flashing across our screens in a dizzying series of leaps, handsprings, and triple-twisting double backflips, but today the American gymnast and Vogue’s August cover star is offering us a close-up of a different sort. “I’m going to be showing you my skin-care and beauty routine,” Biles says, preparing to pull back the curtain on everything from her winning beauty formula to her ultimate post-competition recovery tricks.
On the skin-care front, Biles takes her cues from her teammate and friend Aly Raisman: “[Skin-care] was, like, her relaxation mode… and now I finally get it,” Biles explains of her own routine, which centers around a trio of SK-II products: a creamy cleanser; a vitamin-packed sheet mask, which she glides over with a jade roller; and a next-level exfoliating essence. “This is the key, and this is all you need,” she says of the latter. All in all, it’s a less-is-more approach that gives her time to quite literally shine in the makeup arena.
Though Biles tends to eschew cosmetics when she’s off the mat, she always reaches for some color before a competition, be it red-white-and-blue nails—a manicure “makes me feel feminine, beautiful, confident,” she muses—or an aureate swipe at eye level. “For competition, I usually go for a gold look,” Biles says, as she brushes a glittery, gilded shadow by Pat McGrath across her lids—“I just kind of slap it on there,” she notes. Next comes Fenty’s liquid eyeliner, extended along her upper lash line out into a wing; a coat of Marc Jacobs’s volumizing mascara; two Westman Atelier cream blushes; and, last but not least, her “best friend”: Carmex Lip Balm.
At the end of the day, however, “It does not matter what you look like,” Biles—who rests and recharges with Epsom salt baths, compression boots, and homemade smoothies—is quick to point out. “Going into a competition does makeup make me feel better? Yes. But it’s what I do out there on the floor that really, really matters.”
Filmed at Crosby Street Hotel
Simone Biles in Bonsoir London “Poppies” Silk Gown.