In the head-spinning age of multistep skin-care routines and mic-drop makeup launches, The One is a space for minimalists to sound off on a single beauty product that has found a longtime spot in their carefully curated regimens.
“None of us really need a lot of things, in fact only a few,” Gabriele Pauliukeviciute tells me over the phone from her home in New York City. Among a certain creative milieu, the Image Director at Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle is known for her exquisitely pared-back façade, exemplified in her simple cashmere sweaters and fresh-faced complexion. Of course, there was a time when the native Lithuanian experimented with what she applied above the neck, taking her cues from the pages of magazines and online tutorials, but eventually she streamlined her routine thanks to her mother and grandmother, who instilled in her the meaning of less is more. “They hardly ever even wore a face cream,” she recalls.
Now, Pauliukeviciute continues, she “only use[s] things that are very easy,” such as Biologique Recherche’s Lait U cleanser, a vitamin C serum, moisturizer, tinted SPF by NARS, and just one color cosmetic: Chanel’s Baume Essentiel in Golden Light, which she discovered through her friend, the model Giedre Dukauskaite. “Quite a lot of people have picked up on it and asked what I’m wearing—maybe because I never used to wear makeup,” Pauliukeviciute, a former swimmer, admits with a laugh, noting that the subtle bronzer, which she swipes down her cheekbones and across her eyelids, lends her complexion a lit-from-within finish reminiscent of the healthy glow her skin used to exude post-pool; recently, she’s even taken to applying a layer to her lips. “It makes them a little bit shiny but not in a tacky way,” she says of the handheld stick, which is, she adds, entirely foolproof: “You don’t have to be very perfect with it.”
Below, shop Gabriele Pauliukeviciute’s The One.