Carrie Barber is known for her work as a creative leader at Sephora, Glossier, and Violet Grey—as well as for her on-point Instagram aesthetic. More recently, Carrie took the helm at MAKE Beauty. Since 2021, she has helped streamline the company’s positioning with a beautiful brand refresh, sleek new packaging, and a continued focus on trailblazing, high-performance ingredient technology.
MAKE’s next-generation clean skin line is now expanding with its first-ever color cosmetic products and we’re celebrating with this look into the skincare-fiend’s daily beauty routine, special event prep and favorite products…
Getting Ready with Carrie Barber of Make Beauty
Name: Carrie Barber
Business: MAKE Beauty
My mission in beauty: To me, the most powerful thing about beauty is the ability to connect with people you may not otherwise have much in common with. I have friendships that have started over a shared obsession with a product. My mission is to create MAKE products [just] like that.
Obsessed with lately: I’m pretty obsessed with all things beauty, but lately I have been into doing my brows again—and newly getting really into fragrance.
Product/ritual that first changed my skin: When I was in my late 20s, I had bad acne and nothing I tried worked. I started getting regular facials and using the right products, in the right order. The acne cleared up within a few weeks.
Why clean beauty? I think clean can be a complicated word. Clean means something different depending on who you ask and it often carries this stigma that synthetics are “bad.”
MAKE utilizes innovative technology to create formulas that combine skin-safe synthetics and lab-engineered natural ingredients that are less taxing on the earth, more stable in formulations, and less irritating to the skin. I love both clean and conventional, but I believe as an industry we are moving toward cleaner formulations with ingredients that are better for you and for our planet.
Special occasion beauty look of choice: Dramatic eye makeup and really clean skin. This is probably Euphoria’s influence, but as we have been developing and testing makeup I’ve been trying all kinds of new looks. Putting makeup on is my form of meditation.
Beauty trend I’m ready to see go: Perfection.
Top 5 Beauty Product VIPs:
MAKE Super Cell Deep Moisture Cream $38 Shop Here
Hanacure all in one Facial $29 Shop Here
Phlur Missing Person $94 Shop Here
Crown Affair Shampoo and Conditioner $65 Shop Here
MAKE Serum Balm in Lilac Layer $26 Shop Here
MAKE product I’m most proud of/into: This is a hard question. I love all my children equally. I’m very proud of what we have achieved with the makeup that is launching now. I’m the most into Super Cell Deep Moisture Cream. It’s my desert island skincare product. It has a rich, creamy texture that feels so luxe and deeply hydrates skin without clogging pores or feeling greasy.
Skincare pros I see/love: My favorite facialists in LA are Vanessa Hernandez and Camille Fields. Both have transformed my skin at different times in my life. They’re the only two women on the West Coast who can touch my face.
Skincare myth to debunk: You need an elaborate skincare routine to achieve great skin.
Ritual at home when my skin needs a pick-me-up: If I’m dealing with texture or my skin feels drab and needs a lift, I reach for Hanacure. When I need something to brighten up, I use the Micro-Crystalline Scrub followed by the Black Tea Mask from Fresh.
Double cleanse: yay or nay? Absolutely! It’s a non-negotiable. Susan Yara actually got me onto double cleansing and my skin has been consistently clearer since then. I use the MAKE Double Cleanse Set every single night.
How do you change your skincare with the seasons? Any tips? In LA, our weather is pretty consistent. In the colder months I take extra care with overnight sleeping creams and additional hydrating products. In the summer, it’s about keeping skin clean, doing less, and consistently wearing sun protection.
Genius skincare hack: I wouldn’t say this is genius, but do less! I get so many texts, DMs, panicked phone calls about a skin issue and most of the time the person is overdoing it.
Beauty tech that actually works: Microcurrent. I rotate between ZIIP, NuFace and SolaWave depending on what I need, or if I’m traveling.
Carrie’s Sunday “Everything Routine”
On Sundays I do what I call an “everything routine.” I do beauty all day. I’ll do all my treatments like dermaplaning, microcurrent devices, face masks, hair masks, body oil and body lotion. Products in my Sunday routine include:
Stacked Skin Dermaplaning Tool
Solawave throughout the day
Christophe Robin Salt Scalp Scrub
Crown Affair Hair Mask
Full body shave followed by Glycolic Body Wash from Naturium
Saltair Fragrance Free Replenishing body lotion
MAKE Acid Phase, followed by Lactonic Skin Serum and Super Cell Deep Moisture Cream, all sealed in with Hibernation Capsule.
Last but not least, I give myself a good blowout using Crown Affair Hair Oil, Olaplex No. 6 and my new Zuvi Infrared Blow Dryer.
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