Vanessa Hudgens: “I do everything I can to let people know that I’m Filipino because I’m proud” — Interview

I’m giving Vanessa Hudgens a coffee mug shaped like a haunted house and a glowing crystal ball over a video call. Having actors, singers, and beauty icons show off their latest Halloween finds wasn’t something I saw in my crystal ball in 2023, but it felt natural. Like true Filipinos, Hudgens and I both love “Bar Month”, a time when every month ends with “Bar”. But while Christmas starts in September in the Philippines, Hudgens, like me, is gearing up for fall and the spooky season. “I started decorating at the end of August and pulled out all the fall-scented candles,” she says. “Obviously, Halloween movies come out on a regular basis. And costumes change too. This morning I literally got dressed and thought, ‘It’s time to start wearing all black.’ It’s time. I love the whole energy of the season, the sights, sounds, and smells. Oh, and then there’s the Halloween playlist, which is pretty aggressive techno. ”

Aside from a playlist of ghosts, goblins, and aggressive techno, this fall will feature Hudgens and KNOW Beauty, the personalized skincare brand she first co-founded with singer Madison Beer in 2021. New product announcements will also be held. The company relied on complex DNA testing to recommend routines to customers, but it never really caught on. So it scrapped the concept and rebooted in March of this year, taking Beer a step back. With Hudgens at the helm, the brand remains focused on skin, especially face masks. For the new Arctic Her Gold Her Vitamin C Mask, it was inspired by Hudgens’ use of a “Random Her Vitamin C Sheet Mask,” and her makeup artist explained how beautiful her skin looks and how beautiful her skin looks. I commented on how she maintains her charm. “Vitamin C obviously has amazing effects in reducing pigmentation, evening and brightening skin tone,” she says. “So we thought, how can we incorporate this into a mask, and how can we do it overnight to give the product maximum time to penetrate the skin?”

This vitamin C mask complements KNOW’s first launch, the Glacial Bay Clay Mask, created for breakout-prone skin like Hudgens. “I’m 34 years old and thought my acne would go away, but I have oily skin and my pores get clogged.”The clay mask contains colloidal clay from Canadian glaciers. The vitamin C mask uses arctic cloudberries, a “tiny little cute berry” that grows in Norway and contains far more vitamin C than oranges. (According to cosmetic chemist Krupa Kestrein, arctic cloudberries contain twice as much vitamin C as oranges, and these berries are “rich in antioxidants and ellagic tannins. “It has beauty benefits such as moisturizing, soothing, whitening, and anti-aging.” Cloudberries can grow in temperatures as low as -40 degrees Fahrenheit and retain moisture in extremely cold environments, making them popular throughout the Nordic countries. “Go natural to find ingredients that are very popular in the production of moisturizing cosmetics,” Hudgens says. “Mother Nature gives us so much.” When I asked Hudgens if she plans to incorporate ingredients from the Philippines, where her mother and I are from, she replied, “That’s what I want.” It’s something I’m always thinking about and working towards.”

Hudgens visited the Philippines for the first time in March this year with her mother Gina and sister Stella. She told us how connected she was to this country, especially her spiritual side, her relationship with nature, and the importance of her family and friends. “It was such a beautiful experience,” she says. “I don’t think I met a single person who felt like they were having a bad day. Everyone seemed really happy. I think the secret to life is community. It doesn’t matter what you have, it’s about the people you choose to spend your life with.” During the trip, she was given the title of World Tourism Ambassador, but was criticized because it was her first visit. . However, according to Hudgens, she had never returned to the Philippines since her mother immigrated to the United States until the death of one of her family members in 2019 – and Hudgens never returned to the Philippines without her mother. He did not want to visit. “That didn’t happen until recently,” she said, noting that her mother had vacationed in Italy on her last trip. Some people who immigrate to the US end up not returning to their home country for whatever reason, and I’ve seen it with Filipinos and other immigrants. “I feel like the American Dream is something that a lot of people have, so when you finally get here, you want to live that dream,” she says. “Obviously, I’m in this place right now and I’m like, ‘No, I’m going to accept it.’ Let’s celebrate that and shout it from the mountaintops.”

Hudgens was also raised “super, super American,” and said her mother didn’t speak much of her native Tagalog at home. “Yes, I ate rice for every meal, but I didn’t necessarily feel extremely isolated from the other kids at school because my upbringing was very American,” she said. say. It wasn’t until later in her life that she felt that by not connecting strongly to her background as a Filipino, she was “missing out” on a part of herself, and that It was a big part of why she wanted to visit the Philippines. She said, “I felt so empowered to know where she came from and be able to express her heritage.”