Among the many celebrity urban legends that proliferated during the early aughts, the one about Jennifer Lopez’s skin-care routine has been impressively sticky. If the rumors are to be believed, the signature honeyed glow that the dancer turned singer turned actor turned mogul famously bottled into a best-selling fragrance can be credited to a head-to-toe slathering of Crème de la Mer; while every other woman in the world was rationing the pricey salve, Lopez was allegedly bathing in it. She has since denied these claims, but the intrigue around what, exactly, has helped the 51-year-old maintain the supple complexion of an airbrushed goddess has only grown over the years. Today, as she debuts JLo Beauty—an eight-piece collection of skin-care staples that launches on January 1—the ultimate multi-hyphenate is finally spilling the proverbial tea. “You want to know how I got my skin, how I look this way?” she asked a Zoom room filled with starstruck editors a few weeks back. “This is how.”
The this in question is due in large part to—wait for it—olive oil. “My mom used to say that olive oil was the cure-all for everything,” Lopez reveals, explaining the concept behind the JLo Beauty Olive Complex, a blend of nourishing and soothing squalane, fermented olive oil, extra-virgin olive oil, and olive leaf extract at the heart of her new line. But there’s obviously more to the this than that, as anyone who has coated their skin in olive oil only to find that they look nothing like J.Lo can attest. JLo Beauty essentially packages what Lopez refers to as “the five s’s”: sleep, sunscreen, serum, supplements, and sano, a riff on the Spanish phrase vivir sano, to live healthily. There is no magic bullet for looking like J.Lo; it’s a lifestyle. But there are two new magic creams—and one very compelling mask—that can certainly help in the pursuit.
“We should be charging $10,000 for these masks,” Lopez jokes of her $18 That Limitless Glow Active Serum Mask, an innovative two-piece intensive treatment that wraps around your ears to prevent slipping and is soaked in one full ounce of her fermented-yeast-spiked That JLo Glow Multitasking Serum. The masks are an “affordable luxury,” much like the rest of the line, which also includes a gel cleanser, an eye cream, and two moisturizers, one of which—That Big Screen—features blue-light-blocking marine bamboo and SPF 30, which Lopez swears by. “When I was 18 I went to two derms, and one told me to use sunscreen as a moisturizer every day,” Lopez says, elaborating on one of her s’s, which she has committed to practice. “The other derm,” she continues, pointing in between her brows, “told me to put Botox on this little fine line. And you know what? I still have the fine line”—a nod to that other s (sano), which instead of quick fixes relies on eating well, exercising, drinking lots of water, and of course taking supplements (yet another s). “Everyone fought me hardest on the supplements,” Lopez reveals of her once-daily Inner Love capsules that are packed with antioxidants and collagen-building manganese and copper. “But skin care doesn’t work without boosting what’s going on inside,” she insists—and slightly enhancing what’s going on outside with her That Instant Star highlighting bronzer, which will be available in four different shades.
But don’t get too excited for a JLo Beauty makeup collection in the immediate future. As was clear during her headline-grabbing, bodysuit-defying AMA performance last weekend, Lopez has other priorities. “A whole body line is coming next.”
JLo Beauty will launch on jlobeauty.com on January 1, 2021.
Editor
Celia EllenbergCredit
Lead image: Joe Kohen/WireImage