If you didn’t know Courtney Act from RuPaul’s Drag Race, you certainly would have after she won Celebrity Big Brother in 2018.
Drag queen Courtney – whose real name is Shane Jenek – was praised for the way she spoke about gender and sexuality on CBB, educating fellow contestants and the public in a patient and open way. And still squeezing in time to make herself up as the glamorous goddess that she is.
Ahead of her new show Under The Covers, which debuts at London’s Underbelly festival on Sunday 12 May, she shared her five must-have beauty items with HuffPost UK.
Anyone who’s seen Courtney will envy that perfect winged eyeliner. But if you think her flawless makeup is expensive, you’d be mistaken – her go-to liner is under a tenner and available almost everywhere.
Courtney likes this eyeliner for its brush tip, which she prefers to a felt pen. “I don’t think felt pens aren’t inky enough, I like a really strong black line. [With this one] you can paint on a line and get it really crisp and sharp.”
And us mere mortals will be pleased to know that even Courtney struggles with keeping a steady hand during application. “It’s hard,” she admits, adding a top tip: “You have to start small.”
You might be familiar with milk of magnesia as a product to soothe tummy troubles, but Courtney has an alternative use for it: “It’s not because I’m constipated... I use it as a primer,” she laughs.
She read about this “random use” through beauty blogs, and now swears by it: “I use it if I’m going on stage – like all through Dancing With The Stars, when I was going to be sweating – I would not sweat or shine and my makeup wouldn’t budge.” Courtney does her own makeup, but says the touchup artists on the show were amazed by how her face stayed flawless.
She applies it by shaking the bottle, applying some to her finger tips and smearing it around her face. “You can put a thin layer all over – or just on your t-zone – and it dries a little bit powdery, and then you put your foundation over the top.”
Exfoliating products are clearly a big part of Courtney’s beauty routine – they take up two out of five sacred spaces in her must-haves list.
Thos Acure facial scrub is hard to come by in UK, but Courtney swears by it. She uses it twice a week and says it’s perfect for her oily/combination skin type. “When you slough back all that dead skin, it leaves it nice and glowing,” she says.
She prefers this scrub to chemical exfoliants – something about the physicality of it really appeals, she says. “I like getting in there and feeling like I’m rubbing away the dead skin. I love the physical aspect to it, like I’m contributing.” We can definitely relate.
This towel is another exfoliating device, but for the body – so refrain from using one on your face. Ouch!
Courtney first stumbled across the towel in a bath house in LA and, after searching high and low, eventually found her own version on Amazon. It’s basically a bath sheet at 89cm by 28cm – and perfect for those hard-to-reach areas.
“They are really good for doing your back, because I get pimples and things,” she says, adding that they work particularly well for preventing ingrowing hairs. Top tip: exfoliate before shaving to keep those pesky ingrowns at bay.
“I think good skin and good makeup (even no makeup) comes from being well hydrated, and water is something people forget about,” she says. “Not only does it make your skin glow, it makes all your organs and insides grind nicely.”
Having her own reusable bottle helps her keep track on how much she is drinking – and it’s good to know she’s having a positive impact on the environment. “Every time I refill it, I’m like: ‘oh my God that is a plastic bottle that I’m not throwing away’. It kind of freaks me out because of all the years not carrying that bottle – but also, I think better late than never.”\
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