HELLO, IT’S ME: Valentina Cabassi.

LOCATION: Milan.

WHAT IT’S ABOUT: My Signature Look.

THE START 

I have a sister who is a year younger than me, we are very close, and it’s something I started with her. I remember as a child that we watched “America’s Next Top Model,” and we loved it. On the show, they always organized different shootings, and we played play pretend with it, organizing our owns with a theme, with makeup that was connected to the theme, then we went looking for the clothes. She took pictures of me, and I did the same to her, and that’s it, we had fun.

Even when we had friends at home, I always had a great passion for make-up, I watch a thousand videos. So, as a child, I had a blue eye pencil and a mascara with glitters, that was the thing back: we started like this, as a game, when we were children.

The very first real work as a model was with my sister for Subdued maybe six years ago, they had contacted us on Instagram. Now, however, most of the photos I publish are still taken by my sister and the same goes for her. She is a little more introverted, in the sense that she prefers to stay behind the camera, but it is something that reminds me of her, and it is something that we started to do together as a game, and I am fond of what we do.

“I have a sister who is a year younger than me, we are very close.”

MR DANIEL MAKEUP

I love Nabla Cosmetics.

The first work we did together was for Lancôme, where he presented some lipsticks, and I modeled for them, it was a press presentation. He is great, a really lovely person: he’s very nice, very humble, with his feet on the ground, he does not put on any kind of attitude. When we did a Masterclass together we took pictures with maybe 300 people: he was with this smile plastered on his face taking pictures with everyone. Then we did a video on Youtube together, for a back-to-school makeup.
Then, from there, we started working together more frequently: now we shot sixteen lipsticks from the new collection in two days. But with them, the work is always beautiful and always fun. I went to London to shoot the campaign for the new Nabla foundation which was released in March. So this is my favorite collaboration, I’d say.

“With them, the work is always beautiful and always fun.”

– So this is my favorite collaboration, I’d say. –

ART & CINEMA

I love it: art, cinema, everything.
Art in the sense of painting and cinema. But I think I’m still a very aesthetic-oriented person, I like to see beautiful things, I like to see things, and I need a sort of physical contact, let’s say, a direct contact with something, and I space out while reading. Also, I don’t have much patience, so getting to the end of a book may be problematic for me.
Instead for cinema I studied theater, I studied acting in elementary school because I was very shy, I didn’t talk to anyone, and my mother told me, “you know what? I’m going to enroll you in a theater course.” It actually helped me; I managed to open, to become more extroverted, less shy.

In my family, we are all cinema lovers, in the sense that my mother showed us from very young, maybe as soon as it was released, “American Beauty.” As a child, I was shocked, even though really at that age you don’t understand it well. If I think of that film I think of her scene among the roses, one of the most beautiful scenes ever, and of him with the plastic bag, one of the most beautiful monologues ever, while he’s looking at the envelope that flies away. So I remember that she showed us this movie, my sister and I was shocked. Immediately after that film, my mother showed us “Gia,” with Angelina Jolie. Actually, I think it influenced me in terms of personal tastes because I like these films. I don’t like the simple, engaging comedy: it’s ok, but if I have to think about my favorite films, they would be the recent ones by Sorrentino, above all, “The Great Beauty” is one of my favorites and I think I saw it integrally like 15 times.

“If I have to think about my favorite films, they would be the recent ones by Sorrentino

…”

Tarantino a lot as well, “Kill Bill” is one of my favorite films ever and I saw “Pulp Fiction” about a hundred times.
“Django,” with DiCaprio’s monologue… Oh well, but it’s DiCaprio. “Léon” is one of my absolute favorites, I love it, and the film is pure poetry. “Nikita” as well, and “Le Grand Bleu” also with Jean Reno, it’s beautiful.
Watch it, it’s super fun.  

As a child I used to paint; when I was young, I started painting with canvases, tempera paintings, watercolors and so on. I don’t know, it’s something I’ve always had. My father is an architect and he draws very well, so maybe he used to play with us and we started to draw or to color together. Now I actually have moments when I say, “I want to draw,” so I go and draw or something, sometimes I need it. I don’t show my drawings to anyone, it’s just something a little therapeutic I do for myself.

“I actually have moments when I say, ‘I want to draw,’ so I go and draw.”

I have a very specific taste, for example, I don’t like contemporary art, it doesn’t tell me anything, I can’t do it. I don’t know if people are pretending that they don’t know anything, because they are all, “oh my God, I love contemporary art, there’s this crazy artist…” and it’s a stain on a blank canvas.

On the one hand, I like Botticelli, the Venus, the Neo-Classical and Classical beauty, the perfection, on the other hand, I like the madmen, the surrealists, like Dalì or Frida Kahlo.

I have an obsession for Frida Kahlo. I did my high-school dissertation on her, so I know everything down to what she used to eat for breakfast: I’m obsessed, I read her diary, I have everything about her.

FAVORITE MOVIE RIGHT NOW

Look, I go to the movies maybe twice a week, I’ve seen them all enough. For sure, I liked “The Favourite,” I liked it a lot.

“…I have an obsession for Frida Kahlo.”

THE BEAUTY TIP THAT SAVED YOU

Dani taught me about skincare, for sure. Also the eyebrows, surely, because I used to make them so much heavier. When I started working with him, he suggested trying to put the pencil only on the bottom or to comb them up. He is so good that every time he does my makeup, I am peeking from the mirror, trying to capture every step he goes through.

THREE MUST-HAVES IN YOUR BAG

A bottle of water since I try to drink as much as possible, also because it is good for the skin. Lip balm, and by this, I mean that there is one very specific brand: my lips chap with every balm except this one from Elizabeth Arden, the 8 Hour Lip Cream Protector. After that, I’d say, maybe, my wallet, since I have so many things inside of it: memories, drawings, pendants, photos, lots of things.

ART &

CINEMA

BEAUTY

&

FASHION

BEAUTY IS… 

This is a big question. I firmly believe that it is something subjective. I don’t think objective beauty exists, as a concept. I think so also because there are people who may not necessarily respect the mainstream criteria that people consider right to define “beauty,” but then you see them and they have this light, this sun, this energy that makes them beautiful. Actually, I don’t know the answer, I wondered many times. It is something that is transmitted. It’s a sensation, nothing physical. It’s energy.

INCLUSIVITY

Compared to how it was before, it is much more open and inclusive. That’s especially true outside of Italy, I noticed. There are a lot of curvy, oversize models; here in Milan, no one is going to take you unless you are seven meters tall and anorexic. I personally tried several times to introduce myself: now I’m with a London agency and they have just normal girls like me. At the end of the day, I’m not anorexic, I’m not eight meters tall. I tried to propose myself in Milan, they told me, “go there for a ride, see if someone says yes.” This is psychological terrorism, I have felt upset several times.

Last time I went to this agency and someone told me, “you’re tall enough, go inside,” then he looks at my hips says, “well, there you have to work a little.” And I glared at him and said, “look, I kill myself at the gym every day and try to eat as healthy as possible. This is my body, I’m built like that.”

This kind of change will reach Milan too but in a little while.

BEAUTY IS

NOTHING PHYSICAL.

IT’S ENERGY

–

“This kind of change will reach Milan too, 

but in a little while.”

–

“Compared to how it was before, it is much more open and inclusive.” 

 “That’s especially true outside of Italy, I noticed. There are a lot of curvy, oversize models; here in Milan, no one is going to take you unless you are seven meters tall and anorexic.”

 THE GLAM SQUAD:

– Nabla Velvetline Eyeliner

– Nabla Brow Divine

– Benefit Hoola Bronzer

– Refreshing Tonic Acqua Distillata alle Rose Roberts

– Jowaé Hydrating Moisturizer

– Elizabeth Arden 8 Hour Lip Cream Protectant

THIS IS HOW I ROLL

MAKEUP LOOK 

The only thing I do is the eyebrows because for me they are super important and they must always be perfect. In the evening, I like experimenting, doing, creating a bit more. Then now that we started working with Dani, he taught me a few things: he told me how to do this and that, and then I correct my own mistakes. But I tend to be lazy, and if I don’t want to wear makeup, I just put on red lipstick and mascara, and that’s it.  

If I know that I have time afterward, that I will be home early, that I won’t drink and I’m able to rinse it off well, I do something like eyeliner or eye pencils: not really a smokey, more of an eyeliner. I really like the inner pencil I am wearing now: it’s from Nabla, a beautiful pencil I fell in love with. Inside on the upper or lower lashline. If I want to do something more makeup artist-y or blogger-y, lately I wear warm brown eyeshadow or a red one, because I have discovered that it makes my eyes look greener. I don’t use foundation because I like to feel my skin.

SKINCARE

My routine skincare started thanks to Dani a year ago. He asks me, “what about your skincare?” and I went, “Nothing!” He looked at me so bad that I asked him what was I supposed to do, and he said, “a moisturizer and an eye contour.”
So, the next day I went to buy moisturizer and eye contour. Actually, I also use a tonic with rose water that I’ve been using for a long time because it’s the same one my grandmother uses. I can think of her every time I put this tonic on, it’s the Refreshing Tonic from Acqua Distillata alle Rose Roberts. Then I apply the eye contour and the moisturizer: I found one that works very well, it’s from Jowaé.

“I wear warm brown eyeshadow or a red one, because I have discovered that it makes my eyes look greener.”

EPIC FAIL BEAUTY

There are so many things I wouldn’t do again. Colorful mascaras, or the Kiko pencils in the shade electric blue everywhere outside, inside, above and below the eye.
There was a time when I used an orange foundation, so the different color on the neck. I had a Kiko compact foundation, I don’t even remember if it was actually a foundation, but I just smeared this stuff all over my face. But then I started watching videos and tutorials, I began to understand better how it worked, and things went a little better.

CINEMA BEAUTY LOOK

Uma Thurman in “Pulp Fiction,” of course. “Marie Antoinette” by Sofia Coppola, there’s beautiful makeup in this movie.

Photos by Johnny Carrano.

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