When La La Anthony meets me, she is busy typing an email on her phone. "I'm writing about VIP names for Eclipsed in between all of this," she tells me. She is a producer for the Lupita Nyong'o-fronted Broadway show, which opened this past weekend and is already making history for being the first play written, directed, and performed entirely by women. "I'm just so, so excited. The play is one of the most amazing pieces of work I've ever seen and I had goosebumps when I saw it," she says.
Producer is just one of many hats she wears. She is also an actress (currently starring in the Starz series Power), a radio and TV host who made her name on MTV's TRL, a New York Times-best selling author, a mother, and a wife to NBA superstar Carmelo Anthony. She also has her own namesake makeup collection under Motives Cosmetics and, thus, has become quite the beauty guru. Here, she lets ELLE.com in on how she gets her perfect brows, Carmelo's skincare routine, and the beauty wisdom she's gotten from Kelly Rowland.
On how she's different from her character on 'Power,' Lakeisha Grant:
Lakeisha is the girl who's trying to look like a million bucks, but doesn't have a million bucks. There's nothing wrong with that, but Lakeisha's a girl that ends up doing too much. She doesn't get [the adage] less is more, whereas in my real life, less is more: clean look, clean makeup. Lakeisha's like, "Give me the purple eye shadow, give me the lips!" She wants it all because she feels like by having it all she looks like she's worth more than she is.
On beauty tips from her famous BFFs:
Kelly [Rowland] definitely in her former life was a makeup artist, a hair stylist, an aesthetician, everything else. There are literally nights that I've spent the night with Kelly and I'm falling asleep with my makeup on and I just feel her with a makeup wipe like take it off like, "You have to take your makeup off!" She's the one who's like, "Let me give you a facial." She loves that stuff. She's done my makeup for events before–she's amazing. Ciara is more of who I go to for questions about hairstyles or hair color or things like that. Kim [Kardashian] is the one I would go to for everything else. Everything else. Like "What should I be doing with this? What should I be doing with that?" Or I'll send her a picture, "Do you think this looks good?" We just kind of swap ideas.
On what products are always in her bag:
Because I'm a mom, I carry hand sanitizer for me and my son Kiyan. I always, always carry Carmex or Aquaphor, one or the other, for him and myself. I'm the mom that's like "Your lips are chapped!" and he's like "You're putting too much!" Then, I have my own makeup line, Motives for La La, so I always keep like an eyeliner or a mascara from that because I feel like even on days when you have nothing, if you throw some eyeliner or mascara on, all of a sudden your face comes alive.
On Carmelo's skincare routine versus her own:
'Melo is more meticulous about his face than I am. He has his products like lined up and he's like, "You know my face is sensitive, I only use certain things!" He only sticks to what he uses and that's it. I'll try different things. He loves Kiehl's. That's his favorite! But I mean, he won't even try [other products]! I'm like "Let me give you a facial" and he's like "No, my face is sensitive," and I'm like "You're a 6'8" athlete and you're talking about 'your face is sensitive,'" and he's like "I don't use anything else!"
On her nighttime routine:
What I don't try to do, no matter how late I get in or how tired, is try not to sleep with the makeup on. I mean, it does happen sometimes, but I try not to. Neutrogena makeup wipes are my absolute favorite and I just try to really wash my face and put like a moisturizer on before I go to bed. I love Tracie Martyn. I go there for facials and I use a lot of her products. But, what I don't try to do, no matter how late I get in or how tired, is to sleep with the makeup on.
On her lashes:
I do get extensions sometimes, but because I have to get my makeup done so much, I prefer to use a really good strip. My favorite [look] is just wispy, not too heavy. Sometimes lashes just bog your eye down. It's too much. Ardell sends me me boxes and boxes of amazing lashes and I'm like, just send "Wispies" that's all I wear! I definitely am a big fan of them.
On her brows:
Everyone's always like "Your brows, your brows!" you know? It's not me at all. It's Armond Hambrick [hair stylist at Cutler Soho]. He's amazing and he used to work with Damone [Roberts] in L.A. and then he moved to New York and he's been doing my brows forever. He does wax and then just kind of shapes them, but you know, once you get the shape down you're kind of just cleaning up after that. I don't know what I would do without Armond.
On her nails:
So there's this girl here in New York. Naomi Yasuda. She does everybody's. I love her. She's not only my nail person but my friend. I just go to her and she keeps them up and then when I'm in L.A. there's a girl Tina Gould. But Naomi's my main person.
On off-duty beauty:
[I wear] nothing. I think when you have to get your makeup done so much, when you're off you just don't want anything. You just throw on some sunglasses and keep it moving. You want to give your skin time to breathe as well so I just like to do nothing.
On a beauty look she regrets:
I have so many! You know when you look back on pictures and you're like, "I thought I looked good that day!" With me, I've always tried different things–especially hair. I shaved the side of my head off at one time and, not that I didn't like it, but I look back like "Wow, I was brave to do that"–especially while going out for acting roles. I had lines in the shaved part and everything. I love that I'm not afraid to take those risks. I've had face piercings all over my face. I think it's part of experimenting and figuring out who you are and what works so I'm glad that I was able to go through those phases.
On creating her own beauty line, Motives for La La:
In creating my line, I just thought: What works for me? Then, I put that into the line. I also realized, especially for hispanic and African American women, how important foundations are because a lot of time the colors are off. I used to buy three foundations
to mix together. One thing I hate is when like your face is a different color from your neck. But, I think we've really nailed it in Motives for La La. We've created a perfect foundation.
On the most luxurious and low-key parts of her beauty routine:
Kelly [Rowland] just always talks about Natura Bissé products. That's what she loves. When I purchase the Diamond Cream though I'm like ugh, it costs that much [$295]? So I would say that product is more on the high-end and then Tracie Martyn is what I use every day.
As for low-key–it's what my mom has drilled in our heads to use, which is just Vaseline. The most low-key product. If makeup's not coming off, like eyeliner's stuck, just put some Vaseline and it'll come off.
