(The High/Low)
Denise Vasi Has The Secret To A Perfect Red Lip
The model, actress, and founder of Maed Beauty shares her ultimate clean beauty routine.
When someone’s selfie makes you scroll back, you want to know the beauty products responsible for the double take. Inquiring minds get answers with TZR’s The High/Low series, where we ask our favorite tastemakers to reveal both the splurge-worthy and wildly affordable staples in their routines.
Denise Vasi has always been bold — both in her career or beauty choices. “I was raised on set,” Vasi tells me over drip coffee and cream at the Mandarin hotel in New York City, a kiss-shaped silhouette stain on her mug. “I was signed by Eileen Ford very young, and within the first four years of my modeling career, they realized I wasn’t going to get much taller — so the beauty world became my niche.”
After her beauty career took off, she soon got cast in her breakout role on primetime series, Single Ladies. It was there that she developed her signature look — a bold, matte red lip — which eventually led to the creation of her own clean, ritual-focused lip brand, Maed Beauty.
For Vasi, rituals have always been synonymous with wellness and self-care. “Before any of the artists would put a lick of color on my face [on set], there was this element of care to the process,” Vasi says. “Now, I microcurrent, I gua sha — I can do it now without a mirror, while I’m meditating or listening to an audio book. I found yoga in my twenties too, and that showed me how to care for what goes on and in my body.”
Vasi’s community of over 200,000 on Instagram also served as inspiration for Maed’s mission. “A big part of my community had been using traditional makeup and skin care, but for the last decade, I’ve been taking them alongside me to choose cleaner ingredients that still perform,” she says. Maed’s hero product, the Signature Lip Pigment, promises the same long-lasting wear as traditional liquid lipsticks, without any questionable ingredients. (Vasi’s trick for getting a perfect red lip each time? “I line up my pinky to the center of my bottom lip, and use it like a tripod when applying lipstick,” she says. “It helps stabilize my hand, and I’m able to line my lips perfectly.”)
Ahead, queen of the red lip shares her favorite splurges and affordable finds.
