11 Times Mariah Carey Was a Diva About Beauty (but Was Totally Right)
Do not doubt the queen here. (Jim Dyson/Getty Images)
Diva, chanteuse, and legend Mariah Carey is well known for her over-the-top quotes. Over the top is where she lives (as you know if you saw her MTV Cribs back in the day), and shade is like food to her.
When it comes to beauty, she is not inclined to shy away from saying what the thinks, and she has always got an opinion. A it turns out, she’s dead-on with a fair share of her beauty philosophy, although perhaps not the greatest at phrasing it in teachable terms.
We’ve pulled together some of her most outrageous but accurate beauty quotes.
“I have to point out this is a rented house — I would never have overhead lighting. ‘High hats,’ they call them. In my apartment in New York, it’s all recessed lighting, chandeliers, candles. This lighting is abusive.”
There’s a reason Hollywood doesn’t shoot movies in high school cafeterias, and it’s not the smell. Everyone knows the best lighting is not back or overhead, or from fluorescent lights. If you want to look good, even casually lounging around your mansion, indirect light is your friend. If you want to look good for the camera, make sure you’re lit from the front. The harshness of fluorescent lights will make anyone look older and washed out.
“Don’t eat salad if you’re about to do, like, a photo shoot, because it bloats you. Never eat the water. Salad will retain water, so it’s better to have, like, a grilled plate.”
Keep eating your veggies and enjoy your salads … but if you don’t eat them regularly, yes: They will cause some bloat. Lettuce is made mostly of water. If you’re a regular salad eater, this isn’t an issue.
“I don’t count years, but I definitely rebuke them — I have anniversaries, not birthdays, because I celebrate life, darling.”
— Out
Rebuking the years is a bit dramatic, but her philosophy is sound here. You don’t have to feel the age you are, in a bad way, but you should feel the life you live! If that means skipping birthdays and marking the anniversaries of whatever is important to you instead, it sounds like a damn fine way to celebrate yourself.
On using selfie sticks:
“That way, I can control it. I don’t need to take a selfie with someone from their bleak angle; I don’t care for that.”
— BuzzFeed
This is a known fact: Taking a selfie with the camera held up, toward the top of your head, is going to give you a better-looking photo of yourself. If the fans one meets out and about are losing their head, you must control the angle for them. Selfie sticks are wonderful for that!
“Sometimes, in the beginning of my career, people didn’t know how to do my makeup very well. I have very unique features, and if you don’t know me, you might try to take it one way and it may not work out that well. Back in the day, they would do that heroin-chic look — which is great for someone who doesn’t need more of a structured makeup look — but I was never really a big fan of it.”
— BET
The ’90s were a strange time for beauty, and the heroin-chic look didn’t do biracial women any favors. All the facts here check out.
“I hate mascara. I never wear it. Whenever a makeup artist tries to put it on me, I throw a fit.”
This is a legit way to feel about mascara, especially if it’s from the kit of a makeup artist you don’t know. The tubes are a breeding ground for bacteria, and the flakes can irritate your eyes. Not handy during a day full of interviews.
“I said I wanted to be a singer, I wanted to be an actress. And they were all like ‘ha-ha.’ Because of course at that point I still didn’t really have conditioner or know how to comb through textured hair.”
— CNN
Those of us who lived through the late ’80s and early ’90s remember that straight hair was in — unless you went for a perm. For naturally curly-haired girls, it was a big deal to have Mariah Carey come onto the scene with her natural hair. It is totally believable that execs wouldn’t have taken her seriously with no ability to straighten her hair at the time.
“One day I promised God if he’d give me my voice back, I’d never smoke again. And I got three octaves back after quitting.”
Smoking can cause acid reflux, which degrades the voice. It can change the way your lungs function, for the worse, making you unable to talk or sing in the same manner. It can cause swelling of the vocal cords, which would make it possible that Mariah would lose octaves of her voice that she could regain when she quit smoking.
“I’m obsessed with humidifiers because being in Vegas is so dry. I literally have, like, 10 humidifiers around my bed.”
— BuzzFeed
Las Vegas is a desert where it regularly goes above 100 degrees in the summer months, and there has been a drought in Lake Mead for 16 years, so, yes — one could say it’s dry. A humidifier — or multiple humidifiers — simply replace the moisture in the air, which would allow Mariah’s vocal cords to vibrate properly when she sings. This is nothing more than simple and brilliant hydration maintenance.
On recycling her wedding dress from her first marriage:
“Did I want to buy an off-the-rack dress when I have a freaking Vera Wang with a 20-foot train in storage? The dress was the least abusive part of the whole relationship.”
Seriously, after she wore that Princess Di dress one time, she was just supposed to let it sit in her closet forever? It’s not like her daughter can wear it; it’s from a wedding to a man who is not that girl’s father. It was a brilliant move to recycle it as an outfit in her postdivorce promotional cycle.
“I don’t really care what people do. Trends happen. Then, it is a repeat of a trend.”
This is not only shade to the repetitive, recycling nature of fashion. It’s also an endorsement of creating a classic look for yourself. Ever notice that Mariah was never the “face” of a line unless she had creative control? That wasn’t by accident.
Related: People Are Not Happy With Ashley Graham’s Allegedly Photoshopped Maxim Cover
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