Good Risks, Good Habits (and Being Naughty) with Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

As the face of our new clean longwear lipstick, Rosie knows a good thing when she sees it. Recently we chatted with the model-turned-entrepreneur about all the goodness in her life, and with the sounds of a busy home and her baby son in the background, she touched on a good book for any entrepreneur, the NSFW food mistake that became a favorite, and how her son is already showing his beauty talents. 

With the launch of BAREPRO Longwear Lipstick we’re asking people to share stories of good that lasts. Who has been a force of good in your life and why?

That’s hard, to pick one person — that’s really, really hard … but that would be my man. He is a force of good in my life every day, even the bad days…. I feel really, truly lucky. I have an incredible partner and a fun partner to go through this journey with and now we have a beautiful baby boy and life is full.

What’s one good way to start any day no matter where you are in the world?

I think taking a little bit of time for yourself, whether that’s getting up a little bit earlier before the rest of your family — which, by the way, is not the case with me because I like to sleep in as long as I can.

For me, a good way to start my day is not rushing: I drink a bottle of water, get my son up if he’s not up already, we go downstairs, we make breakfast together, we put the radio on, we have a little sing-song. Then I sort of will escape to my bathroom and that is my little 15, 20 minutes to myself. My beauty routine is really important for me in the morning because that is a foundation for my whole day and feeling good. And working out [is also important]! I try and exercise about four times a week and I’ll do that in the morning and that’s always a great way to your day going.

What’s one good thing you do when someone around you is having a bad day?

Honestly, it’s as simple as putting on a good album, some good music. It’s about getting outside a little bit, going for a walk around the block, talking it out. It’s the art of communication and getting people to talk about things, what’s going on with them and being there for someone, really…. I love a good laugh. I love a good joke, and so sometimes people just need a little bit of laughter to get them going. But I think getting outside, getting into nature is usually a good way to turn around a bad mood. 

Tell us a good story about lipstick.

I get sent a ton of beauty products, which I’m very grateful for. I was opening them up the other day in my utility room and my son comes waddling in and he’s at that age now where he likes to play with everything and take the lids off and put the lids back on and take the lids off and put the lid back on and this could go on for quite some time. He opened up a big bright red lip gloss and I crouched down next to him and next thing I know he is applying lipstick to my lips — attempting to apply it to my lips. It was just the cutest thing ever. I don’t think I would’ve let anyone else do this, but I did end up with bright red lip gloss all over my face, and he thought it was the funniest thing! He’s my budding makeup artist.

What’s one good recipe your family always loves?

My mum’s actually a pretty good cook. She doesn’t like cooking — she never liked the expectation on her — but she had to because we definitely were not in a position to do anything else. She’s actually a pretty good cook but she’s quite experimental. One of my favorite dishes when I go home is what we call “chicken f*ck up” in my house, which is a kind of chicken curry mess sort of thing that I think came about as an accident one day in the kitchen and it was christened “chicken f*ck up.” So, whenever I go home she makes “chicken f*ck up” for me — that’s the first thing I’ll ask for.

Speaking of your mom, what’s one good tip you have for multi-tasking moms? And how did you learn it?

I have no onegood tip for multi-tasking moms … I mean, I’m in the throes of it all right now. So, I should be asking moms that question. Honestly, I think all moms are multi-tasking, whether they’re working or whether they’re stay at home. Being a mom is a full-on, full-time job. You never get to switch it off and it’s been an incredibly grounding and humbling experience. I think being organized is a really important tip. And then I think, in regards to beauty tips for a multi-tasking mom, you just don’t have the time that you did before. So, you want your products to be long-wearing. And that’s one of the things that I love about the BAREPRO Longwear Lipstick, that I apply at the beginning of my day and it’s smudge-proof, it’s kiss-proof, it’s weightless … I don’t feel like I have to touch it up throughout the day and I can just be like, good to go. 

What’s one good habit that you’d love for your son to have someday?

Good manners. Is that a habit?

Absolutely.

I guess good manners. And a healthy approach to food. I grew up in a household where — I mean it was the 90s, so frozen food was a big deal. [Laughs] I’m just really happy that, over my adult life and since leaving home, I’ve been able to educate myself on eating the right foods and [giving] him that foundation now as a youngster, I feel really good about that…. They’re like little sponges, babies. They’re like blank canvases. So what you put down in front of them, they’re going to absorb.

And then manners — that was something that was instilled in me really, really early on. It’s something that’s free, you know, everybody can be well-mannered, and working in an industry where I meet so many people from all different backgrounds and you have to interact with people all day long. I think simple “pleases” and “thank yous” and people that show gratitude, people that are thinking of other people, not just themselves — those kinds of small things are really what can impact somebody else. We talked about this a lot at bareMinerals, those small changes that you can make in your day that have that big effect. And I think just having self-awareness and self-respect and having respect for others … that really can turn your day around and turn somebody else’s day around. 

What’s one good reason to take the risk and start a new business?

I would feel I was doing myself a disservice, not to give something a go out of fear and then to regret it later on in life, or to look back and think: ‘I should’ve done that, I should have given it a go.’ I’d rather fail at doing something than not fail at doing nothing, if that makes sense.

What’s some good advice for entrepreneurs that you learned while creating Rose Inc.?

I’m learning a lot right now. I think one of the coolest things actually is talking and listening to other entrepreneurs. So, I listen to a lot of podcasts. I read a lot of books. Luckily for me I’m now getting to meet a lot of entrepreneurs in person and just being able to ask them questions. When we were at the bareMinerals event in London at the [Soho] Farm House, I got to sit next to [Marc Rey], the CEO of Shiseido Americas. Just being able to sit next to him, [I thought] ‘Oh my gosh I’ve got an hour!’ A year or two ago if sat next to somebody like that, [I’d think]: ‘What the hell am I going to speak to him about? He doesn’t want to talk to me about anything.’ Now I see it as an opportunity to pick his brain about business and entrepreneurialism, and what are they looking for in small businesses and what advice they would give. So, I think just learning from other people’s mistakes, watching what’s happening out there in startup life and businesses and being observant, and then making sure you pull together the best team around you. [It’s important to remember]: ‘I can’t do everything. I’m not the best at everything.’ So, I need to hire great women around me to lift me and my business up. Those are things I’m learning right now.

Speaking of people you work with, what’s one good tip you’ve learned from Nikki DeRoest?

Okay. So, Nikki, I’m obsessed with. She’s become not only one of my regular makeup artists, but she’s also become a close friend of mine in this last year. She’s just such a cool chick and she’s unique and she’s also got a really good sense of humor, which I’m always drawn to. We have similar skin where we have to be very diligent about it. So, we’re constantly talking about beauty products and makeup tips. We’ll be talking about products that we just tried and we’re constantly talking about music … that’s our favorite topic.

What’s one good read from your winter holidays?

I was reading The Tipping Point, which I know is not a new book, but a really cool book to read for anyone that’s starting in business … [and looking for] what turns a business from being a small business into a phenomenon. So that’s been really, really interesting, to read about that. I like [Malcom Gladwell’s] books. 

What’s one good movie where you know all of the lines?

None. Absolutely none. My sister, we were away together and we put the The Lion King on for my son for the first time and I’m like, ‘What is wrong with you? How do you know every single line from The Lion King? We haven’t watched this for like 10, 15 years? What the heck?’ I’m so baffled. But she was always one of those girls — every line in a song, every line in the movie. Whereas me, I will ‘know’ a song and it’ll have its own words. I’m terrible with people’s names. I butcher every single one — that’s not my forte.

But I would definitely say my favorites … I do love a girly movie. I love Notting Hill. I love Pretty Woman.[Laughs] I love Grey Gardens. But I love action movies and all of that kind of thing, too. I haven’t seen a great movie recently — I’ve been a bit bad at watching them, so I’ve got a stack of screeners to catch up on. I might be doing that this weekend. 

Name a woman from history whose good work inspires you.

There are so many women that inspire me … I was reading something the other day about Audrey Hepburn and how everybody just remembers Audrey Hepburn for being this great beauty and yet actually, when you look at the scope of like charity work that she did in her lifetime, it was so enormous what she did …  so that was impactful to me today. 

Also, any woman that’s achieved her dreams, changed the world, paved the way for women in moving forward in the future. There are so many women doing that right now and — not just famous women that we know about — so many women out there who are really changing their communities and changing the lives of others in small ways, in big ways, but their stories don’t get told. And so, for me, there’s just tons of untold stories and I love it when I read something or hear something about somebody who’s really changing things in the world.

What’s one good story you think of when you need a laugh?

Oh my goodness … I would have to be honest and say that any good stories that I still chuckle about, I probably would not repeat on this phone call because that’s just naughty. 

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