All together now: “I'm youthful and timeless at every age, I’m youthful and timeless at every age, I’m youthful and timeless at every age.” That's the affirmation international superstar Jennifer Lopez,
who is in fact both youthful and timeless, repeats to herself each day. It’s also the mantra she wanted at the core of her first-ever beauty line, JLo Beauty, which launches January 1, 2021 on jlobeauty.com.
For Lopez, the line is an extension of a philosophy more than 20 years in the making: “The number one question, no matter where I went—if I was promoting a movie or whatever—was, ‘What are you doing for your skin?’” Lopez explains on a Zoom call from her cozy white-and-gray living room. “And then as I got more mature, the question came even more frequently. It was something I really wanted to do, to share those secrets—simple secrets. But I did want to share it.”
Lopez did, in fact, share those simple secrets; below, nine beauty and life tips to follow if you, well, want to look as good as JLo. Not good for anything—just good.
Practice daily affirmations.
“Every day, I say I am youthful and timeless at every age. I live a beautiful adventurous life with my children, and we're all in perfect health, always. All of these great things you learn to say to yourself so there's this positive self-talk in your head really does create a beautiful person on the inside who maintains a beautiful person on the outside."
Beauty is skin deep.
"I heard this saying once when I was younger: Until 25, you get the face you're born with, but after 25, you get the face you deserve. And I was like, oh, act accordingly. You have to be a nice, beautiful person on the inside if you want to have your face reflect that. You become what you think and how you act."
Olive oil is a miracle worker.
"My mom used to say that olive oil was the cure-all for everything. And it’s a secret I’ve used over the years because it really does work. When we went to do this, that was the first thing I said: It has to have olive oil extract as a basis."
You have power over your emotions.
Like most of us, Lopez did a bit of soul searching in her 20s to find out who she wanted to be and what she truly believed in. One of her friends gifted her a by book by life advisor Louise Hay. "[Hay] was a great self-help guru, and her whole philosophy was about how our thoughts create our life,” explains Lopez. “And if you have a bad thought, all you have to do is change the thought or feeling, and the feeling will change.”
Be authentic.
"I just wanted [the line] to be high quality. I'm not one of these people who slaps my name on just anything. It's like when I'm picking a song or a movie, it has to be something I feel is of the quality people expect from me. I never want to let anybody down. I always want people to be very pleased with the things I do and know I put my heart and soul into it. And to be quite honest, it's very easy when people see a celebrity or an artist or a performer coming—they don't want to take it as seriously. You have to kind of force the issue. It’s like that in artistry as well, and music and movies. You have to fight for the quality that you want to be involved with."
Beauty is inclusive.
“Diversity is very important to me. Empowering women is very important to me, and inspiring. People ask me what I do for a living? I entertain, I want to inspire, and I want to empower women and minorities to understand their true worth, and their value to be able to contribute to the world in the best way they can—and we know we're capable of, right? It’s super important. In our ads, you'll see a wide range of ages and colors and races and that was one of the things I made a point to do. JLo Beauty is really a philosophy about who you are on the inside and that beauty reflecting on the outside. It doesn't matter who you are or where you're from."
You don’t need plastic surgery (but there’s nothing wrong with it).
"I was in my 20s and I was dating this guy. He went to one dermatologist and I went to another dermatologist. Basically, my dermatologist gave me a great cleanser and some sunscreen and said, 'If you do this from now on, your skin is healthy, you're young right now, it's going to be great.' And he's like, ‘But the sunscreen is the thing.'
And then I went to this other doctor with the boyfriend, and again, I was 20-something years old, and I haven't ever had Botox to this day. And she said, 'Did you know you have a little line right here? We should start Botox." I mean, I had to be 23 years old, right? And I was like, ‘I'm going to pass.’ I didn't like needles anyway, but the boyfriend's like, "Yeah, you should start it. I do that." I was like, no, thank you. And I just wonder what would've happened to me if I would've started Botox at 23, what I would look like right now. My face would be a totally different face today.
"One of the big things I would encourage everybody to do from the time they're 15 years old, even younger, is wear sunscreen every day. We developed a sunscreen you can wear every single day as your day moisturizer, and that is going to protect you more than anything. That's a big skincare secret that people kind of do but don't do. They use moisturizers, but they don't put on sunscreen every day. That is something I have done from that time I was 22 years old."
You can look and feel good at any age.
“You never want to hear you look great for 50. They want to just hear you look great, no matter what age you are. And for me and for the company, that is a big part of it. We don't want people going, you look great for 60, 50, 40, 35. You want people to just go, wow, you look amazing. That's part of our goal—to help everybody feel they look amazing no matter what age they are ,so we don't have to hear about that so much. It doesn't become such a big deal. "Oh my God, she's 50." It's like, does it matter? You're just your best self, no matter what.”
Meet the debut products from JLo Beauty
The key to Lopez's perfect skin is her early investment in a great cleanser.
Star ingredients: Japanese knotweed root, rice bran extract and coconut fruit boost antioxidant protection and reveal smoother skin.
Plus, the JLO Beauty Olive Complex: a four-part olive blend of squalane, fermented oil, extra virgin oil, and leaf extract.
Lopez had to fight for supplements to be included in her new beauty line. "I was like, guys, let's develop a supplement. It's really about a pump and a pill every single day. You need to be working from the inside and putting something really healthy on the outside," she explains.
Star ingredients: The supplement includes 100 percent of the daily recommended dose of manganese and copper, which work to support the body’s natural collagen production. And of course, there's also JLO’s favorite olive oil.
This facial cream boasts "Next-Jen" hyaluronic acid that boosts skin's hydration to reveal a more plumped, dewy look.
Star ingredients: Peptides: are a mix of antioxidant-packed tea and calming honey.
A light and cast-free sunscreen that's a mix of both a chemical and physical sunscreen.
Star ingredients: The moisturizing component is a hydration complex that includes hyaluronic acid, glycerin, and natural sugars to leave you feeling tight and dewy.
JLO was skeptical about eye cream in development but finally landed on a product she believes in.
Star ingredient: The blurring complex masks dark circles and discoloration of the skin.
To create this serum, Lopez went through more than 20 trials until they landed on the perfect combination serum.
Star ingredient: Japanese rice sake ferment brightens the skin while a sugar-derived matrix lifts and tightens.
This mask has been soaked in one ounce of the Glow serum to provide a powerful dose of skincare on-the-go.
Star ingredients: Japanese rice sake ferment, yeast-derived ferment (aka a boost of antioxidants), sugar-derived matrix, and the JLO Beauty Olive complex.
You can use this product all over like a primer, or on the high points of your face as a highlighter.
Star ingredients: Mineral pigments that give off a “lit-from-within radiance.”
JLo Beauty will launch on www.jlobeauty.com on January 1, 2021 and at Sephora stores, sephora.com, and Amazon.com on January 14, 2021.