We asked Michelle Visage — radio presenter and judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race — about her Paris Hilton–brand coffee maker, her drag-queen-approved travel mirror, and the lip plumper she wears overnight.
It’s so funny because you would hope everybody has a breath freshener. There’s so many people in this world who don’t know that their mouth is funky and don’t have gum or mints. I don’t ever want somebody to be like, “Oh, Michelle smells funky.” So I always have St. Claire’s mints with me. I don’t leave the house without them: I have them in every vehicle, I have them in every bag, I have them between takes. Now, I’m on a very strict food protocol, an autoimmune protocol because of my health, and I take it very seriously. I can’t have sweeteners, I can’t have regular sugar. St. Claire’s organics is sourced with — it’s going to sound vile, but I promise you they’re delicious — tapioca, natural essential oil, and sweetened only with molasses, so your body knows how to process it. It’s delicious; my favorite is the wintermint. But every flavor, I buy a giant bag, and I just keep refilling my little tins. They’re delicious, and I always have beautiful minty breath.
I travel a lot, and the one thing that you can’t always rely upon is hotel mirrors to do your glam. So I have to travel with my own mirror. Now, I used to travel, and this is no joke, with mirrors and lights like I was a professional makeup artist (which I am by not by any means). It was very bulky, and it just wasn’t feasible. Then Riki came out with this massive LED — it’s as bright as a football-stadium light — on a really thin travel mirror, and it comes with a little collapsible stand. It is, by far, the best thing to have ever come out. So many people have tried the light mirror, you can go anywhere and find one, but for those in the know, and for every drag queen that I know, you can’t travel without a Riki. And I also have a little one that I keep in my set bag. It’s so bright, you can turn the brightness up and down, and it’s thinner than a laptop, so it can fit into a backpack or carry-on easily (I used to slip it inside a laptop sleeve, but they now sell travel cases for them, which I think is brilliant). It’s the best mirror out there, and it’s worth every penny.
Anybody who knows me knows I’m more of a skin fanatic than I am a makeup fanatic (even though I’m fanatical about both). I’ll get a lot of compliments on my skin. And, yes, a lot of us are born with it — I’m blessed with it — but I am a 55-year-old woman who takes impeccable care of her skin. Over the years, that’s always involved sunblock. Now, I’m going to preface this by saying I do use retinol every single night. If you use retinol (which is a game changer for your skin), you can see even more of a reason to wear sunscreen. I’ve tried every sunblock, and there are some incredible ones out there, but this is the one that I swear by because it doesn’t pill. There’s a lot that will dry on your skin and pill up, and when my makeup artists are trying to put makeup on, it starts to roll and then she has to take it all off because of the SPF I’ve used for skin prep. The Josie Maran one stays. It can leave a little bit of a white cast, but I block that by squirting it in with my moisturizer instead of putting the SPF on last.
I tan depending upon what I’m wearing. Recently, I’ve been wearing basically a napkin, so I want my body to be a little tanner because it’s sticking out. I’m not going to mess with the sun. I get my 15 minutes of sun unprotected every day, and then it’s sunblock on, and that’s it. This Dr. Hauschka stuff is great because it cuts any white cast, and it gives you a glow. If I wear it by itself, it will give me a little kick of color if I want it, but you’re not looking at me and going, Oh dear, something went wrong. It’s very minimal. It does come out very dark, though — I don’t want people to be afraid. But then once you rub it on, it just disperses. I put it on with moisturizer, almost always. You have to then replenish, because fake tanning does dry your skin up.
Again, I travel a lot. I have to have the creature comforts of home, and a blender is an important one for shakes because there’s a lot of times where I can’t get to a meal and have to keep my metabolism going. Now, the problem with most blenders out there — and I won’t name any names — is that they don’t really, really blend. When I have a smoothie, I want it to be frothy and creamy — I don’t want it to be chunky. And most of them can’t even handle breaking the ice, let alone frozen fruit. This one came on my algorithm, not gonna lie, on either Facebook or Instagram, and I’m a sucker — I’m influenced so easily. I bought it and it wasn’t cheap, but it is worth every penny. The blender cap itself is kind of heavy, but not terribly, so I’ve included my carry-on. It comes with an aluminum topper that comes with a plastic cup and I can’t tell you how great this thing is: It will shred anything. It’s like having a giant, like, Ninja giant blender with you that you can travel with. I’ve never had a problem traveling with it, and you can also feel confident about putting it in your packed bag because it is very sturdy, and it does come with a little travel bag.
I’ve always loved coffee, but when I started on this autoimmune protocol, I stopped drinking caffeine because it makes my heartbeat go crazy. I switched to decaf, and even that just didn’t feel right, so I dropped it completely. Sip herbal teas are made for people that are on the autoimmune protocol or struggle with allergies; it contains just chicory root and dandelion root. And it’s flavored naturally, with ingredients like vanilla bean. Now, if you like black coffee, you’d like it because it’s very bitter. But I can’t have it just black, so I brew it in a French press. And then I warm up some coconut milk and put it in there and sweeten it with a little maple syrup. And it’s like a little warm hug for your soul. Just a nice treat for me to travel with.
Paris came up with a whole line of kitchenware, and I saw it advertised somewhere, and they said it was selling on Amazon. So I looked on Amazon and I thought, Oh my goodness. I’d just broken my other French press, because I use this stuff so much. And I saw hers with the little love hearts on it. It’s gold. It’s pink. Even the scoop that it comes with it is heart-shaped, and it’s so affordable, and so sweet. Then: Oops, I bought it. And how cute it is.
In this life, you’ll never stay on something where you go, “All right, it’s 2024, I’m going to the gym twice a day, or I’m never gonna have sugar again.” That’s not realistic. It’s about choices that can hold yourself accountable. When you’re on AIP, you can’t really have much as far as baked goods unless you make them yourself — and I’m a busy working mom. This line was founded by two sisters and they both have autoimmune issues. They have mixes for pancakes, cookies, cupcakes, muffins; they have it all, and they’re delicious. It’s so delicious that I was talking to the owners and I said, “I really can eat the whole bag.” That’s the problem. Now understand that it’s not going to taste like you went to a Hummingbird Café, it’s going to taste like an allergen-friendly mix, but it’s for somebody who hasn’t doesn’t have that in their life.
I have been on a lip-plumper quest since I was 18 because I couldn’t afford lip fillers. Now, I’m not going to say that I haven’t had lip fillers, because I have, but I got them years ago. And now that I’ve gotten to the point where they hold, I just haven’t touched my lips in years. Even though I’ve done that, I still love plump lips. City Lips is something that goes under the radar that nobody really knows about. Now, I will say that it’s a little thick. I like the thickness of it, because it lasts longer on your lips. A lot of people hate lip plumpers because they hurt, but there’s something about the technology that they use that means this doesn’t make your lips sting. You don’t really feel it too much (unless you’re not used to it, and then you’ll feel it). But it works. They have great colors. I’m more of a fan of the glosses than I am of the liquid-lipstick type of situation. I use it at night, and you wake up and your lips are really plump, and look like you’ve got little bee-stung lips, and it’s incredible.
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