Brooke Shields: "Confidence Is the Most Beautifying" Characteristic

Clearly Brooke's new makeup collection with MAC Cosmetics is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to her beauty knowledge. Of course the collection is stocked with a brow-changing pencil — the Veluxe Brow Liner ($20) — because Brooke was rocking bold brows before bushy was the norm. She's never once waxed or threaded but will occasionally reach for the tweezers if a unibrow is looming. Her mom instilled this strict no-touching policy in Brooke at a young age, and she does the same for her two daughters. "She [my mom] was the one that wouldn't let anyone touch my eyebrows," she said. "I mean, people wanted to bleach them, they wanted to pluck them, and she just said, 'Nope, off limits,' and I'm the same with my daughters, too."

Next month Brooke is releasing her second memoir titled, There Was a Little Girl: The Real Story of My Mother and Me, with more sage advice from her mother, Teri Shields. "She always used to say, watch Diana Ross walk out on a stage. You would think she had the best body in the world, and she does because she walks as if she does," she said. "I think that kind of confidence is the most beautifying." Brooke also sourced headstrong women like Jackie O., Grace Kelly, Kate Moss, and Brigitte Bardot as inspiration when it came to making her own makeup line. "It's women that had a sense of youthfulness, but a sexuality to them," she said. "That's the way the modern woman really is and that's scary for some people because it's hard to have women be all that, especially for men."

Brooke has created a cosmetics collection based on the idea that women are complex creatures, and let's be real, it also taps into our naturally indecisive nature. "I've noticed all the women that I talk to really have two sides to their personality, and it's not just day-to-night," she said. "But there's a sexier side, there's a more youthful side, and I think that celebrating all of it was the inspiration to create the two different palettes." Not only are there two different shadow sets, but MAC also created a 15-shadow mega-palette called Gravitas ($85), which is sure to become a collector's item. And all the orange? The tangerine lipstick, the citrine and matte gray packaging, and the peachy lip gloss all pulled from a decorating experiment (you truly never know when inspiration will strike).

Despite the abundance of eye makeup in the collection, Brooke is only semipro when it comes to application skills. Even after all her years in the makeup chair, she still has to call in reinforcements when it comes time to do that smoky eye at home. "I've had to study pictures of myself, because it's a luxury and also a detriment to have had my makeup done by professionals so often," she explained. "When I try to do it, I look like I've been punched in the face. So, sometimes I'll get a little tutorial on the phone." Oh, the black-eye smoky eye is one we're very familiar with, Brooke!

Brooke's also picked up a few skin care secrets from her professional glam squad along the way. Does she get facials? Yes, regularly. What's her tried-and-true skin care product? Elizabeth Arden Eight-Hour Cream. What's her big secret to stunning skin? Avoid alcohol (noooo). "If I drink less, exercise more, and drink a lot of water, I look better, healthier, and younger," she explained. "I can’t say I always do that, but I’ve noticed the difference. Alcohol to me is probably the worst thing for my skin. When I’m really dehydrated, it’s usually because of that [alcohol]. Once I get on a better routine of sleeping and exercising and keeping the water, it [takes off] five years." Five years! We'll work on that whole alcohol thing, but no promises.

She may have grown up in front of the camera, where she was idolized for her beauty, but I can appreciate that Brooke's not afraid to go without makeup. Yoga class, the grocery store, and the airport (barring LAX) are all places you might spot a bare-faced Brooke, much to the chagrin of her daughters. "My daughter wants me to show up to every school event with makeup on and even just dropping her off," she said. "I'm like, 'I'm an icon, do you know that?' and she's like, 'I don't care. I don't even know what that means, but you should wear makeup.'"

But she's only 11, so we'll wait to get her opinion once she puts on her first full face of makeup. Honey, it ain't easy! And I'm sure one day she'll appreciate the fact that even though her mother is one of the most beautiful women in the world, there is no pressure to be anything but an original. "I just want them to feel that they don't need to change how they look to be their beautiful self. Like my mom would say, 'Keep your head high, stand up for who you are, and embrace yourself.'"