Cara Delevingne On Her $15.99 Brow Gel & Favorite Wuthering Heights Beauty Moment

Cara Delevingne just told me I have “fantastic brows,” and I’m not okay. Well, that’s not entirely true: I’m genuinely overwhelmed with joy at the compliment, and not only because Cara Delevingne is my brow icon — brows are her ultimate beauty signature. (In my mind, this is akin to if Michaelangelo complimented me at a Paint & Sip.)  

The L’Oréal ambassador and multi-hyphenate has had a packed schedule as of late, including attending the recent Wuthering Heights premiere to support her friend Margot Robbie. “I've seen it twice,” she gushes, adding that while she doesn’t typically love period films, the beauty moments were nothing short of mesmerizing. “Margot’s skin and freckles are so gorgeous, and that dewy kind of half-sweat, half-fog from the moors kind of thing, was just so incredible.” (No disagreement there.)  

Ahead, Refinery29 chats with Delevingne about her current makeup and skincare must-haves, beauty philosophy, and why sisterhood is more important than ever. 

Delevingne has been a runway mainstay since the 2010s, and has been public about her own skin journey, ranging from psoriasis flareups to adult acne. These days, she says, less is much more — a sort of pendulum effect of years of a “really intense way of doing things," earlier in her career, as she puts it, with elaborate, multi-step skincare routines: “Now, I just wash my face and use the [L’Oréal] Revitalift serum, give myself a little lymphatic massage, and drain all that nonsense out my face.” Cut to us both on Zoom, demonstrating our favorite techniques; I’m partial to using my fingertips to glide from between the brows down to the cheekbones, and sweeping along jawline to relieve tension and temporarily depuff. 

It's been a long time since I’ve been genuinely floored by a beauty hack, but Delevingne’s takes the cake, IMO. “For a long time — way before I even worked with L'Oréal — I would always use Elnett [hairspray] on my brows because it reminded me of my granny,” she tells me. “I’d just get a little mascara wand and put it on [the bristles].” (Editor’s note: I can confirm this indeed, works like a charm.) However, if you prefer to stick to actual gels Delevingne and I both swear by L’Oréal’s Infallible Brow Lamination gel. It’s especially great for naturally thick brows since it delivers all-day hold but doesn’t feel crunchy, nor does it leave visible, dandruff-like residue that shows up in darker brows like mine. And it seems Delevingne agrees: “I think if I laminated my brows, they would look crazy since I already trim them a lot, but I love the lamination gel.” 

Delevingne is refreshingly candid about discussing her career, but absolutely lights up when speaking about the philanthropic work she gets to witness as part of L’Oréal’s Women of Worth — a mission-driven initiative inspired by the brand’s iconic tagline. “I think especially right now when gender equality and women's rights are being taken away and stripped back so much, [it’s inspiring] to be able to bring something that isn't fear and bad news,” she says of the program, which awards ten monetary grants of $25,000 to non-profits grounded in female empowerment. “I remember going to my first [Women of Worth] event back in 2024, and I can't tell you how inspired and blown away I was by all of them,” she says. “And [when] people asked me, ‘Which one touched you the most?”’ I was like, ‘Which one didn’t?’” (Facts!) 

In typical Delevingne fashion, the model is having more fun than ever when it comes to beauty — and making it her own. “Growing up as a girl that didn't love very feminine things like clothes and makeup, I didn't have an appreciation for it when I was modeling in the same way that I do now,” she says. “When I had space to explore and figure out my own style, my own way of doing makeup, it's like I've experienced what most girls go through as a teenager in my 20s and 30s — it’s that second coming of being a woman.” 

Having walked countless runways around the world, Delevingne is right at home at a fashion show — but nothing compared to the experience of being in L’Oréal’s Le Défile, which has taken place at Paris Fashion Week for two years in a row. “When I was doing fashion shows, I definitely felt nervous and alone, but in that lineup, you have other people lift you up and do the same for others,” she says. “I’m in the lineup next to Jane Fonda talking about the things that scare us most, about lessons that we've learned and how important female friendship is.” 

From Paper Towns to Only Murders In The Building (in addition to several other projects currently in the works), Delevingne has been busy honing her craft as an actor and utilizing beauty in her process. “When you're playing a character, I try to think of what scent that person would wear or what little makeup thing that they are really tied to,” she says. “For me as a person, I love doing a cat eye with liquid eyeliner, because I'm good at drawing. So being able to think about that for a character is always so fun, and I think it's such a good tool to get into that [mindset].”