Three staples in Cox’s
minimalist makeup bag,
from top: Pat McGrath Labs
MatteTrance Lipstick in
Flesh 3, Clinique All About
Eyes Serum De-Puffing
Eye Massage, and Tarte
Shape Tape Contour
Concealer in 53N Deep.
I had ever seen. She was wearing
a diamond headdress and pink eye
shadow. She looked like royalty.” But
it was the woman’s regal air—Cox
later discovered it was Iman—that
made her stand out. And it was some-
thing Cox wanted to emulate.
She recalls the moment she
recognized a similar beauty in her-
self: “Around ’97, I got these honey-
colored loose braids, and I felt like
something shifted. I came out of a
shell and introduced myself as Laverne
for the first time.” Today, blonde hair is
still Cox’s signature look. The rest of
her beauty routine is simple: a daily
dose of Clinique eye serum and mois-
turizer, Tarte Shape Tape concealer,
MAC Mineralize Skinfinish powder, and
a swipe of Pat McGrath Labs lipstick.
At 47, Cox exudes her own queenly
aura. “I honestly feel like I look bet-
ter than I ever have,” she says. “This
feeling of oneness with yourself and
the universe comes with age, and it
makes you look better.” —JESSICA CRUEL
Lessons Laverne(d)
A conversation with Promising Young Woman star Laverne Cox reveals
she’s not afraid to speak her mind—even to the SCOTUS.
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When you see Laverne Cox acting
onscreen, that’s only half of her
job. (Her new film, Promising
Young Woman, premieres April 17.)
Off-camera, she’s making sure no
one forgets all the ways LGBTQ+
people are in danger of losing their
rights. When we spoke with her, the
Supreme Court was deliberating a
Title VII case that could legalize dis-
crimination against LGBTQ+ people
in the workplace. “Because I’m a
black trans woman,” she says, “I’m at
the center of a culture war.”
Cox has been instrumental in that
battle. Sometimes she’s standing on
the steps of the Supreme Court; other
times she’s behind-the-scenes. Earlier
this year, she executive-produced a
documentary, Disclosure, that chron-
icles the representation of transgen-
der people in media. “We are at an
unprecedented moment of trans vis-
ibility,” she says, “where trans people
are being cast in roles that are not
just trans and where our stories are
being told with such humanity.”
Growing up in Alabama, before
her transition, Cox rarely saw trans-
gender people in magazines or on
TV, but she was still able to cultivate
her beauty ideal. “I remember lying
in bed with Jet magazine next to me,”
Cox says. “The woman on the cover
was the most beautiful human being
14 ALLURE APRIL 2020
FROM LEFT:
COURTESY OF BRANDS (3);
CARISSA GALLO
