The Beauty of Taylour Paige

We all know Hollywood is derived from storytelling, fantasy, glamour and illusion. But at what point do we stop and ask, hold on – where are we being led with this all? As we eagerly push play, it seems more often than not we are happy to be taken on a journey to try and find the pot of gold, somewhere over the rainbow. Promised that it will give us everything we desire, yet we’re never really shown where that pot truly is. 

Taylour Paige is one of those iridescent people who will face the front and admit to everyone, that there is nothing much over the rainbow and the pot of gold was actually with you the whole time.

In a world that perpetuates the idea that we should always be striving for more, and needing to be more, do more, have more, it is utterly refreshing and deeply poignant to hear a very gorgeous, and very talented actress like Taylour express from her lived experience and realisation that in fact, nothing is greater than the relationship you have with yourself, and the universe. 

As she moves through Hollywood, winning the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead for her role in Zola, alongside iconic moments like her starring in Kendrick Lamar’s short film ‘We Cry Together’ (a moment she credits as a personal career highlight), there is no denying the talent and power Taylour exudes on screen. Off-screen though, her sparkle is even more tangible – she is beautiful, vivacious, bright, and extremely otherworldly. She brings something rare and thought-provoking to the mundanity and falsity that festers around us. She isn’t someone who can be told how it is, but she knows her truth and walks that in every part of her life and nothing, not even Hollywood, can tempt her from her seat of substance.

Authenticity is the drug. And Taylour Paige is it – an absolute beauty, inside and out.

My relationship with beauty is now so much healthier and is more about the radiance from within, which is such a cliche thing to say. Growing up, I was deeply insecure and was raised by that. I felt very much like an ugly duckling and carried a bit of a generational lack of self-worth. I come from a line of wounded women who also had a weird relationship with beauty.

As a kid, I was taught that there is an emphasis on beauty and an emphasis on being perfect and presenting yourself a certain way and caring what people think. I watched Sound of Music and I thought Julie Andrews was beautiful because she was free. I grew up watching My Fair Lady and A Little Princess and similar films.

My mum was and is a hard worker. She’s resilient and strong, but I wouldn’t say that freedom was her force. But I was attracted to freedom in women, like self-confidence. I started to work on that because I was so hard on myself. 

Dance didn’t make it easier, the pressures. But I also knew that I was a performer.

Before, I was waiting on outward validation – to feel worthy and to feel approved. 

I was focused on getting a job because I needed the money. I don’t like to say money is the root of all evil, but we always think it’s the answer. And really, you’re the answer. Like you’ll get more money when you see you, really. 

I’m feeling a lot better knowing like, there’s not really a destination. Because even if I win an Oscar, it’s like, well, I’ve got to get back to work. And now I’m getting offered things, I’m on an adventure and I’m grateful. So I have to remind myself because I can be a little hard on myself, I’m trying to talk to myself like a friend.

My husband and I always talk about how people don’t have ideas, ideas have people, and this idea of I’m not where I should be – is that really my idea or is that just society? Like that’s the society I was, you know, beating. And it’s like girl, you’re good.

Seek God in all things. Seek it in you. And like that will be far more far more rewarding and powerful than, you know, what it all looks like. I think eventually you wake up and you’re there. You’re like, oh, there I am. I always had exactly what I needed, it was in me the whole time. Which is actually funny enough, what Wizard of Oz is about. Speaking of long-lived Judy, but like. It wasn’t somewhere over the rainbow. It was with you all along. There wasn’t like some wizard that was going to have the answers, like you’re the wizard. 

I do. Yeah, I do love it. Like with everything, I have doubts and I question and I compare.

Acting was hard and still is. But I keep coming back to freedom.

There’s no, ‘I did this’. I mean, you climb the mountain and then you’re like, well, I want to climb another one. But it’s about who you’re going with, and who you’re becoming in the process of going up the mountain that makes it worth it. You’re like, wow, I’ve become stronger. I’ve become more patient. I’ve become more compassionate. I had so much fun laughing with you when we couldn’t get up and we almost rolled back down. That’s actually the whole point. 

We hear about so many talented people who were so unfulfilled, like Judy Garland or Marilyn Monroe. I look at someone like Josephine Baker, whose life kind of started similar to Judy Garland’s. I relate to them. Home life was tough, and then they got into performing. Some of it was survival or imagination to create another world, but it seems she never came into herself. She was always literally somewhere over the rainbow. 

Judy never figured out who she was outside of yearning. I feel like society relates to her because we all are yearning. We all like to connect. I’m yearning.

But there is no destination. Every movement you take you with you, so it’s best to figure out you. The work you do on yourself can be painful. It gets ugly. There’s a lot to confront. But what’s the alternative? Like to not?

We could go, well, Judy had it all. But did she have it all? Like how did she? 

I had someone on my team recently say, ‘We really got to get that number up to a million,’ and I was like, ‘I want to pull my hair out’ because I can’t believe we’re still talking about this. What I’m trying to do isn’t quantifiable in a number on social media, it’s spirit. 

Of course, I compare, or I save things to be inspired by. I dissociate scroll for sure. I am so sensitive and it’s easy for me to just go on my phone and start scrolling and I will check myself – what are you looking for, like seriously, what are you looking for? 

It’s an endless loop; the endless loop is our psyche. If we don’t go, wait a second, the answer isn’t here and it’s definitely wasting time and not dealing with whatever I don’t want to confront, by scrolling. What am I even thinking about as I’m scrolling?

Luckily I have self-awareness. I want to give to the world something unique that each of us has, but if we’re so busy looking at what other people have and do, and trying to regurgitate it, we’re kind of like we’re missing the mark. It’s a grave error!

And you have to have a conscious aversion to that because it’s gotten into our psyches. My husband always says it got into our psyches without permission so we don’t even know the long-term effects.

In the past, I would always wear baggier clothes not wanting people to look at me. I hadn’t figured it out yet. But lately, within the last year, I put an outfit on like today’s the occasion. There’s nothing to be. Today’s my life.  I remember as a kid I’d buy something, like a shirt and I would wait a long time to wear the nice shirt. I don’t know what that’s about, but now I buy something and I’ll wear it and enjoy it. Today is the occasion.

I love style and clothes and expression, and I think I’ve been waiting to be anointed or appointed from something outside, and you have to become the thing that you’re seeking. 

I love my dogs, having to walk them and just be outside, leaving my phone behind is incredible. Our pets teach us such quality life lessons in such a short amount of time. If I’m feeling down, or insecure it puts things back into perspective. Your dogs don’t care about those things, and why should you? If what they need to be in a relationship with you is what you already have, isn’t that enough?

I’m really grateful to have legs that can walk, if you’ve got something going on, you know how they say go for a walk and clear your head? And I love a blue sky too, the sky always blows my mind because I’m like, okay today it’s just clear, it’s like a blank canvas, and then the next day it’s beautiful clouds, and then the next day it’s like a couple of clouds. It’s amazing that every day it changes, and all you have to do is look up and it’s a painting for you. I’m in awe a lot of the time. As much as I wonder what the f*** is going on here, what is this place? I’m also like what is this magical place too?

It’s funny because no matter what you believe in, even if you don’t believe in God, you have a sense that there is something more, and that’s crazy you know, it’s really cool.

I start my day with some hot water and lemon and bone broth. Then I’ll ice my face. Then depending on if I’ve filmed the day before, which I have been doing for the last 6 weeks, I’ll do a light little lymphatic then put on a serum. I like Vitamin C, the SkinCeuticals C E Freulic one is great. It smells a bit like bacon which I don’t like, but it works! Sometimes I’ll use the Peter Thomas Roth Vitamin C. I also interchange as a serum Biafine – I swear by it! Then I’ll top it with some Paula’s choice moisturizer. 

At night to take off everything I will cleanse with La Roche Posay – so tried and true. I exfoliate with Paula’s choice – I love how simple and nonfragrant her things are. Then I’ll pop a Paula’s Choice serum on. Sometimes I’ll use some nice Korean skincare. Then I’ll do retinol. But recently I rediscovered Differin gel  (which you can get at Target), It really works!

Then I slather my face in hyaluronic acid from the ordinary, and Paula’s choice moisturizer. I also sometimes use glutaryl glutathione from Auro Wellness before my moisturizer.

Then to top it all off I’ll put my Celluma red light and lay and pray, or be in silence and get ready to let the day go.

I’m working right now so I’m in makeup for literally 14-15-16 hours a day. So when I have the weekend off I’m wearing nothing. But even in my day to day not working I don’t do too much makeup. I won’t go without my Hourglass mascara. I’ve always been a mascara girl – I sometimes swap between the Hourglass and Lancome mascara. They know what to do with lashes!

If I’m going to try and attempt makeup it’s Armani Luminous Silk foundation, I apply it with my finger on my spots then I spread it with the warmth of my fingers. A nice little lip trick is the Givenchy balm, it adds a very natural little balm with a slight color.

Sometimes I’ll pop on Makeup Forever lip liner in Versatile chestnut and limitless brown, or a Charlotte Tilbury lip liner at night time for a little sophistication.

I start off my day with some hot water and lemon, and bone broth.

I have LNT electrolyte packets that I put in my water. I really like Athletic Greens – which you also put in your water. I take an essential mineral complex by Mercola. I take Fatty 15 which is like omegas but it’s much stronger. It is science backed and based on studying dolphins and their aging processes – the dolphins that have the fatty 15 (which is made of fish with higher fat) live longer.

My beautiful friend Elizabeth Halpern, is an amazing woman who’s 53-something and looks like she’s 20-something, she has energy and fervor for life and goes to biohacking conferences. She’s taught me everything I know and literally will break down my blood work and go okay, I see you’re dehydrated, your vitamin D is technically where society would say is good, but it should be higher. She has helped me take my health into my own hands.