In The File: Sienna Spiro

We are witnessing a monumental wave that is not only taking the music industry by storm, but is also part of a profound shift that is happening globally. That wave is the return to elegance, the return to honouring, the return to timeless and meaningful beauty, and Sienna Spiro is one of the most stunning voices fronting this intentional and let’s be honest, much needed, movement of true female power. 

When Sienna enters the stage, she isn’t here to hype you, or excite you; she is here to sing to you – the way one can imagine being sung to in bygone eras. She is the show, and for sure, she stole it already. Sienna holds a see-through honesty where you can feel exactly what she is going through at every moment. She doesn’t ever hide or mask what she is feeling or pretend she is not. If she’s awkward or shy, the audience will know, because she shares herself that way.

Sienna’s wisdom extends further than age, in every regard. At 20 years old, and already being compared to the likes of Adele and Amy Winehouse, Sienna is easily on her way to becoming a British soul-pop icon. The magic in her voice is how that intensity lands – it is so deep you can swim in it, but it doesn’t drown you.

Really, Sienna is class in every way, something she is possibly learning to settle with. As she declared on stage recently, she woke up that morning, the day of her debut album launch, questioning what the point of it all was. A metaphorical question she dropped on the audience mid-performance, exuding her honesty but also her depth. What is really the point of it all? 

Some things might not always be easy to see, but ultimately nothing is random. Sienna is here because she is meant to be. Her voice is her voice because it was given to her. Her exquisite beauty, the eyes, the curious questioning of her soul, all make up the magic of Sienna, who might playfully indulge in a material-lover sort of persona, but actually her greatest strength is her asking, and defining, what the point truly is.

EC

Your image has evolved a lot. I remember when I first met you, you were 16, in baggy clothes, and now you’ve blossomed into this stunning, confident woman on stage, reminiscent of old Hollywood. What inspired this look? How did you get here?

SS

I can’t believe you knew me in that era! Well, I started when I was 16 and always really struggled with the way I looked and my body. I grew up much bigger as a child, and that impacted the way I saw myself, even when I lost weight. When I started doing music, performing, and being photographed, I was also becoming aware that I was being seen and perceived by people, and it scared me to death. I guess I wore really baggy clothes to hide myself, afraid of being judged and having comments about how I looked, because I grew up with people commenting on my weight, left, right and centre, so that was always in the back of my mind. 

And, to be completely transparent, it is a conversation that people in the industry have, about your image and how you need to have a strong image. I’ve always loved the 60s. That’s the era my dad was born in, and he showed me all the 60s greats, like the Ronettes, the Shangri-Las, and the Supremes, and that’s where the kind of hair inspiration came from. I always loved big hair, especially from British icons. That style felt most true to me, so I kept kind of developing my style, trying new silhouettes.

There was a time when I would only wear skirt suits and I wouldn’t show any of my body, and then, you know, you grow into your body, you grow a bit more confident. Now I really love the way I dress, and I love the style that I have – it makes me feel weirdly more like myself. It allows me to tap into something when I’m performing, because even though I’m completely myself, sometimes I have days where I’m not feeling amazing, but to know that my hair is going to be the same and to know what outfit I’m wearing really helps with performing.

EC

The way you dress up and how you claim your beauty on stage is so exquisite. Do you think we’ve become afraid of really dressing up or even expressing ourselves? 

SS

This is really interesting, because this is in a weird way, its kind of what ‘Die on this hill” is about, because there’s a really big wave of nonchalance, and people thinking it’s not cool to care about things and it’s not cool to be passionate – and I just really disagree with that. I think it’s the coolest thing to care about stuff and to be passionate, and be yourself and express yourself.

There’s a big thing of like ‘clean girl’ makeup, and ‘clean girl’ this, and everything’s a matching tracksuit and obviously, if that’s your vibe – amazing. But the reason why I love the 60s was because it was so expressive. The 70s, 80s, 90s were so expressive and it was so individual, people were so unafraid to just show off in a way. I love that. I think that’s why I love New York – people are not judgmental and you can walk down the street and see a hundred different characters in the span of five minutes. So yeah, I think people are afraid and I don’t think they should be. Like who gives a fuck?

EC

You’re part of this wave of female artists who are showing that you don’t have to over-sexualise yourself to be successful. Is that a conscious choice for you?

SS

I guess it’s a conscious thing for me. It’s been a journey to actually like myself, and so that’s why I’ve never worn crazy revealing clothes, but I think it’s really important that people dress for themselves. Especially when you might be an artist or someone people look at, because women haven’t always been able to do that. Even ten years ago, or so, you were kind of dictated to on what you should wear and everything was quite hyper-sexual, and if that is something that you want to do and you feel comfortable with, that is amazing. And if you don’t, it’s amazing that you don’t have to do that anymore. People should always dress for themselves because it changes everything. People underestimate how important it is, but it changes everything – the way you approach people, the way you approach yourself, the way you talk, the way you act, the way you feel, it’s very, very important.

EC

Can you talk us through your beauty routine?

SS

If I’m taking off a lot of makeup, I usually start with the ginseng cleansing oil, which is really nice. Even though I hate mascara, it takes it off really easily.

Then I’ll cleanse with the Tatcha Rice Wash, which is amazing. It’s really gentle. I don’t like things that strip your skin. It has tiny little like rice grains in it that exfoliate as well. I really like rice products because they are super gentle and I have really sensitive skin. 

So usually I’ ll go in with this Glow Replenishing Rice Milk from the Beauty of Joseon. I love it and feel like it helped clear my cystic acne a lot that I had from 16 to 18 – which was really bad, like big lumps under my face.

I use much more gentle products now. I really tried everything and found the things that I like.

Also Differin Gel really helped get rid of my acne. 

Then I’ll use the Tatcha Dewy Serum or Brightening Serum. Then after this, the Dewy skin cream. I feel like my skin drinks it. I might double moisturize as well, especially in winter my skin gets so dry. And then I would use SPF, and the Rhode Glazing Mist Spray and we’re good. 

EC

We can often be our own harshest critics. How do you deal with those thoughts when they come up?

SS

We all get them. I wish I had an answer. Even the most beautiful women in the world have these thoughts, and it’s unfortunately part of being a woman and part of this societal standard that’s been created, that women have been held to this beauty standard. Especially now with things like TikTok and Instagram and social media, you see so much, and you’re not meant to see that much. It’s very unnatural for humans to know about all of this about everyone. You have to just remember that it’s probably not normal, or even real what you see, and try not to compare yourself. Comparison is the thief of joy.

EC

It’s almost like it’s not cool to care anymore – not about your appearance, your passions or even oddly, falling in love. Have you noticed that?

SS

Well, that’s another thing, everyone’s like, ‘fuck them, fuck him’, and you know, ‘red flag, red flag’, but humans are humans, people make mistakes. I was once of that mindset, ‘oh, he did this thing, fuck him. Never going back’, but my sister taught me so much about patience through her relationship. People really need to learn a little patience because everyone’s human and everyone’s getting on with it. I don’t love that mindset of cancel culture.

EC

Do you think social media and dating apps have contributed to this idea that relationships should be perfect? That if something goes wrong, jump ship rather than working through it?

SS

It’s confusing and weird. It’s swipe culture, and also social media. It’s a hard thing to articulate. I think I was really scared of it. I’m now recently in something with someone, but at one point early on I was like, this is not going to work, I didn’t even give it a chance – I didn’t even give it five seconds because it’s just absolutely terrifying. I guess people push the ‘independent women’ thing, but you can have a balance. Life is literally about balance. You just have to figure out what works for yourself. I do really think people need to just be a bit more patient with each other, and a bit more open-minded too. 

EC

And what about your makeup routine?

SS

Hourglass Hydrating Skin Tint, in shade 7. I’ve gone away from this a lot, and always come back to it, it’s always great, and they do not test on animals either. I’m a big fan. It’s all very hydrating, I don’t like to feel anything on my face.

Then concealer. I love the Gucci concealer, Bobbi Brown, Saie, and Glossier ones, but the Gucci one is my favourite. The packaging is like treasure, I love it.

I do my eyebrows with a brown eye pencil. I used to draw my eyebrows with eyeshadow when I was younger, like a sparkly dark brown eyeshadow because that’s all I had, it was terrible. 

I was using the Gucci bronzer, but I stole my mother’s Clarins one and I really like it, it’s very natural. I’m not mad at being super pale though. I feel like I’m just so pale that I have to own it.

I hate blush, but the only one I’ll use is the Rhode in Toasted Teddy. 

Then I’ll powder with the Laura Mercier powder. Classic, been around. 

Then I’ll put my eyelashes on now. The fairy lashes from Amazon. I love them, they are amazing. I get the biggest two and put them in the middle, not at the end. I literally feel naked without them, honestly. I actually taught myself, even though other people did try and teach me, these were the only ones I could do under the eye. They are spiky. 

I used to draw squares on my nose’ cause I hated my nose. Now I just get a blonde eyebrow pencil and I draw a line at the tip. It doesn’t always look amazing, but I need it. But I used to use eyeshadow and it probably looked terrible. But a blonde eye pencil is your best bet’ cause it gives you just a little definition. 

Then, Charlotte Tilbury Cheat lip liner in Iconic Nude. I feel like it’s the only one that suits my face. 

I try to use brands that don’t test on animals, it’s something I feel strongly about.

EC

You’ve mentioned before that you feel the music almost comes through you rather than from you. Can you share a little on that?

SS

I feel it takes a bit of pressure off to see yourself as more of a translator and vessel because it’s such an inspiration, and making songs is such a weird thing because maybe lyrics can come from you, but melody – like, I have no idea where that comes from. And even for me, I don’t know music that well in terms of say, scales, and I’m not great with chords, I can just do the basics, so it’s all very intuitive. I guess I feel like I’m connected to what you could call a source, and that’s kind of how I see that music comes into the world.

EC

You’ve become such an important role model because you are so honest about everything – confidence, insecurity and beauty. How has your perspective on beauty changed over the years?

SS

Everybody’s different, and I guess it’s what we said earlier, comparison really is a thief of joy. I spent a long time comparing myself to others and it’s just the most unhelpful thing you could ever do because not everybody’s the same, and never will be. Everybody’s different, and growing up really helps us understand that. We’re all learning.