Q&A with Author (and yes, Lucky Beauty Editor) Jean Godfrey-June

 

Hello strangers! 

Oh, how I've MISSED you guys!  I feel really bad for not updating - but look how I'm making it up to you - a Q&A with Jean Godfrey-June!

Jean, as all of you beauty and fashion junkies out there most surely know, is the beauty director of Lucky magazine.  She is also the former beauty and fitness editor of Elle, a yoga devotee and not particularly fond of her arms.

I remember Jean as one of the more humane beauty editors at the beauty press functions I attended waaay back in the day when I was a lowly assistant editor at GQ.   Jean's first book, Free Gift with Purchase:  My Improbable Career in Magazines and Makeup was just released in paperback - and it is really good!  And I'm not just saying that because I know her! There is a reason the New York Times called it "A witty, confectionary memoir."  It's true!   Therefore, it is indeed with great pleasure that I welcome Jean to 55 Secret Street!

Nichelle:   There are a lot of great behind the scene stories in Free Gift with Purchase, particularly the theatrics during your years at Elle.  What did you want to convey in the book?  Also, what kind of feedback have you gotten on the book from non-industry people?

Jean Godfrey-June:  How funny and unexpectedly weird all these supposedly glamorous experiences I’ve had really are. We all know the feeling of wanting the free gift with purchase at the makeup counter: You wait for it, you’re so excited, you stand in line, you get it — and it’s got a hot-coral lipstick and a blue mascara that you’ll never wear . . .  but then maybe it’s also got a moisturizer you love . .  so the lipstick and the mascara rattle around in your makeup drawer forever, you feel too guilty to throw them out --  you know that feeling? That’s sort of my career! It’s glamorous, but it’s also a little ridiculous.

Feedback has been great—I mean, I can’t imagine people would tell me they hated it—but I’ve gotten a lot of letters and emails that have been incredibly heartening.

Nichelle:  The book opens with you talking about your "anti-glamour" scientist mother that loved short hair so much, she made you wear a pixie even though you were always mistaken for a boy.  Now, your long, long hair is a trademark for you.  Do you really plan to "grow into one of those disconcerting ninety-year-olds who let their age-ravaged hair fall about their shoulders like overcooked pasta" or do you think you may cut your hair one day?

Jean:  I absolutely meant everything I said in the book!

Nichelle:  You call yourself a "dark horse" in the beauty industry.   Do you have any advice for other "dark horses" who are interested in the magazine industry? 

Jean:  I was a dark horse in terms of getting the Elle job, because at that point I didn’t have a great deal of beauty-specific experience. My advice to anyone & everyone—in just about any business—is to SHOW people you can do it, rather than trying to think of a great way to phrase things in an interview. My version of this: When I was starting out, I found that writing the traditional “query” letters (where you propose the article you want to write to an editor at a magazine) was harder than simply writing the article, so I started writing the articles in full and sending them in instead of the query. I also wrote them specifically for the magazine I wanted them to be in, copying each magazine’s style as closely as I could. I got pieces in New York magazine, Vogue, and Conde Nast Traveler that way.  Also, when the senior editor position came up at Elle, I didn’t have lots of beauty experience—but they knew they liked my writing, so they were willing to take a chance on me.

Nichelle:  I agree that queries are a pain (it's one of the reasons I started a blog) but do you think that would work now?  Would magazines today be likely to accept full articles (even short front-of-book) stuff?  Also, do you think certain magazines would accept a blog entry as a "clip" to showcase one's writing ability? 

Jean:   Of course it's got to be a fantastic article targeted very intently at the particular magazine, but it saves everyone a lot of time.  And yes, blog entries work as clips!

Nichelle:  You also mentioned, perhaps in jest, that all fashion editors are "commanding, disdainful, cruel."  Why do you think (too many of them) are that way?

Jean:  Lucky fashion editors—which I mention in the book—are an entirely different breed. At least so far!  But fashion—it’s an extremely subjective business built on constant change.  People can be a little insecure.  Insecurity turns the nicest person into a nightmare.   

Nichelle:  Not to put you on the spot, but do you read blogs?  I'm surprised that you don't have a blog on Lucky's site.

Jean:  Blogs - I read, yes.  If I were to write a blog, I would have not time to produce the beauty section of Lucky! 

Nichelle:   Tell me about the magic that is Phytojoba Shampoo.  You mention it everywhere!  That and Laura Mercier's concealer.

Jean:  Shampoo is such an utterly personal thing that it’s hard to recommend — that said, I have a good hair day every time I use the Phytojojoba—despite the fact that it’s for dry, damaged hair and my hair is neither of those things! I always try new shampoos, given my line of work — and nothing ever compares. There’s just no good hair day without it.  Laura Mercier's concealer is wildly superior to any other, particularly if it’s undereye circles that are bothering you. One of my male friends refers to it as,  “that stuff you put on that makes you look awake and 10 years younger”.

Nichelle:   You say that you believe in the old makeup adage that says a woman should focus on her eyes or lips – but not both.  I've always had a hard time with that because even if you go subtle on the eyes and dramatic on the lips, you're still really focusing on both.  And, I tend to think that I look better when I make the effort to focus on both!  Your thoughts?

Jean:  Every woman knows what works for her!

Nichelle:  There is a funny anecdote in the book about your days as the only white person working at an all black ad agency in the mid west.  You mention that your co-workers gave you tips about mousses and curling irons before finally sending you to a salon to get a perm complete with terrible smelling chemicals and rods.  This had to be the 80s and I just need to know if any of your advisers had Jheri curls, because if they did, they know they were dead wrong!

Jean: I think they just thought my flat, boring hair was hideous & they wanted to help!

Nichelle:  What are some of your "summer favorites" i.e., books, music, makeup, and fashion? 

Jean:  I am totally lame in the music department and really listen only to Hole's Celebrity Skin and Beck's Odelay.  Occasionally a Cake album.  Mostly I listen to Howard Stern, which I realize is not music, but still. It’s the same venue: My car when my kids are not in it. 

*When my kids are in the car, I do not play children’s music. Women everywhere should free themselves of the awful, pointless tyranny! if you don’t play it, they don’t know it exists! Children will listen to regular music happily.

I just finished Norman Rush’s horribly named but really good “Mating”; the new Alice Munro is unbelievably fantastic (I had never laughed out loud while reading her, & did several times during The View from Castle Rock.  As is the new Amy Hempel.  And Survival of the Sickest is compulsively readable to all who enjoy a random and fascinating health fact. I could not put it down, and I still cannot stop quoting information from it.

My summer makeup and my rest-of-the-year makeup are pretty much the same thing, boringly. The cornerstone is more-than-ever self-tanner— Lancome's Flash Bronzer Gel for Legs. Yes it says for legs, and yes I use it even on my face. The only real update is there’s a Flash Bronzer spray that’s very good for body but not for face —or feet. So I use a combo of the spray and the gel. But the gel’s the thing I couldn’t live without. I am currently in love with Chanel’s Inimitable mascara, and the weirdest new obsession is a tinted undereye cream from Bobbi Brown that I use on its own on the weekends, and as a base for the Laura Mercier during the week. I am loathe to ever add new steps, and the idea of layering two concealers is in theory insane, and yet — I can’t argue with the results.

Fashion—well.   If I hadn’t just bought a house I can’t afford, I would be swimming in Lanvin. A puffed sleeve, a tight-ish Empire feeling.  I am enjoying the whole Empire moment, though none of the short.

Nichelle:  How do you decide what to wear for speaking engagements or television appearances? Do you have a "uniform?"

Jean:  I try to look vaguely editor-ish & like I’ve made an effort, but I don’t have a specific thing I always wear.     At the office, though, there is a joke that I have a uniform: A pleated skirt with a t-shirt and a somewhat rumpled, shrunken cardigan. The individual items change, but the basic look remains the same.

When I was on my book tour, I discovered that I looked 1,000 times better on a 6 am TV show if I used  Cover Girl Lash Exact Mascara, which rules.

Nichelle:   Do you have a novel tucked away in a drawer at home?  When I heard you were writing a book, I though, "Ooh, Jean's gonna write a novel!" 

Jean:   I love to write fiction, & yes I’ve got something tucked away.

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Top author photo by Adam Smith.  Author photo with products by Ruby Washington via The New York Times. 

Comments

[Meg]

I absolutely adore Jean Godfrey-June, her column is the first I flip to when I get my issue of Lucky each month. I also loved her book, which really led me to think about the relationship women have to beauty products in a whole new light. I wrote a review of the book here, in case anyone is interested:

http://fakinggoodbreeding.blogspot.com/2007/01/review-free-gift-with-purchase.html

Great interview!

[Nichelle]

Hey Meg,

Congratulations on your internship! I was going to email this post to you, so you beat me to the punch with your comment.

[Erin]

I generally gloss over blog interviews, but this one was awesome. Good job and it sounds like I really need to check out that book...

[Tammy]

Yeah for older chicks with long hair!