I wear two bracelets. Both were gifts that I put on the minute I opened the box and never took off. The first is a Sydney Evan evil eye bracelet. I love evil eyes—anything to try and ward off people's bad energy. The second is a Luis Miguel Howard bracelet with a gold star. I have been into stars hardcore since I played with Barbie and Jem—the shape is so spectacular. I love how this bracelet drapes off of the wrist. The star is high-impact, but it also adds a little "pow," I think.
Have you ever lost or broken a piece of jewelry?
I'm still longing for pieces that I had when I was a little girl. Maybe my mom has it somewhere, or it's in storage or something, but I had a gold nameplate in the early Nineties. This was obviously pre-Carrie Bradshaw, so there was nothing funky or ironic about it. In fact, the nameplate craze was very serious. Mine was 14 karat gold and came on a 14K box link chain, which I thought was very sophisticated. "Jessica" was written in script, and the "i" was dotted with a heart shaped diamond. At that time, every girl in school was wearing a nameplate, and many of their mothers were, too. (Strange.) I must have begged for it, because I remember feeling so relieved when I got it. I wore it with everything—a nice cable-knit sweaters one day, and a Ren and Stimpy t-shirt the next. I need to find that thing—there's no way we got rid of it!
We love our startup girls - tell us about the process of starting Fat Mascara. How did that come about?
A few years ago, I got really into podcasts—mostly WTF with Marc Maron and The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast. Those two shows feature conversations with filmmakers, musicians, and comedians, and I thought, "Why don't I do one for beauty?" I got together with Jenn Goldstein, who I knew from Hearst. (She's at Marie Claire, and I was at Cosmopolitan at the time.) Jenn and I had become friendly through work events and just the beauty scene, and I had enormous respect for her, liked her energy, and thought she was a hoot. From there, Fat Mascara was born!
What advice would you have for your younger self or girls who aspire to be like you?
Pay attention to when you're happiest at work. What are you doing? Who are you talking to? I felt most into my job when I was interviewing (or really, just chatting with) beauty experts, asking questions that felt intuitive to me. That observation helped give way to the podcast.
As told to Shreya Chaganti for Shiffon Co.
This article is part of Shiffon Co.'s What's In My Jewelry Box series, where we visit women we admire to learn about what their jewelry means to them. Follow along @shiffonco for sneak peeks at our next features.