Nicole Richie Shares Her Fashion and Beauty Secrets

Publish date: 2024-05-05

Standing at 5 foot 1 (sans heels), Nicole Richie is as diminutive in person as you might imagine, but her presence instantly commands attention. With her funny one-line quips and laid-back laughs, Richie is someone who you can see is completely comfortable in her own skin. So much so, in fact, that her unique taste and style-setting ways have launched movements from multiple piercings to pastel tresses.

We got the chance to sit down and talk to the mother of two, jewelry designer, and star of Candidly Nicole about her fall 2014 House of Harlow 1960 collection at Bloomingdale's and we took the opportunity to pick her brain. We had to find out: Who is Nicole Richie? (And how can we be more like her?)

1. Comfort is of the utmost importance. "I do not have a good poker face," Richie tells InStyle. "I wish I was a girl that could just prance around in things that are extremely uncomfortable. I can't. I have to be comfortable, and I have to feel like me." It's a mindset that translates onto the set of Candidly Nicole as well. "When I started the web series, I brought in a few of my friends (one's a director, one's a producer), and it was important for me to feel like myself, so we kept the set really small and intimate," she says. "I'm surrounded by friends. You'll see me laughing on the show, but really, we're all laughing together, and it feels like you're in high school and you get to wile out all day long. It's so fun."

2. Don't fall for trends. "I don't even know what the jewelry trends are!" Richie exclaims. "I just layer, layer, layer. I don't know if that's in or out, it's just what I do." In other words, place your focus less on trends and more on your individual style. "It's hard to describe my style because I'm me. I'm a jeans-and-tee type of person who accessorizes a lot."

3. Keep your beauty regimen low-key. "I don't wear makeup because I don't really know how," she confesses. "I use a face moisturizer and sunscreen by Dr. Lancer (he would like me to apply sunscreen every day, and I say I do, but I don't). And with my hair, I just condition all the time because it's colored. If I'm going to wash it the next day, I"ll sleep with coconut oil in my hair."

4. Take beauty risks when you're young because, well, you're young. "I was ready for a change," she says of going from purple strands to blue. "I thought, once you bleach your hair, you might as well go through the colors, because I'm going to be 33 (on Sept. 21!), when is this really going to happen again."

5. Wear a lot of jewelry (House of Harlow 1960, specifically). "I like to change up my accessories," she says. "I like wearing my bigger, luxe pieces with things that are the opposite, like Levis and a tee." Big and luxe are exactly how she described her fall 2014 House of Harlow 1960 collection, drawing on David Webb's pieces for inspiration. "I love an aesthetic that's luxe yet rock and roll, yet '70s, kind of over-the-top, and chunky," she says, pointing to the malachite resin Wren Feather Collar (pictured at top) as one of her faves. "I just like to keep my fashion simple and let the jewelry speak for itself."

Want more Nicole Richie? Take a look at her best style moments, on and off the red carpet.

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