M.A.C Teams Up With Brazilian Blogger for a Collection That Holds Up to Humidity

Let us introduce you to Julia Petit and her perfect spring makeup collection.

Katie Friedman

Julia Petit, with her fiery red hair, pale skin, and inked body parts (in total, she's got 17 small "'90s tattoos"), may seem like an unlikely beauty icon for Brazil, homeland of Gisele Bündchen and Adriana Lima. But the 42-year-old model and TV presenter is the founder of one of the most popular fashion and beauty blogs in South America and a very, very famous face in Brazil (her Instagram follower count is around 350,000, currently). In fact, she is such a force that M.A.C cosmetics tapped her for their latest collaboration—and in doing so is helping introduce the São Paulo 'It Girl' to the rest of the world.

For the 14-piece collection (in stores March 18 and online March 19), Petit—who was wildly surprised to hear she'd be joining the ranks of Lady Gaga, Rihanna, and Diana Ross as a M.A.C collaborator— found inspiration in the tropical gardens tucked amongst the urban landscape of her city. She created a palette of muted eye shadows complemented by lush lip colors in vivid violets and strawberry reds. But no matter the hue, one of her biggest priorities was making sure each of the products will stand up in the most humid of climates—which, with spring and summer on the horizon, is good news for customers that live far, far beyond Brazil, too.

We got the chance to meet Petit on a recent trip to New York and chat with her about all things beauty, the makeup tips she has learned from her drag queen friends, and the Brazilian obsession with Kristen Stewart.

Courtesy of MAC

When did you start getting into makeup?
I have loved makeup since I was very little and I always say that anyone who lived in Brazil in the '80s and '90s, we didn't have any kind of product, we didn't have anything. We had like powder and a couple of colors, and with that, we had to do everything. We had to create stuff from nothing, so I think that was the most creative phase in my life. I have many makeup artist friends, many drag queen friends, and they taught me everything. I was always asking how to do things. We tried anything, but now we have everything.

Are there any tricks you still do even though you have access to so much more now?
We never had good product, so to bring out the colors in the shadows, to transform a blush into lipstick, we used to mix water in everything. This is something I still do, and it gives you a durability that is unbelievable. Just mix water with eye shadow to make it brighter, it makes the metallic more metallic… I love to teach [my readers] to get one product and just do everything with it. Don't buy a bunch, get a couple, and do different things with them.

What's the most popular thing on your site?
Beauty. But it wasn't always, it was fashion, but in the last two or three years beauty has skyrocketed in Brazil. The consumer of cosmetics in Brazil is growing like crazy. They love everything about beauty, they are like sponges, the absorb everything.

Are there any specific things your readers are really into?
Right now, they love matte lipstick and eyebrows, but not Cara Delevingne's, more like Kim Kardashian eyebrows. They love anything that talks about Kristen Stewart. They still love her.

Katie Friedman

Is it because of Twilight?
Yeah, it's Twilight, but it's way more than that. What's cool about her is she's, like, a tomboy, then she is on the cover of a magazine or the red carpet and she's so beautiful and they're like 'Oh my god, that is not even her, someone made her so different.' I like her when she is boyish, but I'm not going to teach the girls how to look like Kristen Stewart as a tomboy.

What is the one piece of makeup you could not live without?
Red lipstick. I don't care about mascara. I love mascara, but I can live without it.

What is your skin regimen?
I'm really obsessed about oils. I guess everybody is obsessing about oils, right? It is really curious to talk to people about oils in Brazil because all they've heard is 'No, no, no, you don't want oily skin.' But I have mixed skin and it works wonders, everything with oil, oil in the makeup, oil directly on the face, sleeping with oil. In the morning after showering, before putting on the make-up, I put oil on my face. I love it.

What kind of oil?
Coconut oil. Coconut is like a miracle, all the coconut. Everything about coconut, and now I have coconut sugar in my house, it's unbelievable! It has much less glucose than sugar cane. It's really nice, because it doesn't taste like anything. You won't have like a coconut flavored coffee. You can drink a lot of fresh coconut water, not the boxed one, but the fresh one. Unbelievable. And you can use the oil on your hair, and your face, and your nails, everything.

What is your workout routine?
I did a lot of Pilates for a long time, but I really like free weights, so I mix free weights with Pilates now. I also do a lot of functional exercises, for example, me and my boyfriend go out and run, and we make a circuit around the block of my house, and then we go back home, go up the stairs, do some free weights, and then go back again. Like the crazy people in the neighborhood.

Courtesy of MAC

So, you're super into exercising?
I like it, but I don't want it to be heavy, I've got to laugh and have fun. I don't like to be serious. I love to do Pilates because my teacher was very funny, which is not usual in Pilates. But we had a lot of fun, and it was great for me, because if we don't have music, if I don't laugh, I am not going to exercise.

What about your diet?
I eat everything.

Well, you do the circuit training.
If you do the circuit training, you have to eat. There's no circuit training and then saying, "I don't know, I like to eat salads."

Have you always had red hair?
No, my hair is ashy brown. I dyed my hair red for the first time in '91. I had very short hair and it was like a cherry color, it was nice. I stuck with it for like six months. Then I decided I wanted to have not red hair, but like a strawberry blonde hair in '97 and I never changed it again.

How often do you dye it?
Once a month but I never put hair dye on the ends.

Any other hairstyling tips?
I try to not use a hair dryer, I always try to let it dry naturally, because it's very bad for the hair. Okay, sometimes I'll use a curler.

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