Swift has collaborated with every top photographer, and her editorial work has appeared in zillions of magazines— W, i-D, Interview, and various editions of Vogue. She founded RMS after experiencing health issues and subsequently embracing an all-natural lifestyle—appropriately, RMS is free of toxic chemicals and feels like something of a virtuous purchase. Swift has made it a mission to inform women about the possible dangers lurking in their medicine cabinets; her website Beauty Truth outlines harmful ingredients to look out for. We spoke to her about the intersection of health and beauty, the all-pervasiveness of contouring, and my beloved luminizer.
Could you tell me about how you got started as a makeup artist? And how you eventually began RMS?
During my teens my sister trained as an aesthetician, and she suggested that I should be a makeup artist. I had a great eye and had done a little modeling, so the idea was intriguing. We teamed up with a hotel mogul that had burlesque clubs in his hotels (remember, this was the 70’s) and we went and worked on the dancers’ skin and makeup. I approached a label-free cosmetic lab to supply product to me, which I in turn sold to the dancers. The word got out, and it expanded from working with dancers to working with models. One day, the local makeup artist wasn’t in town, so I got asked to make up a famous European model for the cover of our local fashion magazine, Vancouver Magazine. That cover turned out beautiful, and that was the start of my career as a makeup artist. I traveled from Vancouver to Toronto, working almost every day. Eventually I hit Europe, and then finally New York.
I became an advocate for cleaner cosmetics when my own health deteriorated years ago, and through my research I discovered that many of the chemicals in my body were also rampant in beauty products.
I started studying ingredient labels and learned the extent of unregulated chemical ingredient use. In fact, many ingredients use in beauty and body products are downright harmful.
Having worked so long in the beauty industry, I’ve seen the results of taking a quick-fix approach to looking good, and I know firsthand the price our health can pay in the pursuit of beauty. I realized that what women need is skin care, color cosmetics and toiletries that are as pure as possible – lines that create a solid foundation for anti-aging and long-term beauty. We now know that what we put on the skin can be absorbed, and in some circumstances, it's absorbed directly into the bloodstream. Why are we taking chances with this?
I realized I had to create something that breaks away from traditional cosmetics on the market, as well as the pack of so-called natural cosmetics that are already available. I founded RMS Beauty a few years ago and formulate my products with raw, food grade and organic ingredients in their natural state, allowing their living, healing attributes to penetrate and rejuvenate the skin. In their purest form, the healing properties of natural enzymes, vitamins and antioxidants remain fully intact, encouraging amazing potential for anti-aging effects.
Your Living Luminizer is the stuff of legend (it's seriously the best product I have ever used). How did you develop it, and what other products do you see as the essential, holy grail RMS items?
The Living Luminizer took some time as it was hard to get that perfect luminous glow without the glitter and white residue. It also has to remain moist on the skin and not dry up in any fine lines. It worked and that put RMS Beauty on the map. My other must-haves are the RMS Beauty “Un” Cover-up (the best concealer/foundation product ever, if I do say so myself) and of course the Raw Coconut Cream. The worst thing ever is to go to bed with your makeup on, so this product pretty much does it all—it removes makeup, cleanses, moisturizes, and works for tons of other things.
