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Do you remember the first time you looked at someone and thought they must be the prettiest person you’d ever seen? I distinctly recall thinking exactly that at age five, nearly 40 years ago, when I was watching Bruce Springsteen’s "Dancing in the Dark" music video, in which a 20-year-old, short-haired Courteney Cox was pulled on stage to dance with the Boss and, ultimately, make an adorable first impression on the world — especially on a certain kindergartener in New Jersey who suddenly wanted to chop off her waist-length hair. (Reader, she didn’t.)
While I was hoping to maybe look like her someday, Cox, it turns out, was impatient to grow out that shaggy pixie. "That was just absolutely the most horrific haircut I've ever had in my life," Cox told me over the phone. "I didn't like it then, and I definitely don't like it now." In fact, the only haircut she regrets more is the time she got those infamous baby bangs worn in a certain horror movie franchise she’s not currently at liberty to discuss due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike. (She can’t mention that one kinda popular sitcom she starred in either.)
Those bangs made a hilarious resurgence on Instagram back in 2020, when, like several celebrities during the first year of the pandemic, she started a new chapter as a prolific content creator. And considering her obvious knack for it — her cooking and comedy Reels get hundreds of thousands of likes — it’s hard to believe it took her until March 2023 to finally join TikTok, where her clips now get millions of likes. "I don't take it seriously," she tells me. "I try to just be creative and silly, and I like to [create content about] things that I would wanna know or would make me laugh."
Cox says that her beauty routine for recording a TikTok doesn't differ all that much from days when she’s not creating content: a little undereye concealer, mascara, and of course, a moisturizer that works wonders even when her skin has been dealing with frequent traveling in super-dry airplane cabins. "That's why I love Dermalogica Stabilizing Repair Cream," says Cox, the brand's newest partner. "It really protects your barrier." And because a not-insignificant portion of her posts are recorded outside, sunscreen is non-negotiable — a daily habit she's developed only in the past decade.
Now, in terms of TikTok consumption, Cox says she spends more time seeking out home-care hacks rather than beauty and health content because so many of the "new" trends disseminated by Gen Z influencers seem to be things the rest of us have known about for decades. Like, why is cottage cheese having a moment on TikTok? Cox has been the dairy staple's biggest fan for as long as she can remember. And even though I couldn't see her over the phone, I could sense her lighting up when we stumbled upon the topic.
"I'm obsessed with cottage cheese. I remember as a kid," she recalls, switching to an Alabama accent, "my mom would say, 'CeCe, would you like some tuna salad with a scoop of cottage cheese?'" It was at this moment that I realized, probably to the dismay of Dermalogica’s PR team, that the bulk of our interview was going to be about cottage cheese. We continue talking about her lifelong love of and more recent bewilderment over the lumpy little curds — at one point she exclaims, “What the fuck is cottage cheese?” — for a solid five minutes, culminating in an enthusiastic recommendation. "Try it with pineapple,” she commands. “I think you’ll love it." (Reader, I haven’t. Yet.)
Cox's advice to me did not end at cottage cheese. As someone who has been very open about her journey with — and away from — filler, she had some wise words for me, a 44-year-old who is still very open to injectables and is starting to feel insecure about the age-related changes I'm seeing in my skin.
She tells me she loved her skin when she was my age. "That was maybe my best, in my forties, as far as skin goes. Then it starts — you start thinking about it too much," she says. "My advice to you: You're in a great time. I mean, everything about you — you should look in the mirror and love yourself and be so happy because your forties are incredible."
And if Courteney Cox is any indication, being incredible doesn’t stop there.
More on skin care:
- Is Radiofrequency Microneedling the Secret to Tighter Skin?
- Sarah Jessica Parker on the Realities of Aging: "I'm Not Delusional"
- Skin Cycling: Finally, a TikTok Skin-Care Trend That's Legit
Now watch a ballroom dancer's entire routine, from waking up to hitting the dance floor:
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