Alton Mason’s Guide to Revitalizing Dry Skin and Getting Full, Fluffy Brows

When you’re as talented as Alton Mason, you have to get comfortable with firsts. At just 24, he’s had a breath of experiences from performing as a background dancer to walking the runways of Chanel and Gucci to filmmaking and music. Nowadays, acting is his latest project. Off the heels of his first single titled “Gimme, Gimme” and short film Rise in Light in 2020, he recently made his acting debut in Baz Luhrmann’s highly-anticipated Elvis film where he portrayed Little Richard. “It was a real honor to be paying tribute to a guy who was before his time in beauty, fashion, music, rock and roll—it’s truly surreal to me,” he says. The freshness of the experience was not lost on the multi-hyphenate star, who was admittedly nervous during the film’s premier at Cannes. “When you do something for the first time, you want to do it well. You want to make people proud.” And today, Mason has another first: unveiling his daily regimen in his installment of Vogue’s beauty secrets. 

“You know growing up my skin-care routine used to just be aloe vera and African black soap, but what I found out is I was missing so many steps and it really was just drying me out,” he explains. With a professional basketball player father and model mother, Mason grew up around the world before setting stateside in Arizona. And so, his lifelong travels have informed his beauty routine. Now, he knows that giving his skin proper moisture is key. “My face usually gets really dry so I need this to hydrate—especially after the plane,” he says.

“You know when you’re moving and traveling so much and being in all these different environments, having a routine is so grounding—it’s so centering because your brain and your cerebral is like realigning with where you are no matter the time zone or the place,” Mason insists. He pats his face dry with a towel, and reaches for Dr. Dennis Gross’s facial steamer. “Steam is actually a major key in revitalizing dry skin,” he says. With his pores open, a clay mask is next, which he uses about twice per week. “The clay mask is going to dive in and get all the impurities that are underneath the skin,” he explains whilst letting the mask sit for five minutes. “These masks also help with evening out your skin tone and targeting ingrown hairs which I suffer from.” 

The star cites travel for not only his beauty approach, but also for his take on fashion—drawing inspiration from the likes of Andre 3000, Michael Jackson, Prince, and Rihanna. Like them, he’s been keen to be uniquely himself thanks to advice from his mother. “I would get overlooked because I looked just like that guy or that person, so I feel like it started working for me when I started listening to my mom,” he says. Of other models who he believes are “setting the standard of truth and being who they want to be” are Precious Lee, Anok Yai, Bella Hadid, and Paloma Elsesser.