“Sorry, that’s my mom—I’m just on an interview, Mom!”
Nicola Coughlan is sitting in what I can only assume is her mother’s house, presumably in her hometown of Galway, Ireland. Through my Zoom screen and over her shoulder, I catch glimpses of what appear to be patterned wallpaper and frilly antique furniture. I just barely hear her mother pop in and out of the room at the start of our 20-minute chat. (“You’re all right, don’t worry. You can pull the door [closed] if you want,” Coughlan calls out to her.)
She’s wearing what you probably wear when you’re kicking back at mom’s: an oversized, baby-pink sweatshirt—it has big white lettering arched across the front, the kind you usually see on merch for a university or at tourist gift shops; no makeup; no fancy hairstyling. Her platinum-blonde hair is down and flowing past her shoulders in slight bends.
It’s the look of a woman enjoying the chance to reset after absolutely crushing it at life for the past few months. During the spring and early summer, she embarked on a global press tour for Bridgerton’s third season (parts one and two), launched another show—Big Mood—in the UK, and has gone viral at every turn for her off-screen chemistry with costar Luke Newton and her endless wit in interviews (lest we forget: “I’m a very proud member of the perfect-breasts community.”). Most recently, she even turned an off-the-cuff joke she made about The Real Housewives during an interview into a studio-recorded song (its proceeds are benefitting LBGTQ+ organizations). I bet you know the one: “Shoes…More Shoes.”
It’s the look of a woman enjoying the chance to reset after absolutely crushing it at life for the past few months. During the spring and early summer, she embarked on a global press tour for Bridgerton’s third season (parts one and two), launched another show—Big Mood—in the UK, and has gone viral at every turn for her off-screen chemistry with costar Luke Newton and her endless wit in interviews (lest we forget: “I’m a very proud member of the perfect-breasts community.”). Most recently, she even turned an off-the-cuff joke she made about The Real Housewives during an interview into a studio-recorded song (its proceeds are benefitting LBGTQ+ organizations). I bet you know the one: “Shoes…More Shoes.”
Allure: Speaking of premieres, you’ve become known for bold, high-fashion red carpet looks. How do you and your stylist plan and execute them?
Coughlan: Well, Aimée [Croysdill]’s been with me since the beginning of Bridgerton. It’s like any relationship, whether it be a friendship, a romantic relationship, a work relationship. You just have an instant connection sometimes with people, and I had that with her. Her and I work together well because we have different approaches to things. I come from a very literal approach, or I’ll take references from movies and be like, ‘I want to do a version of this.’ And she has incredible fashion knowledge, obviously.
For example, the Erdem look that I wore in Dublin—a beautiful black dress that had bead detail—that was something I came to her with really early on. I was like, “I’d love [the Bridgerton symbol] incorporated in one of the looks.” She knew exactly which designer would make that work.
[Makeup artist] Neil [Young] and [hairstylist] Halley [Brisker], I’ve worked with them since Bridgerton started as well. We’ve come on such a journey.
Allure: Where do the hair and makeup fit into the planning process?
Coughlan: It always starts with the dress, then we all have our different ideas. We have a WhatsApp group where we throw ideas around. I remember for the New York premiere, we changed up something quite last minute. I wore this beautiful white Danielle Frankel dress that was custom, and we were going to [style it with] blue gloves and red shoes. [Danielle is] an amazing bridal designer, but we wanted to take it away from bridal. And I just couldn’t get the image of Marilyn Monroe out of my head.
Neil and Hallie, the same as Aimée, are very good at taking my references and making them current. They’re great at not following trends but setting them. They just have impeccable taste.
Allure: Is there a “signature” Nicola Coughlan look?
Coughlan: Gosh, I don’t know. It’s funny because I really adore red carpet dressing, and I love sitting at home in sweats and watching them as well. But I always like to try something different. Life is short and you might as well just do as many different things as you can.
There’s been so much brilliant method dressing over the last few years from Zendaya and Margot Robbie. But I think for Aimée and I, once I come out of a character, I want to go as far away from it as we can. So there were not any literal references to Pen [on the Bridgerton press tour] because I spent eight months of my year in the Regency garb, so I’m not dying to get back into it.
Allure: You’ve clearly got a deep affection for over-the-top femme characters like drag performers and The Real Housewives. Do you take any inspiration from them on the red carpet?
Coughlan: Definitely. I learned so much from Drag Race. The industry that I’m in, it’s hard. There’s a lot of scrutiny. People don’t think of actors as freelancers, but we all are. We go from job to job. You do have to prove yourself again each time. You can grow a lack of confidence [from rejection]. But I remember watching Drag Race 10 years ago and the drag queens talking about themselves in the third person. They were like, “She’s the fiercest and she’s the coolest.” And I thought, “God, if I could take some of that and apply it to myself, it would really help.”
It’s a fake-it-’till-you-make-it mentality. Sometimes on a carpet, I will not put on a persona, but it’s a slightly out-of-body thing. I’m not who I am on the day-to-day. I remember my friends asking about the Met Gala. They were like, “How did you feel?” I was like, “I don’t know.” Because I don’t know that I believed I was there… It’s quite bizarre. Maybe my red carpet [presence] is my drag persona.
Allure: And when you’re off duty, what does your beauty routine look like?
Coughlan: I’m a big freak for my skin and I have been since I was quite young. You say that now and people go, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” But people don’t remember the early oughts. It was a struggle. We were scrubbing micro-plastics into our face and not using moisturizer at all. [Skin care] was seen as a novelty. So I started using eye cream at 19 years old, and I was the only one of my friends doing that.
I think because I’d been doing so much flying [during the Bridgerton press tour], all of the Tatcha stuff really helped me. I basically would take a little Ziploc bag of the Face Halo, the [Tatcha] eye cream, the [Tatcha] Dewy Skin Cream. I would just wet the Face Halo and then I’d lather myself up.
I feel like I’ve gotten worse at makeup over the years. I don’t know if it’s a comparison to having incredible makeup artists do yours and when you do your own, you’re like, “Oh. That’s not as good. Damn it.”
I really love the Charlotte Tilbury Glowgasm Blush. It makes your skin look so fresh and glowy. I absolutely love mascara. I always have. I’m very guilty of putting on too much of it. Is it the Lancôme Hypnôse I’m using at the minute? I switch around with mascaras a lot, I have to say. But I just like that instant change. I have very long lower lashes. I wish my top ones were as long, but they’re sort of Clockwork Orange-y lower lashes.
Allure: What about hair?
Coughlan: I wanted to go from a bob to long hair [while filming Bridgerton]… But my hair is fine and I dye it, so I have to take really good care of it [to help it grow]. All the Olaplex products really protect it. I bring them around the world with me because you can’t use hotel shampoos because they range in quality.
I like a lazy Sunday where I’ll get up and put a mask in and have it in all day and clean the house and do my jobs. And there’s this one hairbrush I use that’s from this really small company in Galway called The Belle Brush. It’s from a girl I used to go to a couple years ago for my hair, and she’s just so sweet. The brush is really nice and gentle with soft bristles. And using a silk bonnet at night, that’s one thing that I’ve started doing. Jonathan Van Ness is one of my closest friends, and he was like, “You have to.”
Allure: Did you pick up any tips from the Bridgerton season three set? Penelope wore so much stunning makeup.
Coughlan: We used a lot of sheet masks before the big days, like the wedding and balls. It’s a typical thing because when you’re filming a show like that, you’re not getting enough sleep and you’re not drinking enough water.
What people need to know is we’re getting makeup checks every three minutes. You do a take, someone comes in and fixes it. Every hairstyle is a wig, it’s not even my hair. I would put hair masks in under the wig. We would do the Olaplex No.3, slick it in, and then the wig would go on top. I was trying to grow my hair out at that time, so that was a good [tip].
Everything is way more perfect [in the show] than it would ever be in the [real] world. I think in this day and age we hold ourselves to such unrealistic standards of beauty. It was interesting because at one point, at the end of Bridgerton, I was filming my other show Big Mood at the same time, in which I wore no makeup. That was a weird lesson to go, “You can’t look like this all the time. It’s not realistic.”
Allure: When it comes to beauty, what’s on your mind these days?
Coughlan: I’m really fascinated by a lot of people’s nighttime routines now. And I don’t know that mine needs to get any more complicated, because I’ve got the silk bonnet, the eye mask, my retainer if I remember it. But seeing people tape their mouths and do all these masks… I don’t know that I can do all of that.
Allure: I’ve heard stuff like that referred to as the “Patrick Bateman skin care routine,” which feels accurate.
Coughlan: That cracks me up. But I do love a good beauty treatment. I love lymphatic drainage and all that kind of stuff. That form of self-care is really satisfying to me because I feel like women have to take that time.
When I was filming Bridgerton, actually, I was like, “If I’m going to spend my money, I’m going to spend it on a massage every week. It resets your body, it just puts everything back in place. I would take a massage over anything.
Allure: OK, one last thing, at the risk of sounding like a creep.
Coughlan: Go for it.
Allure: What do you smell like right now?
Coughlan: Right now!? Oh, I don’t know. Maybe just, like, toothpaste.
I actually use this one moisturizer all the time. It’s one I’ve used for three years from Lush called Ro’s Argan, and you put it on in the shower, like a body conditioner. And I do always get complimented on my soft skin.
