After giving birth to her son Ariel this summer, model Candice Swanepoel is ready to return to the runway—the Victoria’s Secret runway, that is. With a whirlwind travel schedule and all that prepping for a 20-foot pair of Angel wings, the model has little time for beauty sleep these days—relying on what she laughingly calls a tried-and-true “fake natural” beauty routine to look fresh-faced and wide awake.

First up, to achieve her signature wind machine waves, Swanepoel twists her hair into a set of double buns before getting to work on her skin. “If I had time, I would do the eye masks, because Lord knows I haven’t slept in two years,” she says, alluding good-naturedly to the birth of her first child, Anaca, while securing her hair. Instead, a special rosewater mist and a heavy-duty, professional Kryolan concealer—sheered out with a few drops of face oil—cover sun damage and dark circles like magic.

“Blush on the nose gives a fake sun-kissed look,” she explains, dabbing her fingers over the bridge with a peony-pink pot of Stila pigment, before patting the same rosy hue on the tops of eyelids and cheekbones for a radiant finish. Full brows and fluttery, mascara-coated lashes are also essential to her beauty equation.

But perhaps the most important piece of the puzzle comes down to a highly moisturized and pink-tinted pout. “This is my absolute favorite,” Swanepoel says of Palmer’s buy-in-bulk staple lip balm. “I don’t go anywhere without it.” Next comes a coat of Benefit’s cherry stain to prime and a swipe of NARS deep red pencil—applied with an eyeshadow brush—to look “more pouty.”

“I’ve always felt freckles look really youthful,” she says, drawing on tiny dots with Dior’s taupe brown brow pencil around her forehead and cheeks. And with that, Swanepoel presses a fine translucent powder onto her skin and flashes a peace sign at the camera—because for this Victoria’s Secret Angel, every day is lights, camera, action.

Filmed by Talia Collis
Filmed at the Standard, High Line