From the outside looking in, Dua Lipa seems indefatigable. Despite her insistence on turning international work trips into city breaks, her demanding tour schedule and her forthcoming nuptials, the former British Vogue cover star has a battery that’s yet to run flat. Supported by a supplement regime (colostrum, electrolytes and magnesium all feature) and regular yoga practice, in the midst of the whirlwind Lipa manages to stay, well, well.
It’s her skin, though, that I’m most interested in. Between the long-haul flights and the layers of stage make-up, how does she keep her face from looking like it ever experiences either of those things? “My best friend Ella was really on it with her skincare from when we were young,” Lipa tells me on a rainy afternoon in October. “Whereas I was a ‘fall asleep with my make-up on’ kind of girl.” These days, kipping in a full face is one of her big no-nos – a lesson she learned over years on the road.
“In 2016, I started touring quite heavily and I needed a skincare routine that wasn’t high maintenance,” the Radical Optimism star explains. At 21, working with a “bunch of boys who didn’t do skincare”, Lipa came to understand the importance of a consistent but concise routine. Simultaneously, her metrics for what good health and good nutrition looked like changed, too. “I think everything’s quite different now,” she reflects. “Everything shifted.”
Cut to 2025 and Lipa is ready to announce one of her most exciting projects to date: DUA, a skincare line created in collaboration with luxury skincare brand Augustinus Bader. A longtime AB loyalist, DUA represents everything the freshly-minted 30-year-old has learned about effective skincare that still feels elegant.
“I wanted to create something that felt like it could really restore and protect my skin,” she tells British Vogue. “I get the occasional breakouts and dryness, especially from long-haul flights,” she explains. “I did a lot of learning on the job and now I feel like I know how to combat the busyness and the madness of my schedule and still take care of myself.”
Her line is compact – just what you’d expect from someone used to editing down their essentials in order to jet across the globe – and consists of just three products: a creamy cleanser, an antioxidant-packed serum, and a nourishing moisturiser.
“I wanted a face wash that felt really moisturising but not tight or squeaky for all the wrong reasons,” she explains when I ask her to take me through the thinking behind each one, starting with the Balancing Cream Cleanser. “Then, I wanted to have a serum that I felt had all the good vitamins in it to give you that glow, but also hydrate and support your skin barrier.”
Lipa’s Supercharged Glow Complex is chock full of those “good vitamins”. There’s vitamin B7 and niacinamide for even skin tone, along with firming marine bio-retinol, bounce-imbuing glycerol glucoside and strengthening ectoin. The prerequisites for her moisturiser – the Renewal Cream – were that it be “bouncy, soft and nice”, and light enough to reapply.
The secret sauce is something only Professor Bader (creator of the original eponymous brand) and Lipa could have cooked up together: TFC5. A patented version of Augustinus Bader’s trademark hero-ingredient TFC8, TFC5 is Lipa’s baby and underpins each of her products.
“TFC5 is the fifth evolution of Augustinus Bader’s breakthrough TFCTM (Trigger Factor Complex) technology,” Aimee Nottingham, director of formulation for AB, informs me. For the uninitiated, this Trigger Factor Complex is the cornerstone of all Augustinus Bader products and comprises a patented blend of reparative and renewing amino acids, vitamins and peptides.
A new iteration, TFC5, is focused on preventative, everyday skin maintenance. If you relate to Lipa, with a busy, sometimes unrelenting schedule, TFC5 will counteract the effects of dullness and dryness, and replenish the skin with lost suppleness. TFC8, on the other hand, tends to denote something with a high potency, designed to tackle more challenging skin concerns such as pigmentation or lack of density.
Lipa’s line, due to its everyday nature, is less expensive than the Augustinus Bader roster, too.
“A three-step skincare line feels really manageable and not so daunting,” Lipa says. “It’s easy to take with you, wherever you go, and it’s powerful.” In her words: “Three is a kind of magic number.” Which is why, after many conversations, the initial collection ended up as a perfect trifecta.
It’s almost time to wrap up – Lipa is in New York and her schedule, as ever, demands her attention – so I ask her the question I’m dying to know: how often is she waking up still in her glam from the night before? “Never. Not a single chance. I could be absolutely exhausted and I would need to take my make-up off,” she laughs. “There’s no way.”
