If you’re like us, you’ve probably wondered what famous people add to their carts. Not the JAR brooch and Louis XV chair but the hairspray and the electric toothbrush. We asked rapper Princess Nokia — who launched a collection of lip kits with NYX cosmetics this week — about the hat, shea butter, and coffee-table book she can’t live without.
I grew up with Florida Water in my house. It’s a staple in Caribbean culture and the Latino community. A lot of us use it to wash our homes, freshen the air, and even as a perfume. I mix it with cleaning products and then wash my house, and if I’m entering a new space, I spray it. It’s a refresher with healing properties, and it makes me feel good. I bust it out if I’m in a bad mood because it washes everything away.
Jamie Hewlett is the illustrator and co-creator of Gorillaz, which is one of my favorite bands and graphic artists. I have the first edition of Gorillaz’s Rise of the Ogre and a copy of the Gorillaz Almanac. This is Taschen’s book with Jamie. I’ve always been obsessed with how Gorillaz’s work is like a graphic novel. There are a lot of intricate character backgrounds and story lines, and as someone who loves comics and graphic novels, their art really resonates with me. Jamie’s work inspires a lot of what I draw. I just got a tattoo of Noodle, one of the band members — that’s how much I love Gorillaz.
I’m a tomboy who loves wearing men’s clothes and hats and skatewear and streetwear. It looks really fly. This hat reminds me of when rock and hip-hop really collided in my youth. I now buy a lot of things that nod to my middle-school years because I didn’t have access to some of them, like this N.E.R.D. hat, at that time. It’s a fun thing to get things that you admired growing up but couldn’t have. You can get a vintage original N.E.R.D. hat on Grailed or eBay or wherever, but I get mine on Amazon. If I lose it, I can replace it immediately. It’s much easier.
Journals are big for me. I love writing lists on actual paper with a pen. I jot down ideas throughout the day. Everyone on my team appreciates how much I use journals because it makes me super organized. I always have one in my bag, and I go through them pretty frequently, so I’m always buying new ones. I get them everywhere and love the Japanese Sanrio journals and stationery. I keep my finished journals in a huge box in a storage unit. I have to rent a new unit soon because mine just keeps filling up.
African shea butter is a great moisturizing agent that a lot of Caribbean and Black people use. It’s something I grew up with in Harlem. It was very accessible there, and I’ve always used it as an alternative to drugstore moisturizers. I have eczema that flares up year-round, but especially in winter. And this works really well when my eczema gets really bad.
I’m a music nerd who is always listening to something. This album makes me feel nostalgic about my childhood. But as a grown woman, I see the songs differently than I did when I was a girl. They take on a completely new meaning, and I appreciate them in a different way.
My grandma lives a few blocks away from this vegan, plant-based Mexican restaurant and my best friend lives around the corner. It’s where the Lower East Side and Chinatown meet, in an area where all the skaters and artists hang out. I started going here almost immediately after it opened and still do because it’s the vegan alternative to my favorite type of food. If you’ve never been, I have lots of suggestions: Get the nachos to start — they’re to die for. The enchiladas are dope, and the cauliflower tacos are so good. And if you need, like, a little appetizer, I love the empanadas. But everything really hits there, honestly.
Because I’m allergic to a lot of stuff — gluten, lots of meat, and dairy — making juices is something I’ve always kind of been into. So I have a whole setup in my home; I use a Ninja blender and this juicer. It’s almost like an industrial juicer, and it works really well. I buy fresh fruits from my local Korean or Mexican markets — every Sunday or Monday I grab cucumbers, celery, green apples, and such to make my juices. And if I’m missing fresh Caribbean fruits that aren’t available in New York City — passion fruit, dragon fruit, certain guavas and mangoes — I order them from Fruitz n’ Rootz.
I wear the café con leche shade the most. It’s the lightest of the whole collection, so it’s a great day-to-day color. Sexy but wearable. I thought of two people when creating this collection: the on-the-go girl and myself. I’m a tomboy, but I’m also a model and a grown, sexy woman, so I wanted to create a product that works for a lot of people and represents my ethos. And I think we did that.
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