Gabbriette Is Trying to Feel Like a Grown-up
It doesn’t take much to put Gabbriette Bechtel in a performance mindset. In the case of her latest MAC spot — a return of the brand’s buzzy I Only Wear MAC campaign — it was good makeup, a George Michael song, and fashion photographer duo Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin. “They’re like ‘Yes!’ and the fans are blowing and everyone on set is screaming [while you’re] running around with no clothes on,” Bechtel says. “You feel like you’re on America’s Next Top Model.”
The campaign is MAC’s first under new Global Creative Director Nicola Formichetti; it features a series of polished black-and-white editorial-style portraits of celebrities wearing a full MAC beat and little else. In her spot, Bechtel frantically whisks cake batter while modeling the brand’s Studio Fix Fluid SPF 15 foundation. The makeup doesn’t budge. “Can your foundation do this?” she asks, licking a drip of batter off one finger.
When she first started popping off in ad campaigns and on runways, Bechtel’s look spawned legions of copycats. Some half-dozen outlets asked the chef/model/musician how to recreate her almost invisible ’90s brows, matte skin, and overlined lip. In the summer of 2024, Bechtel’s limited-edition MAC lip kit became its own viral sensation, selling out and prompting frantic cries for dupes. Things have calmed down a little as the world has gotten to know Bechtel’s face.
Meanwhile, Bechtel is trying to be more intentional in her approach to beauty. She recently resolved to take more time to get ready — to go through each step in her skincare regimen and drink a juice and apply sunscreen and put on makeup. It’s not obsessive, but it is deliberate. Without some kind of routine, “I probably wouldn’t leave the house,” she says.
“I’m 28. I want to feel a bit more grown up,” she adds. “I have things to do. I’m going to try to look like a lady.” That means a heel, sometimes, instead of a flat, and it means some measure of consistency. Although, in the end, it’s all faking it until you make it. “What do adults do?” Bechtel asks, rhetorically. “I’m just trying to do things that I think adults do so I feel like I have responsibility.”
Practically, her approach to beauty hasn’t changed much over the years. “Shiny, shiny lips and tiny eyebrows” will always be “my thing,” she says. “My aesthetic right now is not doing too much to my face. I also always think I look better with a really shitty camera on me. So I wear pretty minimal makeup and pray that no one takes an HD picture.”
She does wear sunscreen every day, which she says she’s done since age 10. She likes La Roche Posay and just bought a bottle from ISDIN that she’ll try when that runs out. She goes through the stuff in no time. “I don’t know why there’s a debate” about the efficacy of sunscreen, she says. “Everyone should be wearing it. Skin cancer is a thing.”
Aside from that, she’s not too pressed. She’s doing her best to ride the tide of working in the beauty industry — to choose brands she believes in, like MAC, and focus her energy there, rather than trying to stay abreast of every little trend. It’s good to “not put too much pressure on yourself,” she says. “I’m kind of like, ‘I’m going to age, and that’s going to be cool.’”
