GRACIE ABRAMS SHARES THE EMOTIONAL STORY BEHIND HER BOB HAIR TRANSFORMATION
Gracie Abrams is having a summer for the books. The 25-year-old singer-songwriter has spent the better part of 2025 on her Secret Of Us Tour which began last September, made her Glastonbury debut last weekend, and today sees her opening for Noah Kahan at BST Hyde Park.
“Playing at Glastonbury on a Friday was such a privilege. It allowed me the time to lean in hard into the festival, which I did. That was intense and perfect for me in a great way, but it’s a rarity,” she tells Bazaar on a sunny evening at the Broadwick, Soho. Abrams, whose first album, Minor, was released in 2020, notes that her post-show rituals are often a lot more “vanilla”.
“It’s a quick shower and I’ll get in the biggest clothes I have. I'll journal for a little bit or read something before I fall asleep,” she reflects.
In-between performing in ethereal ensembles by Chanel and Rodarte (barefoot, of course), for loyal fans who get teary-eyed by her melancho-pop sounds and vulnerable songwriting, Abrams has signed on to front Hourglass Cosmetics’ new complexion campaign. The singer's clean and polished signature make-up look ties in beautifully with Hourglass’ range of your-skin-but-better concealers, bases and the new Illusion Priming Moisturiser.
Ahead of her special appearance in Soho’s The Vinyl Factory, Abrams sat down with Bazaar to share the heartfelt story behind her signature bob haircut, the scent that reminds her of home, and her go-to blush combination.
On her beauty philosophy…
“I tend to feel the most beautiful when I have the least on my face and when I feel the most like myself. It's really just about what makes you feel like you.
“[With beauty] when you find the lane that makes sense for you, it’s exciting and inspiring to explore it. My mum wasn’t someone who wore a lot of make-up but when she did a red lip, or something extra, it always caught my attention. I also love Alexa Chung.”
On her skincare routine…
“In the morning, I use cold water, sometimes ice cubes, because I get really puffy. I’ll use a simple moisturiser, which I got while we were on tour in Korea, and then I use a La-Roche Posay SPF. At night, I use a benzoyl peroxide between those steps, without the SPF.”
On doing her own tour make-up…
“I like the time to myself in that way. I allow for 20 more minutes than I actually need, just because it's nice to have an hour of the day sitting alone in a room. I value that alone time very much, and I do think it's therapeutic. I'll listen to a podcast – I like On Being with Krista Tippett. The guests that she has on are always so beautifully spoken and experts in their respective fields, and she’s an excellent moderator.
“[For my make-up] on stage it's really about emphasising certain features, because I'm so far away from so many people. Off-stage, I use a concealer for spot-treating, a blush, and do my brows. I like fine highlighting powders that both set and give your face some sheen. I’m not a lipstick person so I use a brown-ish lip liner and a glossy balm. For stage, I go a bit heavier with highlighter and blush. I fill my brows in more.”
On her favourite blushes…
“I'm obsessed with Hourglass Unreal Liquid Blush in Vision and Scene, and the Diffused Heat powder blush. I initially wouldn’t have leant into pinks like that, but it’s so nice on the skin and it’s really sheer.”
On her signature scent…
“Another 13 from Le Labo always makes me feel like I’m at home. Smells are so important when you're away from home to make you feel like you're back there. But when we were in Seoul, Le Labo does the city-specific scent and that one is a new favourite as well.”
On her bob haircut…
“I honestly feel the most like myself with shorter hair. It was off the back of, almost like a pre-break-up, when things inside start to feel a bit tangled up, and you feel like you need a change.
“I didn't know where to start so I cut it all off and felt so much lighter. People say hair holds memories and feelings. It felt good to sever ties where I needed to, which sounds harsh but it really was a lighter and nicer experience than that.
“I love it. I see pictures of myself with my long hair or I'll watch somebody else's show and they're using their hair like this extra limb, and I'll get jealous. I miss it sometimes, but I think overall, I feel way more like myself and in my skin with this hair. Bobby Eliot cuts it.”
On wellness…
“Any kind of movement and breathwork helps because so much of my life [right now] is being on a tour bus, which I appreciate for all the obvious reasons, and it does become like a home, but I think movement, getting outside, having fresh air, going on a long walk, helps. It’s the simple things.
“If we're touring somewhere and there's a park, I like doing laps around it and quite literally touching grass. I also journal constantly and conscious breathwork always helps me feel grounded.”
On her tattoos…
“I don’t have a specific tattoo artist that I go to. It’s nice because I feel like a sticker sheet. They are like stamps from different places. Someone recently said you shouldn’t remove them because they’re a part of you, but I could live without maybe three or four. I’m lucky that they’re all quite tiny, I sometimes forget I have them!”
On the best beauty advice…
“Make-up artist Katie Jane Hughes is just the greatest person. She was actually the first person to ever do my make-up. We had followed each other on Instagram when I was in college, and she invited me over, and she did my make-up. I felt like a princess, a rock star and I felt like me, all in one.
“I've learned so much from her about how to use less product. I’ve learnt about priming your brushes [applying foundation on the back of your hand and smooshing it completely into your brush] so you're putting less complexion products directly on your face, or using a blurred lip to get a shadowy effect instead of overlining like crazy.”
On dealing with nerves…
“It's something that I've been working through in therapy massively. It’s not necessarily just about performances, I think it applies to public speaking or just having conversations. It's something that I've struggled with historically; if I encounter a person or a crowd, my instinct immediately is to match their energy rather than come into an encounter as myself with my own energy.
“My therapist helped me use this visualisation tool where it’s imagining your own energy as a colour and everybody else's energy as a colour, and that you don’t need to blend the two. They can co-exist without having to be mixed up together. It’s been massively useful.”