Christine Quinn Is Letting Her High Ponytail Down On This Season Of ‘Selling Sunset’

Our long national nightmare is almost over: Selling Sunset is coming back on Wednesday, November 24. It’s been 15 months since Netflix’s best show about modelesque women selling palatial real estate came out with new episodes, and now the fourth season is arriving just in time for you to watch it over the holidays (if you can make it last that long). We’re overdue for an unfettered look at the glamour, the houses, the fights, and the L.A. weather. But, most of all, we can’t wait to see what kind of drama Christine Quinn will stir up — and how great she will look doing it.

Who else would have a live zebra as the centerpiece of an engagement party? Or show up to a very tense dinner with a Rapunzel-length ponytail? Now a mom and an author in addition to being a real-estate-agent-reality-star hybrid, Quinn has made it clear she can handle pretty much anything — most often in six-inch stilettos and bold red lipstick. She also currently has a makeup collaboration out with Ciaté London, which includes many of the components of her iconic makeup look, from a versatile neutrals eyeshadow palette to an addicting plumping lipgloss. “I have my signature look,” said Quinn, “which is a light beige color on my lid, I'll do a round cut crease... no liner around the bottom, bronze-y cheeks and a red lip.” She’ll tell you how to get the look, but that’s really just the beginning of her beauty expertise.

Below, Quinn talked with NYLON about her long-term fragrance obsession, what beauty looks you can expect to see this season, and learning to feel comfortable in her own skin.

Do you have a first beauty memory?

I remember going into Walgreens and I was obsessed with Body Fantasies and all the different fragrances. I was also obsessed with Clean & Clear — they had a bunch of cleansers with those cool, bursting beads.

How has your relationship with beauty changed since your early Clean & Clear days?

Beauty is all about experimentation and trying different things, and it took me a while. First, I thought, “Let’s try expensive products, because those are supposed to work better.” But then I was affected by fragrance or other things, so then I started experimenting and mixing high-end and inexpensive brands. Then, I got into more clean products. My beauty routine is always evolving. I love trying new products and my routine is constantly changing.

What are you using in your daily routine now?

I’ll usually put on a moisturizer, the one I currently love is Sisley Paris All Day All Year. Sunscreen is something that's really important to me, so I try to incorporate that in my morning as often as I can. If I'm putting on makeup or don’t want to be shiny, I love Origins Oil-Free Gel Moisturizer and I use it before makeup.

I feel like I've only seen you ever completely made up on the show and on Instagram.

I would love to indulge in that fantasy, but I love giving my skin a break and I don't wear makeup when I'm not working. I'll put on a little mascara and concealer if I need it. But I love my no-makeup moments just because it feels good on my skin. I used to correlate makeup with beauty and I was consistently covering up to make myself feel beautiful. I think I finally got to a place where I realized that wasn't the case, so I started leaning into that.

When did that change happen for you?

When we were filming a lot, it got to a point where it was enjoyable to take a break and not do makeup. I love doing my own makeup — I did it for two seasons and sometimes I'll still do it — that just really depends. In the past two years, it kind of shifted. When you have to do it on a daily basis, then it gets a little harder. I think makeup is meant to enhance beauty, and I was doing it for so long for my own insecurities. I had to look within myself. I was like, "I don't need this, I feel beautiful without it."

Did you work with a glam squad for the more recent seasons of Selling Sunset?

My main makeup artist is incredible, his name is Gilbert Estrada. We work really great together and it's all about working with someone that you get along with, you have great energy with. It's a really fun relationship that I'm grateful to have. I continue to work with new artists as well, because it's fun to work with different people and learn new tips and tricks.

Do you have a favorite trick that you’ve learned?

It’s all about priming the skin and color correcting so the canvas is perfect. Make Up Forever has really great primers. They have a pore minimizing primer and they have a redness corrector that I'll mix with my lotion sometimes. And it's about finding the perfect eye cream that works well with makeup and blends well. The one that I really like is La Mer The Eye Concentrate, that’s a really good one.

You’re very specific about what you like. What was most important when creating the collaboration with Ciaté London?

The names were really, really fun for me. I remember going to nail salons and reading the OPI bottles and I thought, “What a cool job coming up with these names!” So, it was really, really fun to brainstorm those. I also wanted to create an eyeshadow palette that was universal, that was for every day, but could be converted to nighttime glam.

What are your other favorites in the collection?

I love the No Filt-her Highlighter. It’s obviously meant for the face, but I'm always running late, trying to get on set and I always do a body glow moisturizer. One of the days I didn't have time and I just took the highlighter and put it all over my body and I was really surprised. It was really highly pigmented and I didn't have to put on lotion before to make it stick. I also really love the Villain Pump Plump Lip Gloss. It's plumping, it has hyaluronic acid, and the color's buildable. One stroke, it's a beautiful pink, or you can add more and make it darker if you want. After it's gone, it'll still leaves your lips very hydrated.

Do you have a favorite look that you've worn on the show? Is there anything we should look out for in Season 4?

In terms of makeup, I have my signature look, which is a light beige color on my lid, I'll do a round cut crease. I love a cat eye, no liner around the bottom, bronze-y cheeks and a red lip. That's my go-to glam. My go-to hair is soft Hollywood waves. This season I started experimenting with wearing my hair down more, just because the ponies were a lot of wear on my hair. I'm platinum blonde so I'm dying my hair consistently, and I just had a baby, too. Forget about your hair, you just shed after you have a baby. So I just wanted to keep my hair down to alleviate the stress from ponytails. I started playing with really long extensions and in the fourth season, I'm wearing 30-inch extensions a lot.

You mentioned loving fragrance, do you have a signature fragrance now?

I'm absolutely obsessed. I discovered this Francis Kurkdjian fragrance I loved, and I was the first person that was wearing it, then I told everyone about it, and then everyone smelled like me. It drove me crazy. So, then I created my own fragrance, it's called Bitchy. I only made a hundred samples of it, so it's not something that really I sell. It’s a really a beautiful gourmand and it's very sensual — it has notes of almond and vanilla and raspberry and musk. But I love so many different fragrances. My favorites right now are Tom Ford Lost Cherry and Montale Vanilla Cake. Together, they’re actually a really good combo.

Do you have a favorite red lipstick?

There are so many. So one of my favorites is YSL, they do a really great orange red. Then Tom Ford Flame is a really good red as well. Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty has a really great long-lasting red that has blue undertones and it makes your teeth look whiter. I also I love my Ciaté Heat Transforming Lip Cream, it's waterproof and it's this gorgeous deep burgundy. I have this huge bin of lipsticks, there’s like probably one hundred — they're all so different!