Eva Mendes Breaks Her Baby Silence, Talks Esmeralda, Ryan Gosling & More
Eva Mendes stuns in a new editorial from Violet Grey. Photo: Emma Summerton for Violet Grey
Eva Mendes was one of the first actresses to star in a Violet Grey cover story. The Los Angeles-based beauty site, launched last year by Cassandra Huysentruyt Grey, has featured a string of high profile women—Cindy Crawford, January Jones, Vanessa Paradis—looking their most glamorous, alongside in-depth interviews and fully stocked “shelves,” boasting the best hair and makeup products according to Hollywood’s most in-demand artists and stylists. It was always grown up, but it’s come along way in the past year—and so has Mendes.
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In her first interview since giving birth to daughter Esmeralda Amada Gosling with longtime boyfriend Ryan Gosling (as if you didn’t know that), Mendes opens up about motherhood and heading back to work, specifically designing her new collection for New York & Co. She might sport an evening-ready wardrobe in the Emma Summerton-lensed editorial, but the actress admits that real life is a little less polished with a baby in tow. “Everything is a struggle for her,” she says of Esmeralda. “For instance, I haven’t thrown up since the ’90s and she’s thrown up twice since we started this interview. Motherhood is cake compared to what it’s like to be a baby.”
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Photo: Emma Summerton for Violet Grey
Mendes dives into the parenting values she shares with Gosling, the comfort she gets from online chat rooms for new moms, and finally reveals the origin of her daughter’s name: “Ryan and I both love the Esmeralda character from the Victor Hugo novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and just think it’s a beautiful name. Amada was my grandmother’s name. It means “beloved” in Spanish.”
Speaking of beautiful, celebrity makeup artist Pati Dubroff whipped up a shimmering smoky eye that might be the only holiday party look you need this season. “I created a ‘70s, Studio 54-inspired eye using colors that are almost reminiscent of a peacock,” Dubroff says. “It has shades of teal, turquoise, and purple. The trick to wearing a vibrant eye is keeping the brightest colors close to the lashline. The color should become more muted the further up the lid it goes.”
Head to VioletGrey.com for more of Dubroff’s beauty tips—and Mendes’s candid interview.
