0:00

Hey, it's Jonathan Van Ness. Americans

0:02

United for Separation of Church and

0:04

State defends your freedom to live as

0:06

yourself and believe as you choose, so

0:09

long as you don't harm others. Core

0:12

freedoms like abortion rights, marriage

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equality, public education, and even

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American democracy itself, rest

0:19

upon the wall of separation between

0:21

church and state. Christian nationalists

0:23

are attacking these freedoms, seeking to

0:25

force us all to live by

0:28

their narrow beliefs. Americans

0:30

United is fighting back. Freedom

0:32

without favor and equality without

0:35

exception. Learn more

0:37

about AU at

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au.org/curious. Darling, I

0:42

was on a vacation recently and stayed at

0:44

an Airbnb, and then I

0:46

realized that while I was

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away, my empty house could be

0:51

making money, honey. If

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1:00

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1:02

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1:04

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1:07

I really enjoy staying at Airbnb. I

1:09

really do. I love a good Airbnb. Who is

1:11

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1:13

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1:15

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1:17

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1:20

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much at airbnb.com/host. Hey,

1:50

curious people. Welcome back to Pretty Curious,

1:52

our podcast on all things beauty. I'm

1:54

Jonathan Bannes, and I hope you had

1:56

a glorious weekend. I hope

1:58

you feel rested. and restored and

2:01

ready to take on your week. Today,

2:04

this Monday, this gorgeous day, we're talking to a

2:06

dear friend of mine and someone who I, is

2:09

just literally the most incredible jewelry designer

2:11

you have ever met, Irene Newworth. Okay,

2:13

but before we talk to Irene, it's

2:16

time to get ready with me. You

2:19

guys, I had so much gorgeous dew

2:22

skin in my life because

2:26

ever since we interviewed Charlotte, I was

2:28

like, I've been sleeping on her skincare

2:30

skincare. I've really only been up in

2:32

those eye patches. And I was

2:34

like, that just can't proceed anymore. So

2:36

I got my dew skin

2:39

on you guys. I've been using it

2:41

for the last two weeks. I'm

2:43

so obsessed, it hurts my feelings. The

2:46

Air Angel Gel Cream is so

2:48

nice for summer. Get

2:50

your life. Cause it's just been really

2:52

hot in Vegas. So I like more of a

2:54

jelly vibe for my moisturizer.

2:57

This gel cream is gorgeous. I love it so

2:59

much. And

3:01

also the instant angel moisturizer. I love

3:04

that for nighttime. You

3:06

guys, it's so good anytime, but I just love it so much.

3:08

I love it so much. And I'm also

3:10

just ordered the Deliverance Soothing Trinity Serum and it's gonna

3:13

get here any second and I cannot wait for that.

3:15

So that's what I'm using RN

3:17

on my skincare. I'm loving it. I love Charlotte and

3:19

I love dew skin so much. I'm so happy that you

3:21

came. I'm pretty curious. If you haven't listened to that

3:23

one yet, you should. Cause

3:25

she's just beyond incredible. And I

3:28

love her vibe and I love her approach to beauty. Ooh,

3:31

what a good listener question. Retinol,

3:34

who, what, when, where, why,

3:36

and how. Okay, so

3:38

retinol is, let's actually, let's Google it together

3:40

you guys. Stand by. Retinol

3:43

is a form of vitamin A and it's

3:46

an ingredient that's added to skin creams, lotions,

3:48

and serums. So retinols and retinol are two

3:50

forms of vitamin A that have different properties

3:52

and effects on the skin. Improving

3:55

skin texture and treating acne and

3:58

reducing hyperpigmentation. Caroline Hirons. her

4:00

step one retinol. A lot of companies will make like

4:03

just one kind of strength but she has like a

4:05

step one and a step two and I really like

4:07

the step one. Retinols

4:09

we do typically put on at night because they

4:11

can be reacted to the sun so retinols

4:14

I would do at night but then you need to make sure

4:16

that you have on sunscreen for the next day. With any

4:20

application you want to make sure that you're getting

4:22

from your chest up so like your face doesn't

4:24

stop at your jaw make sure you're hitting your

4:26

neck and your decolletage. I hope I'm

4:28

saying that is it like that good tear decolletage I'm

4:31

pretty sure it's decolletage whatever it is what it is.

4:34

So and yeah so then with the how you're gonna

4:36

apply I put it in my palm but then I

4:38

take like my other middle finger and I put it

4:40

like on my forehead on both cheeks on my chin

4:42

and like on my neck so that I'm not

4:45

like rubbing the serum all up in my

4:47

hands first because you want to get the product on

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your face not all up on your dry ass hands.

4:52

So do make sure that you're like applying it throughout your

4:54

face first. Okay 50

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7:06

Neuwirth is a jewelry designer from Los Angeles.

7:09

She began experimenting with jewelry design after

7:11

college and soon after she found herself

7:13

inundated with requests for her one of

7:16

a kind pieces. In

7:19

2003, with business partner Tracy Stoll, Irene

7:21

Neuwirth Jewelry was born. Her

7:23

jewelry has been worn by celebrities

7:25

like Naomi Watts, Tracy Ellis Ross,

7:27

Julianne Moore, Sarah Paulson and Busy

7:30

Phillips and me. And

7:32

her work has been featured in publications like

7:34

Vogue, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, Town and Country, W

7:36

and The New York Times. Today,

7:38

the collection can be found at their flagship

7:40

stores in Los Angeles, New York City, as

7:43

well as leading boutiques across the globe. Welcome

7:45

to the show, Irene. How are you? I

7:47

am great. I'm so happy to be here

7:50

with you always. My ADHD

7:52

is. you...

8:00

came into my life. But

8:02

I think I'm going to make

8:05

the difficult decision and not do either one of

8:07

those things. You were recently on the cover of

8:09

Town and Country, right? I

8:11

was. Can I just say that spread

8:13

was stunning and no offense to Town

8:16

and Country, but that was the best

8:18

cover they've had in years, darling. You're

8:21

biased. Well,

8:23

maybe I am, but I just thought you looked incredible

8:25

in this. I love that spread so much. So you

8:28

guys, if you haven't seen Irene's issue of

8:30

Town and Country, also, if you don't follow

8:32

Irene on Instagram, you're seriously disturbed. I don't

8:34

know what could possibly be going on. She's

8:36

one of my favorite follows ever. So now we

8:38

can go back to your story. On horses. Of

8:41

jewelry and horses. On jewelry, all of that. Who

8:44

could not want to see that on Instagram?

8:47

I'm sourcing so much joy from your Instagram. It's

8:49

really been a major asset for me lately. I

8:51

feel like that's where we saw that. It really

8:53

was. Okay, but now let's go to the beginning

8:55

of your story. You

8:58

are from LA, right? Born

9:01

and raised. Which is very, we

9:03

know, is kind of a

9:05

rarity. There's not that many people that are

9:07

in LA who are from LA. Your back

9:10

story is incredible. Your mom is an artist.

9:12

She's a painter. Your dad was giving more

9:14

economics business by. How

9:17

did having such a unique upbringing

9:19

influence your career? Well, let's

9:22

see. So when I was a kid, I

9:24

rode horses. That's all I wanted to do

9:26

was ride horses, be around dogs. I'm like

9:28

convinced that I like animals better than I

9:30

like people. And

9:33

I went

9:36

to college in Vermont

9:38

and studied, obviously, environmental

9:40

education, as one does.

9:43

And when I moved back home, I

9:46

decided that I wanted to help the woman who I

9:48

rode horses with teach walk-talk lessons as

9:52

a career. And my

9:54

father was very

9:59

disappointed. my career choice

10:01

I would say. Although I think

10:03

it was a great, great stepping

10:05

stone. So I made

10:08

jewelry for fun and I called

10:10

Barney's, Barney's Rest in

10:12

Peace. And I

10:14

asked who their jewelry buyer

10:17

was off of the switchboard and they gave

10:19

me the name of somebody and I literally

10:22

hit redial and

10:25

nonstop called until somebody finally was

10:27

like, what do you want? I

10:30

was like, Oh,

10:32

I was wondering if you got my package of beaded jewelry

10:34

that I sent and, and they were

10:36

like, we got it. And they

10:38

were like, let us know when you're in New York. And so I

10:40

booked a ticket to New York. My mom was living in New York.

10:43

And I flew out

10:45

there, I met with them and they were like, we

10:48

like it. You know, what's the price point? I was

10:50

I don't know, what is the price point? What should

10:52

it be? And they were like, I think

10:54

you need to go like sit down, talk to

10:56

some business people figure out exactly what you want

10:58

to do and come back to us. So

11:01

I sat down actually with my dad who helped me come

11:03

up with a plan on how to price things. And

11:06

it was sort of like this, not a joke.

11:08

But you know, I never in a million years thought

11:10

that I would be where I am now. But Barney's

11:13

was my first account, they placed a $14,000 order. I

11:15

remember being like,

11:17

I'm going to retire next week. So much better

11:19

than the $6,000 a year I was making and

11:25

teaching walk, trot lessons.

11:28

And I am obsessed with learning. So I

11:30

worked with a J professor. And I

11:33

learned how to do wax carving,

11:35

metalsmithing, I learned all about stones.

11:37

I'm like a sucker for

11:39

knowledge. So I just really became obsessive

11:41

with learning everything I could about jewelry. And

11:44

it became this really amazing thing with

11:46

Barney's right off the bat, we were in

11:48

their top sales. And then

11:51

before Barney's close, we were their number one

11:53

selling brand company wide, it was really quite

11:55

exciting. That was very, very

11:58

shortened explanation of how I

12:00

got started. But yeah, I

12:02

mean, because I know that it takes so much more than

12:04

that. But that actually brings up a really interesting point. So

12:06

you're like, slaying the game at

12:08

Barney's you're the number one jewelry store there. And

12:10

then I think to like everyone's shock to spam

12:12

and maybe a few red light trade magazines and

12:14

knew about like the inner work in the department

12:17

stores, maybe you would have known that there was

12:19

a problem. But I never knew that there was

12:21

a problem at Barney's. I just knew that I

12:23

went there and I loved it. And I was

12:25

no, because I mean, I was like, I just

12:27

never understood any of that world. But it did

12:29

its closing impact you were you like, shit, I

12:31

got to go like open stores now or like

12:33

go do something really impacted me. So I'm

12:35

loyal to the end of the earth. So like

12:37

when I have a partner in business and life

12:39

in anything I am just like all

12:41

in I don't want to like stray

12:44

from that. So Barney's was

12:46

basically my one big account.

12:49

And lots of stores wanted

12:52

our jewelry because we had great press and

12:54

we had a lot of excitement around our brand. But

12:56

I really just wanted to be loyal to

12:58

Barney's. So it

13:00

took a lot for us over the years to

13:02

finally open our own store. We opened our first

13:04

store a little over 10 years ago on Melrose

13:07

place here in Los Angeles. And

13:09

Barney's, you know, they were threatened

13:11

by that it was before Barney's was really

13:13

having problems. But I just in

13:16

my heart of hearts felt like it

13:18

was just going to increase my brand

13:20

awareness increase, like the knowledge

13:22

around me the jewelry.

13:25

And it ultimately was really

13:27

wonderful. And I'm so grateful that we had our

13:29

store and that we launched our website before Barney's

13:31

filed bankruptcy because we had a lot

13:33

of vulnerability and not a lot of

13:36

stores. But because we're so

13:38

loyal, I think a lot of people had

13:40

been wanting our jewelry for so many years

13:42

that they were excited to like get on

13:44

the bandwagon when Barney's wasn't

13:46

around. But I will just never it

13:48

was such a life lesson to you

13:52

know, just be like very true to what our

13:54

brand was like we never wanted to be in

13:56

a million places we wanted our clients to feel

13:58

special when they bought piece And

14:01

so I really knew when that closed how

14:03

to like go forward and what I wanted

14:05

my business to look like So

14:08

we just grew carefully after that which

14:10

was great growing carefully. God if I could

14:12

do anything over again, it would be to

14:15

like Grow more

14:17

carefully. I just grew

14:19

as fast as possible That's

14:22

a hard thing to do though because there have

14:24

been so many times like in 2008 when there

14:26

was the financial crisis Like of course I was like

14:29

we should have sold our company or we should have sold

14:31

to every single Neiman Marcus and every single

14:33

Sax like when they were throwing money our

14:35

way But I'm

14:37

so glad that we didn't because I've watched a

14:39

lot of brands make mistakes where

14:41

they're trying to buy their name back

14:43

or you know, I just

14:46

so really I Am

14:48

so grateful that I like stuck to my

14:50

like moral Like How

14:54

I wanted my business to go from the get

14:57

go you have that vision and that you stay

14:59

connected in that vision That's so beautiful. Thank you

15:06

Darling I was on a vacation

15:09

recently and stayed at an Airbnb And

15:11

then I realized that while I

15:14

was away my empty house could

15:16

be making money, honey If you're

15:19

someone like me that is busy and not

15:21

home all the time your home could be

15:23

an Airbnb And it's

15:26

actually pretty simple to get started. Even if you

15:28

don't have a whole house you could start with

15:30

just a spare room Personally,

15:32

I really enjoy staying at Airbnb. I really

15:34

do. I love a good Airbnb Who is

15:36

that come back British you and it really

15:38

is a great way to like support local

15:40

economy and support local people So

15:42

Airbnb is fabulous and I know I was doing my

15:44

British voice earlier, but we love Airbnb So

15:47

think about what you could do with some extra cash Whether

15:49

you're looking to treat yourself to something nice

15:51

like a shopping spree or a spa day

15:54

or start a whole side hustle Airbnb can

15:56

help you be that person your

15:59

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16:01

you think. Find out how much

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16:59

you see someone on the street and they're wearing a piece of jewelry,

17:01

will you be like, where is

17:03

like, like, are you curious about

17:05

other people's jewelry? It's actually very funny.

17:08

So there's an incredible gem show

17:10

in Tucson, Arizona, which you need to

17:12

come with me. It's just like you land the

17:15

airport is gems. The convention centers are

17:17

gems every single hotel room they're selling

17:19

like it. There's tents

17:21

on the side of the highway. It's so

17:23

totally insane. So anyway, I had never gone before

17:25

I had just started my business. That

17:27

was like my first stop. And I was a kid.

17:29

I mean, I was 23 years old when

17:32

I started and

17:34

nobody would take me seriously. So like

17:36

I would go around and like you really have

17:38

to like know the people knows the vendors. I mean,

17:41

now I have like incredible relationships with the best of

17:43

the best but this woman.

17:47

Her name is Bonnie is Bonnie

17:49

and she was from

17:51

India and she kind of

17:53

pulled me aside and like took me under her

17:55

wing and like taught me everything there was to know

17:57

about some of my precious stones that she had

18:00

available to her and she

18:02

let me take things on memos. So

18:04

I could have them in my studio and play around

18:07

with them. And when

18:09

I was starting, I paid myself $40,000 a year for

18:13

so many, many, many years. And

18:16

so I didn't have a huge budget

18:18

to invest in gemstone. So the

18:21

way I grew my business was these

18:23

incredible, again, everything is about relationships for

18:25

me. And it was these relationships with these stone

18:27

vendors who allowed me

18:29

to take things at the beginning without

18:32

paying for them until they sold. And

18:34

it allowed me to take risks that

18:36

I wouldn't have been able to take.

18:39

So that's what happened with Opals. When I

18:41

first started working with Opals, I

18:44

can't say that I'm responsible for this

18:46

Opal craze because I'm certainly not. It's

18:49

many, many jewelry designers. But people were

18:51

afraid to touch Opals because they thought they were

18:53

bad luck. And it was this wives' tale back in the

18:55

day that was told from

18:58

Jibirs. And the diamond industry

19:00

was booming. And

19:02

then Opals came on the market. And it

19:04

started to be a threat. And

19:06

so they made up this story.

19:09

And it stuck for so many,

19:11

many, many, many years. That Opals are

19:13

bad luck unless it's your birthstone. Or given to

19:15

you. Yes. I don't know. I wear Opals every

19:17

single day. I love it. Me too. Because I

19:19

gave them to myself, honey. I gave one to

19:21

myself too. And

19:23

it seems fine. But I

19:26

worked with this Opal craze. I went

19:28

over to this case. And there was

19:30

the very precious stones will be revolving

19:32

on some kind of little tray with

19:36

the light shining on them. And I was like, what

19:39

is that? It looked like

19:41

magic from another planet. And

19:45

nobody gave me the time of day at

19:47

the beginning. And then I think some designer,

19:49

you wear a name tag and you're walking around. And at

19:51

this point, I had been selling to Barney's for years. And

19:54

I had been taking it slow. And I was working

19:56

with mostly semi-precious and a little bit precious.

19:59

And so I was like, what is this? I some

20:01

designer went up to him and was like

20:03

that girl who was drooling over that piece They

20:05

were like you should work with her. She's really talented

20:07

and she's like on to something So when

20:10

I went back they like came out and

20:12

sort of grabbed me and brought me over and he's like

20:14

we'll give you This opal

20:16

to work with now the opal

20:18

cost I think cost costs like

20:20

sixty thousand dollars I was definitely

20:22

not buying a single stone that

20:25

cost that much at that time. So I was

20:27

like, are you sure? No opals are soft. So

20:29

when you work with them, you have to be

20:31

a little bit delicate when you're setting them and

20:33

I Wasn't totally

20:36

familiar yet. So we

20:38

took the opal and we set it and we

20:40

broke it fuck Like

20:44

many pieces or like a crack

20:46

into like three pieces and

20:48

I called in tears You know

20:50

being like I don't even he was like it's okay

20:52

So we like basically like had the stones

20:54

polished in small pieces and then I ended

20:56

up selling them and then we ended up

20:59

getting More and more and more from

21:01

him and then sure enough He works

21:03

with like the biggest jewelers in the world and we

21:05

read their biggest account by like a long

21:07

shot I just did so much work with opals.

21:09

I fell in love with working with them. It

21:11

was incredible Where'd you draw your inspiration from like

21:13

what is your design process look like? Would you

21:15

say the opals are your fav? It's

21:18

really hard. I love all I Like

21:22

because I'm so involved in every single

21:24

piece getting made from start to finish

21:26

that I kind of like there's like a

21:28

natural Progression in changing

21:30

up stones. Like I remember I used

21:33

to like hate purples and now I'm like obsessed with

21:35

purples It's like the one color I haven't like worked

21:37

with and now I've liked worked with sort

21:39

of everything and now I'm like I

21:43

want like love it hands and I you really love

21:45

it hands and I love a tan tonight I

21:47

love these like opals that have lavender and purple

21:49

in them and

21:52

but I My

21:54

inspiration so when my mom is

21:56

a painter, she's always had the

21:58

really unusual color combinations.

22:00

So like when I was a little kid,

22:03

I always loved putting like pinks and oranges

22:05

together and This is like

22:07

a weird thing But like when you squint your eyes

22:09

and the color value is the same But

22:11

when you open your eyes and they're like weird

22:13

and different I love that That's

22:16

like a strange thing. That's really and you

22:18

know what I mean like pink and orange I just do it

22:20

here if you squint your eyes would be like the same

22:22

color But when you like open your eyes

22:24

wide and they're like almost the same, but

22:26

they're like slightly different I like those kind

22:29

of weird mixes together. Yes But

22:33

I I

22:35

don't know I draw my inspiration from so many different

22:38

things like I love to travel I love like when

22:40

you're you know on an airplane and you look down

22:42

and you know that like the sky is supposed to

22:44

be Blue and the ground is supposed to be brown

22:47

or green But it's actually all these like pinks and

22:49

lavenders and like sort of pulling yourself away and looking

22:51

at like what the real colors Are

22:53

without like what your brain is. Does that make

22:55

sense? I think yeah No, it's

22:58

like it's like about the same like present like because there

23:00

is like all of these other colors that exist within things

23:02

that we like You think you're gonna see a certain thing?

23:04

But when you really look there's like all these variations and

23:06

all these colors that may not be there when you just

23:08

glance at it Like you

23:10

might look at the sky and there's like pinks and

23:12

lavenders and green I don't know. I just

23:15

so I'm really inspired by just like natural

23:17

surroundings, but I also love to draw

23:19

and Even

23:21

though like a lot of my pieces

23:23

look like they might be irregular There's

23:25

like a real balance and decision

23:27

that's being made like when I leave town the

23:30

poor girls in my production and like we'll have a

23:32

special request and they'll lay something out I'm like But

23:36

they're like laying it out exactly like Photograph

23:39

of the piece that maybe the client

23:41

loved but wanted in different colors, but for

23:43

me, it's like there's such a precise Balance

23:47

with each stone that I am like psychotic

23:49

and have to literally lay out and design

23:51

every single piece myself I can't let anyone

23:53

do it. You're an artist I

23:55

know but it should be a better director and

23:57

helping people learn how to do what I just

23:59

like cannot. But you can't

24:01

help that you're a literal artist. My brain just had like

24:03

16 questions that I need to go back to. Okay.

24:07

What are your thoughts on this? Is

24:09

this real? Like what is semi-precious? Is

24:11

it like what, like what's semi-precious?

24:13

I mean, I would say

24:15

the difference is just like the

24:17

literal difference, which is precious is something that's

24:19

a little bit more difficult to get your

24:21

hands on, right? So like opals are precious.

24:23

They're all one of a kind. They're all,

24:25

it's very hard to source really beautiful opals.

24:27

A lot of the rough is very old.

24:32

I am like, I don't play

24:34

with the rules really. Like when I started

24:36

people were like, you keep emeralds and diamonds

24:38

and sapphires and opals together. And then the

24:40

semi-precious Jones, I like it all fucked

24:42

up. Like I want to mix like turquoise

24:44

with diamonds or turquoise with

24:46

sapphires or sapphires with agate

24:49

or like a rock. I

24:51

love agate. You know, like

24:53

I'm into, I'm into all of

24:55

those. I don't know. I just like

24:57

what looks good to me. The first time

24:59

you're at your store, it's Melrose. It's 2013. Like

25:02

we didn't even know what was coming for us in

25:04

the next presidential election. It was

25:06

just like a different time. You're

25:09

sitting there and like, was

25:12

there ever a time where there was like a celeb

25:14

who you, you have to

25:16

tell us who, but was there ever a time where you're just

25:18

like sitting in your store and then like some major person came

25:20

in who you hadn't already worked with and you were like, and

25:22

like a person had to come to like where you were sitting

25:24

and be like, I'm fucking

25:26

like so and so is here looking and like

25:29

they want to look at this stuff. The best

25:31

story ever. Hold on. You're going to die. So

25:33

I went, I haven't done trunk shows in a

25:35

very long time. So it's sort of like, that's

25:38

all I did for many years was just travel and

25:40

travel and travel. And like when the pandemic happened, I

25:43

was like, I'm done traveling. Like I,

25:46

every, did it. Yeah.

25:49

But I went, I went to Raleigh to do the

25:51

trunk show and the lovely woman who owns the store

25:54

was telling me the story that I think she thought

25:56

I would find really delightful, which I actually do. But

26:01

So she's like, your store just like, it

26:05

makes everyone feel so special. She was like, we

26:08

were doing appointments and

26:10

that like, so they were coming to like

26:12

write an order. So like our wholesale

26:14

team was at our retail store, bringing out

26:16

jewelry and the stores were writing

26:19

the order for the season. And

26:22

she was like, and it was so amazing. Her

26:25

security guard at the door closed the store

26:27

for us and JLo came and they asked

26:29

her to wait outside. I was like, no,

26:32

I was like, she's like,

26:34

but it was so amazing. Cause

26:36

it was like, it didn't matter who it was. I

26:38

was like, that mattered. You

26:41

could have shared the store

26:43

with fucking JLo lady. But

26:49

no, we've had so many, I've had

26:51

so much wonderful support. I have to

26:53

say I've been very touched. And

26:57

it's mostly, I

26:59

think it's, I always think

27:01

that people take a risk by wearing my

27:03

jewelry. Like we're not paying people to go down the

27:06

red carpet and wear our jewelry. They have to choose to

27:08

wear it. And a lot of people are paying them. So

27:11

I'm always really honored when anyone decides to wear

27:13

our things to the Oscars or the clothes and

27:15

gloves, you know, any of it. After I

27:17

already fell in love with your pieces, I wasn't

27:19

prepared that like the packaging was going to be

27:22

so cool. But your

27:24

overall philosophy on like, and

27:27

we've kind of touched on this already, but it's a little bit

27:29

deeper. And this is more for people who are like, because

27:33

even though jewelry, it's luxury, but it's

27:35

still, there's a service there. And there's

27:37

an experience of a service. There's a

27:39

brand experience or a customer experience. So

27:41

this is kind of like advice for

27:43

people who are involved in anything where

27:45

they are involved in something where

27:47

they have a customer experience. What

27:49

is your philosophy for like? For

27:52

me, I want the experience from like the

27:54

second someone walks in the door until the

27:56

second they open the box of jewelry in their

27:58

home to be like. like

28:00

dripping in me. I

28:03

mean for lack of a better description. Like to

28:06

me everyone always like, one of

28:08

the biggest compliments is when someone's like I'm flipping through a

28:10

magazine and I saw the piece and I knew it was

28:13

yours before I saw I read the name or I like

28:15

that with every little last detail

28:18

in the store. So like we

28:20

have in our Melrose store there's like this

28:22

beautiful case and there's like a shell and

28:25

then on the shell is like a

28:27

little miniature polar bear. Like I like

28:29

to show people all of the teensy tiny

28:31

details from the second you walk in all

28:33

the way into like the painting on the

28:35

bathroom wall or like the wooden bunny

28:37

rabbit that's holding the toilet paper you

28:39

know like everything. So the

28:41

packaging is so important to me because

28:44

I feel like that's also part of the whole

28:46

experience when I'm not able to be there talking

28:48

it through. You really get

28:50

a sense of what my brand is by opening

28:52

up our boxes. So Aaron Morris is a good

28:54

friend of mine. He's an amazing painter

28:57

and he has

28:59

these gorgeous, I

29:02

mean they're like so everything in my life.

29:04

I love like whimsical, I love animals, I

29:06

love color that's like everything that he's about

29:08

as well. So we asked him

29:10

if we could commission you know these pieces and

29:13

then make these silk scarves

29:16

and silk insides to

29:18

our boxes

29:21

and all of our boxes have like a very, I

29:25

would say like my biggest trick is people

29:27

are always like you're so low key and

29:29

colorful but I'm actually like really meticulous and

29:31

everything has organization and the boxes have this

29:34

like organization as well. Like the purple box

29:36

goes with the red pouch that goes in

29:38

the yellow bag that goes with the purple

29:40

but you know like it's all totally thought

29:42

through and it's all the colors of my

29:44

logo. So like my Irene

29:46

Neuwirth logo is like all different colors and

29:48

then we integrated that into the boxes. Irene

29:51

it is and I didn't literally

29:53

ever know that story until now but that

29:56

is what it is. It's crazy and

29:58

then my friend Clara Crespo who made all of of

30:00

the beautiful suede and cashmere birds that

30:02

are in the case in in Melrose

30:04

and she made the huge, oh no

30:06

you disappeared. There you are. She made

30:09

the huge giraffe in

30:11

the Madison Avenue window. She did

30:17

our tissue paper which like tells this really

30:19

amazing like mystical story of this bunny rabbit

30:21

which also lives on our website. I mean

30:23

it's all connected. It looks

30:26

random but it's very much not. We're here

30:28

for our third segment. This one's giving

30:30

more rapid fire. It's giving quick and

30:33

this is a little bit more producty.

30:36

So what is your go

30:39

to, you know pretty curious we do

30:41

products. So what is your go to

30:43

budget beauty recommendation? It's anything beauty under

30:45

15 bucks. I like

30:47

Jones Road. Have you seen

30:49

this? I love Jones Road. I love it.

30:51

I feel like it's like so

30:53

glistening and amazing and that

30:56

little miracle balm. Are you doing the

30:58

miracle balm stuff? Yeah I love their face pencil as well.

31:00

And every single time I use it people are like, God

31:02

your skin looks so great. I'm like thanks you know.

31:04

Bobby Brown just doesn't miss. That's the thing

31:06

about her. She really doesn't. She's the best.

31:08

What's a splurge recommendation for you? Splurge beauty.

31:10

It could be skincare, hair care. It could

31:13

be a service. Joanna

31:16

Chuck facial. The

31:19

best. Ooh. Sai Bar Irene, do you

31:22

do baths? Are you a soak person? I'm a

31:24

bath person every day. Take a bath. We love

31:26

them. We had the founder of Pure Soma on

31:28

a few weeks ago. I'm pretty curious. If you've

31:30

never tried their bath. Never. Pure Soma. Remember this.

31:32

I'm writing a poem. Life changing. We're obsessed with

31:34

them. It's our literal favorite ever. It's so good.

31:37

I love a bath by the way. But this

31:39

girls are like, and actually I should send you

31:41

the link to her episode because I really liked

31:43

her. I think you might like her too. What's

31:46

a product that you never leave home without? Um,

31:49

I like my Westman Atelier lip gloss. Oh,

31:52

okay. Do you have in your mind like

31:54

a favorite vintage beauty look? It could be

31:56

a red carpet look, a magazine photo shoot.

31:58

Like is someone in a movie? It

32:00

could be a personal person in your life. I mean, I

32:02

would say my mom my mom Looks

32:05

like old and current she

32:07

is she's pretty outrageous looking. I took her

32:09

to karaoke on Mother's Day, by the way She's

32:12

83. I saw I followed it

32:14

closely. I followed it closely. Um you guys Cuz

32:17

I've seen Geraldine right? Yeah, right Okay,

32:19

um, so Geraldine is like one of

32:21

like the most prominently featured models up

32:24

on Irene's work She is stunning. She

32:26

is the artist mom That is here

32:28

is the thing that is so incredible about

32:30

her and that I love and which is

32:32

such a rarity in today's day And age

32:34

is that she's done nothing to her face,

32:37

you know, there's no Botox and I'll fill

32:39

her and know anything She's so naturally

32:41

gorgeous. It's it's awesome She

32:43

really is I wish I used to be able to say

32:45

that until I got Botox on my hairline But I still

32:48

think it looks like it's all here for me. Botox is

32:50

nothing. It's fine Um, no, just a little

32:52

neurotox had never hurt anybody. Okay Agree

32:54

with this. Okay. So now this is the final

32:56

final. This is meh or major All you gotta

32:59

say is meh for or

33:01

major for yes, we love. Okay.

33:03

I already know the truth I

33:05

already know the first one tennis

33:07

bracelets major. Yeah custom or Jesus

33:09

Christ who says that costume jewelry

33:11

in between major Okay, mixing gold

33:13

and silver pieces major toe rings

33:17

Ankle bracelets major broaches and lapels

33:19

that are part of a garment.

33:21

I'm into that major chunky chains

33:23

major multiple ear piercings

33:26

Trading bracelets and Taylor Swift concerts and

33:29

definitely don't do it with an Irene

33:31

piece. You will regret it Um, you

33:33

will that would have been don't do

33:35

not don't do that fabric jewelry No,

33:38

I am too because also it's like

33:40

like I am too. Um layering necklaces.

33:42

I already know that one I'm into

33:44

it mismatch earrings major dramatic hair changes

33:48

I'm not that into that not until like the pink

33:50

hair phase, but whatever people love it I'm trying

33:52

to think if there's any other things I really

33:54

need to know That's really

33:56

on the tip of my tongue ice plunges. I

33:58

mean I would like to I'm a major,

34:00

but I'm too wimpy to go for it. Good

34:03

for you though. Is

34:07

there any like beauty thing that you've ever done

34:09

that you just thought was like really fucking good?

34:11

Like whether it was like a hydrofacial or like,

34:14

is there any like beauty thing that we didn't?

34:17

Yes, I did that radio frequency microneedling. You're

34:19

the second person who told

34:21

us that. Yes. Oh my God,

34:23

I'm obsessed. It's changed my skin.

34:25

The editor in chief of Allure was just telling us

34:28

that she did it in South Korea. I did it

34:30

in New York. Irene, I love you so much. I'm

34:32

going to pee my pants. But is there anything that

34:34

we didn't, like literally I'm going to pee my pants,

34:36

but is there anything that we didn't, that

34:39

we didn't talk about that we should have? Not that I can

34:41

think of, but you can always text me and we

34:43

can have a conversation offline. And I also want us

34:45

to have you on again to talk all about horses and we

34:47

might have to do a follow up on jewelry if there's anything

34:49

that we miss. I'm into it. I'm so grateful to be here.

34:51

I love you so much. Thanks for coming. I'm

34:54

pretty curious. And I'm listening to Pretty Curious with

34:56

me, Jonathan Van Ness. You can learn more about

34:58

this week's guest in the episode description and follow

35:01

us on Instagram and TikTok at Curious with JVN.

35:03

Pretty Curious drops every Monday wherever you get

35:05

your podcasts. And make sure to tune in

35:08

every Wednesday for Getting Serious. Still

35:10

can't get enough? Honey, you're insatiable. Subscribe

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to Extra Curious on Apple Podcast for commercial

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35:22

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Come on Nathaniel. Our editor and engineer

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is also Nathaniel McClure. Yes,

35:32

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