Welcome to the Beauty Sessions, conversations in the makeup chair with Toronto’s best-dressed women
Our fourth and final chapter: Reality TV maven Roxy Earle and lifestyle blogger Sasha Exeter
All summer long, we’ve been spending time with some of the most stylish, accomplished women in the city. For the final installment of this series, we sat down with Roxy Earle of The Real Housewives of Toronto and Sasha Exeter of the fitness and lifestyle blog “So Sasha” to talk about embracing who you are, breaking down barriers, and the power of nice.
Big news about these two: Sasha, who was named one of Toronto Life’s Best Dressed People of 2016, welcomed her first child, Max, a few weeks ago. And Roxy, whose “My Size Rox” campaign has motivated thousands of social-media followers, is one of our new Best Dressed honourees this year. They’ll both be featured in our fall fashion issue Toronto Life Stylebook, on newsstands September 7.
Makeup by: Sephora National Pro Lead Artist Lou Swinden Payne Photography by: Vanessa Heins
Who: Roxy Earle, reality TV star and body-confidence advocate
Where did your love of style come from?
“I got my love of style from my mother’s womb. I was just born into fashion and into fabulous things. I’ve always just had a zest for fashion—a zest for life.”
What are your earliest memories of dressing up?
“When I was little, my mom had a friend who sang backup for Eric Clapton. She had incredible outfits! We’d visit her in London every summer, and she would give me all these stage clothes. I would come back to my life in Toronto, and I’d go out to play with my friends wearing these sequined outfits that she wore on the stage.”
You have a campaign called “My Size Rox.” What does it mean to you?
“Through social media, I’ve been able to build connections with women all over the world who write to me about body confidence, about self esteem, about dressing their curves—and about how seeing someone like me on TV has made them feel empowered. I started a campaign where I’ve asked women to tag me in their photos with #MySizeRox, where they’re really embracing their curves, their size, their non-curves, their height, whatever it is. I feel very honoured to represent women who have felt really ignored when it comes to fashion and beauty. I see it my mission. Embrace who you are, as you are, right now and just rock it.”
What does true beauty mean to you?
“A woman is beautiful to me when she’s kind, when she’s compassionate, when she’s humble and when she sees beauty in other people for things that have nothing to do with what’s on the outside. I honestly just believe women, when they’re nice to one another and very kind, they’re the most powerful creatures in this world.”
Who: Sasha Exeter, fitness and lifestyle blogger, SoSasha.com.
As a Torontonian, what do you love about this city?
“I’ve lived in seven different countries. I love exploring and roaming, but Toronto is home. It’s also a true melting pot—you can feel like you’re traveling throughout the world without ever leaving the city core. With my active lifestyle, I love the idea that I can live downtown, but still be close to hiking trails, or the waterfront for running, or that I can just head out an hour and ski in the winter.”
Have you always been into style?
“I think I came late into my personal style. I’ve always been a tomboy and I’m a former elite athlete, so I felt always very comfortable in spandex and running shoes. That’s why I like the athleisure trend so much!”
And what about beauty?
“My beauty routine has changed dramatically over the last decade. I’m 36 now, so ten years ago, I was using the same lotion on my body as I was on my face! Now, for me, I make sure that my skin is very clean, especially at the end of the day. I like to use cleansing wipes before I even start with the cleansing process. I am now become a big fan of serums and boosters, just to give my skin a little bit more plumpness, and because I do have some hyper pigmentation. I do use some sort of exfoliation products as well, and moisture, moisture, moisture, especially at night.”
What defines beauty for you?
“I do find confidence very beautiful. I find intelligence beautiful. And I find muscular structure very beautiful—that was something that I had a challenge with growing up. I played tennis. I was teased a lot for my body shape but the older I’ve become, the more I realize the muscles helped define who I and and helped me excel in my sport.”
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