It’s peak awards season for Hollywood makeup artist Vera Steimberg, who just returned from a whirlwind 24-hour trip to London with her longtime client and friend, Zoë Saldaña, where the actress won Best Supporting Actress at the 2025 BAFTAs. And while Steimberg is used to the wild schedules of awards season, she is still marveled by her career trajectory, telling the Cut she’s “grateful” to be a part of Saldaña’s tour with Emilia Pérez. One product she always uses on Saldaña? La Mer’s Crème de la Mer moisturizer.
A self-taught makeup artist, Steimberg fell into the industry via her love of art and photography. Growing up in Argentina with a doctor father who didn’t know anything about the arts, Steimberg was first inspired by the world of her actress aunt. In high school, Steimberg decided that she wanted to study photography and convinced her father to let her go to night school to learn the art. Her love of photography then overlapped with a curiosity for makeup when she signed on to sell Mary Kay cosmetics.
“I remember just loving the process of showing people how to apply and how to use makeup. And when I moved to L.A., I just didn’t know that I could really pursue makeup as a profession,” she recalls. But once she learned she could turn her passion for makeup into a career, she set her sights on Hollywood, with a goal of working for “big movies.”
Starting out on small indies and volunteering on student-film sets, Steimberg worked her way up to the movies and TV shows. Along the way, the artist gathered a roster of A-list clients, from Eddie Murphy (who helped solidify her big break with the ’90s comedy The Nutty Professor) to Tracee Ellis Ross. But it’s her longtime relationship with Saldaña that has brought her work to the forefront.
“I always love to do a smoky eye on Zoë. I think that she looks so good,” Steimberg says while nodding to the star’s most recent look at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. “I love doing a lot with the eyes. But if I don’t do eyes, I like a really good bold lipstick with a very clean eye.”
Below, Steimberg details her daily skin-care routine, thoughts on rest and movement, and her favorite Saldaña-approved beauty products for achieving an A-list glow.
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A.M. Routine
In the morning, I always wash my face with cold water. I just love the feeling. Not only does it wake me up, it feels good on the skin and I feel like it closes my pores. Then I usually do a moisturizer, and lately I’ve been using Beau Domaine cream from Brad Pitt’s company. I just like the texture. I also like Augustinus Bader the Rich Cream, so I’ll mix it up. I’ve also been obsessed with Circa 1970 face oil. I just put two drops on the palm of my hand, and I just pat it into my face. I also like mixing the drops of oil into a moisturizer and then put it on my skin. So for me, less is more. I don’t like to smother my skin with too many products. I also drink lemon water every morning to reset my body. I learned it from Zoë, and it actually works for me.
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P.M. Routine
First of all, I will never go to sleep with makeup on, period. That to me is like a “no-no.” If I have on eye makeup, I like to remove it first, and if I don’t have eye makeup, I wash my face no matter what. I use Dr. Lancer’s facial cleanser and sometimes I use just Cetaphil. And then for the eye and makeup remover, I usually use Bioderma, but I also love this remover by
Éminence. It’s an herbal and organic brand, and I use it a lot on set. I
also have the hydrating mist spray that can act as a moisturizer. But I don’t put a lot of moisturizer at night because I don’t like my skin to be so greasy or sticky before getting into bed. I just like the feeling of a clean face.
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On getting time outdoors
If I can go and exercise, I try to do a half-hour walk or do Pilates or yoga. If it’s a beautiful day in L.A. and you can go hiking, I love going on a hike. I prefer to do something outdoors, but if not, I like a good barre or yoga class — but nothing hot. I don’t like the hot yoga. I get a headache, I get dehydrated — just give me the traditional class.
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On getting seven to eight hours of sleep
For me, I like to have at least seven to eight hours of sleep. Sleep and hydration are the best moisturizer that anybody can have. And if everybody can understand that the magic starts from the inside out, then your skin will have that radiance that it needs. But we need to learn that we need to hydrate more than anything.
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On her favorite red-carpet products
Definitely La Mer moisturizer — it’s something that I always use on Zoë. I also like Peter Thomas Roth under-eye patches. I love the gold ones and the cucumber ones; they’re very refreshing. I also like to have the CurrentBody LED light with me if we have a minute to use it, and ice rollers because they’re a depuffer and stimulate the skin before you start the makeup. When I’m working on a movie, there’s always a roller in my refrigerator. But eye patches are really easy to put in under the ice when you’re doing makeup, too.
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On her favorite red-carpet makeup product
My all-time favorite is Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage. It’s little bit of moisturizer, it’s a corrector — you can use it for everything. I just love having it in my kit. To me, it can actually correct anybody’s skin with the undertone that she has in it. And sometimes if the skin is too dry, I mix it with just a tiny bit of moisturizer and even with your fingers … a little bit goes a long way and it lasts forever.
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