Julia Haart on Her ‘Miracle’ Beauty Secret, Time Travel and Her Latest Entrepreneurial Venture: Skin Care

She’s a serial entrepreneur, the star of Netflix’s My Unorthodox Life, a skin-care junkie at heart and has time traveled 300 years into the future—she is Julia Haart. How can someone have all of this (and then some) on their resume and still be craving more? Haart says if she could get out of a constricting conservative Jewish community, she can do absolutely anything, and she most definitely has.

At the age of 43, Haart left Monsey, New York—a community that is home to a large gathering of Hasidic Jews—and moved to Manhattan to erase her past and chase one goal: starting a fashion line. Within nine months, she was in Paris for Fashion Week debuting her shoe line called Julia Haart and within seven years, the now-50-year-old has become the co-owner and chief executive officer at modeling conglomerate Elite World Group (EWG), the founder of fashion brand e1972 and now, a co-developer of a new line—it’s launching in Spring of 2022—with science-backed skin-care brand Elysium. Below, the trailblazer shares her experience with the products, gives us a peek into her medicine cabinet and unveils her biggest beauty secret yet.

Your life is completely different than it was living in Monsey. How did you get to where you are now?

“So, that would take like 17 hours to explain—that story is literally a book called Brazen: My Unorthodox Journey from Long Sleeves to Lingerie ($24). There’s no world to which I can explain how I went from housewife to CEO of a shoe company—that’s the book. The one thing I can say is when I came out, it was really time travel. I lived in what the rest of the world thinks of as the 1800’s. Think of shows like Downton Abbey or Bridgerton—that is how I lived. There were some really beautiful parts of that life, but women went from their father’s homes to their husband’s homes, they were not educated, they were told that because they’re women, their purpose in life was to be wives and mothers and that’s it. When I left and I walked into this world, I felt like I had just traveled 300 years into the future. I really felt like if I could do that, I could do anything and fashion has been my passion since I was old enough to have a memory.”

How did you go from starting a shoe line to now expanding into beauty?

“Everything I do, whether it’s designing shoes or designing lingerie, has always been about freedom and making women’s lives better. For example, my brand e1972 is sizeless so women don’t have to feel less than because they’re not a traditional size. So, it’s always been about trying to make women feel more confident about themselves and realizing that they have the wherewithal and capabilities to do whatever they long to do.

I think skin care is the perfect compliment to that message. Elysium reverses aging—that’s their whole product basis. The first product I tried from them was Basis NAD+ Supplement for Cellular Aging ($40) and it literally has the Benjamin Button effect. Since I started taking this, my biological age has rewinded seven years. Now, they’re taking the same ingredient [NAD+] but instead of making it into a digestible form, it’s for the skin. The way I’ve transformed EWG and my other brands is through technology to make women’s lives better, so this collaboration went hand-in-hand.”

Aside from aging, what other skin concerns does this line address?

“It helps discoloration, smoothing and toning. There’s a whole variety of different products: There are products that you travel with and products that you leave at home, so it’s really made for a woman’s life today where we’re not just the bedroom and the kitchen. We’re in the boardroom. We’re the bosses now. This new line encompasses that entire gamut and it’s not just about women in my age group who want to reverse aging, it’s for young women as well because it acts as aging prevention, which is much easier to do than reverse. You have to start young!”

What does your skin-care routine look like?

“This is really long—are you ready? I start off with Peter Thomas Roth Potent-C Power Serum ($98) before using Dr. Dennis Gross Clinical Concentrate Radiance Booster ($68). My last serum of the morning is the SkinMedica TNS Advanced Serum ($295). Then, I have two eye creams that I use. In the morning and night, I use Elemis Ultra Smart Pro-Collagen Eye Treatment Duo ($230). On top of them, I use Doll 10 Smooth Assist Restorative Eye Mousse ($42), it’s so good. At night, I also use NEOSTRATA Comprehensive Retinol Eye Cream ($54). Moisturizer is always La Mer—it’s the Soft Cream ($190) in the summer and the Crème de la Mer ($350) in the winter. For my décolletage, I use Chantecaille Ultra Sun Protection Sunscreen SPF 45 Primer ($96) and for my face I use Giorgio Armani Maestro UV Makeup Primer ($64) before starting my makeup. I’m an SPF lunatic—I never walk outside without being drenched in sunscreen. I have 1,000 different ones and I layer sunscreen on top of sunscreen. For tools, I love the Priori UNVEILED LED Mask ($395), which I use three times a week, and the Droplette ($299) twice per week.”

What are some of your favorite makeup products?

“I don’t use lipstick because I talk too much and it never stays, so I actually have my lips tattooed. I love it—I don’t have to worry about lipstick getting in my teeth, in my mouth or on my coffee mug. This was a miracle for me. For foundation, I mix five colors of the Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation ($64) together, but when I don’t want to wear foundation I wear a tinted moisturizer or this skin primer perfector that makes it so that you don’t need to wear makeup—it just depends on what I’m doing. If I don’t have a big meeting, I’m always reaching for the Charlotte Tilbury Unisex Healthy Glow ($40) to even out the complexion. If I’m not going to an event, I’m obsessed with ILIA Serum Skin Tint SPF 40 ($48).”

Do you have any beauty secrets that you swear by?

“My beauty secret is literally a miracle. It’s Dr. Brandt Skincare needles no more NO MORE BAGGAGE ($42). I put it above my knees and under my eyes—it’s the greatest makeup hack of all time because it sucks up all the liquid in that area and smooths out wrinkles. Because I’m 50, I get this line above my knee, and when I put this there it zaps it up. If I haven’t slept, this cures my sleepless nights too. It’s a lifesaver.”