Eiza González isn’t one to back down from a challenge, whether she’s training for a role—her latest film, Godzilla vs. Kong, is out now—or she’s being asked to have her entire form saturated in body paint, a dare that she couldn’t turn down for her new campaign with Louis Vuitton for On the Beach, its new bright, West Coast–inspired scent filled with notes of Japanese yuzu, Tunisian neroli, and aromatic herbs.
“It looks like I rolled on magical rainbow sand!” laughs González of the process where she had her body painted in a sunset-inspired gradient of sky blue, marigold, and tangerine by multimedia artist Alex Israel for the shoot in Malibu, California. “It took eight full hours, almost nine actually, which is insane. And then it took almost four hours to get rid of it,” she continues. “You can imagine taking it off was like the ultimate scrub. My skin was, no joke, the softest it’s been in my entire life.”
Becoming a face for Louis Vuitton holds significant weight for Gonzalez amid the call for greater representation. “I grew up watching all these beauty campaigns in the ’90s and I wouldn’t see a lot of Mexican women in them, especially in these large-scale brands,” she explains of what it means to work with the iconic French fashion house. “It was always kind of sold to me that I had to be a specific style of woman to be it, and the fact that girls in Mexico who are brown and Latina like me will see a campaign like this and recognize themselves in it with the scale of the brand makes me so honored and happy. It’s normalizing an image for people and making people feel included and seen.”
Here, González talks about her love of fragrance, how her relationship to beauty has evolved over time, and how she’s navigating her off-screen beauty routine these days.
Vogue: As the face of Louis Vuitton’s On the Beach, what attracts you to this scent and how is it an extension of your personal style?
Eiza González: Fragrance really identifies you as an individual. I have always liked unique smell and something that doesn’t feel like everybody could have it. And as a dynamic woman, I felt very connected with that on the On the Beach. It feels like sunshine and the beach. It has this this natural scent that’s elevated, but also just feels effortless. I love to mix scents sometimes so I love the line because it’s easy to mix and play with. It’s soft and subtle like second skin and that’s what I think fragrance should be.
You seem to embrace all beauty in a similar vein. How has your approach to beauty evolved over time, from growing up in Mexico to now, navigating Hollywood?
