Being in front of the camera daily is not for the faint-hearted or the under-moisturised. Grace McKinnon, a video journalist for ABC News Australia, knows this all too well. As the face of ABC’s social channels, her beauty routine has become as essential as her packed lunches.
“I make videos every single day, usually for a national audience, about whatever the day’s news is,” she tells me. And yes, there’s always a chance she could go viral. Whether she’s filming in a sharehouse or at a music festival, the camera is always, at least partly, on her.
Want to snoop inside the beauty regimes of other creatives? Head here.
Grace edits her own videos, which means she spends more time looking at her reflection than most people. “I spend a disgusting amount of time staring at myself,” she says. I start dissociating.” Unsurprisingly, this constant self-surveillance shapes how she sees herself. She notes, for example, that if her hair isn’t doing what she wants it to, it affects her mood.
To cope, she’s created a mental distinction between ‘reporter Grace’ and her off-camera self. “I see reporter Grace as a character of myself, a version of me who wears makeup every weekday,” she says. “It’s been an adjustment. But makeup becomes your personal armour.”
Grace’s typical beauty regimen
When building out her routine, one of Grace’s main goals is to make sure she looks approachable. “I feel so strongly that young people don’t want to watch traditional broadcast news journalists on their social media feeds – you know, blokes holding their hands together and using a [stereotypical] male news voice. They want someone they could speak to at the pub,” she explains. “So you have to look like someone who could be their mate… which takes more thinking than you’d imagine!’
Her routine is generally low maintenance, which she says is deliberate. “I have rosacea, so I mostly use gentle, fragrance-free products like CeraVe. I’ve tried expensive products but less is more for me.”
Grace is strict on one thing: taking off her makeup by 5pm. “I want it on for as little time as possible,” she adds. On days she’s not filming, Grace typically skips using any makeup at all or avoids putting it on until she needs to record.
That said, there are treatments, like laser hair removal, that she feels are more of a burden. “I keep asking myself: do I really need this? Or am I just giving in to expectations?” she tells me. The same goes for eyebrow threading. “I know it makes my face look ‘better’ but better for who? Is it for me? Or is it what I expect my face should look like?”
Balancing beauty and the cost of living
With the rising cost of living, Grace says she’s cut back on beauty treatments. “I used to get laser genesis treatments for my rosacea. They cost about $350 a session and I couldn’t justify it anymore.”
At the moment, she spends roughly $380 per month on nails, skin and hair. “We get a clothing allowance every six months at ABC but to be honest, most of that goes on makeup.”
She’s also started doing her makeup on the clock. “I give myself 30 minutes, max. I’m already spending the day editing my face, I don’t want to spend even more time in front of a mirror.”
Grace’s favourite beauty hacks
However, Grace is big on finding beauty hacks that help reduce her expenses. For one, she swears by investing in a $150 Mecca makeup lesson every six months. “It’s redeemable on product, so I go when I need to top up my concealer, foundation and bronzer,” she explains. “The artists teach you to use less product but apply it better – it’s a total game-changer.”
Another way Grace cuts costs is with her haircut. Her regular salon, Chop Shop, only offers cuts as opposed to hair colour and you wash your own hair before arrival. “Tash (they/them) cuts basically everyone in the Northside’s hair. It’s on par with the best haircuts I’ve gotten and it’s only $50,” she tells me.
While she’s grateful that the ‘minimal makeup’ trend is in, Grace says she definitely feels the pressure to keep up with beauty standards in her line of work. “I’d love to say no. But I always have to think about it… What makeup, clothing and jewellery constitute ‘casual’ and ‘approachable’?”
The reality, she says, is that women often begin to vanish from front-facing media roles when they hit their late 30s, while men’s careers seem to carry on, unaffected by age. “I’m so glad ABC is changing that narrative. We have great examples of older women thriving on camera but in commercial media, there’s still a huge drop-off.”
“There’s so much pressure to maintain the ‘currency of youth‘,” she tells me. “As a front-facing woman in the Australian media, will I still be relevant as I age?”
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This article How much a video journalist spends on beauty in a month appeared first on Fashion Journal.
2025-05-28 12:56:00
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