How to Look Hot, According to Claudia Sulewski

Looking hot has no age limit. There is also no one singular product or treatment that can elevate your hotness factor. In fact, hot girls know that 90 percent of being, well, a hot girl, is mindset; that enviable mentality and confidence that you carry with you from day to night. But for that remaining 10 percent? Well, that's the stuff we need to know, because who doesn't want to hone their hot factor with a few buzzy additions to her beauty routine? It's why I had to chat with Cyklar founder, OG creator, and certified hot girl Claudia Sulewski.

Even if you're not chronically online, or completely and utterly obsessed with her body care brand like the rest of the Marie Claire team, you might have spotted Sulewski on the most recent Forbes 30 Under 30 list, or flashing a rather sizable diamond on her ring finger (she's currently engaged to musician and producer FINNEAS) in a few shots on Instagram. A stranger to the spotlight she is not, and to my delight, she is equally well-versed in the beauty space. I mean, how could she not be when she's been creating YouTube beauty tutorials for the last 17 years, and launched an award-winning line of body care and fragrance products that now sit on the shelves at Sephora?

"I remember having a very extensive nail polish collection," she tells me over Zoom. "By the time I was 10 years old, I was painting my nails every single color. And I started making YouTube videos at 13." The founder adds that by that point, she had fully infiltrated her mother's makeup collection. "I'd steal my mom's makeup and create these makeup tutorials and eye tutorials and post them online. I was so serious at 13... but now I view beauty as an enhancement or an extension of myself. I feel like we're in this fun phase of just embracing our natural beauty and doing these little tips and tricks that make you just feel a little bit hotter, but still you."

It comes as no surprise, then, that with well over a decade spent immersed in beauty, both personally and professionally, Sulewski has amassed more than a few secrets to look and feel smoking hot. Keep scrolling for more.

What are the moments in your life when you feel the hottest, naturally?

It really is so simple. When I'm tan, not from the sun, but when I've self-tanned. When my skin is breathing and hydrated—it's not covered in a ton of makeup. And when my hair is done, I really think when you walk out the door and you've done something to your hair to just make it look a little bit more presentable, you don't need to touch your face. That's my philosophy.

When do you feel like you need a bit of a hotness boost?

If I was out the night before and had some alcohol and need to de-puff essentially, or when I don't get eight hours of sleep. I mean, sleep is so important. If you had a late night or if you have to wake up super early, a few more steps [get] tacked onto my skincare routine when I've lost my sleep.

What in-office treatments help you feel like the hottest version of yourself?

I've finally started seeing an esthetician on a schedule. I really don't do too many [beauty] things out of the house, but [I'm] seeing an esthetician at least once a month right now. We do a lot of peels, a lot of spot treatment lasering, which I didn't know was a thing. I though you kind of have to just get lasers across your whole face, but she'll just zap certain areas for dark spots, which makes it a way shorter downtime. Also dermaplaning I started doing for the first time this year, and it lets your makeup and everything on your face just sit so much better. So I'm doing all of those things when my esthetician feels that we need them. I go to Lisa Karadjian.

Also nails, that's a huge one. If I have a good set of Builder Gel nails, I'm walking differently. I am talking differently. I'm feeling so hot and so confident. Depending on what I'm getting ready for, if it is a big life moment or a red carpet, [I see] Jenny Jenny's or Nails by Zola, they're so good. Or I just go to the nail salon that's five minutes away from my house. But I love just having a natural, long almond nail. It just does so much.

But that's kind of it. I've joked in the past that my Notes app is just a graveyard of recommendations for my friends like, here's the lymphatic drainage person that you need to go to. Here's where you need to start going to for this. It's overwhelming to know what you should be doing and outsourcing.

What does your at-home hot girl routine consist of, from products to practices?

Obviously having my own body care brand, the lineup is extensive. So I really, really enjoy luxuriating in my body care routine. I'd love to call out the Cyklar Self-Tanning Milky Essence. It's just such an easy self-tanner that we developed that allows you to just maintain your tan in between spray tans, or if you got a little bit of sun. It's just really easy, so that's always a confidence hot boost for me personally. I'm sauna-ing a lot. Strength training. My answer to almost everything these days is strength training. Longevity! It makes you feel so good, so sexy. It gives you energy. I love to elevate my legs at nighttime. I'm always thinking about circulation, blood flow. I have the vibrating plate. So certainly all of those things, we're embracing all of them.

For skin, I love at-home devices. Shark Beauty, the CryoGlow mask is so good. I've found that as a hard shell mask, it sits on my face lighter than any other one. And also the cooling underneath for your eyes is so nice for the morning time. I'll often habit stack with that mask. This morning upstairs, I had the mask on in the dark and I was doing calisthenics with my arms and just getting a little workout in, a little six-minute arm circuit. We're doing a lot of habit stacking.

Also, I really believe in a high quality peptide serum. There's a Medik8 one, Advanced Peptides MP. I've been using it all year. Obviously sunscreen every day. The Shark Beauty DePuffi. On those nights where I didn't get a lot of sleep or I was out the night before and want to chisel, contour my face, that cooling setting feels so good to use in the morning.

I try to stay as low maintenance with my hair as possible. I love a heatless curl if I know I don't have a bunch of time in the morning and just want to run out and have some sort of texture going on with my hair. If I'm styling it, Shark FlexStyle Air Styling Drying System. They have these auto-wrap curlers that hold your curl for so, so long and have it look blown out for the next four days. And it also just helps with heat damage.

Right now I've been loving Chanel Gardenia and actually mixing that with [Cyklar] Sex Musk, which is one of our perfume oils. I mean, I like to layer that with anything. I love a very light white floral, and for the summertime it makes me feel very feminine and ethereal.

What’s a mantra or words of wisdom you swear by to feel confident, hot, and in-charge?

I would say that just reminding myself that confidence really is built on the promises you keep for yourself. More often than not, the days where I am feeling so confident about myself and feeling like that hot bitch is crossing off my to-do list. Giving myself a plan of what I need to do and what I'm going to do and getting it done and getting it done earlier than I thought I would. I really think so much of it comes down to that, just walking the walk and doing what you're telling yourself you're going to do. And obviously you can have beauty routines and products and treatments in the mix of that, but it's really just feeling like you respect your relationship with yourself. You can rely on yourself, you're consistent. Those daily habits, it's cliché to say that, but it's so true. That's what matters the most.

Do you think that purposefulness in the way that you attack your day is the secret to radiating hotness at any age?

A million percent. Because you trust yourself more. Obviously you can alter yourself and try to fix all these things on the outside, but in terms of how you walk into a conversation with someone, how you walk into a room, I think all of that stems from the inside and the work that you do with yourself, whatever it is, whatever makes you feel good. You know what I mean?

If reading makes you feel smart and empowered, keep reading, keep picking up that book. Or if it's being super communicative and in tune with your emotions, meditating, journaling. I'm oftentimes when I'm wearing the LED mask, I'll journal. These little things just help give you this self-identity. I think it's so important to feel connected to your unique self, if that makes sense.

Sometimes buying the same foundation that everyone else is buying is not going to do that. It's not going to fill that gap. I mean, we're getting cheesy, but it's just true. That's what it is.

Why Trust Marie Claire

For more than 30 years, Marie Claire has been an internationally recognized destination for news, fashion, and beauty trends, investigative packages, and more. When it comes to the products Marie Claire recommends, we take your faith in us seriously. Every product that we feature comes personally recommended by a Marie Claire writer or editor, or by an expert we’ve spoken to firsthand.