Q+A with MAED Founder Denise Vasi

Denise Vasi is the founder and editor in chief of MAED, an online community for women that focuses on balance, moderation, and beauty. Denise is someone who's grown up surrounded by beauty her whole life. Her work as a model and actress over the years immersed her in a world of makeup, skincare, and more, but also showed exposed her to all the ways in which the industry could be approached differently — in places like "clean" beauty and inclusivity especially. That experience, paired with a passion for making intentional, healthy lifestyle choices for herself and her daughter, inspired her to document her journey and create the MAED community. Read on to learn more about Denise and her relationship with all things beauty!

Q: Tell us a bit about your journey that brought you to Maed. How did you get your start, and how did you get to where you are today?

I spent years growing up as a model and actress in the beauty industry. I shot worldwide beauty campaigns for brands like Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, MAC cosmetics, L’Oréal, Garnier, Urban Decay, and many others. I learned everything about skincare, makeup, and haircare from the incredibly talented glam squads around me, but also from being a guinea pig and wearing products for hours on hours, under lights, in water — you name it, I shot it!

Maed was really inspired by my digital community. They encouraged me to create a permanent home for the content I was already sharing on my social media channels, which focused on clean beauty, self-care, and wellness.

At the time, I noticed this all-or-nothing approach to clean beauty and knew it felt way too intimidating for most. And from all the years on set as a model and actress, I knew there was a lack of diversity and inclusion in beauty, especially clean beauty! I wanted to make the transition to using better products attainable and accessible to as many people as possible, so Maed was first and foremost a resource.

Q: What do you love most about your work?

That I get to create, inspire, communicate, educate and learn with so many incredible women every day.

Q: Part of the reason why Maed came to be was due to the overwhelming response by your followers via DMs, tweets, and comments, when you started documenting your wellness journey online. Can you tell us a bit about the inclusive community you’ve created and how your community has grown into something so special?

My Instagram channel is where my close-knit community and I come together to engage with each other. Our relationship is truly an equal exchange. They’re my virtual BFFs, and I’m theirs! I show up honest and authentic every day. I share my wins. I share my losses. I ask for their help and advice as much as I give it.

We do community challenges together like Maed’s 30 Day Celery Juice Challenge that we just did for the fourth year in a row, and a 6 Week Skincare Challenge, that I created based on skin types.

I create these challenges because they’re fun community activities for us to do together, spark interaction and accountability between everyone, and help make meaningful changes in people’s everyday lives. That is something I am so passionate about!

Q: Where do you find inspiration on a day to day basis?

My family, my community, music, architecture, art, culture, and fashion.

Q: You’ve always prided yourself on eating well, working out, and taking care of your body. How has the pandemic changed the way you take care of yourself? Has your routine changed at all in the past year or so?

I definitely lost my momentum to work out! I had two kids at home, one who started Kindergarten on Zoom and another who had just learned to walk, all while my husband was away directing a movie, so it was all on me! I was beat and could not find the energy to workout. I also drank a lot of champagne! On the flip side, I started seriously incorporating CBD into my daily routine and returned to my mediation practice! I’ll always look at this period of our lives as pure survival. We all did the best we could, especially mothers. At the end of the day, as long as the kids were fed and safe, nothing else really mattered. My whole approach to life is the 80/20 rule. There is no such thing as perfection.

Q: If you could have given yourself one piece of advice at the beginning of your career, what would it be?

Don’t be swayed by other people’s opinions of you!

Q: Finally, can you walk us through what you’ve been using for your nighttime skincare routine as of late?

I use Keys Soulcare’s Nourishing Cleansing Balm & Makeup Remover to take off my makeup. Wash with Biossance’s Squalane and Amino Aloe Gentle Cleanser, tone with Tower 28’s SOS Daily Rescue Spray, then depending on what’s going on with my skin, I use a different serum or two to treat those concerns. Right now, my skin is really in need of some deep hydration, so I’m using Moon Juice’s Plump Jelly and moisturizing with Outset’s Nourishing Squalane Daily Moisturizer.

Rapid Fire Round

Q: Product you can’t leave home without:

Red lipstick!

Q: Favorite drugstore or budget find:

Alaffia Everyday Shea Butter.

Q: Worth the splurge:

Biossance Squalane + Zinc Sheer Mineral Sunscreen.

Q: Recent discovery:

Moon Juice’s Plump Jelly.

Q: Brand you wish more people knew about:

Ceremonia.

Q: Your last beauty empty:

The Outset Nourishing Squalane Daily Moisturizer.

For more of Denise's favorites, check out her shop below: