Last week I got to sit down with the lovely Petra Nemcova, model and surivivor of the 2004 Tsunami in Thailand, about her foundation The Happy Hearts Fund's new partnership with Clinique. The deal? $10 from every bottle of a special limited-edition bottle of their Happy Hearts fragrance sold will go toward building sustainable schools in places that have experienced natural disasters. And, of course, she was utterly charming, passionate and had a ton to say. Here are the highlights.
On the partnership with Clinique:"I feel like there's a whole new chapter, a whole new dimension happening with Clinique's partnership. After first responders leave people don't know how to help but now they have a way to help—it's a very fun way and a happy way to help! They can help through giving a gift to someone else of perfume, the Happy Heart perfume. It's connecting these two worlds in such an easy and fun and measurable way as well because $10 isn't some percentage which at the end you don't know how much is actually going to the cause. It's $10 from each perfume."
On why she wants to help children:"Looking back to when I went back to Thailand to see how we can help the best way. I wanted to do something which would create the biggest impact and knowing that rebuilding safe, disaster proof schools with quality education has so many more impacts than only on children. Children are impacted through being able to start their healing process from the trauma. They can go back to a sense of normalcy, their routine—just that alone, it helps tremendously. Getting a quality education, that gives them the opportunity to get a better job, and they can empower themselves and their family. The community sees the school as a center for future because the children are the future, so that's the symbol of hope. So even if their homes are still damaged, they get the extra energy to build the rest of the community. When the community has a safe school, family from other communities, they start migrating to this community because they want the best for their children. Then you see a community going from extreme poverty to flourishing, thriving just because of that safe school. It's amazing. It's much more than I would ever imagined."
On the fragrance itself: "I'm bathing in it! Actually we have people coming in and saying Oh, it's so happy here!" Obviously it's floral with a light crisp note to it and sweetness of mandarin blossom. But it has that happy impact and I think there is some magic spell on it—a secret Clinique ingredient that they're not allowed to share. And connected to that I would say when you make someone happy you make yourself happy. And that gives you such a fulfillment. It's going to make your friend who's getting the fragrance happy, it's going to make you happy, it's going to make children happy, you're going to smell happy! It's definitely an explosion of happiness."
Oh how to likes to wear perfume: "I love [to spray] the wrists and the neck. If I'm in a meeting and I need a lift, I go under the table and go [mimics rubbing her wrists together] and go oh, I'm listening. Yeah, ah huh.'"
Her must-have beauty products:"I just fell in love last night. The number one right now because it's winter and I travel constantly is the Surge Mask—Intense. It's a new product from Clinique. It's an overnight one. You leave it on and it goes into the deep layer and makes your skin feel like silk. My skin is so dry in a bad way, so it's joy. The other one is the Chubby Stick from Clinique. It's fun. It's for any occasion, day or night. I fell in love with one of their new shades as well, their intensified ones—Roomiest Rose."
On her gorgeous hair:"I have a really good colorist. I should be bald by now with the amount of stuff that's happened to my hair. He does it in such a gentle way, he's my safety net. His name is Richard and he is in Rockefeller Plaza. And I think it's a lot of what you put in your body, although I must say the last few weeks I haven't been the best with my diet. But definitely not putting junk into my body definitely helps and it's an investment not just for physical beauty but really for health and that's something that I'm very conscious about. And I geuss it shows—the side effect is having healthy hair and skin!"
We chatted more about her family traditions (which include putting honey on each other's faces for sweetness and not getting up from the table at all for any reason 'cause anyone who stands will have bad luck in the next year), but I thought I'd keep it to the highlights for you gotta-run types. She's pretty adorable, right? And her foundation has helped so many children—they've guilt over 70 schools so far! So impressive.
As for the products mentioned, the Moisture Surge mask doesn't come out til January and the limited edition of the fragrance is out on December 1st, but the lip product she talked about is available now!
