totally tangi
On TV, she plays Elena, Felicity's best bud. In real life, Tangi Miller gets her fab looks fast, without the fuss. You can, too, if you follow her daily beauty routine
break out the ice! Working 16-hour days can be grueling, but Tangi Miller, 25, has no complaints. Still, she gets goin' early. She jumps into the shower ("I prefer baths, but there's no time") and washes her face with simple stuff: water and Neutrogena soap (she has oil-prone skin). Then she grabs ice from her fridge, except it's not for a morning Perrier. She swipes a wet cube over her face, a cool way to tighten pores. "It also reduces puffiness under your eyes," Tangi says. "And it doesn't cost anything!"
get scent-sible Self-described fragrance-phobe Tangi says, "I don't like perfume at all!" But what she does love is all-purpose fragrant oils. This Hollywood honey stocks up on a subtle and sweet sunflower-scented version she gets from a local herbalist. "You can't really tell that it's sunflowers, but you can smell something." The big bonus: Unlike pricey perfume, fragrant oils can be used for scenting just about anything--your bod, a bath, or a bowl of bedroom potpourri.
mix up a mega-cool mask Once a week, Tangi gives her complexion a boost with a homemade mask she whips up to blot extra oil. "I know what's in it, and it's all natural," she says. To try it yourself: Mix equal amounts of cornmeal and honey in a bowl to form a paste. Slather on the mixture and leave it for 20 to 30 minutes, then rinse off with warm water. "It pulls the oils and impurities out of your skin. It's awesome!"
make way for makeup As Felicity's dormmate Elena, who's smart, sassy, and determined to make it big, Tangi has gotten plenty of lessons in being totally together. "Elena has a system for everything," Tangi says". Tangi's own routines are most often whatever is simplest, helped by some salon expertise. She keeps her nails neat and colorful: "I don't like a lot of colors, but I love blue, gray and glitter polishes." To keep her curly hair soft and silky, she treats herself to a deep conditioner once a week. About everty two weeks, her frazzled strands get an at-home hot-oil treatment. During the 20-minutes drive each day to the WB Felicity set, Tangi tunes the radio to the news. "It's the only way I know what's going on in the world--what Bill Clinton's doing today, what people are arguing about." On set, it's time for TV hair and makeup--and a little girlie gab. Tangi and co-stars Keri Russell and Amy Jo Johnson pass primping time in the makeup trailer joking and dishing about guys. Since the actresses' characters are all college students, their makeup is natural-looking. For Tangi, a makeup artist applies an oil-control foundation, a lip gloss tinted with color (orange, red, purple, and burgundy are Tangi's personal picks), mascara, eyeliner, and a dusting of powder to set it all in place. Her blush? An orangy deep pink. "Pale pink would look ashy against my dark skin."
work your will power The set of Felicity, most days, is snackfest central. The cast not only eats brakfast, lunch, and dinner together, but a catering crew also sets up tables for in-between times with tons of sinful snacks, like chocolate cake, pies, cookies, and candy. "It's really hard when the candy bars are sitting right next to the bowl of fruit," Tangi says. Potato chips and chocolate are her own particular big-time temptations. Her way to get past that? Tangi substitutes vegetable chips and cracker for high-fat eats. Then, because she's "earned" it, she'll splurge and have a candy bar once a week.
rev up your self-respect Blessed from the get-go with a thin frame and ultra-long legs, as a teenager Tangi found being thin one big body bummer. "I was really skinny," she says. "In junior high and high school, people nicknamed me Olive Oyl. My mother used to call me a 'long-legged giraffe.'" In those days, she would layer and extra pair of pants just to bulk up. Today, Tangi is a self-confident beauty who firmly believes that terrific looks come from within. "I think that with people who are considered beautiful it's the whole personality," she says. "I love Diana Ross and Oprah. I loved princess Diana. They're poised, they're ladies. I look up to them. My grandmother always said that it takes a lifetime to be a lady. She was big on respect and on respecting yourself. The women I admire understand that."
scare away stress During her downtime, exercise becomes one of Tangi's top priorities. To her, the best moves always do double duty: soothing the soul and working the body. After trying a lot of different options, Tangi has zeroed in on African dance, and she takes a class whenever she can find the time. "I get so stressed out, but then I go in and do these dances and I come out feeling like I've been to church." Also, after four years of doing yoga, she find that just one hour of yoga movements (she does the downward-facing dog, the bridge, and the child pose) give her plenty of allover stress relief. "I hold a lot of tension sometimes in my lower back, neck, and shoulders," says Tangi. "Yoga just releases that."
bust loose If Tangi dashes off to a restaurant for dinner, it's bound to be for sushi, Indian food, or soul food. "I eat better when I'm not on the set!" she claims. On any night, if she's not too beat, the L.A. club scene beckons. Tangi loves to dance. Her fave hangout, The Gig, features a '70s funk band called the Polyester Players. To pump up her makeup look on dancin' nights, Tangi merely adds a stroke or two of burgundy lip gloss and a litte glitter eyeshadow.
wind down and wrap up When Tangi finally comes home, she takes time to unwind by reading--a script, the Bible, some poetry by Maya Angelou. The last book she read: a biography of Whoopi Goldberg. After a quick dip in the tub, Tangi begins her nightly hair wrapping ritual. "Cotton sheets are really hard on your hair," she groans. The solution? She wraps a silk scarf around her head and ties it a the nape of the neck like a babushka. Result: In the morning she wakes up to a neat, non-static 'do.
go for it, girls! These days, Tangi feels pretty together about her looks, her life, and her work. "I think I've found what I'm supposed to be doing at this time in my life," she says. "I feel like I'm moving in the right direction." So, what's her advice to budding beauties and dreamin' girls everywhere? "Get as much happiness as you can, as long as it's not hurtful to others. And by all means, go for it! Why shouldn't you do the things you really want to do?"
-From Young and Modern, March 1999. By Karen Parr
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