It's a little hard for Camila Coelho to define her occupation when I ask her to. Her job title has expanded significantly since she began her fashion and beauty career as a YouTuber and a blogger under her eponymous website in 2010. After floating around "blogger" and a few other terms, she eventually settles on "designer and entrepreneur" — a fitting choice given Coelho's immensely successful clothing line at Revolve, which launched in 2019 and sold out within minutes.
Even then, she's reluctant to stick with any one label. "I see myself as someone who really worked hard to get where I wanted to," she says, and Coelho's hard work speaks for itself. In addition to her clothing line and almost 9 million Instagram followers, the Brazil native has appeared on the covers of Vogue India, L'Officiel Brazil, Cosmopolitan Middle East, and more. She was also recently elected as a board member of the Epilepsy Foundation after revealing she'd been living with the disorder since childhood. With so much under her belt already and still more to come, quarantine understandably threw her for a loop, although she's learning to welcome the change in lifestyle.
I talked to Coelho as part of Elite Daily's How I Take Care platform, which breaks down exactly how your favorite celebrities, influencers, musicians, politicians, and more are making it through social isolation. And even though Coelho misses hugging her loved ones — and a good party dress — she's pretty much got her quarantine life figured out.
Who she's quarantining with: Her husband
What she took for granted pre-quarantine: Hugs
The restaurant she can't wait to visit after quarantine is over: Forma in Los Angeles.
Her go-to order at Forma: The truffle pasta. "They do it on that big cheese wheel, and it's amazing. I cannot wait [to go back]."
Her WFH uniform: A matching, monochromatic sweatsuit
Her celebrity style icon: Rosie Huntington-Whitely. "I love her. I think she's so chic."
Coelho knows she's sensitive, and she's not afraid to admit it.
I'm a very proud Pisces. I'm very sensitive, I'm a big dreamer — I've always been. I remember when I was a little girl, someone would tell me a story, and I would stand there and imagine this whole thing going on in my mind. To this day, you talk to me and you tell me a story, I'm imagining all of it in my mind. I'm just a little dreamer still and creative.
She's been dealing with insecurities since childhood.
I felt insecure a lot of times in my life, even with my epilepsy growing up. I was diagnosed when I was 9 years old. And that was the one thing that I felt the most insecure about. If people knew about it, if they found out about it, or even the fact that I just knew that I had it, it made me feel insecure and different.
Spoiler: They don't just go away.
I do feel insecure still, but I know it's something that, for me, it's much more about your personality. I've always believed if you're someone who has an amazing personality, you're always going to stand out and that's going to shine through ... I know if I'm a good person, if I have a good personality, if I treat others good, people won't even notice [my insecurities].
Quarantine has been a major lesson in slowing down.
I'm the type of person who's always doing a million things at once, and that's the creative part of me. Before I was traveling like crazy, I was never home, and I did miss being home so much. That was the one thing that I wanted was to be home ... As the weeks [in quarantine] went by, I had to learn how to be patient.
Her makeup is still popping off, though.
Doing my makeup in the morning is therapy for me. But it has changed so much. Instead of foundation, I'll just do concealer. Instead of bronzing and contouring, I'm just doing a highlight and blush. And instead of lipstick, I'm doing lip tint. So it's very natural makeup. On my eyes, sometimes, instead of doing liner with a gel liner, I'll do a little liner with shadow, like a brown shadow. Everything's softer and more natural, which I'm loving.
Her brilliant method for elevating her WFH uniform? Unmatched.
[Matching sweatsuits are] my uniform. I'll style it with chunky, chain necklaces and cute gold earrings, so that I dress it up if I have a Zoom meeting or anything like that. That's my go-to because it's super comfortable, cozy, and I can accessorize it how I want.
Her first rule of fashion: Never say never.
I would write, like, "Oh, I'll never wear this," and three months later, you see me wearing it. These trends come, and you find it weird. I see a lot of things on a runway, and I'm like, "I don't think this is going to work for me." And then, you see it in the magazine, you see it on a website, and you see it on someone, and you're like, "Oh my gosh, I need this." Tie-dye, even, is something that I thought I was not going to get into. I thought it was too teenage-y, too young. And now, I love it.
... Except, maybe, to blue lipstick.
Something that I would never wear for makeup is blue lipstick. When the really dark lipstick trend came about, that was something I never got into. The most I'll do is a deep burgundy, but the super dark lips, I won't.
Catch her running — not walking — to get a fresh cut after quarantine.
Oh my God, I cannot wait to cut my hair ... Once it's past my shoulder, I just feel weird, and it's at this weird length and I don't like it. Now, it's 2 inches past my shoulder, and I told my husband just last night, "Can you cut my hair?" He was like, "Oh, you don't want me to cut your hair, trust me." I've actually been thinking of doing a highlight or something, but I don't know if I'll have the courage. I've never dyed my hair before, so I don't know if I want to do that during quarantine.
Hey, maybe she'll even copy Dua Lipa's chunky highlights while she's at it.
I love following Dua Lipa because — of course, I love her music and stuff — but I love how she plays with fashion. She plays with her hair; she's always playing with beauty and fashion. I love that about her. That inspires me a lot. Sometimes, I see something on her, and I'm like, "Oh, wow, that actually looks really great," [like] a statement piece or a trend. I love her sense of style.
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