The File popped in to my home and made me dish out all my beauty secrets...

The File is a wonderful beauty destination that takes an insider's view into the homes & beauty cabinets of style influencers around the world while delivering a tight edit of the industry’s best beauty products. It’s a raw, real and personal take on beauty and I love it's extensive take into people's lives and wardrobes in addition to it's terrific beauty coverage. I was honored that my friends at this beautiful website wanted to take a peek into my home and frankly, terrified that they wanted to have a look into my cupboards and draws (cue manic tidying)! So thank you to The File for the wonderful interview below and making me seriously consider if I need that 10 year old mascara!

"She’s got a social life that’s as hectic as her multiple day jobs, but Croatian-born former model, Tanja Gacic, perpetually looks fresher than a cucumber slice in Hendricks on ice. Explain this sorcery, human!?"

“I am actually quite low maintenance and very quick with my beauty routine on a regular day,” Tanja insists. “I love natural and organic products because I believe in reducing the toxins in my life. I feel better knowing that these choices are contributing to a better world, supporting far-flung communities and the Earth’s ecology.It can be done in an amazing way - look at Aesop or Grown Alchemist,” she says. “They smell delicious and look amazing! Some things are a little harder to find than others – I am still to find amazing hair products that are completely organic or certain make-up/foundation that really works for me.”

If those sound like the words of a woman well versed in beauty, it’s because she’s earned her credentials.
Tanja currently lists Blogger, Writer, Stylist, Photographer and Creative Director among her professional posts - all titles that sit pretty comfortably under umbrella title ‘Businesswoman-Brand’. But before taking the reins on her personal career she successfully shimmied her way through a decade being professionally gorgeous for other people.

Working as a model between New York and her beloved adopted home Sydney (“The lifestyle just cannot be beaten… it has the best mix of natural beauty and cosmopolitan perks”), Tanja scored primo make-up and beauty tricks from the pros (e.g. her step-by-step guide to indelible lipstick application is one you need to bookmark immediately).

Beauty, she says, is so important because it makes you feel good. “Even on days when I don’t wear any make-up, I have my little rituals that make me feel pampered and soft, which in turn makes me feel amazing.”

So what are these rituals and how, with a plate stacked like hers, does Tanja find time for them?“I am so time poor!” she says. “I do my routine so quickly – most times it is in the car, while waiting at the lights!”

“The trick is to have a great foundation – I really love Armani’s Designer Lift. Then a bit of YSL’s Touche Éclat, some Natio bronzer lightly as a contour, a thickening and lengthening mascara and a really good eyebrow pencil plus a great lip balm like Carla Oates – done!”

Tanja’s got the kind of confident, unpredictable sense of style that’s not at odds with the chameleonic aesthetic demands of any model.“It’s all encompassing and non discriminatory,” she says of her impossible-to-pigeonhole look.“I love playing with trends, colours, decades, characters, vintage, high-end, low-end, glitzy, basic, et cetera. Clothes are so important because they convey your personality. I suppose my Gemini moon gives me lots of personalities!”

A woman with lots of personality? Darned if it isn’t one of our favourite things.

See more of this story and pictures ( not to mention shop my beauty products ) on The File here!

Photographed by Rudy Zverina
Words by Susannah Tucker