Gothamist interview with Jean Godfrey-June, Author, Free Gift With Purchase, Beauty Editor, Lucky

Jean Godfrey-June has carved out a name for herself as not just a beauty expert, but someone readers turn to for a highly individual, irreverent approach to deciphering the ever-expanding maze of products available to color, highlight, firm, and enhance. The long-time Elle columnist turned Lucky Beauty Editor dishes about her unlikely path toward a desk full of products in her new memoir Free Gift with Purchase : My Improbable Career in Magazines and Makeup, taking readers behind the scenes at both magazines, as well as through celebrity encounters, a stint at Beautyscene.com, and into her present dual life as working woman and Westchester mom of two. Extolling her love of yoga and its beauty-enhancing properties, Godfrey-June also shares makeup tips and favorite products and shortcuts. She describes a perfume by Lev Glazman as being “like Le Cirque versus McDonald’s: The inside of one person’s mind versus something a stadium full of people can agree on.” During a busy day, she took the time to tell Gothamist about her love for the word "operative," the shampoo and mascara she swears by, sorting through hundreds of beauty products each week, dry nail polish, and her ideal perfume container.

When did you decide to write the book, and what were the most fun and most challenging parts?

The book is very much in the same voice as my column at Lucky for six years and at Elle for six years before that. Ever since I started doing the column people would say, you should write a book. That voice is easy to read. It just didn’t seem possible for whatever reason to me. About a year and a half ago, my friend Hilton Als, who’s written for The New Yorker, said “You should write a book.” He gave me a list of agents. Somebody giving me that extra push made me feel like it was a possible thing to do.

The most challenging part to write was about my very crunchy weird town. I live there and I didn’t want to offend anybody with my gentle ribbing. It was a little more challenging writing about the people I live with and trying to disguise them so I wouldn’t offend a specific person. I wish I knew who said this, but some author said in an interview I read, “I didn’t want anyone to cry when they read my book.” I tried to keep that in mind in writing about both the business and personal aspects of my life. I didn’t want anybody to be hurt.

I had a lot of fun, especially with the parts about my kids and how hilarious they are with my friend Adam the photographer just because they’re so silly. The other thing I really enjoyed was the tips that I have in the book. Those are the things that stick out in my mind. I have an evangelical side, I think everyone does—you have to use this thing—and I get to do that in my column every month. My book wasn’t about products so much, but it brings out that evangelical aspect.

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