Bowen Yang on His Late-Night Skincare Routine and Stepping Into Character as Mary Todd Lincoln

Thirty seconds into our Zoom call, Bowen Yang waves off a compliment. "Don't look too closely," he demurs when I point out his artfully decorated bookshelf. "Half this stuff I haven't even read." It's a small window, but at that moment, I understand why every writer, costar, and industry peer makes a point of calling out the comedian's authentic, warm, and disarmingly humble charm despite his meteoric success. I didn't want to fall into the "[Insert star] is so down-to-earth!" trope, but I can confirm he absolutely is all of the above. Meet your heroes, fellow readers, Kayteighs, and publicists (loyal listeners of the Las Culturistas podcast, for the uninitiated). Sometimes, it works out.

It tracks that someone this lovely would genuinely grapple with whether or not to share their glowy-skin secrets with the group chat. In Estée Lauder's Guilty as Skin campaign, Yang heads to a therapy session with Saturday Night Live alum Ana Gasteyer, where he agonizes over whether to divulge his latest find: the quick-absorbing Advanced Night Repair Serum. With its exclusive Night Peptide that optimizes the skin's natural circadian rhythm, it leaves the complexion firmer, smoother, and more even-toned within three sleeps. To gatekeep or not to gatekeep?

It's tongue-in-cheek, but again, I do believe someone with a heart like Yang's would earnestly confront the dilemma. This is, after all, someone who responded with immediate support ("It's totally fine") after Reneé Rapp told him that her driver accidentally hit SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels with his car. And when she later revealed the whole thing was a prank, he offered, "Oscar for that." During our short conversation, he approached each of my questions with the same careful consideration—even when I asked what beauty products Pfannee from Wicked would stockpile in his bathroom cabinet. Or the Titanic iceberg. Or Mary Todd Lincoln. (His Oh, Mary! debut has officially begun!)

Read on for our full conversation, including Yang's late-night skincare routine, the most surprising part about portraying Mary Todd, and his Las Culturistas Culture Award winner for the best beauty moment of the year.

In Estée Lauder's Guilty as Skin campaign, you're struggling with whether or not to gatekeep your skincare secret from the group chat. Do you and your friends often swap beauty recs, and are there any products in your current routine that you picked up because a friend put you on to them?

Unless I am missing out in a profound way and I just have very shallow friendships, we put this boundary up, and we keep our recs to ourselves. The only thing that we do swap is the various kinds of sunscreen technology breakthroughs because [we're in] situations where we share a house on summer vacation or something. There are certain products that are communal, that are just on the kitchen counter, let's say, in a "summer home" situation. That's all I could think of when I saw this question. I was like, "Oh no, are my friends not good friends?" [Laughs] It might be an elder millennial thing, but I mostly get my beauty stuff from content and algorithmically served things, which is a little dark. But I think everyone understands that beauty is so personal anyway.

Totally. Especially with skincare, everyone's skin is different. That's a good point about sunscreen too, especially if someone's traveling abroad. I'm always like, "Can you get me this sunscreen?!" because the ones in America are just not it.

Look, there's a million other things to legislate that are more important, but let's bump that up because I don't get why we do that.

If you could raid one friend's bathroom cabinet, who would it be, and why?

It would probably be Ego Nwodim's. Ariana [Grande] basically sends me her bathroom cabinet because I get a nice R.E.M. promo package every now and then, but that's not from her directly. I would never be so bold as to raid someone's bathroom cabinet. This is halfway to kleptomania! You can't! I have friends who are like, "Yeah, I looked at their medicine cabinet." I'm like, "No way. Red flag. Go on house-guest probation." But if I were to raid anyone's, it would probably be Ego Nwodim's. Probably Joel Kim Booster's, too, because he and I have similar phenotypes. Maybe genotypes, for all I know.

I read that you got really into skincare during the pandemic as a way to tie a bow on the whole day. What was your relationship like to skincare and beauty prior to that, or was that really the moment you started prioritizing it?

I think it was the moment that I understood it and then, therefore, prioritized it. In the past, it just seemed like one [piece] of the giant stack of things you were supposed to do at the end of the day, and it just felt obligatory, which cannot be anyone's relationship to it. Growing up in the aughts, it was all about these stringent actives and these peach- and apricot-related products that would completely… What's it called when you scrape the bottom of a river? It just dredges your skin.

Beauty overall is personal, but skincare especially is something that must be extremely bespoke and tailored to you. I was just going with the general application, so to speak, of skincare—like, "You're supposed to use this cleanser and this toner and this moisturizer at night"—and I did not get behind the science of it until the pandemic. Now, there's an infinite level of curiosity and depth to be found in this kind of thing. You can either engage with the science or just be like, "Oh, that's pretty packaging" or "That's cheap. I'll buy that." So it just opened my eyes to it.

Yeah, I feel like beauty and skincare encompass so many emotions. You can have fun and be playful with it, or you can dive into the science and get really into the nitty-gritty of it. I also read that you're doing your own makeup for Oh, Mary! and that you were still in the process of identifying where you wanted to go with it. Have you landed on that, and can you tell us anything about her look?

I've not landed on it because I still haven't gone into the theater to rehearse with the full costume and production of it. I've been running around in the skirt and the heels. I've been doing heel work for a long time. But [for makeup], I was saying maybe Kabuki… I think it's going to veer more toward Beijing opera. There's a slight shift there. The eyeliner is very pronounced, which I think makes sense for Mary Todd. Arches on the eyebrows are very high, very symmetrical, and circular. I think there is a bit of Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest [and] Bette Davis's makeup in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? There's something overapplied and overdrawn because she is a victim of her own malaise, and that's compensatory. You just have to go there on your canvas, as it were. But I think Beijing opera seems to have a decent overlap on the Venn diagram with the cabaret, which is what she loves. I'm still figuring that out. I also want to make it practical and not have to be too involved because, as you said, I have to do it on my own.

Are you learning technique, or are you just testing on your own and trying new things?

I'm watching stuff. I don't have the patience to test on my own. I'm like, "Tell me how to do it." But I will pick it up. Right now, I'm just trying to get off-book. Uh-oh, I hear you're supposed to do that. [Laughs]

I think it'll be a fun, big reveal once a production photograph will be taken. I have some time for now, but we'll see.

Well, I can't wait. I bought tickets for September 15, and I'm so excited.

Oh my god, first night!

First night! I just happened to be on Instagram when the news came out. I was scrolling, and one of the posts said "two minutes ago," and I was like, "This feels like fate. I need to buy tickets right now." So I dropped everything and bought them.

Jamie, I'm deeply flattered. It takes a lot these days for someone to see something being promoted and then be like, "I'm gonna add to cart." That means a lot. I can't wait.

I can't wait! But kind of related to that, is there anything about the character—either about her look or just portraying her—that surprised you after you signed on?

Okay, this is a Who What Wear exclusive. The wig that was in the promo shoot, people are making a lot out of the fact that it could potentially be the new show wig—that I asked for more length. No, no, no. If you go back and look at the promo photos for past Marys, it's just a different wig. There's the portrait wig, and then the show wig will be the bratty curls and what it's looked like on every single actor who's done it before.

What surprised me about her look is that it has to be incredibly durable. Actually, there's a lot of stuff in the construction of the gown that I don't have the knowledge to really get into. But it is both extremely regal in the sense that she's the First Lady, and there's a prestige to that, but then she is completely ceremonial and a little bit powerless to it. You know, she is a woman in America at that time. At the end of the day, even in the most powerful, hallowed room in the country at that time, she's still pretty powerless. I mean, the play is about her liberating herself from the man who ended slavery. It's so crazy how it all wends around these themes. As far as her look goes, she looks beautiful in a sense, but she's sort of despairing, and it's showing. It's a little bit ugly. It's a little bit vicious. That's the look.

To bring it back to skincare and beauty: You're used to working late nights from your time on SNL and now Broadway. Are you someone who will stick to a routine no matter how late it gets? You're in the bathroom, doing the steps…

Okay, this is the thing. This is a new point of discourse that we can have about skincare. A full cleanse at night is really tough because if you're splashing water on your face or putting a balm on, that wakes you up. You were on the train to Sleepy Town, and it was a really nice, smooth ride, and then all of a sudden, you hit a crazy speed bump or snag on the track by splashing water on your face and jolting your nervous system. Now, you've undone all this progress you've made in the wind-down to bed.

So no, the answer is I wish I was. Sometimes, I'll skip it, and it's really bad, but at the very least, I'll do a little mist and moisturizer. [Editor's note: Of course, Estée Lauder's Advanced Night Repair Serum also makes it into the late-night rotation.] But I don't do it every night because sometimes I'm just like, "Wait, I'm already in bed. I'm already under the covers."

That's so true. It's essentially a cold plunge.

It's a cold plunge!

Okay, I'd love to play a little rapid-fire game where I list some of your characters, and then you tell me what their favorite beauty products would be. Let's start with Mary Todd Lincoln.

Well, this is a tiny spoil, but I think she would do a thick setting spray. But because her reading comprehension is not great, I think she just saw a label for azelaic acid and was like, "Oh, from flowers!" And she just wants to be floral, but it's not the right active for her at all.

I love it. What about Pfannee from Wicked?

Pfannee would do a crazy body scrub, body glitter because he's tacky and terrible, and layer on at least 10 fragrances with conflicting notes.

What about Howie from Fire Island?

I think he's really on top of his SPF. He likes a matte [formula]. He'll settle for a spray if that's all that's around, but he stocks up for the house. He gets at least six spray cans. He understands the environmental trade-off there, and he's not happy about it, but that's what he gets for the house.

And the Titanic iceberg?

Cold plunge, gua sha. I think he does any sort of face roller, even though he's ice, and it's not going to do anything.

He's already chiseled enough.

Exactly.

Okay, I have one more question. I am a "reader," so I have to ask: If you could give a Las Culturistas Culture Award to the best beauty moment of the year, what would it be?

Oh my God! Okay, Culture Award for beauty moment of the year goes to… Zendaya's beat throughout 2026. I mean, I can't even narrow it down to one.

I was literally going to say Zendaya! That's so funny.

I think we can all agree on that. There are no snubs. No one will feel like it was a rigged thing. No, that's the rightful winner.

And Lisa Rinna would do a great job portraying it at the award show.

Oh, then we're going to give an honorary Lifetime Achievement Award to Lisa Rinna's lips. At this point, for decades—not to put a date on her—she has been really providing a service for the world for as long as she's been working.

Shop the Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair Line