Nikita Dragun Talks Bad Dates and Benefit Cosmetics
True Story: Nikita Dragun's False Eyelash Once Fell Off On a Date
As POPSUGAR editors, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. If you buy a product we have recommended, we may receive affiliate commission, which in turn supports our work.
Bad dates happen to everyone — even Nikita Dragun. In an admission that honestly made us question our morals for laughing so hard, the Dragun Beauty founder recalled one particular moment in which one of her false eyelashes fell off in the middle of a romantic outing. "I just ripped them off and looked like a naked mole rat for the rest of the date," she told POPSUGAR. "It was just traumatic."
That even a beauty guru could suffer a mid-date blunder this hilarious sounds like something straight from the writer's room of a modern romantic comedy, which is probably why we weren't too surprised to hear about Dragun's newest rom-com-inspired partnership with Benefit Cosmetics. The 24-year-old is the star of Benefit's "Love Archually" campaign, promoting the brand's Precisely, My Brow Pencil ($24). In the campaign's two, short promotional videos, Dragun plays something of a hopeless browmantic who, instead of being on the search for love, is on the hunt for the perfect brow pencil.
Ahead of the campaign's official release on Feb. 7, Dragun spoke to us about dating, products, her biggest beauty regrets, and more. Keep reading for a laugh.
The Three Products Nikita Dragun Keeps In Her Purse on a Date
"The first thing is always lip gloss," she said. "Because your lipstick or whatever might get rubbed off throughout the night. You might go out to dinner, get a little kiss in there or something, and you always want to make sure your lips are covered in some way."
The second thing is foundation, for which she has a trick in case you find yourself needing to reapply mid-date: "I usually put a lot of foundation or concealer or anything loaded up on a brush or a little blender to have just in case I need a touch up," she said.
Lastly is a brow product: "I myself have half a brow, so if it ever was to get a little physical at dinner and I need to draw my eyebrow back on in some way, having that on hand is important."
Nikita Dragun's Biggest Beauty Regrets
"I definitely went through a very tragic phase with my brows," she said. "I was just really super intense with my look for the longest time. I was always wearing purple lipsticks and liner out to my temples and my brows were not even brown, [they were] full-on Sharpie black."
What Makes Nikita Dragun Feel Confident
A trans woman, Dragun found her inner confidence only after she was able to truly accept herself — a process she says came after she transitioned. "After going through such a long transition, I feel like now I've gotten to a place where I really just don't look to seek others' validation the way that I used to," she said. "I never got to experience a high school love or friends . . . I was a loner and now I just feel like I'm able to live my life fully and just really not have anything to regret."
Dragun continued, "A lot of times I would play things out in my head as a fantasy like, 'I wish I could do this,' but now I get to actually live it. So literally every single day, that's why I'm in full wig, full face, and everything. Just fully living my fantasy."
On the Most Embarrassing Thing That's Happened to Her Before a Date
"I remember one time I got laser [treatment], and all of a sudden my skin started to peel really fast," she said. "They were trying to put makeup on it and my skin was like flaking off."
