Emma Brooks Told Me Her Best-Kept Secret for Weightless, Damage-Free Hair

You might know Emma Brooks from her fun, personable TikToks or her modeling career or the fact that she was crowned Miss Louisiana in 2019. While the burgeoning star already has plenty of lines on her résumé, she now has a new one: The TikTok star is Paul Mitchell Clean Beauty’s global ambassador. 

The new launches are sustainable and centered on nature. Filled with botanicals and natural ingredients like argan oil, oats, and olives, the products deliver salon-quality results while keeping things green. From gentle shampoo and conditioner to volumizing liquid that helps your strands achieve major height, there's something here for everyone. 

In many ways, Brooks and Paul Mitchell are natural partners—Brooks has been using the brand's products for nearly her entire life, and she champions natural, unfiltered beauty. I caught up with Brooks about her new partnership, her favorite skincare products, and the fragrance she can’t live without.

Tell me about your new partnership with Paul Mitchell and what inspired you to work with the brand.

Super exciting because I have been a part of the Paul Mitchell family. I've been using Paul Mitchell since I was 14 years old. When I first got into pageants, I had really dead hair. I got a really bad highlight job that left my hair really dead, and with a diagonal cut, odd enough, but I was referred to a Paul Mitchell salon, with this teacher out of Paul Mitchell school. And he ended up becoming kind of a hair mentor for me. I did hair classes with him. And for years, he taught me what products to use, what products not to use, and how to take care of my hair and how to make it healthy again. And then I ended up doing tape-ins at one point, which absolutely killed my hair. And Paul Mitchell just came back into my life and saved my hair.

Do you have any particular products that have really saved your hair from damage?

From the most recent collection, I am obsessed with the Repair Conditioner and Shampoo, especially after days when I'm putting a lot of heat on my hair. I use the Volumizing Liquid whenever I blow out my hair, [which is] pretty much every time I wash it, which is every other day.

What is your haircare routine like?

I've trained my hair to not wash every day. I go back and forth between the Clean Beauty Repair or the Clean Beauty Every Day Shampoo and Conditioner, and then I blow-dry my hair with the Volumizing Liquid, and then I'll also use some of the Skinny Serum as well. It's really crazy how it works because it literally removes all the water from your hair, and it makes it a lot faster to dry.

Oh, wow. I need to try that.

Yeah, it's really cool. But that's how I do my hair.

Let's just dive right into skincare. Is there anything that you can't live without in that realm?

Over the past couple months, I've been using this new brand called Byoma. I'm obsessed with their facial wash. It really helps my skin a lot with evening out. I use Glow Recipe’s Watermelon Clay Mask. I'll use it like once or twice every week just to kind of help tighten my pores and unclog some things. I also love Peace Out Skincare. I use the retinol stick, and then I also use their acne dots to help dry some things out and pull some of the acne out of my skin.

I love those dots that they have. They work so well.

They do. They really cling onto your skin, which I like.

Yeah, I like that too. I hate when I try to use a pimple patch, and then it immediately just comes off after touching my face or something. They have good ones. Are you a perfume person? Do you have a signature perfume or any that you cycle through?

I do have a couple of different perfumes I cycle through, but my main smell is Marc Jacobs Perfect Intense. It came out around fashion week in September 2021. We went to a Marc Jacobs event, and they were shooting for this new line of perfume. I got it, and I just fell in love with the fragrance, and I have been using it ever since.

Amazing. I always wonder about that because I'm a big perfume person, and I think it's so interesting to know the perfumes that people like.

I love whenever you can smell something and associate it with a person.

Yes, I agree with that. I'm always searching for a scent that I can make a new signature that will remind people of me.

Yeah, I love that. Or whenever people tell me I smell good, I just love that compliment.

It's the best compliment. Okay, if you could raid Sephora, what would you take with you?

Dior Beauty's highlighter is immaculate. My makeup artists use it on me all the time, and I love it. Rare Beauty Cream Blush, Too Faced Concealer, Armani Beauty Foundation, Isle of Paradise Tan Drops—I love those. 

Marc Jacobs fragrance, of course, so I can have all my backups. I also am a big fan of Mugler's Alien fragrance. I have that as well, and I kind of cycle through it sometimes if I'm feeling a little bit spicier.

Clinique—believe it or not, I've been using their mascara so much recently. My lashes go out, not up, and it really lengthens them. It really gets in there and just makes them really long. I know it's kind of like an older brand, but they're really just a good classic. Charlotte Tilbury overall. I use all of their products. [I love] their bronzer palette and their bronzing cream.

Yeah, everything Charlotte Tilbury is amazing. 

Immaculate. 

Everything I've tried is just spot-on. What is your everyday makeup routine? Is there anything you can't leave the house without?

I really love Fenty Beauty's lip gloss. The clear lipgloss is just a really good base to have. And then I also really love Anastasia’s brow pot of clear gel. It feathers my eyebrows out so well. And that's such a good basic look for clean, glowy beauty.

Do you have a basic beauty philosophy or any advice that you would give other people about beauty? 

I believe that the prep is the biggest part. Before the actual makeup, I believe that the prep of the hair, the prep of the skin is gonna make you feel the best. If you wear a lot of makeup, and it's wearing down on your skin, you feel kind of gross. But if you prep your skin and your hair or whatever it may be correctly while you're styling it, you will feel very natural. I feel like feeling naturally pretty is way better than feeling like you're wearing a bunch of hair products, a bunch of makeup, a bunch of skincare—it wears you down. Feeling as natural as possible makes me feel the best, at least. 

Paul Mitchell has really good ingredients in their haircare, and that's another reason I love them so much. I've become pretty strict about the ingredients that go on my hair and the things that I use. I look at every single bottle that is presented to me. Even if my boyfriend is like, "I need help finding shampoo. Can you help me?” and we're at Target, I'm just going through each bottle looking through the ingredients. I can just rely on Paul Mitchell to not have any of those minerals, sulfates, phthalates, alcohol—anything that your hair shouldn't have is not going to be in there.

Next, Frizz, Flyaways, and Split Ends Are No Match for This One-of-a-Kind Styling Oil