At the annual Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, hundreds of hot air balloons fill the bright blue sky every October. As the largest hot air balloon festival in the world, balloons in the shape of beloved pop culture characters, animals and classic designs, to name a few, float through the sky. But this year there was only one balloon decked out to look like a bottle of lotion in honor of Gold Bond’s latest launch, with none other than Chelsea Handler as its famous passenger.
The comedian and author took to the sky as part of a skin hydration test for her partnership with Gold Bond. Her latest “skin torture test” put the new Gold Bond Plumping Collagen Body & Face Serum Lotion to the ultimate test thousands of feet up in the air in the arid climate, proving its moisturizing powers at any altitude. Back on the ground, festival attendees visited the Gold Bond station for free samples, a charm bar and photo ops, to name a few.
“I've been lubricating myself all day long with my Plumping Collagen Body & Face Serum Lotion,” Handler said on the morning of her hot air balloon ride. “You could put it on your face; you could put it on all the tricky areas. As a woman, I have to protect my neck and keep my neck moisturized, my face, my arms. It's very simple; it's a minimalist product, and that's how I live my life in terms of skincare and regimens. I don't take all of that stuff very seriously, so it's the best product for me.”
The Gold Bond Plumping Collagen Body & Face Serum Lotion is clinically proven to visibly plump skin and increase hydration by 50%. The quick-absorbing lotion is formulated with their Collagen Peptide Complex, which addresses how skin loses volume as we age, appearing drier, thinner and less firm. It’s also spiked with jojoba and grapeseed oils, as well as seven moisturizers and three essential vitamins for lasting hydration and nourishment, topped with a light cherry blossom scent.
“It actually plumps your skin and moisturizes, obviously,” Handler says. “I have a problem with products when they're too greasy. I don't like when your hands feel slick after using it, and this is very not that. It's nice and it's like a thin cream; it doesn't feel heavy.” That is exactly why Handler wanted to partner with Gold Bond. “They just keep offering up these epic activities,” Handler says. “The brand is very emblematic with the way I live my life, which is ready for an adventure, so it's a good partnership for us.”
The Balloon Fiesta isn’t Handler’s first skin torture test with Gold Bond. That would be her viral Base Layer Swimsuit Ski Run at Palisades Tahoe, where almost 700 people hit the slopes in swimsuits to test hydrated skin in blizzard conditions. Handler had initially started doing ski runs in a bikini on her own to “celebrate being a woman, a single woman having a good time on her own with her girlfriends,” she says. “I celebrated my 50th birthday this year with 25 women, and we rented this mountain in Idaho and skied down it, and it was the highest vibe—everyone was having such a great time. When Gold Bond came and we talked about doing a partnership, I was like, first of all, I already love Gold Bond, and I love that fact that they're doing what I am known to do. Nobody else can do this for me. I love the idea of going up in a hot air balloon over Albuquerque. There's not a better view than from a hot air balloon. I know from experience.”
So, is there any stunt Handler wouldn't be willing to do for great skin? “There are some things I probably wouldn't do, like race a lion, but I'm pretty adventurous, so there's a lot I would do,” she admits, but she’s game for these torture skin tests that inspire women to take care of their skin. “We're overall on the train now about taking care of our skin. It's not like it was 40 years ago where we didn't have all of the information that we have now. It's important sending messaging to younger girls and all women that it doesn't have to be some complex or complicated routine every day; you can take it a little easy. Obviously, you want to protect your skin with sunblock, but it doesn't have to be an eight-step process. That's not how I operate at all. And my skin is looking pretty good.”
When Handler isn’t behind the camera or working, her beauty routine is minimalist. “On a regular day, I do the least amount possible,” she says. “I am very, very low maintenance. I get up, I take a shower, I moisturize my skin. I usually use Gold Bond all over my face, and if you saw me, you would see how luminous I look, and I don't use that word lightly. Then I put sunblock on. If I'm not filming, I rarely put makeup on—maybe some mascara and I curl my eyelashes to open my eyes, but that's about it. I'm not a big makeup person; I use probably a fraction of the amount of makeup I used when I was 18 years old. Hairspray and makeup have left the building.”
Handler’s personal beauty philosophy has evolved over the years. “I know this sounds a little bit corny, but I believe this because I've lived it, and when you embrace yourself—who you are as a woman, as a person—and you really understand yourself and are confident and strong about what you're into, what you're not into, and you have opinions, I think that shows up outside your body. It sends a vibe. It gives off you're the right frequency, when you are standing in your shoes, so to speak. People have thought that about me for many years, but it's only in the last five years that I really feel that way, and I'm more radiant and vibrant because of that. It's important, as women especially, to get to know who we are, not to be followers so much as finding out what really does interest us and not necessarily to go with the pack, to forge your own way.”
Her biggest advice for all women is that beauty truly does come from confidence. “You want to take your ability to know yourself pretty seriously; don't let life pass you by,” Handler says. “Take time to reflect. Be like, is this the woman that I wanted to become when I was a little girl? I always say check in with your little girl self and take stock of is this what I wanted my life to be? Am I doing more than I imagined? In my case, so many times I look back at the last year and write down my biggest moments, and I'm like, oh my gosh, look at all of the things that you've accomplished. It's not just for someone like me, it's for all of us to look back and think about all of the things that we've gotten through in a year, whether it's been turbulent times, if you've lost a family member, or you've achieved a certain goal or started a new job or moved—all of these things are major accomplishments. Women probably don't give themselves enough credit for all of the things that we do accomplish each year.”
As for beauty advice, Handler has a hyperbaric chamber in her home. “They're amazing—they help your sleep,” she says. “I'm really into sleep; sleep is the number one beauty secret. And I've done every laser that you can imagine under the sun. I have fair skin, so when I go away for the summer and I come back, I always do a laser for any sort of sun damage.” To help get into sleep mode, she has an unexpected bedtime routine: “I wrestle with my dog in my bed and try and keep him under the covers for as long as he'll tolerate me, and that's pretty much my nighttime routine. Eventually he storms off and he's like, stop it, you're insulting me.”
She’ll need her beauty sleep for her newly announced stand-up tour next year; tickets just went on sale. Handler says, “It's called the High And Mighty Tour, because I'm going to be high and mighty hot air ballooning from one city to the next.”