Daniel Martin frequently travels to work, with clients like Jessica Biel, Elisabeth Moss and the Duchess of Sussex, whose natural glow during the royal wedding last year garnered him a lot of attention. “When I’m working, I’m able to go to these incredible places — I’m in London or Paris or in L.A., at the Four Seasons or the Ritz — my work is fancy,” he said. “So when it’s my time, I try and keep it as real as possible.” Mr. Martin, 45, lives in a duplex apartment in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, which he shares with his husband, Randall Stattler, 47, a home automation engineer (he syncs people’s gadgets to perform high-tech tasks in their homes), and their black cat, Weezy, who is missing a fang. “She’s our Goth kitty,” he said.
Weezy the Goth kitty. CreditGabriella Angotti-Jones for The New York Times
POLITICS AND DRAG We usually get up about 8. We always have the TV set to MSNBC, so it’s “Meet the Press” on Sundays. Because of the political climate right now, we want to know what’s up, so we’re always watching Bill Maher or MSNBC. Or “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” If I’m traveling and I don’t catch it, we’ll DVR and watch it. Politics and drag! I mean, come on, the best combination!
TRUE GROUNDS There’s definitely coffee in the morning. I’m from Seattle, so it’s the first thing that’s in the veins. It’s Café Bustelo. I’m not a coffee snob: I’m not one of those, like, ‘I’ll only drink Blue Bottle and all that.’ I want strong, dark coffee. I just use a regular Mr. Coffee. I’m not into it being so precious.
PREP I have an office upstairs that I’ll sit in and do my work. I keep a lot of makeup up there. On Sundays, it’s usually about getting my kit together for the week: getting stuff together and seeing what I need to replenish. I’ll go through any packages that I’ve received that week. It is my organizing day.
BASIC BRUNCH Just moving to this neighborhood, we’re still trying to find our spots. My best friend, Summer Walker, when she’s not in school, works at this Korean restaurant called Dokebi, which is two blocks away from us, so we’ll usually meet her there. We’ll have brunch and hang out with her. I’m really basic, so I’ll get whatever she recommends: I don’t have a favorite.
NICOTINE REPLACEMENT THERAPY Then there’s this awesome place called Brooklyn Standard that does these vegan pumpkin whoopie pies, so I’ll get that as a treat to eat that night. And there’s a Polish place that’s right by our apartment — Jaslowiczanka Bakery — literally everything’s in Polishand they make these incredible desserts. I have a sweet tooth: I quit smoking 10 years ago and then the sweet tooth came on board. It’s crazy.
SELF-CARE Then, if I can coordinate with my friend Joanna Vargas, I’ll go and have a facial. I always do the Triple Crown Facial because that’s kind of like her signature. Because my job is to take care of other people, it’s nice to be taken care of in that same way by someone you trust. It’s knowing that you’re safe in someone else’s hands and you’re going to be taken care of.
K-BEAUTY FINDS By 3 p.m., I’m makeup shopping. I’ll go to Chinatown, to a Korean place called the Saem, which is a k-beauty store. It’s fun for me to kind of figure out what the products are, because they’re not in English. I always buy a lot of liquid eyeliners, and the way that they mill powders I really like, because it doesn’t look like powder on the face, especially when I shoot television or film. Their makeup is so good — their eyeliners don’t move. This one particular foundation was glowy and radiant — it photographs amazingly in editorial.
SUPPLIES I love going to Blick because a lot of the oil-paint brushes are actually great for foundation or cream-based products. I try to find not the long-handled brushes, but more of the short-handled brushes. One of my favorite foundation brushes is from there. It can take a beating and take a washing and the hairs don’t pull out. It’s built really well and it’s under $10. They’re built so well, to be able to withstand more heavy, oil-based products rather than just makeup.
CREATURES OF HABIT Then I come back home, and we usually try to make dinner or we’ll just order in. Again, we’re still trying to explore our options: we just discovered this really great place, Dar 525. It’s a Mediterranean place. They make this weird pita pizza, it’s almost like fancy garlic bread. That’s a guilty pleasure, that pizza, it’s so good. And it’s more catching up on what we’ve DVR’d, more Bill Maher, RuPaul. We start and end our day together there. We’re just a couple creatures of habit.
Sunday Routine readers can follow Daniel Martin on Instagram @danielmartin.
