How 79-Year-Old Martha Stewart Stays Zoom-Ready

IN NEARLY 30 years of appearing on television and lending her name and expertise to 97 books, a magazine, Christmas trees, crafting supplies, dog beds and CBD gummies, Martha Stewart, 79, has always been the face of her ventures. But during our collective quarantine, her already significant use of social media as a personal branding tool grew. Her long-standing interest in wellness, skincare and beauty became newly relevant as she connected with millions of followers, many of them a fraction of her age. She invested in more sophisticated lighting for her Zoom calls; she lost some weight; she posted a viral selfie at the edge of her East Hampton swimming pool (after learning the term, she admitted that the alluring picture was a “thirst trap,” or purposefully enticing post). For a woman approaching her ninth decade, when CEOs of all genders typically shrink back, she is placing her own image front and center.

“When you are the face of the brand there are a lot of obligations to look good at all times,” said Ms. Stewart when we spoke last week.

That’s especially true in the Instagram era, with its nonstop narrative potential—and scrutiny. “A picture [on social media] tells a big story and generally those pictures can be zoomed in on, so people are zooming in on the tiniest details,” said Ms. Stewart. “They’re zooming in on your pores of your face, and they’re zooming in on your teeth and your ears and your hair, and it’s never been like that before. Once there was a picture in a magazine and you looked great, and they couldn’t zoom in on anything.”

With her fans zooming in on her photos and livestreams as well as watching her on multiple high-definition TV shows, (“Martha Knows Best,” “Chopped” and “Clipped,” an upcoming topiary series) her regime is more important than ever. In addition to a conscientious skincare routine which typically begins with a 4 a.m. face mask, she says she’s been eating healthily and spending time horseback riding during quarantine. Facials, haircuts and color and manicures have all resumed cautiously after a long pandemic break. Every morning she drinks a green juice made in her Breville juicer (ingredients: celery, parsley leaves, spinach, cucumbers, ginger, pineapple, the skin and the pulp of a half of an orange or a grapefruit, and sometimes persimmon, mint, carrot or pear).

“ ‘I don’t pay any attention to age at all,’ Ms. Stewart said. ‘I have a very strong constitution and I just don’t think about it.’ ”

On most mornings when she is shooting, her makeup artist Nicole Daisy Toye, 39, will drive the hour-plus out to Westchester from New York City to do her makeup. Ms. Toye has been doing Ms. Stewart’s makeup for 10 years, and they’ve traveled extensively together (her mother wrote the mogul a letter thanking her for showing her daughter the world). Now that Ms. Stewart has shared her limelight with Ms. Toye on social media, the makeup artist is bombarded with questions from women about how to get the Martha look. Ms. Toye repeats the basics constantly: take care of your skin, wear sunscreen, invest in a good foundation, a bronzer and a blush. If there’s a secret sauce, it’s getting serious about lighting: Ms. Toye and Ms. Stewart buy their ring lights and Light & Motion LED lights from professional photo equipment store B&H.

Commenters on her social media posts cheer on her selfies with gusto (while others speculate on her dermatological treatments). “Martha has always been glamorous and a very unique Instagram user,” said the New York artist Jeanette Hayes, 30, who said she felt like she was “a little bit friends” with the icon through her Instagram posts. Christine Feola, a 32-year-old Asbury Park, N.J., realtor and concert promoter, said that Martha Stewart’s late-in-life look “makes me feel that one day when I do hit that point in my life I can still be pretty, I can still be sexy…Aging shouldn’t be looked down upon.”

Although she’s emerged as something of a symbol for aging gracefully, Ms. Stewart said, “I don’t pay any attention to age at all…I have a very strong constitution and I just don’t think about it.” She credits her group of friends—most of them younger by decades—with keeping her on her toes. Snoop Dogg, for instance, is a friend and close collaborator. Plus, she said, “I have a lot of energy so that also keeps me current and going, and I’m also very curious about everything, so I’m not set in my ways at all. I think that that helps tremendously, as one ages, to not be set in one’s ways, to be totally flexible, go with the flow.”

Of course, going with the flow alone does not smooth one’s complexion. Ms. Stewart works with the dermatologists Dr. Dhaval G. Bhanusali, Dr. Daniel Belkin and those at the Orentreich Medical Group, and confesses to indulging in injectables twice a year in moderation (Ms. Toye calls them “little sprinkles”). She elaborated, “I love skincare, I love technology, lasers—I love all those things that will help you look better. It’s not about looking younger, it’s about looking better, and the better you look the younger you look.” She shuts down the facelift rumors: “People are always saying that I had a facelift, like, ‘Oh, Martha just had surgery.’ I have never had surgery.”

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She does, however, care more for her skin than the average person. One of the dermatologists she works with, Dr. Bhanusali of Manhattan, said that she has on occasion reminded him to put on sunscreen when they’re together. “ She’s always about nurturing and creating good habits,” he said. “It’s a constant active decision for her to care for her skin.” They’re currently collaborating on a line of products called 86 Elm, and he said her knowledge of natural ingredients from her farm is instructive. As for one of her favorite ingredients of the moment for skincare, the trendy CBD, Dr. Bhanusali said that it took some time for the science to catch up to the hype but it does show promise as an anti-inflammatory topical treatment.

Ms. Feola, the realtor from New Jersey, compared Ms. Stewart’s transformations to the endless home renovations featured in Martha-world. “She’s growing and redesigning her spaces and she can redesign herself as well,” she said.

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