When you see her on
Entourage or
The Mentalist looking smooth and TV-flawless, you’d never guess that Montreal-born Emmanuelle Chriqui was once self-conscious about her natural-born (and seemingly perfect, speaking from our in-person interaction) features. “Can I just tell you that hair removal has been the story of my life?” she says, cracking into a melodious peal of laughter. “Nobody really gets it! I’m Moroccan, I’m like the hairiest of my family—my sister’s not hairy at all. My brother, my dad, not at all, my mom neither and I’m like this hairy Moroccan!” As sweetly endearing as she sounds, Chriqui is the Canadian ambassador of Tria Hair Removal laser, a portable at-home laser developed with five comfort-level settings to get professional results in just two treatments. We chatted with the former
Are You Afraid of the Dark? star about growing up in Toronto, working in the biz and what
summer beauty must-haves she’s toting in her now home-base in sunny California.
COMING HOME: “See my family, see my friends that’s my first order of business. And there are a couple places I love to frequent, Joso’s, the fish place on Davenport Road. When I come it’ll be family intensive and then I’ll call my friends to go out—Toronto has the best nightlife, hands down, And I’ve lived in New York and L.A. and other cities.”
CALIFORNIA DREAMING: “I’ve lived in LA for 13 years and when drive around, I’m still truly stunned. If it’s a beautiful day, I’m driving down the freeway, windows down, music blaring, and I’m like ‘I love my life.’”
HOME-GROWN BEAUTY: “I’ve had tremendous hair and makeup people over the years. My mom was amazing at doing her makeup and hair and I used to do my sister’s makeup as a kid. And I’ve picked up things from makeup artists along the way—when you’re out there and you’re the thing that you’re selling basically, I just really believe it’s so much nicer to be able to do it yourself if you need to. You’re not always going to have hair and makeup people so it’s kind of nice to be able to fend for yourself.”
HAIR-RAISING TEENAGE YEARS: “As a kid, it was awful—I actually remember being in high school and always waxing and shaving—it was a disaster. I remember my blond friends, they could just jump into a bikini and jump into a pool, I could never do that. I would have to plan to go get waxed if I was going to be by a pool. I laugh about it now, but it actually was horrible.”
SUMMER BEAUTY BAG “I’m actually very big on
natural beauty products as much as I can. Mineral Fusion is a line that you can get at Whole Foods Market and they have this amazing body lotion that’s paraben free, chemical free. Their packaging is all sustainable and organic and proceeds go to really good things, but aside from that, the cream itself, I love. I’m super basic, unless I’m getting ready for an event, I’m a minimalist. I’m addicted to this chapstick, it’s a natural chapstick called Karite Lips, it’s actually made in Vancouver and is 100 per cent natural shea butter. I love Stila, I use a bronzer by them that I love. My makeup bag is mascara,
bronzer and Nars nude lip— and a little concealer and you’re good to go."
UPCOMING GIGS “I have joined the cast of
The Mentalist so I’m doing that for a few more episodes. There’s a possible film in the works, but nothing that’s definitive.”

Tria Hair Removal Laser ($395), available at triabeauty.ca.