Ashnikko’s daily beauty rituals: ​“Picking my face, popping blackheads like it’s my job”

Welcome to daily beauty rituals, a series where we meet our favourite beauty rule-breakers to lift the lid on their realer-than-real beauty regimes, or lack thereof…

For this month’s instalment, we get up close and personal with 24-year-old North Carolina resident-turned-London hellraiser, Ashnikko – the otherworldly singer and rapper known as Ashton Casey to her family and friends.

The genre-bending, alien-cyborg-princess aesthete, TikTok sensation and all round white hot trap-pop superstar is ready to set 2021 alight. Her infectious sound has already garnered a frenzied following online, with the release of her first smash hit STUPID gaining over 80 million streams on Spotify. The skittle-blue haired siren has since collaborated with the likes of Kelis, Princess Nokia and Grimes, and this month she releases her follow-up mixtape DEMIDEVIL – the subsequent release to 2019’s Hi, It’s Me, which promises to be just as ferocious and bombastic.

Here, she gives us the rundown on her morning rituals, bad habits, top-rated supplements, and lucid dreams.

I wake up..

At 8am to take my dog out to potty then I go back to sleep until 10 if I’m going to the studio. If it’s a shoot day i’m up at like 7am. I miss sleeping in ​’till midday lol.

The first thing I do is…

Take my dog out. I’m bad at routine outside dog stuff though. Probably look at my phone. Order food on uber eats. Write in my diary.

My skin care regimen in the morning looks like.…

Face wash, complexion wipes, moisturiser, SPF 70!! A glass of water!

My favourite morning products are…

Decaf coffee.

Because.…

I have anxiety and I can’t drink caffeine so I pretend.

My worst beauty habits are…

Falling asleep on the couch and not doing my skincare routine. Picking my face, popping blackheads like it’s my job.

My favourite feature is my…

Hair! I love my long hair. Although I get this intrusive thought of shaving it off every once in a while. I also used to hate my nose but have learned to actually love it as I’ve gotten older.

My first beauty related memory is…

My grandma has been wearing SPF every single day since her early twenties and she looks fab so I’m trying to follow in her footsteps.

Where are you headed today?

I’m going to take my dog to the dog park so she can wrestle it out with some other tiny babies and then I’m going to read one of the four books I bought for myself yesterday in my garden. I’m trying to spend more time reading than I do buying books (which is a lot).

What tasks have you got to get done?

My to do list is looking fucking crazy right now, but it’s saturday and i’ve been running around like a headless chicken for weeks so i’m gonna take a day to breathe.

Do you work out?

Ummmm, when i’m shooting videos i’ll try to sneak in an intensive two weeks prior to pretend like I work out all the time. I walk my dog? I do yoga, sometimes? I need to get better at it.

Are you taking any supplements?

I got covid for THREE WHOLE WEEKS because I was vitamin D deficient, so you bet your ass I’m taking vitamin D3, collagen, Omega‑3, vitamin C, zinc, etc…

What’s for lunch today?

I made a soup last night so i’m gonna reheat that.

How do you relax?

What does ​“relax” mean? Don’t know her.

Do you listen to anything in the evening?

“Relaxing music for dogs” playlists.

Burn any candles? Have a bath?

Yes and yes. I go crazy in the tub. I’m practically sitting in a soup.

What products do you use at night?

Obagi face wash, Obagi complexion wipes, Obagi moisturiser mixed with tretinoin cream.

What’s the best beauty hack you’ve ever learned and why?

Botox lol.

Bedtime is at…

Between 10pm and 4am.

How do you sleep…

Like i’m dead most of the time. I sometimes talk throughout my sleep and get night terrors. A real mixed bag.

I’ve been dreaming of…

I recently had a lucid dream where I climbed mount Everest it was fucking nuts. I had a great time though.