Molly Sims is one of those mythical-seeming women who is great at everything: She's a style guru, a stunning model, a makeup master, a loving wife, a dedicated mother, health conscious, an amazing baker — did we mention she's one of the nicest, most down-to-earth people who have ever graced our New York headquarters? Molly took the time to answer everything we wanted to know after reading to her new book, The Everyday Supermodel: My Beauty, Fashion, and Wellness Secrets Made Simple, but also some important career-spanning questions about her first sex scene with Josh Duhamel and MTV Spring Breaks of the past.
1. First of all, we have to ask: How is your hair is always so perfect?
Molly Sims: It's because I'm addicted to dry shampoo. I wash my hair only about two times a week. I learned to really actually do my hair over the years. Right now I'm wearing extensions in a ponytail and they're easy clip-ons.
2. As a dry shampoo addict, can you settle the debate of powder versus spray?
MS: The blondes can wear the powder or the spray, brunettes can only wear the spray. I can wear either but I have to say I [prefer] the water-based.
3. In a perfect world, what's your morning routine like?
MS: I wake up to the sound of my baby. I go down and fix a ba-ba. I hit the "on" machine and have a cup of coffee with skim milk, too much vanilla creamer, and then I come back up, get him in bed, lay there, watch the Today show, and then I nag at my husband and he calls me "Naggity Nan" and [I] say, "OK we have to go, you have to get into the shower, let's do this." And then I drop him off at school and I try to fix him breakfast because I'm trying to get him off ba-ba. And I pack a lunch.
4. It sounds like your morning beauty regimen has been thrown out the window.
MS: There's no beauty regimen [anymore]! Before the baby I'd always work out right when I got up. But it just don't work like that anymore. At the same time I can admit that sometimes I don't wash my face at night before I go to bed.
5. What do you eat for breakfast?
MS: I am a breakfast girl. Breakfast is my favorite food. I love it. I love egg white omeletes, I love biscuits, I love toast, I love granola, I love quiche, I love all the fatty horrible breakfast things! I'm addicted — I could eat a pound of turkey bacon.
6. How many hours of sleep do normally you get?
MS: I'm a sleeper. My girlfriend who's with me, Jessica Berg, we modeled 21 years ago together and she used to call me "Molly Log." Because I can sleep literally anywhere. I can sleep on the bathroom floor, I'd be drooling. I can sleep anywhere from eight hours to 12 hours — but then I can also go on no sleep.
7. What's your preferred activity when hanging out with friends?
MS: I'm a real girl's girl. I love my girlfriends. We love shopping and I'm a complete beauty whore. I like going into a Sephora or a space in KAY or a Bloomingdale's. We love walking around and sitting at brunch. In the old days it was like total Sex and the City hungover and going to a late brunch and you'd have a drink and then it'd be 4 o'clock.
8. What's your ideal day of family fun?
MS: When my baby sleeps is the ideal day. You know, I love my husband, I love my life, I love him — we go to the park, we'll go to brunch, just hang out.
9. How do you spend a day relaxing just yourself?
MS: I love to read. I don't get enough time to read. I love reading the internet, I love reading magazines, I love going on the 'net. I don't get a lot of alone time where someone's not talking to me or I'm not doing something, and I love doing nothing. I'm an incredible multitasker and I can get more shit done than you could imagine BUT if I don't have anything to do I can't get anything done.
10. What's your go-to beverage of choice?
MS: I love a margarita, I like tequila, and also a skinny latte.
11. Speaking of lattes: what are your thoughts on Pumpkin Spice Lattes?
MS: I'm going to beat you — I go EGL. Eggnog Late!
12. What are your favorite ingredients for a smoothie?
MS: My favorite ingredients for a smoothie — depending on if I'm watching my weight or not watching my weight — I do love a banana in a smoothie, I'm not gonna lie. I do normally do the greens just because it's low calorie, low sugar. If I wasn't dieting my go-to is almond milk with a banana with a little bit of vanilla. I love a vanilla almond [anything] but I hate anything mocha.
13. What's your favorite thing to cook?
MS: I'm a baker. I'm really good at muffins, I'm really good at banana bread, I'm really good at making cookies, I'm really good at making biscuits — all the really bad stuff.
I have mastered turkey meatballs. If you look in my refrigerator something in every item that I cook has turkey in it. Turkey burgers, turkey spices, turkey meatloaf... it's like someone's addicted to turkey.
14. What's your favorite protein?
MS: There you go, my favorite protein is turkey.
15. What's your favorite grain?
MS: My favorite grain would probably be farro.
16. What's your favorite vegetable?
MS: My favorite vegetable is spinach but I can't do garlic because I'm allergic to garlic. It makes me really sick; it's so sad. I'm not gonna lie, people: I also do love jicima. It's the weird vegetable that's clear and white and a little watery.
17. Do you have a favorite fruit?
MS: Grapefruit. I love grapefruit.
18. What's your stance on gluten?
MS: My stance on gluten is that I really try to be gluten-free, but I'm not. But I really try. But if you are gonna go gluten-free: Udi's. Granola, their cookies, their bagels; they really give you a good alternative.
19. What about going organic?
MS: I believe in it 100%. If you can get organic and you can afford to get organic — it is so expensive — but if you can do it I think it's the best thing you can do for you and your family. I think since I had Brooks and I have a family [now] it's really made a difference at how I look at the world and how I look at things.
20. What's your advice on looking good in a selfie?
MS: Oh, girl! I'll do my selfie pose. Always up and to the right. You wanna kill someone when they [take a picture] from underneath, it's so not flattering! Also if you're taking a selfie with someone else or a group of people never be the end on a group picture. This is so true: The girl in the front looks massive and everyone in the back looks tiny. Watch the arm, never go flat. I could do a whole session on selfies, let me tell you.
21. Do you have a favorite go-to hair accessory?
MS: Well right now it's a rubber band. I use it as a belly extender for when I have on jeans and I pop it through and I gain that much of my belly. I can rock a headband too, I'm not gonna lie, in many different ways.
22 Most meaningful piece of jewelry you own?
MS: My most meaningful is my wedding ring. You know, hold on: I'm very superstitious — it's a random thing that causes me great anxiety — but I have a chain that has all kind of amazing lockets of things that I've had for almost seven years. I'm not saying it's more meaningful but I can have a full-on panic attack if I don't have that necklace. I have to fly with that necklace.
23. Do you have a favorite candle scent?
MS: Baies from Diptyque. It's great and very expensive. It's like $60 for a freaking candle but it smells amazing. I like candles.
24. What's your favorite yoga pose?
MS: Shivasina. I hate the plank: I hate it, I hate it, I hate the plank. I do love a little down dog, I'm not gonna lie. You get to watch people [through your legs].
25. What's one thing you can't leave the house without?
MS: My iPhone.
26. Do you have an app that you can't live without?
MS: I'm more of a texting person but I have to say — it's so horrible — but I love Daily Mail. And I love BuzzFeed. There's an app called Run Pee where if you're in a movie it will tell you the exact times to pee within a movie. It's not my favorite app but it's very brilliant for a pregnant girl with my needs.
27. What made you begin practicing Meatless Monday?
MS: Because I'm addicted to turkey! You know, a lot of what we ingest isn't organic and I wish we could always get organic but we can't. I think a plant-based diet, if I could do it solely, is much healthier for you. But it would be almost next to impossible for me to be vegan because I love meat and it's easier for me and easier for me to stay skinny.
28. What's the secret to a healthy glow?
MS: Drinking water. You can drink more water if you drink through a straw. Moisturize. Not a lot of powder. If you can rock BB cream, rock it. Do like a dewy-tinted moisturizer and a little bit of highlighter. I always bring a cream blush all the way across my nose almost like I got a fake suntan. The secret to a not-glow is a fake tan. I like a little pop of a red or a pink [on the lips] but I do love a beautiful bronze. I think if you focus on the skin it's all about dewy and glowy, using a bronzer without making yourself look orange.
29. What's one simple trick can women do for themselves to help spruce up their style?
MS: When you're buying cheaper clothes buy two sizes bigger. The fabric will hang better because it's less expensive. Cut out your tags out of your jacket. It does not matter what size you wear, if you're a 2, a 10, buy a 20, who cares? People always think that it's about weight when you get dressed but you can be a size 15 and rock an outfit. A lot of people think it's what a model buys but it's how she wears it. It's also attitude.
Also: Know your body, know your lines. Do you look better in a V-neck or a crew neck? I hate my arms! Even if I was 90 pounds I'd hate my arms — I was a swimmer for 10 years so I'm very broad and it always makes me conscious. If I don't feel good in an outfit, you know it. And everyone knows it. Don't get all cray-cray on a date. Don't go to prom or get married with hair you've never done [before]. All these brides are like, 'I want my hair up' when they've never worn their hair up in their life.
30. Do you have a favorite memory from your five-plus years on MTV's House of Style?
MS: There was one week where we did this Fashionably Loud, is what it was called. It was with Carson [Daly] and I was hosting. I just remember having this awful crimped hair and it was just so ugly but I was like, "This is so awesome." Being on MTV at that time you got paid nothing but you were like, "You're super cool." I just remember being in Cancun and walking — there was this song — "Butterfly" by Crazy Town and I was like, "This is pretty cool." And then a not-so-good moment was Say What? Karaoke!
MS: I did like 60-something episodes of Mission Makeover where I would show up at random people's houses and surprise them and do their hair and makeup. One guy we were trying to make him over and it was going horribly. He was so sweet... I ended up going to prom with him.
31. What kind of preparation does it take to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated?
MS: Um, I starved myself to complete insanity. People are like, "Oh you get paid!" [but] you get paid, like, $125 to do it. A lot of people don't realize that: to be in Sports Illustrated it's like $125 a day. I went to WeCare, which is a fasting place in the Hot Springs. You just did it. And the girls do it now. It's tough. I think I scrubbed my body silly from doing too much dry brushing. It was so weird.
32. What's one fond memory you have of Las Vegas?
MS: Um yes. The very first time I had to do a sex scene with Josh [Duhamel]. We were trying to practice it and he was nervous, I was nervous. It was for the pilot and it was the last scene of the pilot where I had to straddle him, and then turn, naked from the back, and say, "Hi, Daddy!" That was the end of the scene. It was so awkward and he was like, "This is terrible." One time I fell off the bed while I was turning. So yeah, that was like the second time I ever met him.
Jimmy Kahn's stories... I remember we were doing a two-shot and I'm very animated and talk a lot with my hands. We were doing this scene where I was very much overacting and he was like, "Are you done now?" Because my hands were in his entire closeup. I learned so much from him. He was really hard on me and really great to me. He gave me a really great piece of advice, he said, "If you ever stop getting nervous it means you're not pushing yourself and that you're too settled."
33. What do you miss about Kentucky?
MS: The food. And like, "y'all!" The accent, the easiness, the friendliness. When you're in Kentucky everyone's like, "Oh hi, Mrs. Sims!" and then you come to New York where it's like, "What the fuck do you want?"
34. What's your New Year's resolution or goal for 2015?
MS: I'm much more content, which is a good place to be. I'm more confident. My goals this year would be to not procrastinate. If I have that one thing to do, to not put it off and get it done. I cannot cancel on my girlfriend when I'm working out so I have to do it a minimum of three times a week. When you have a kid, you have excuses like, "Oh gosh, my kid is sick," or '"I'm pregnant." You can play that pregnant card a lot.
I think the most important goal this year is...Scott Stuber, my husband, are you listening? We are going to be on time, my friend. My husband is constantly effing late and it drives me crazy. I'm like, "Do you not think you are being rude because you are! You're wasting someone else's time! You cannot be a narcissist like that!"