Giuliana Rancic on Beauty, Hollywood and Red Carpet Nerves

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

When it comes to red carpet coverage, E! network really trounces the competition. Hosts Ryan Seacrest and Giuliana Rancic are unfailing upbeat, rarely tongue-tied and seem comfortable with celebrities big and small. So when Racked received an invite to Giuliana's private pre-Oscars cocktail party at the W Hollywood we accepted, eager to hear about her experiences as a professional celeb journalist.

There was one line of the invite that stood out as, well, a bit odd. "Giuliana can dish on her own beauty regimen (ps?she’s not wearing foundation these days!), along with her very own tips, tricks, and product picks for looking naturally gorgeous both on and off camera." It turned out that Giuliana has been going foundation-free because she's the face of DDF Skincare—a role she said she badgered them into accepting after becoming a fan of the line years ago.

In person, Rancic (wearing an orange DVF shift), was just as warm and chatty as she appears on-screen. She discussed her skincare routine, but also talked about her start in Hollywood (she moved here after grad school in D.C. knowing no one and with just $500 to her name), her recent health scare and the celebrities that still make her nervous on the red carpet.

"Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are still a little bit nerve-wracking, yes, even after all these years." she said. "They're intense. Clooney's on the same scale, in my eyes, but he doesn't make me as nervous. You just never know what the mood's going to be. You never want, because I've seen it happen, you never want to ask a question where they give you that [makes a somewhat puzzled face]. You don't want them to be like, that is an annoying question. The Sean Penns of the world, people who take themselves very seriously, [are tough]."

Guests—including, full disclosure, us—left with a bag of DDF product including their new Micro-Polishing System, the very thing Rancic swears changed her skin. True to her word and that "ps," she skipped the foundation yesterday.
· DDF Skincare [Official Site]
· What It's Like Watching the Oscars Red Carpet Live [Racked]