Mariacarla Boscono on the Magic of Italian Heritage, "Drama Queen" Beauty and Selling Dreams
After three decades of bleaching her brows and walking for Galliano, the Italian muse returns to her roots as the face of Acqua Fiuggi.
Mariacarla Boscono is a self described “drama queen,” but in the high stakes world of European fashion, she is more accurately a shapeshifter. Since she was first discovered in Rome at thirteen, she has treated her own image as a medium rather than a destination. “I always feel like I am a project in the hands of artists,” she explains while reflecting on a career that has outlasted the very trends she helped ignite. “And I love the idea of [creating] a character.”
Despite her avant garde history, Boscono’s latest chapter is one of deep rooted heritage. Her new partnership as a brand ambassador for Acqua Fiuggi, the Italian mineral water, is a homecoming in the literal sense and based on their shared values of natural beauty and spotlight Italian heritage on an international stage.
Born in Rome, she spent her youth visiting the thermal Fiuggi parks, which she describes as a “magical, thermal place full of nature.” For Boscono, representing the brand is a chance to spotlight the “essential” Italian excellence that shaped her.
To look at Boscono is to see the history of the “unconventional” becoming the “ideal.” Boscono was the outlier in a family of blonde, blue eyed brothers. Her mother never told her she was beautiful, opting instead for “smart” and “funny.” It was a movie photographer, a friend of the family connected to the cinematic lineage of Fellini and Pasolini, who saw the “interesting face” that would eventually dominate three decades of campaigns and runways.
Her early years were defined by the high octane theatricality of the early 2000s, an era she remembers as “the peak of the crazy.” While the industry today often leans toward a curated, “clean girl” minimalism, Boscono’s “normality” involved Swarovski crystal cheekbones and blue lips. “It would be so scary these days for [the new girls],” she says of her experimental peak. “But fashion… has the ability to sell dreams. I’m a big dreamer, and I love that part of fashion.”
That dream logic followed her into her first major breaks, specifically an exclusive for Comme des Garçons that stripped away any lingering desire to be a “standard” beauty. She recalls arriving at a makeup test for Pat McGrath at fifteen, expecting the glossy, “cloudy” glamour of the Versace era. Instead, she was met with a white painted face, a black banana gelled head, and a “chicken crest.” It was a moment of liberation. “It was all about being chamaleontic,” she notes. “I never want to fit into the category of a standard beauty.”
Now, as the mother of a thirteen year old daughter, Boscono finds herself on a “roller coaster” of generational beauty shifts. She watches a youth culture obsessed with perfection and “sexy poses,” a far cry from the intellectual rigor she was taught on the Dior runways. “I always say to my daughter, ‘What is beauty?’ Beauty is what you like,” she says. “There’s nothing better that you can wear than your confidence. If you have your confidence and you like it, and if you think you look great, then you look great.”
Today, whether she is dressed in her signature stark black or experimenting with the “pink phase” inspired by her daughter, Boscono remains fashion’s most reliable blank paper, a woman who knows that true beauty isn’t found in a contour kit, but in the willingness to be transformed.
As for beauty routines, her self-care is less about rigidity and more about longevity. Now based in Florence after years of the fast-paced New York City hustle, she has traded intense hot yoga sessions for romantic, three-hour walks through the historic city; a practice she credits as her ultimate starting point for creativity and mental clarity.
Her beauty philosophy treats the body as a temple, emphasizing that what you put inside reflects on the outside. Living in Italy provides her with an abundance of healthy, high-quality food, allowing her to skip strict diets — yes, she still enjoys wine — while maintaining incredible skin and hair. When she’s jet-setting for projects, her non-negotiables include constant hydration (she even drinks water in her sleep), booking lymphatic drainage massages and non-invasive facials worldwide, and relying on modern wellness treatments like IV vitamin therapy (NAD) to stay resilient against travel stress. Ultimately, her golden rule is simple: “Sleep, water, sleep, water, sleep.”
From Prada Infusion d’Iris Eau de Parfum to Estée Lauder‘s face masks – ahead, Boscono spills five of her beauty essentials.
Acqua Fiuggi Water
“For someone who travels as much as I do, water is the absolute baseline for good health. I drink tons of it… whether it’s hot, cold or with lemon. I actually even drink a lot of water while I sleep, don’t ask me why. I even like water-based makeup removers like Sensibio’s H2O Micellar Water.
Prada Infusion d’Iris Eau de Parfum
“I’m a little bit obsessed. I love perfumes or body oil, so I mix Santa Maria Novella oil with Prada perfume. I always have that in my bags because I feel like a good smell makes a good person. I actually know the Italian girl that does the perfume and whenever I see her she goes ‘you’re wearing the perfume that I created! I try to collect as many bottles as I can because you never know when a good product is running out these days.’”
Ceramol Beta Cream
“I use Ceramol Beta Cream, at the moment. It’s a very pharmaceutical kind of cream and it’s very soothing. I love anything that’s ingredient based because I have a very delicate skin type.”
Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair Concentrated Recovery PowerFoil Mask
”A funny mask that really works for me for some reason is the Estée Lauder gold mask. It’s just a sheet that tones me down. I’ve used it many times, take pictures with it on, and people go crazy.”
And finally… Lifestyle
“Your body is your temple. I don’t do strict diets —I eat what I want, I drink wine and my skin and hair react incredibly well. I balance that with three-hour walks for my mind, and when traveling, I rely on NAD IV therapies and lymphatic drainage massages everywhere I go to keep my circulation going and to stay resilient.”
