Beauty

[Vamp]

Grand prize winner is Alison Chace:

Alison Chace

Age: 44

Occupation: Actress-producer

Hometown: New York City

This was Chace’s second time entering the More Beauty Search. “I obviously didn’t win last year, but I was undeterred,” she says. “As a working actress, I’m used to rejection. Plus, my mantra now is, ‘Why not me?’?” We were glad to see her back. Last year she told us she’d split from her husband of 15 years; this year it was clear her spirit is keeping her strong. What makes her feel beautiful, she says, isn’t a man’s reactions to her looks but rather “a belly laugh. Wit. Friendship. Being a mom [to two boys]. Doing something that matters.” Amen to all that—and to Chace’s single-again reinvention plan. Hours after being photographed for this story, she headed off on a self-renewal trip to Madrid, Rome and Tuscany. And she just completed a program, Mama Gena’s School of Womanly Arts (mamagenas.com), that promises to teach women how to “use the power of pleasure to have their way with the world.” She’s putting extra effort into her outer package, too, which gives her the confidence to face blind dates and casting agents. Her top tips: Botox “once a year, on the frown line”; Latisse to lengthen her lashes; Listerine Whitening Rinse ($10; drugstores); Zumba classes; and trendy (often blue, occasionally yellow) nail polish. “I always ask the manicurist what the cool high school girls are wearing,” she says.