Continuing in our exploration of both the After Dark routines of cool girls doing cool things and the new Smashbox shape-enhancing lip lacquer and liner, we meet actress Taylor LaShae at her Brooklyn apartment where she orders pad thai and hosts parties in the basement.

'I was on the wait list for this apartment for two years, and as soon as I got the call I left the job I was on, holding all my paperwork, ready to be approved. I got so lucky, nobody wants to leave this place. At nighttime you can see the Empire State Building from the window, and there's this huge bar in our basement that has a pool table and everything, which is great because we can invite as many of our friends over as we want. We can drink, we can play our music...but technically it's open to everyone who lives here, so really anyone could just walk in. I love it.

MUSIC

I like to listen to music before we go out—right now it's City Of The Sun. You know you have friends who are musicians, but you never listen to their stuff? Well, I did their music video and I started listening to that song, then another, then their whole album—and they're actually really, really, really good. It's all instrumental with Spanish guitar, so dreamy and euphoric. It's that, or Tom Waits to get me in the right mood.

SNACKS

My schedule is so crazy with shooting that it's unpredictable as to when I'll have a day off to really let go. There's no ritual for me before I go out, really—I could be running straight to a bar from set, or I could have time to relax while I get ready, in which case I'll order pad thai and watch HBO—I'm an HBO girl. I’m not really a big drinker, more of a bar food person actually— such a sucker for jalapeño poppers. The Levee in Williamsburg—they have great food. It’s so gross—things like cheesy fries—and it’s stupid bad for you, but I eat it anyway. I might bring along a flask filled with Fireball. People say that's a frat boy thing, but how was I supposed to know?

SKINCARE

Showering isn't usually something I have time for at that point—and I prefer to do that when I get home, so my bed stays clean. I'll wash my face, which I never really did until I got a Clarisonic about a week ago and now I use it all the time. It makes your skin so fresh and clean and bright. I follow up with lotion.

MAKEUP

My makeup is always different. I have to wing it because I'm not really good at putting it on myself, so I just kind of do stuff and see what happens. First I put concealer on, and then some base. For that I love the Smashbox BB Cream. I've been using it for the past two weeks, and I'll be real—it’s amazing. I use two different shades—the lighter is perfectly my color, and then I contour with the one that's slightly darker. I see makeup artists do it. There's a way to contour a woman's face, which is just under the cheek, and then up to create fuller cheeks and higher cheekbones, but I like mine the way they contour a man's face—more angular, with lines in a v-shape cutting up from the chin and out to the sides of the face. My face is very square, so this helps shape it. And I like to shadow my collarbone, I think it looks elegant.

Then I have to do some sort of a back cat eye-type of thing, I need my little wings—which I suck at [laughs]. I'll put natural-looking shadow on my lids, then mascara, then the Always Sharp Lip Liner, then gloss. I learned to fill the lips in with liner completely because it makes the gloss stay longer. And if I first put base, like the BB cream, on my lips before drawing them in, for some reason I feel like it makes them look bigger. I won't completely overdraw with the liner, but I'll do the line a tiny bit under my natural lower lip line.

I was wearing the Be Legendary Lip Lacquer in the music video we filmed last weekend and it was awesome. I had to do a lot of the shots underwater, and put my hands over my face—it smeared, but it looked beautiful. It was a a clean smear, I was so surprised! Usually this kind of stuff gets everywhere, but it looked gorgeous. I was pretty stoked about it.

Blush and bronzer come last for me—I put my bronzer all the way down my face and around my jawline. It may not look like it because I'm covered in self-tanner right now, but I'm actually super pale. I'm just not a fan of being in the sun—very Morticia Addams of me. My mom discovered Tan Physics, and made me put it on when I was in Houston last week. I was like, 'No, no, no,' because I never use this kind of stuff. But she kept bugging me like 'C'mon, just a little color. It's so good, I promise!' So I tried it and she was totally right. It doesn't flake or feel sticky or smell bad, and I actually look like a got a bit of sun.

THE BEST PARTY EVER

I love being in New York because I feel like I'm always stumbling upon something really magical. My first week here I had just left a really terrible date and while walking back to the train I passed Sunshine Theater in Lower East Side, and I saw that they were playing this movie that looked like something I would be into. It had Brit Marling, and it was about Earth and space—I love space. So I just walked in to this beautiful little theater to see this beautiful movie, and I was all dressed up and felt great again.

Probably the best party I've ever been to was Macaulay Culkin’s Halloween party. That was the most fun night in the world; I’ll never ever forget it. I didn’t even know Ryan Gosling was there because he was dressed up as a goblin with a fake nose. The whole thing was so surreal.”

—as told to ITG

Top Shelf After Dark is a series focusing on the going out routines of some of the coolest girls we know, and this is the final installment in collaboration with our launch partners at Smashbox. Taylor Lashae is wearing Smashbox Always Sharp Lip Liner in Frenchie [photo 3] and Violet [photo 4, 5, 6], Be Legendary Lip Lacquer in Keepsake [photo 3] and After Dark [photo 4, 5, 6], Full Exposure Palette, Halo Long Wear Blush, and Camera Ready BB Cream. This post is in collaboration with Smashbox.