"I'm really into makeup. I love it! I think it’s so trendy to be like, ‘Oh, I don’t ever wear makeup,’ but it’s super fun and I’ve always enjoyed it. When I was a teenager I used to watch Beverly Hills 90210–which is totally ageing myself–and I'd try to recreate the makeup that they did on Jennie Garth at home. I went to public high school in Scottsdale, Arizona, and I certainly wore a lot of makeup in high school. I experimented with a cat eye for a semester, and then, you know, a strong red lip because Courtney Love in Hole was all the rage. In Freaks and Geeks, my character's whole thing was like a dark red liner. Judd Apatow wanted it to look like teenagers who actually had done their own makeup, so it was, I think, a bit challenging for the makeup artists to make it look amateur. They wanted the skin to show through, and I think that’s important.
Koh Gen Do is my foundation, I mix it with my moisturizer and blend with a Beautyblender, and I have like three different colors that I mix. And I like the Cle de Peau concealer in two colors–I always buy things in multiple colors. The other thing I use is the Kevyn Aucoin concealer. It’s just pure pigment. You use like a pin drop, and if you have like any spots anywhere they just disappear. It’s such an incredible product. I had all of Kevyn Aucoin’s books as a teenager, too. I do use the Touche Éclat pens around my nose because I’m a big believer in concealer around your nose. I don’t know, it just brightens and makes you look good. And then I’m very, very partial to my YSL Volume Effet Faux Cils Mascara in Fascinating Violet.
And you know what I did? I just bought the Kylie Lip Kits. I bought three—Posie K, Candy K, Mary Jo K. I wore that one last night on the Colbert show. I love Chanel's, too–I have a lot of Chanel lipstick. They’re easy to wear and they’re not gross.
I’m also definitely a Kérastase devotee. I have like a weirdly sensitive scalp, my scalp breaks out from products. So sadly for me, the Oribe Dry Texturizing Spray doesn't work. And I have tried for the last two years to make it work and every time, almost immediately, it breaks me out. But Kérastase just works. If they ever want me to do a campaign, I’m ready. [Laughs] I love this detangler that I buy in Los Angeles at Larchmont Beauty Center called Nectar of the Gods. It is…the greatest detangler of all time. It’s expensive, but it is just the fuckin’ best. I really, highly recommend it. It’s a protectant, it restores body to fine hair. Tracey Cunningham has done my color forever, I love her. And I don’t cut my hair that much but Christine Symonds cuts it when I do. She cuts [my daughter] Birdie's hair, too.
I've been going to the same dermatologist since I was on Freaks and Geeks. His name is Dr. Lancer and he is very popular now because I think he’s been on the Kardashians. [Laughs] The products are great, though, and he’s a big believer in scrubbing and in glycolic. I use a lot of glycolic and lactic acid—I go back and forth between the two. So I use Lancer’s line, like, always. Recently, though, I've been seeing a facialist named Yonat in the valley, and she uses the Biologique Recherche line, which I love. I like the Lotion P50, which I think is lactic acid, and I love the Masque Vivant. But it smells so strongly that it’s been banned from my house by my husband and my daughters. It’s that bad. I’ll try to sneak it when no one’s home, and they’ll come home and my daughter will be like, ‘Were you doing that mask?’ I’ll do a daily mask if I have time. Or at least every other day... the Masque Vivant, the Masque VIP 02, and I like an SK-II sheet mask. I’m telling you, I was the girl reading the tutorials in Sassy magazine when I was in high school, making my own face masks out of oatmeal and brown sugar or whatever else.
My skin can handle a lot of product, but I've dealt with really bad cystic acne. I had been really struggling with it when I was on Dawson’s Creek and it was horrible, listening to lighting guys conferring about how to change shots so that they can work around the giant zit on your forehead. Then I went on Accutane and it changed my life. Now I just use a light moisturizer, the Biologique Serum VIP 02, and the Mesoestetic Moisturising Sun Protection SPF 50+. This is the greatest sunscreen of all time, I'm totally obsessed with it. It doesn’t feel like sunscreen to me, it just feels like a moisturizer. My lip balm is Epicuren Tea Tree Oil. They used to make it in a stick but now they only make it in a pot and like a squeeze tube, which bums me out, but it’s fine. I’ll live.
Hilariously and ironically enough, Dr. Lancer asked me one time what we put in my lips. And I was like, ‘Nothing. We have never put anything in my lips Dr. Lancer, come on. Get it together.’ I’ve never done Botox or any of that. I was having a moment a little while ago where I thought maybe I should do it. But it ages you. I’m the same age as one of the Real Housewives, and they all look older than they are. But then Kourtney Kardashian and I are the same age and I think she looks amazing. Does she do lasers? Because I’m also kind of convinced that lasers will change your life. I haven’t done them at all, but I’m like, ready. I think they're subtler than injectibles and I'm curious. That's something that happens as you get older. You do get concerned with fine lines and wrinkles and all that stuff. That’s why my neck scarf is really going to do me favors for the next while."
—as told to ITG
Busy Philipps photographed by Edith Young in New York on July 12, 2016.
