Emily Alyn Lind Reveals Her 7-Step Guide to a Perfect Red Lip

The Gossip Girl star shares her beauty secrets, from lash primer to how to master bold red lipstick.

Emily Alyn Lind Reveals Her 7-Step Guide to a Perfect Red Lip

Emily Alyn Lind, who stars in HBO Max’s Gossip Girl reboot, found her way to skin care after a bout of breakouts and cystic acne as a young teenager. “I want to highlight this cleanser because it really changed my life,” the 19-year-old New York native says of a dermatologist-recommended prescription face wash–the steadfast first step of her morning getting-ready regimen. Next up? An oil-free moisturizer from Trader Joe’s. “I’ve tried everything, and this is the only one that works on my skin,” she reveals, before slathering on Supergoop! matte SPF and a daub of glossy Dior Lip Glow Oil, which brings out the natural pigment of her own pout.

“I’m someone who doesn’t really like to wear a lot of makeup,” Alyn Lind continues as she coats her complexion with Glossier’s ultra-light Perfecting Skin Tint, followed by a few dots of Nars’s creamy concealer and Kevyn Aucoin’s Sculpting Powder brushed across her cheekbones. For a glowing finish, she then reaches for a highlighter palette from Dior and Chanel’s glimmering liquid eyeshadow, which she uses not on her lids but instead on the tip of her nose and on her cupid’s bow. “The person that inspires me the most for makeup is my cast-mate Zion [Moreno]. She has the most amazing makeup no-makeup look,” she muses. “The friendships that I’ve grown on Gossip Girl have been by far my favorite thing from the show. They are my ride-or-die sisters.”

Her final makeup move is a multi-step bold red lip. To begin, Alyn Lind exfoliates her mouth with a dry towel—“the good thing about exfoliating is it makes your lips look bigger too!” she notes—before gliding on a creamy Gucci bullet. After cleaning up the edges, she carefully wipes off the pigment at the very center of her lip and then reapplies it with her pinky finger. “It’s going to look more natural,” she explains, lightly applying a dusting of mattifying powder, which she brightens up with one final layer of her go-to rouge. Rest assured, she promises, “This will make it last all night.”

Below, shop Emily Aly Lind’s Beauty Secrets.