At just 16, Sabrina Carpenter is already starring in the hit Disney television show Girl Meets World, is on the verge of releasing her second studio album Eyes Wide Open, and currently boasts a whopping 5.7 million Instagram followers. Some of her earliest memories are from her childhood dance recitals in Pennsylvania where she first learned to apply makeup, but today, Carpenter is a full-blown beauty buff with a few tips of her own.
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Following an in-office performance session of her latest single “Smoke & Fire,” Billboard chatted with Carpenter about her must-have beauty brands, how to take a flawless selfie, and learning from makeup mishaps.
Do you have any selfie tips you can share?
Everyone takes a bad selfie — the first thing is to know that. Everybody takes at least 20 so even if you see a good selfie it probably wasn’t the first one. So my tip is to just not take it too seriously and have fun. That sounds cliche but the obvious ones are good lighting and good arm positions.
You do an amazing winged eyeliner – do you do it yourself?
Sometimes! It depends. If it’s looking really good I probably didn’t do it. If it’s decent then I probably did it.
In general, are you more into bold colors or neutrals?
Neutrals on Monday through Thursday, and then weekends bold.
What’s your preference for emphasis: eyes or lips?
Eyes! I like to emphasize my eyes because if I do it well enough then they look very blue. I sing a lot so if I have lipstick it gets all over the microphone, so I rarely wear lipstick.
What have you learned from working with a professional glam squad?
I’ve learned a lot of beauty techniques on how to wear makeup but not necessarily make it look like you’re wearing a lot of makeup. I think that’s the most important thing is just accentuating your strong features and like I said doing a lot to bring out my eyes or just doing whatever it takes to feel good. My team is always trying to get me to get out of my comfort zone and to try new things. So if I do wear lipstick it was probably them convincing me to do it. They convince me to be more daring.
Is there a big difference between your on set beauty looks and off set beauty looks?
Absolutely. On set it depends which age I’m playing. Because when I’m playing younger it’s a lot of natural makeup. If I’m playing older it’s always usually a little more with the eyes. When I’m off set it’s just me, every day I really don’t wear that much makeup, but when I’m doing things with music or different photo shoots it’s fun to experiment. Like glitter eyeliner, where else are you going to wear glitter eyeliner? When I was younger and a dancer I was so excited for recitals every year. I was like finally, I get to wear so much makeup! It was so fun.
What are the top 3 beauty brands you swear by?
For skin care products I use Renee Rouleau. She’s amazing. And then for makeup I really like Dior as well as the Anastasia eyebrow products. I also really love Glossier.
What is your biggest beauty mistake you’ve ever made?
Black eyeliner in my water eye line when I was 12. It’s fine if you’re going for the smoky, bold, dramatic look but when you don’t wear anything else except that…I was literally emo. I probably won’t ever do it again.
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Who are some other artists whose beauty looks inspire you?
Adele’s winged eyeliner, if we’re talking about that. Her liner is always on point! I also love Zella Day. I love her rock n’ roll whimsical fashion style.
What was your earliest memory of experimenting with beauty?
Probably at my dance recitals. There was a time where my mom was doing my makeup. And then I started to do it myself. She was always saying onstage the more the better because they can’t see your features if you don’t wear enough. Then I did my first tour and I was in Canada and it was my first stadium show and I wore red lipstick because I was like the more the merrier on stage. I was like if I wear red lipstick and tons of eye makeup I’m going to look great. So I did that…and then slowly throughout the show the lipstick just went everywhere because apparently I didn’t have lip stain, which is what I really needed. If you’re going to sing on stage, wear lip stain.