Antonia Gentry's Beauty Staples Are Surprisingly Affordable

Gabrielle Ulubay

April 23, 2024 at 1:42 PM·11 min read

Collage of Antonia Gentry with makeup swatches.

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Welcome to Beauty Around the Clock, Marie Claire's weekly peek into the daily lives of some of the most game-changing men and women in their industries. Ever wonder how they get it all done in a day? Here's your answer.

Antonia Gentry is known for playing Virginia "Ginny" Miller on Ginny and Georgia, but her fame hasn't gone to her head. She's one of the most relatable people I've ever spoken to. Ironically, minutes into our interview, we bonded over our love for Soap Cherie, a small natural skincare boutique in a Williamsburg mall in New York. When I tell Gentry that I was there last weekend, she lights up. "I go in there all the time," she says. "My bath time is literally all Soap Cherie products."

The newly appointed Aveda Be Curly Advanced ambassador is so relatable. She lists her collection of tried-and-true products, most of which are surprisingly affordable. In fact, some of her all-time favorites are less than $20, proving that you don't need to spend a fortune to have great skin. Below, Gentry's hair, skin, and makeup tips—a routine so accessible that you probably own many already.

It's not much, it's not very intense. I wash my face with different cleansers, depending on what my face needs. I love Caudalie's face cleansers, and then I go in with La Roche-Posay if I need more of a real deep cleanse. And then I use Westman Atelier—they have this great serum that I use religiously. Then, I'll go in with really any moisturizer that's in my cabinet. Right now, I think I'm using a Caudalie moisturizer. And then I go in with either the Shiseido SPF 50 stick or, if it's the summertime, the La Roche SPF 100 full-blast sunscreen.

I'm a very lazy person. So with my curls, it's literally a middle part with my curls out, bouncy. When I do wear my hair curly, I use the Aveda Be Curly Advanced, the curl enhancing cream. It keeps my hair fluffy because I like it when my curls are very soft and shiny, and that is literally the only thing that I will use. I just walk around like this— my fingers are always crossed with my curly hair.

When I'm really on top of it, I like to draw a bath. Have tea, wine, and my Kindle. I'll have some sort of face mask on, like the Shiseido Retinol Face Mask. I'll have my hair up in some sort of deep conditioner. Usually—I know you're not supposed to leave this mask in for longer than a few minutes because you don't need to—I'll throw it on for 10 minutes. Then I just decompress and listen to some music. Once I'm done, I'll spend the rest of the day hanging out with my cat. I love those kinds of days, especially when it's rainy outside. That's when I'm like, "Today's the day to do this."

It depends. If I'm doing something for work, I'll wear a specific perfume. Last year, was a vanilla perfume from Tom Ford. Then this time around, it's an Armani perfume. If I'm feeling flirty, I'll do the Miss Dior perfume. But on a daily basis, I'm obsessed with the Black Opium scent from YSL. So good.

There's this great place in Brooklyn called Soap Cherie, and I'm obsessed with all of their bath stuff. I have their bath bombs. They have a bath milk powder that's amazing. Their bubble bath smells good. I love the lavender patchouli scent—it's so good.

On wash day, I'll go in with the Be Curly shampoo if I'm doing a full reset. If it's just something where I need a quick little pick me up, I'll co-wash. After I shampoo, I go in with the hair mask, which is amazing. It makes detangling so easy and makes my hair feel like butter. I leave that on for about three minutes in the shower and detangle. Then I go in with the Aveda primer, and then I use the curl enhancing cream, which is very lightweight. My hair is very fine, so I need something that doesn't weigh it down.

Then, depending on what mood I'm in, I will go in with the hair gel, probably for the curls on the back of my head, because my curl pattern is tighter back there. After that, I literally just diffuse for 20 or 30 minutes. It takes forever. I hate diffusing, but I do it.

For spot treatment, I love Kate Somerville—that pink stuff you put on your pimples—and anything from La Roche. La Roche has a great spot treatment cream. I also like those fun little overnight zit stickers.

I have this infrared LED light mask Therabody. I'm not very good at remembering to use it, but I really should because it's expensive. But when I do remember, I can really feel the difference in my skin. My cats are scared of it though. When I put it on my head and my face is red, they freak out. But that's probably the most expensive item I have.

You can't go wrong with a Neutrogena makeup remover wipe. Neutrogena forever. And for body lotion, I love Aveeno. I have dry skin and it's the only lotion that actually works for me. Also, a good L'Oréal mascara never goes wrong.

When I remember to schedule things before events, I love going to Tracie Martyn in Midtown. I do their Red Carpet Facial, and it's the best. They do this thing called microcurrent on your face, which I guess electrocutes your face or something. I don't know what it does, actually, but it feels great. And my skin is amazing for a couple of weeks after.

Mascara and brow gel, but that's basically what I do anyway. And my eyelashes and eyebrows have to be done.

discontinued product you would bring back

Discontinued, geez, what's discontinued anymore? You know what, I don't know if this is even a thing, but I miss Lip Smackers. Is that a thing still? It probably still is, but it was super popular when I was young and they had different flavors. Not that you eat the chapstick, but they were yummy. I love a good tinted, delicious-smelling chapstick, and Lip Smackers was the bomb.

Wearing sunscreen, which probably is number one.

This isn't something that's very technical and is more of a mindset thing, but also the idea of aging [positivity]. I think a lot of us are very afraid of aging, but the beauty in aging is the experience of life. And so I think the best advice is to remember that to age is to have lived—that is very, very important. There's nothing more beautiful than that.

craziest beauty treatment you ever received

I have tried electrolysis on my underarms because it's actual permanent hair removal, but it's where they take that needle and they stick it in your hair follicle and then electrocute it or something. It hurts so bad, the worst pain ever, so now I just get laser. Other than electrolysis, I don't do a lot of crazy things because I am a very fearful person. I'm like, "I'm going to be that one person whose life is ruined from trying this."

When I was 12 years old I got my eyebrows waxed for the first time, and they were too far apart, very, very thin, and hard to grow out. That was the style, but I would never do that ever again in my life, ever.

It really depends on the mood. If I'm trying to relax, I'll listen to some jazz. But on the daily, I have all kinds of things. I have Blondie, or lately it's been Kali Uchis. Just anything that is the vibe that I'm trying to feel.

Eyeliner. I can't do it, I just can't. It takes me 45 minutes to even get them similarly straight. And I don't understand the shape of my eye. I don't understand anything about it. I'm in my twenties and I've never mastered it, so I just don't think I will. And that's okay. It's fine. I'll just do a bold lip and call it a day.

I get the opportunity to work with amazing hair and makeup artists, so I turn to them for any sort of advice on what to do, because this is what they do for a living and they're passionate about it. The overarching theme with many of them is just to embrace your face, and that your flaws are what make you unique.

I know the slicked back bun has been super popular recently, and I was obsessed with doing that. But experts from Aveda told me that it's actually super bad to keep your hair in a slicked back bun all the time because it can break off, and it's just not good to have all of that tension. So this is a trend that I regretfully have to stop doing so much, but it looks great. Everyone looks great in a slicked back bun. But the stylists were like, "You can't be doing this every day," so, I'm like "Yeah, okay, fine."

I will usually go in with a retinol. I have three different ones in my bathroom, and I don't really know the difference between all of them, but I like the Shiseido. They have under eye retinol masks that I love. So I'll go in with that and then I'll throw on my infrared light mask and call it a day. So I don't know. With all of this, I'm usually like, "Yeah, fingers crossed that I don't break out." I don't like putting a lot of products on my face.