Suki Waterhouse Shares Her Must-Have Drugstore and Luxury Beauty Products

Plus, she discusses learning how to do eyeliner on YouTube and going viral on TikTok.

Suki Waterhouse has long since secured her position as a fashion It girl, and now she's also added touring musician and hit songwriter to her resume. But it wasn't overnight success or even her song "Good Looking" going viral on TikTok that earned her these titles. Rather, it was a lifelong love affair with songwriting and developing a unique voice that is sustaining her flourishing music career.

But she's also a beauty girlie, and over the years, she's cultivated a discerning list of makeup and skin-care favorites — from both drugstore and luxury brands. And lucky for us, she doesn't believe in gatekeeping them. As part of her partnership with "animal-free" ice cream brand Brave Robot, Waterhouse hopped on Zoom for an interview with Fashionista to discuss all things beauty and what it's like leaning deeper into her music career. Read on for the highlights of our chat.

You've worked as a model for some time — how has that experience informed your beauty routine?

I actually do think I've got quite a specific kind of thing that I like doing for day. But I actually realized recently being on tour with like no makeup artist around, you know, no hairstylist, like living on a bus...

You do your hair and makeup yourself?

Yeah, of course. It's like a completely different thing. I've found myself on the [tour] bus just being like, 'Oh my God, I don't know how to do good liquid eyeliner.' It's really a disaster. So I've been really turning to YouTube and looking up how to do eyeliner — I've gotten so much better. I've been using eyeliners that have like a liner on one side and then a white sort of stick liner on the other side. I'm a big fan of opening my eyes up like that.

What do you do to take care of yourself when you're on tour? Do you have any beauty routines to get stage-ready?

In summer it's just so sweaty and dry everywhere...[it] just causes a slight skin crisis. There's an amazing facialist I've been going to for years called Yvonne Martin in London. She's really passionate about teaching her clients how to cleanse and she has incredible facial massage techniques.

She put me on to the Environ Pre-Cleanse Oil. I do that first. And then I'm using Eminence Organics. There's a lemongrass cleanser. Just the smell is so gorgeous that it kind of doubles as a mood enhancer, too. I'm definitely into snail mucin, and then if I want treat myself, I've got the CurrentBody LED Light Mask, which is so good for just smoothing up my skin and really calming it.

And you bring of all those things on tour with you?

I do! And then also the Dr. Dennis Gross Peel Pads are incredible. The Charlotte Tilbury Take It All Off Makeup Remover I love. But my skin has really improved once I've started using an oil cleanser to get everything off and then a proper cleanser. It's all about the double cleanse. Oh, and I also love Biologique Recherche Collagene Serum.

I'm curious to know about your favorite 'high' and 'low' beauty products. I'm going to name a few categories and have you name your go-to luxury and drugstore picks for each. First up: mascara.

I think going drugstore is always Pixi. I just realized that they're in all the CVS [stores] now. I love their products, and that's my kind of day mascara. And then I just haven't found a luxury mascara better than MAC [Magic Extension], the full, crazy lash one that you can just keep putting on. And your lashes, like, nearly come out to your nose!

What about lipstick?

I think drugstore would be a light pale pink Burt's Bees [tinted lip balm]. I think it has wax in it and vitamin E, so it glides onto your lips. It's incredibly pillowy and soft and just the best drugstore thing.

Then for a more luxury one, I do love the Shiseido lipstick. It feels like it has the perfect kind of creamy texture.

Do you have a favorite concealer?

It Cosmetics is probably the best one. I remember discovering that at the drugstore [but] it seems to be in drugstores and boutique-y places. I really like RMS Beauty as well...they have a great concealer.

What about foundation?

I think Armani Luminous Silk is my [top] foundation, and then if I need to grab a foundation from the drugstore, I probably get L'Oréal True Match or something like that.

We touched upon eyeliner earlier, but what are your 'high' and 'low' favorites?

Probably Max Factor for drugstore eyeliner... I use a MAC brush-on one called 24 Hour Eyeliner that really doesn't come off. And then usually also use that with a Charlotte Tilbury soft brown pencil, which is great.

What about blush?

I love Milk Makeup. They do those soft, creamy blush things that I use on my cheeks and also on my lips — I like that just for ease. I also use Kevyn Aucoin for both bronzer and blush. I really like the pigments; [they're] just really strong and go onto the skin really well. I've also been using Westman Atelier.

What bout brow products? You have such great brows!

I don't really tweeze or anything, I just go to Striiike in LA.

I also want to ask a little about your music. You've always been really into it, but it seems like that part of your career is really taking off right now — especially when "Good Looking" blew up on TikTok. How do you feel about how that went viral?

It was the strangest thing — I wrote that song seven years ago. And, you know [life] works in such funny ways, because I always loved that song. So, yeah, that was a huge surprise. Like suddenly I was looking at my Spotify and I couldn't even figure out where it was coming from, the extra streams. And I didn't use TikTok that much. I'm not great at it, but now I've kind of fallen in love with it.

My jaw dropped when it got to number one. And it was an amazing thing because it kind of opened [me] up to a lot of people that had never heard of me in any way ever before, and kind of got them listening to other music and the new album. It was very cool. And, now I'm like a TikTok-loving gal.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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