'Pitch Perfect 2' Star Brittany Snow on Hoarding Lipstick & Her Celeb Crushes
Singer and actress Brittany Snow (Photo: Instagram)
Brittany Snow is the kind of girl you imagine yourself being friends with, and interviewing her only confirms this fact. She hoards lipsticks, confesses to bad beauty days, holds “Bachelor” screenings with Anna Kendrick and her Pitch Perfect 2 costars, and namechecks Reese Witherspoon and Amy Adams as her celebrity role models. If you feel like you could hang with the actress, you’re not alone.
Yahoo Beauty: You always seem very comfortable in your own skin. Have you always been that way?
Brittany Snow: Oh gosh, well, thank you. I wish I was 100 percent confident in my own skin. It’s always a process, but getting older I’ve become more confident. I had really bad skin as a teenager, I have very, very dry skin so to hydrate my skin I used a lot of lotions and products and oils, and then I would break out really badly. So it was always a mission to try to figure out what worked for me, and that took getting older and also realizing what to eat and what supplements to take and vitamins. I am a big believer in all of that now, too, and it makes me feel better, inside and out.
YB: I believe in that, too. What do you eat and drink to make yourself look and feel better?
BS: I stay away from things that I know break me out—I am weirdly allergic to mango and almonds. I take evening primrose and supplements that have EFA fatty acids in them to just balance out my hormones and skin and I take a lot of vitamin C. I drink a lot of water, try to eat really organic, and try to eat things that benefit my skin. I am a terrible juicer—my friends drink these green juices and I love that stuff but I can’t do it. I have to take green pills and vitamins like that to get the same sort of nutrients.
YB: There is so much added pressure with social media to look a certain way. As someone who is in the spotlight and knows what that pressure is like, what is your advice to young women experiencing that?
BS: I heard Laura Dern say in an interview one time—and I thought it was really profound—“keep your eyes on your own paper.” She said her third grade teacher taught her that and it was her favorite piece of advice. I think it’s something that young girls forget. With Instagram and Twitter you’re constantly looking at other people and comparing yourself to them, and it’s just not beneficial. There is always going to be someone skinnier, or prettier, or with better skin, and that same girl you’re looking at is comparing herself to someone else. Everyone is on their own path, and I wish someone would have told me that as a teenager long ago. Everyone is different and everyone is unique and no one should be letting anyone else dictate their life.
YB: For sure. Are there any female role models in the industry you look up to?
BS: I have always loved Reese Witherspoon and Amy Adams as role models—I read all their interviews and agree with the fundamentals of how they manage the limelight and also how they look and carry themselves. A huge part of beauty is how you carry yourself and how you deal with certain situations. There’s such a class and grace that comes with how they handle themselves. I think that makes women beautiful when there is a confidence there without it being cocky.
YB: What do you do when you wake up and you are having a bad beauty day. Is there something you do or say to yourself to move past it?
BS: I wake up all the time and think I don’t look great. All the time. [Laughs] I think that’s normal, and the cool part of getting older and growing up is that there is another side of my head that is like, “Well, I am having a bad skin day and breaking out, but I have lots of other things going for me and it doesn’t have to be a huge deal.” And this sounds super cheesy, but I try to think about how I can be a better friend or a better mom to my dog or what I can do for boyfriend. I try to get myself out of my head of thinking that my appearance is going to dictate my day. I think that helps.
YB: I think that’s really smart. What have you learned about your skincare routine from working with Bioré?
BS: I have definitely learned the benefits of using products that have charcoal—actually I have been taking charcoal pills, sometimes. The One Minute Charcoal Mask ($7) is really great because it takes out all the impurities and reduces shine. Putting on a face mask is sometimes my favorite thing to do—it feels spalike. I’ve used Bioré Pore Strips ($7) since I was a teenager, so I know that they work and it’s been a trusted brand of mine that I can incorporate into my routine weekly.
YB: I think every teen loves those pore strips.
BS: Totally. Now I’m working on the #StripWithBiore Challenge. Girls can take a fun picture with the strip on, post it on Twitter or Instagram and tag three friends by March 31. Then you have a chance to win a trip to Los Angeles to host an event with me and walk the red carpet in support of the JED Foundation and my charity, Love is Louder.
YB: After wearing a lot of makeup when you’re working do you feel like you need to repair when you are off duty?
BS: Oh, definitely. There’s a lot of makeup that goes on when I am working, so I try to use as little as possible and I take off my makeup as soon as I am done working. My skin is so dry, so it is something that I have to keep up with.
YB: What are your other product go-tos?
BS: I’ve used Maybelline Great Lash ($6) ever since I started using mascara, so it’s always been my trusted thing. I love Benefit cosmetics a lot. They have always been good to me and have really fun packaging and great powder blush and lipsticks. Tarte makes great lipsticks, too. I collect lipsticks—I have every color you could ever imagine. I love Laura Mercier concealer—it’s the only thing that stays on my face. I feel like I would be really good at makeup if I wasn’t in acting.
YB: I have to talk to you about “Pitch Perfect 2.” What is it like to work with so many hilarious and talented women around you? Is it the best vibe?
BS: It really is. Everyone is so talented and everyone is hilarious in their own way, and I think that’s what really works about the movie and what really works with us as a group. We are so different and so unique when it comes to what we can do and it really adds to our quirkiness. It’s kind of like having sisters, especially now since we are really used to each other, and it’s just so much fun.
YB: Did you know when you were on-set that the first one was going to be such a huge hit?
BS: I knew from the script because I had laughed out loud so many times. As you read scripts its very rare that you laugh that hard when you are just reading it on the page .I had a gut feeling, but you never really know how people are going to receive it. And it such a great honor that people love it as much as they do.
YB: Do you all hang out when you’re filming?
BS: Oh yeah! We hang out all the time. [Anna] Kendrick, Kelley Jakle, Chrissie Fit and I have Bachelor Nights. We’re really into The Bachelor—it’s probably a pathetic thing, we know everything about it. We have pools and bets and I think Kendrick follows some of the Bachelor people. We have wine and cheese and yell at the screen and throw things and it’s pretty amazing.
Sounds like Brittany Snow is our kind of girl.
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