Madelaine Petsch on Her Beauty Secrets and Biggest Beauty Regret
The Riverdale actress divulges how she's different from her on-screen character.
Madelaine Petsch is known for playing badass mean-girl Cheryl Blossom on the hit CW show Riverdale. Both have a fiery presence and an undeniable confidence that rings through the room, but Petsch's aesthetic—from her makeup routine to how she styles her hair—is much more minimalistic.
“I truly love Cheryl’s bold makeup look, but I’m not very daring with my makeup in my personal life—I’m much more into the nude, natural vibe,” says Petsch, who explains that the difference actually helps her get into character. “As much as I would like to adopt her look, things like her bold lipstick have become such a Cheryl thing to me that when that’s on, that’s who I am.”
Even her hair (yes, those gorgeous waves!) is very low-maintenance: “My hair is really weird. Sometimes it will respond to a product perfectly and the next day it won’t like that product anymore. So, I have to constantly switch things up and trick my hair into not knowing what’s coming next,” she explains. “Other than that, I keep the style simple with my hair—honestly, I’ll usually just keep my hair in a bun the whole day.”
Her holy grail beauty products? The Conair Unbound Cordless Auto-Curler and Charlotte Tilbury Powder. “Unbound is something that I keep with me all the time because I’m constantly on-the-go. I just keep it charged and do it on the plane—it’s so easy. And the Charlotte Tilbury powder is something that I’ve been using for five years.”
Shop Madelaine’s favorite beauty products
She does have at least one big beauty regret, though. “I don’t think I make any glaring beauty mistakes now—thank the lord—but for a really long time I didn’t fill my eyebrows in, which was not cute on a redhead because I basically have none if I don’t,” Petsch says, cringing. “It looks like I have a really long forehead and no eyebrows. I look back on photos from when I was in high school, and I’m like, Please never see the light of day!”
It may be hard to imagine the Riverdale star without her thick, perfectly groomed brows, but her confession can serve as consolation to those of us with over-plucked brow phases and traumatic bob haircuts in our past.
In her YouTube makeup tutorials—which she makes in her free time—Petsch reveals that the Pacifica Stunning Brows Brow Gel in the shade Golden Brown is her brow savior. “As of late, I haven't been doing much to my eyebrows except for using this one product. If I was stranded on a desert island and I could only bring one product, this product would be it,” she says.
Here, exactly how to get perfect brows:
If you just want to change the color of your brows, use a tinted brow gel. Brush upwards at a 45-degree angle (not straight up in the air) to give your arches some color and keep them in place all day. Spoolie applicators are great for giving you more control over even the smallest rogue hairs.
If you're looking to fill in gaps and sparse areas, choose an ultra-thin pencil that allows you to draw small lines that mimic brow hairs. Use a light hand with feathered strokes to make the markings look more natural.
If you're looking to do more than shade in (think: completely reshaping), opt for a pencil with a triangular tip. Use the pointed tip to sketch the shape you want and the base of the triangle to fill it in completely.
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