Maddie Ziegler on How She Creates an Entire Glam Makeup Look in Under 5 Minutes

Say hello to Unfiltered, a fresh, new beauty series where you’ll get an exclusive glimpse into the dressed-down beauty routines of our favorite celebrities. They’ll reveal their guilty-pleasure beauty practices, the five-minute-routine product lineup they can’t live without, the one good-skin tip they’ll be forever thankful for, and so much more. To bring every conversation full circle, we ask each celebrity to send us a selection of self-shot, filter-free photos of their choosing to capture the essence of their Unfiltered beauty philosophy. 

Up next, we're getting to know actress and dancer Maddie Ziegler, who just dropped a new collection of makeup with Morphe and recently wrapped filming on a new movie, Bloody Hell. She's answering all our rapid-fire beauty questions about her five-minute beauty staples, go-to fall fragrance, and secret beauty-related superpower. Enjoy!

If you had to leave the house in five minutes, what are a few staple beauty products you'd apply or bring with you?

Oh, definitely sunscreen, always! That's number one. I can't leave the house without it. I would also say a brow product, whether that's a brow gel or my brow pen from my collection. Either one of those just gets me right in the brow department. Then definitely a lip balm. Those are my three go-to things.

Do you have a favorite sunscreen?

Definitely the Elta MD. I have acne-prone skin that's very sensitive to a lot of things and that's like the only one that doesn't break me out. I love the tinted version as well.

Do you have any favorite lip balms?

My favorite is Hailey's [Bieber] lip balm! The Rhode one—specifically the Salted Caramel Peptide Lip Treatment. I'm wearing right now. It's my favorite. It's the only lip hydrator that actually keeps my lips hydrated, and it's very long-lasting.

Can you walk me through your morning and evening skincare routines?

I definitely use heavier products at night, but in the morning, I wash my face. Recently, I've been using Rhode, so I'll do the Peptide Glazing Fluid next. I'll use that, and then I use her Barrier Restore Cream Moisturizer. Then I'll finish that with my EltaMD sunscreen and my lip balm. Sometimes I'll do the Caudalie spray too. I literally spray that on my face so many times throughout the day. Then for nighttime, it's basically that routine without the sunscreen, but I also like to add in an exfoliating toner after I've washed my face. I don't do this every day, but definitely once or twice a week. I'll use the Lotion P50 from Biologique Recherche.

What would you say the rest of your everyday makeup routine looks like?

It's weird, I always joke about how I wore so much more makeup when I was younger than I do now. Now, I just prefer a more natural [look]. I think we're all very lucky that what's in right now is very natural skin and natural makeup. It works in our favor that it's on-trend. I like to do the tinted sunscreen so that I have sort of an even base. The Kosas concealer is literally my favorite—I'm obsessed. I also love the Tower 28 cream blushes and the Chanel cream bronzer.

I'm obsessed with using [the brow pen] right now from my collection because it's like a multi-use product. I'll use it for my brows just to fill in the sparse areas. You know when you're doing your makeup, and concealer covers natural beauty marks? I like to go over the beauty marks and redefine them so they're not lost. Then I sometimes like to add a few freckles. I always think that looks really cute—I'll do it very minimally. Recently I've also been into just curling my lashes and not putting mascara on. I don't know why, but like it! Lastly, I'm absolutely obsessed with lip liner. I can't go without it. I have one in every purse everywhere I travel. It's just so good.

Let's talk about your new collection with Morphe, Changement! What inspired the collection, and how did it all come together?

It started with me talking about how I've evolved so much since we did my first collection with Morphe. I was like, "Yeah, I'm growing up so much. My style is changing, and I'm evolving." For some reason, it just made me think of changement, which is literally a dance term that translates to change. I thought it was a clever play on my dance background but also exactly what we've created for this collection, which is evolving. Like the weather, it's always changing [and] it's always up and down. It's always evolving, and it changes seasons, so I brought that into it as well because I wanted to kind of play off that. I thought that it would be a really fun concept for the photo shoot and all of the images behind the products because I thought we could do something fun and water-like. The names [of the products] and the palette are all based on like growing, changing, and evolving. There are also some plays on weather terms as well like "Tornado, Hurricane—stuff like that.

Do you have any favorite looks that you like to create using the collection?

I'm so obsessed with these colors just because it's not initially what we we were going for. Initially, we were going to do all pastels, and we weren't getting the formulas right—I wasn't feeling it. Then, I found this deep-blue shade, which I now call Downpour. It's my favorite shade in the palette, and I was like, "This is everything—I need this!" So then we decided to just play off that and started doing deeper tones, which I think works really well now we're transitioning into fall. I just love the direction we went in. What I love most about it is that there's a shade called Reflex, which is literally the first shade in the palette, and on its own, it's really beautiful, but you can also layer it, which we've shown in all of the campaign photos. If you layer it over the shade Downpour, it changes the reflex of it and it creates this new beautiful shade that's very two-toned. I love it so much, and I was very proud of that.

That's a really cool concept for the palette. It almost reminded me of Pat McGrath eye shadows when I saw the shades. Her eye shadows are stunning! What about everyday eye looks? Do you have any favorites you like creating with the palette?

She was definitely the inspo! Now (like I was telling you), I love natural looks—those are my go to. With this palette, I wanted to do both [natural and glamorous shades] because I'm never in the middle. I'm either doing a crazy blue [look] with a graphic eye or I'm just keeping it natural. There are a few really beautiful transition shades that look so nice on every skin tone—they're just gorgeous shades. I'll usually take the transition shades, and I'll just run those through my crease. There's also a really beautiful beige shade, which I love. That's kind of my go-to right now just because it adds dimension, and it adds life to the face, but it's not overpowering. There are some shades in the palette—like that really, really beautiful red color—I'll sometimes put on my cheeks, and it looks really nice. I prefer to do that.

I love using eye shadow as blush! It's so nice when the shades work so perfectly for both.

I agree! You can make it a cohesive look and can bring it into your eye shadow, too. It looks really nice.

If you had to choose one item from the collection to use for the rest of your life, what would it be?

I would choose the palette because you can do everything with it. Like I was saying, you can contour, you can do blush—you could honestly also use it on your lips, and your eyebrows, too. So I would definitely say that.

Is there anything about your beauty or makeup routine that might surprise people?

I don't know if this is necessarily the best answer, but I do my makeup so fast. I will be ready before anyone else! I'll just do my makeup in like three minutes. Sometimes if I'm really lazy and I have to leave in five minutes, I wait until those last five minutes to get fully ready because I know how to do it and get out the door. I feel like it's fun because I love playing with makeup, but when it comes down to my actual routine, I just slap it on and go.

I would definitely call that a superpower. Switching gears here a bit—let's talk about perfume! I know that you're an ambassador for Kate Spade fragrances. Do you have a favorite Kate Spade scent that you like to wear for fall?

Sparkle! I think it's so nice, and I'm very specific about my fragrances. It's such a beautiful floral, fruity scent, and it complements a lot of things really well.

Are there any other makeup items or skincare items that you just absolutely have to have for fall?

I think anything that's hydrating because I tend to have combination skin that will get really dry depending on the weather. I will not have that! Any sort of exfoliant like Lotion P50. Or I really like the Sonya Dakar Blue Butterfly Balm. It's seriously the most hydrating product—it's made out of a natural tea, I believe, and it's beautiful. I will lather my whole face and neck in that.

Do you have any other exciting projects in the works that you can share with us?

Yeah, I actually just wrapped a movie called Bloody Hell, which was so amazing. It was my first leading role, and it was seriously the most incredible experience. I worked with Emily Hampshire, who played my mom, and Molly McGlynn, who wrote and directed it. It's based on parts of her life. She was diagnosed with MRKH, which is a reproductive disorder, when she was 16, so I'm playing that version of her when she was 16. I'm so excited to bring awareness to that because I don't think it's talked about enough. It was honestly such a learning experience, and to be surrounded by so many incredible women along the way was so inspiring.

And my last question is what is your unfiltered beauty philosophy in seven words or fewer? 

Your flaws are what make you beautiful.

Shop Maddie Ziegler's Unfiltered Beauty Edit

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