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Maddie Ziegler may be best known as the spellbinding young dancer in six of Sia’s music videos, but today the now-18-year-old, who has a role in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming West Side Story remake, is getting expressive above the neck and pulling back the curtain on everything from her secrets for a clean and clear complexion to how she achieves a bright and bold graphic eye. “Makeup shopping and skin-care shopping is my ultimate heaven.… That’s probably my favorite thing to do ever,” Ziegler says as she dives into her cosmetics arsenal, which includes Sonya Dakar’s exfoliating Flash Facial, SK-II’s cult Essence, and Weleda’s ultra-nourishing Skin Food, which she rubs over her visage, neck, and chest.
Having started competitive dancing at the age of four, Ziegler is no stranger to a full face of makeup. “I was already wearing false lashes, red lips, rhinestones, all of the above,” she recalls of her introduction to the world of beauty. Now, however, she embraces a more natural look, thanks in part to Sia, who asked that Ziegler wear as little makeup as possible in “Chandelier.” “I really owe it all to her, because now I feel like I’ve started to accept myself for the good and the bad,” she explains as she touches up her complexion with a hint of Koh Gen Do foundation and Nars’s creamy concealer.
And yet, that doesn’t mean that she has forsaken color cosmetics entirely. On the contrary, “I feel like my eyes are where I really play and go crazy just because it’s such a fun way to express myself,” Ziegler continues, dipping an angled brush in a shadow palette that she made in collaboration with Morphe. “I’m just going to go for it,” she continues of her freehanded approach, which, today, results in cat eye–inspired cerulean etchings. “I used to be so scared to play with color, but now that’s all I want to do because I’m like, ‘Why be boring when we can do something fun and it can make you feel happy?’” Consider it a valuable lesson in the art of mood-boosting makeup.
Below, shop Maddie Ziegler’s Beauty Secrets.
