As one of the most powerful women in Hollywood, you’d think Reese Witherspoon would have a professional makeup artist at arm's length at all times, ready to touch her up for book tour stops, Legally Blonde 3 production meetings, red carpets, and even casual at-home dinners with the family. And you know what? She does — it’s just not who you’d think it would be.
In an interview with People to discuss her newest charitable lipstick collab with Elizabeth Arden, Witherspoon revealed that in addition to her longtime makeup guru Molly Stern, it’s her 19 year-old daughter, Ava Phillippe, who serves as a de facto member of her glam squad, saying, “I learn a lot from my daughter [about makeup]."
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Ava’s training? Years of watching YouTube tutorials, according to her mom — and she's gotten crazy good. “Her understanding of how to apply it is so extensive ... She knew how to do a beautiful red carpet look by the time she was 17 years old,” Witherspoon told the publication.
Among Phillippe's specialties: correcting busted eyeshadow application and placing the perfect highlight. “If I have to do my makeup for a dinner or something, I’ll be like, ‘Ava, can you fix my eyeshadow? I can’t remember what goes in the crease,’ because she has this intense knowledge about how to shade. It’s crazy,” Witherspoon said. “She [also] taught me how to put highlighter on my brow bones and the top of my cheekbones.”
For her part, the actress, producer, and mother is doing her best to take notes. (A smart move considering her days with a live-in makeup artist may be numbered — 19 is about the age when kids start flying the coop, after all). Of the highlighting lesson, she admits, “I really liked the way it looked, so now it’s just become part of my makeup routine.”