Lili Reinhart Wants to Spread “Skin Positivity”
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Lili Reinhart wants to be at home. “I’m very much a recluse,” she says. Today, however, she’s in a photo studio at Condé Nast, the parent company of Allure, but that hasn’t stopped her from making the space feel as much like her living room as possible. We turn off the studio lights above us before she slips off her shoes and brings one of her knees up close to her. “I brought slippers,” she says, smiling.
Once Reinhart makes herself comfortable, we talk about everything from her “fresh” approach to beauty (which inspired her new skin-care line, Personal Day), to her dog, Milo (a rescue from Mexico), to her ASMR videos eating Crumbl cookies. (She loves ASMR, but jokes that she “can’t be known as a Crumbl influencer.”)
That’s not to say our conversation is all puppies and snickerdoodles. I ask Reinhart, an advocate for body and skin positivity, how she thinks beauty standards have changed since the beginning of her acting career. “It’s gone up and down,” she says. “In the early 2000s, you needed to be thin—there was no other choice,” she says. “Then we started getting a little bit body positive in the 2010s. You saw more plus-size models; it really felt like a movement. But now, we’re reverting to our old ways.”
She continues, “When you do see body positivity from brands, I feel like it’s a bit forced now. Like, ‘Oh, we need to throw someone in there to make it seem inclusive…’ They can't just exist. It's going to be an ever-ebb and flow, I think, which is unfortunate.”
The up and down has taken a toll on Reinhart, 28, who started her acting career at 14 and landed the role that put her on the map—Betty Cooper in Riverdale—in 2017. Last year, she took to X (formerly Twitter) to lament about the lack of “average-size” arms in mainstream media. “I had a little breakdown a year ago and I tweeted about it,” she says. “I was almost triggered at that time. I have OCD and body dysmorphia and I was really fixated on my arms. Everything on Instagram was these models and actresses with this particular body type over and over and over again and it was making me angry.” But she goes on to say what many of us often remind ourselves: “Instagram isn’t real. If you're comparing yourself to people on social media, you're comparing yourself to impossibility.”
Despite her feelings about social media, she does find pockets of kindness on TikTok, saying that she considers it the “most body positive” of the apps. “I see so many women rallying around each other, praising each others’ bodies,” she says. “The normalization of acne, especially what I've seen on TikTok, has helped me as well.”
Reinhart has struggled with acne since she was 12 years old, she says. “As an actor, but also just someone who was dealing with these breakouts in my 20s, I'm like, ‘Are people still breaking out? Am I the only one?’” She began posting about her breakouts and found support from her followers. “People really rallied around me and agreed and were like, ‘I'm also struggling.’ That helped me feel so much better.”
She hopes to continue to do the same for others with her new skin-care collection, Personal Day. The line launches today and includes five products: a cleansing powder, a resurfacing peel, a calming mask, a salicylic acid treatment, and a moisturizer. Dermatologist Mamina Turegano, MD, psychologist Courtney Tracy, and esthetician Sarah Ford helped with product development. “I created Personal Day for people with acne and acne-prone or sensitive skin,” Reinhart says. “They can use these products and not trigger a new breakout.”
But for Reinhart, it’s always been about more than just skin. “Acne and mental health go hand in hand,” she says. “Acne fully affects my mental health when I have a breakout.” Skin care has become a form of self-care for her and she sometimes shares her rituals with boyfriend, actor Jack Martin. “I handed Jack the Personal Day Full Clarity Cleanser in the shower last night. I was like, ‘Open that,’ because it has a little twist at the top and I wanted to see him figure it out and he did,” she says. “When I get lab samples of our products, I test them on him and my assistant—and of course, myself.”
Full Clarity Cleansing Powder
$24.00, Personal Day
Milo is the other major part of Reinhart's self-care. “He is also the light and love of my life,” she says. “I could be having the worst day of all time and I just look at him and things are better.”
More of Lili's favorite things
Oribe Superfine Strong Hair Spray
$46.00, Amazon
“Anytime [this hairspray] is in my general vicinity, I am thrown back into Riverdale world because that's what we used to keep the hair tight,” Reinhart says. “We [also] used a lot of those little Evian bottles. We would spritz it and then pat down my little flyaways… And sometimes, if we were trying to roll and the hair person wasn’t there, I’d use my own spit. People are always like, ‘Oh, that's crazy.’ I'm like, ‘It's my own spit on my head. I think it's fine.’”
Original Makeup Sponge
$20.00, Amazon
“I really love a Beautyblender because I do love to still see skin texture,” she says. “If you use rosewater with it, it helps keep the glow.”
Vaseline Original Healing Petroleum Jelly Unscented
$6.00, Walmart
Healing Ointment
$20.00, Amazon
“I use Vaseline or Aquaphor as an eye makeup remover. My mom always did that, so I copied her.”
Now, read more skin-care stories:
17 Winter Skin-Care Routine Essentials, According to Dermatologists
Hypochlorous Acid Is Stronger Than Your Average Bleach But Safe for Your Skin
Now, watch Alia Bhatt's Allure cover shoot.
Originally Appeared on Allure
