“My vision for my look tonight is kind of a sneaky beat,” Mindy Kaling tells Vogue, using a play on words to denote that her makeup will be done to stealthy perfection. The occasion? Dinner with some of her girlfriends. “But I don’t want them to leave thinking: ‘Whoa, she was wearing a lot of makeup.’ More like: ‘Whoa, she has great skin.’” Here, she reveals her beauty secrets—from daily skin care to effortless-looking makeup.
The lauded actor, writer, and producer (among other titles) is quick to call herself an “adult with oily skin.” As such, the first step in her beauty routine is a healthy application of La Mer’s Oil-Absorbing Tonic. “It sucks out all the oil,” she marvels. That’s important, since Kaling gives top billing to immaculate skin. To treat her visage, the 44-year-old layers Lion Pose’s supercharged Unspotted 4x Dark Spot Serum beneath lightweight moisturizer and SPF. After Aquaphor’s moisturizing hand masks and a gentle face rolling session, Kaling is ready to sneak in some color.
As she dots Hourglass Brightening Vanish Airbrush Concealer under her eyes, the Never Have I Ever co-creator shouts out her makeup mentor. “My mom was an immigrant, and I think when she came to this country, she felt like people treated her better if she was more put-together,” Kaling says. “So makeup, being dressed-up was really empowering to her. She really instilled that in me.”
Kaling prioritizes products made by women of color, and never skips a dusting of Ami Colé’s Skin Melt Loose Powder. “I have such oily skin that [otherwise] I start getting shiny almost instantly,” she says. After smearing on a nude cream shadow, she tops it off with a touch of chocolatey Surratt Artistique Eyeshadow. Then, she steels herself for “the most stressful step” of her makeup routine: “I can’t tell you how many times I try to do a cat-eye that turns into a smoky eye because I messed it up,” Kaling admits.
That’s why she takes it slowly with Rare Beauty’s liquid liner, drawing it on one dash at a time. She’s in no rush with her mascara wand either: Kaling fastidiously applies 50 strokes of Ami Colé’s volumizing formula to both sets of lashes. “Steal that trick if you like it,” she encourages, before layering two shades of blush. Anastasia’s Tinted Lip Gloss in Sunbaked is “really good if you have brown skin,” Kaling says, smoothing on a lustrous lip. After some light contouring using Real Techniques’ Sculpt & Shape brush, she’s off to meet her dinner dates—but not before swearing us to secrecy about her “sneaky” glam. “Don’t tell my mom friends how much time it took,” she says.
