Reese Witherspoon’s daughter Ava Phillippe, 19, graduated from high school last summer and is currently at Stanford University studying English Literature. We’ve seen her on the red carpet with her mom looking glamorous and poised. It turns out that she’s an expert at makeup, like so many other teen girls. Reese told People Magazine that she often gets Ava to do her makeup for events and that by the age of 17 Ava knew how to do a perfect look. Reese has a new collaboration with Elizabeth Arden and that’s why she’s talking about makeup.
“I learn a lot from my daughter [about makeup],” says Witherspoon, revealing that Ava honed her skills by watching YouTube tutorials. “Her understanding of how to apply it is so extensive.”
Witherspoon… adds that Ava’s application techniques are especially solid when it comes to eyeshadow and highlighter.
“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.”
“She [also] taught me how to put highlighter on my brow bones and the top of my cheekbones. I really liked the way it looked, so now it’s just become part of my makeup routine.”
Witherspoon says her look-a-like daughter has been a pro of sorts for a couple of years. “She knew how to do a beautiful red carpet look by the time she was 17 years old.”
I have a friend who doesn’t wear makeup and who has talked about it like women who can’t go out without it are insecure. (Not Kaiser!) She has a teenaged daughter who is always perfectly made up to the point where you want to ask her for tips. I know several friends who have teenage daughters who look amazing like that and they learned it on YouTube. I’ve watched those same videos, I’ve read makeup addiction, I have the high end products and I can’t quite get it. I look much better with makeup and don’t go out without it, but I’m only 80% of the way there and need to improve. I have contouring sort-of right, but getting my eyeshadow blended and getting my eyebrows right is hard! (I’ve bought Anastasia dip brow and watched tutorials but I end up using powdered eyebrow filler as I can’t get the gel to look right.) Highlighting is easy for me though. I have liquid highlighter and just put a little line on my cheekbones and to the right side of my eyes.
I also want to perfect the no-makeup look. She’s wearing makeup it just looks so fresh and natural!
Photos credit: WENN
I find makeup hard. I have a basic look that I can do – two basic colors on my eyes, eyeliner, mascara, concealer, Complexion Rescue (I adore that stuff), and some basic contouring, but I cant really do anything more than those basics. I use the same colors and stuff every time because I know how those work and how they look on me. I feel like I very quickly go from minimal makeup to WAY too heavy, and I cant always get that line right.
I’m terrible at make up and have basically had the same routine for 2 decades. I’ll probably just keep it until my almost 13 year old daughter can teach me how to do it better 🙂
LOL LT! I am 34 and have a pretty set way I do my makeup because I’m not that skilled. My daughter is 3 and I look forward to when my little fashionista can fix my makeup! She’s way more stylish than I ever was.
I suck at it so bad. The only thing I can do is put my bb cream, some blush and lipstick (even red one is tricky). I tried to put the eyeliner – I looked like a crazy racoon after 5 minutes and took me 10 to put it on. My friend was like: “come here, can’t go out like that, you look like my 4yo did your make up.” I should take a class or something but I never remember to invest in that.
I can’t do it either. Like CB, I have all the “right” products, I’ve watched the YouTube tutorials, but it just doesn’t quite come out. I think it still looks totally acceptable (and I’m so thankful I don’t work in an industry where looking impeccable is important) but it’s just a bit off.
I’ve always liked very simple makeup, so the advanced stuff is beyond me. I’ve been a slave to Chanel’s Vitalumiere Aqua since it was released; that, a little bit of liquid liner, mascara, and Fresh lip balm and I am good to go. I personally feel we’ve gone overboard with makeup, and people are going to look back on the mega-heavy IG brows, highlight, and contour and cringe like folks from the 80s do over their aquanet hair.
That’s pretty close to my routine although I save the eyeliner for evening if I go out.
I tend to agree that people are overdoing it these days. I had gotten used to seeing my son’s girlfriend with makeup and one day she came over without any and I was struck by how much fresher and younger and, frankly, prettier she looked without it.
I’m so so bad at makeup. I had a job where I had to be really “done” for a few years (because we were projecting a very high end, corporate look) and I struggled! I learnt enough to look nice but I am pretty crap overall.
my stepdaughter used to do my makeup too. and she learned it from YouTube tutorials too! she’s much better at it than I am, I’ve become decent but I’m probably only about like 60% there.
They used to look like twins and now Ava looks very much like her own person. She’s so grown!
Yes, and quite lovely. I wish I liked her mum more, but I find I just can’t.
To me she has always and especially now looks so much like her dad
Ava is the double of Ryan – she’s a cute kid.
Ava is the most perfect blended combo of mum and dad Ive ever seen. She looks exactly like him and exactly like her, seemingly simultaneously!
IKR!
yes I totally agree!
It’s so interesting how your features change from childhood to adulthood. Ava used to be Reese’s twin and now she is basically Ryan’s double.
I was just thinking this. I have always seen her as mini-Reese, and now she’s looking just like her dad.
I’ve always seen her as mini-Ryan, and it’s only recently that I’ve seen the Reese coming out in her! She must be the perfect blend (although I still see more Ryan).
Yeah she really does look like her dad right now. She seems like a good kid, I’ll be curious to see if she goes into the business or has other dreams.
I’m impressed by those with good makeup skills and have watched some amazing transformation videos, but I don’t have the time or patience for a big makeup routine. I’ll throw a little eye makeup on if I’m going somewhere, but half the time I don’t even bother for work.
I’ve always seen a mini-Ryan, too, Amy Tennant. In the fresh-faced photo in particular, she’s the spitting image of Ryan.
Celebitchy, I use a product called Queen of the Fill for my eyebrows. It’s like mascara but for your eyebrows. I got it through an ipsy bag a few years ago and now I buy it on Amazon. The stuff is great!
I love that product too. So easy and natural looking.
I’m just a little bit too old to have learned about make-up from YouTube, so I already had several years of raccoon eyeliner under my belt before I started watching them and got good. I feel like it’s so easy to get wrong though.
Celebitchy, some tips:
1. Brows: fill them in with a pencil before moving on to powder and gels. It’s easier and you can work your way up from there.
2. Eye shadow: know the difference between your eyelids, and different type of brushes. What I like to do for a no-makeup makeup look is, I use one colour for both my eyelids. I pack my eyelid with whichever colour I like and then I blend it towards my upper lid with a clean blending brush. It blurs the lines and makes it look seamless. Blend from the outside to the inside of the lid, in small circular movements. Apply mascara and you’re done!
I wasn’t allowed to wear makeup until I was maybe 15 years old. I think kids in general are allowed to wear it younger and so they watch YouTube videos and experiment. I may have enjoyed that when I was younger but now I just want to get my makeup off at the end of the day. Wish I had spent more time when I was younger practicing.
Ava is a doll. She’s exactly my daughter’s age.
Ava’s makeup is really lovely! I’m a lifelong products fiend. Recently I bought a Mally Beauty kit, and her stuff is really good! The primer is so good you can skip foundation if you want a lighter look, more like a really good BB cream.
And the kit also contained highlighter and contour sticks, so at age 62 I’m learning new techniques. Thank goodness for Youtube!
She is not at Stanford-she’s at UC Berkeley. Reese went to Stanford-although she didn’t graduate.
I’m in my thirties and I didn’t start wearing a full face of makeup until about two and a half years ago. And I learned most of what I know from watching YouTube tutorials. Now all of my friends and coworkers come to me for tips.
Ahh, the privilege of non-hooded eyes. All the pretty eyeshadow tricks in the world at your fingertips. Unless I’m going to a major event, it’s just a wash of color of a two-tone blended eye for me. There isn’t much space to do otherwise. I’ll do winged eyeliner as A Look, but i don’t have the space to the mega cat-eye look I’ve always loved.
Man, does she take after her mother, though. Should they ever need a stand in for a younger version of a Reese Witherspoon character, there she is, ready made.
I feel ya. Once I realised It wasn’t worth even putting eyeshadow or liquid liner on my eyes I just stopped – Mascara only for me!
(I use li-lash serum btw and it’s amazing for making your lashes super long & healthy!)
No, there’s TONNES of space to do otherwise! Google “monolid makeup”. The techniques for creating really gorgeous eyemakeup looks on monolid eyes work well for hooded eyes too. Vertical colour changes, floating winged liner, how to translate “apply shadow to the crease” when you have no crease…. It’s super fun especially since the more dramatic looks are only obvious when you blink. Crazy colours and glitter are only visible for teeny little peeks at a time so you never look like you have too much eyeshadow on even if you’ve packed on five colours!
I want to give some props to Ava for going to college and exploring more interests than becoming a nepotism model, shilling products on IG with a plastic face. How refreshing.
Yep, don’t really care about makeup but happy to hear that she’s in college not pretending to be a struggling actor/model. Props.
I can’t help but cringe any time I see her referred to as Reese’s “look-alike”. All I see is Ryan when I look at her. Ryan in a cute young lady’s body.He’s gorgeous, so no shame in that! But I don’t see Reese at all.
It’s more in the angles, IMO. She was a dead-ringer for mom a few years back but has grown out more into a blend of their features, and she’s got more of the fullness of youth still in her features. Her expressions are all Reese to me, though.
Same, elimaeby. She’s been Ryan’s double since she was a tot. I’ve never thought she was a dead-ringer for her mother.
I am terrible at applying anything other than “basic” makeup…if I’m going somewhere special my 19yr old has to help me, lol.
They are so great together. I hope someday my daughter fixes my makeup cause I’m terrible at applying it.
I like makeup but I never had access, being ferally raised by a sociopathic male who excised my mother from my life, so I rarely wear it in public, only twice in the last 10 years, both for funerals. I have started trying to use cat-eye stamp eyeliner but my lids are oily and I need something for my waterline.
I love Ava’s “no makeup” look and if I was brave enough to venture into Sephora, that and Angelina’s September 2017 People magazine cover are what I would want the gurus there to sell to me. I am just intimidated by the store and the expertise I don’t have.
Luckily, I have a tween daughter, so maybe she can teach me the ways!