I have to squint to see her properly through the tiny Zoom box on my computer screen, but I can tell right away that Sadie Sink isn’t all that different from Max Mayfield, the Stranger Things character we’ve come to know and love the actor for. Max is certainly more rough-and-tumble, but at their cores, they both seem warm and entirely saccharine.
As Sink tells me herself, she and the character share more than just personality and a physical appearance – their laid-back tastes in the beauty department are rather similar, too. “I draw a lot of inspiration and confidence from Max because she doesn’t really wear any makeup for the show, so in my day-to-day, life I’ll typically go for a more minimalist approach,” she says. “But I’m also not afraid to experiment with it and have fun, especially for red carpets or photo shoots.”
I can see exactly what she means by the makeup she’s wearing during our interview: a seemingly light base, fluffy yet well-groomed eyebrows, a touch of mascara, and a bold matte red lipstick. This, she tells me, is more or less her everyday beauty look. “I usually don’t put any foundation on my skin, just some SPF and I’ll call it a day,” she says. And when she’s not leaving her skin bare, she reaches for a product with light coverage and skin-care benefits. “I been playing around with tinted face oils or skin tints, something that’s really light… to let a little bit of color show through and especially let my freckles show through. That’s really important for me rather than going for a full-coverage makeup look.” She can’t remember her specific go-tos when asked, but Ilia and Kosas make our favorite iterations of these products.
The rest of her makeup routine from there is pretty hands-off. “I’ll brush out my brows and if I’m feeling bold, I’ll do a nice lip color,” she explains. “I usually keep my eyes clean; it’s super simple.” As far as lipstick goes, Sink doesn’t subscribe to the belief that some colors aren’t suitable for redheads. “I think growing up, one of the things I heard was that red hair doesn’t look good with pink, but pink is one of my favorite colors to wear,” she laughs. Her go-to pink right now is Givenchy’s Le Rouge Deep Velvet in 25 Fuschia Vibrant, but when she’s feeling even more bold, like on the day of our interview, she’ll opt for 37 Rouge Graine, a high-impact garnet red.