Lili Reinhart Knows You're Sick of Celeb Beauty Brands—Here's Why She Wants You to Trust Hers

Say hello to Unfiltered, a fresh beauty series where you'll get an exclusive glimpse into the dressed-down beauty routines of our favorite celebrities and content creators. They'll reveal their guilty-pleasure beauty practices, the five-minute-routine product lineup they can't live without, the one good-skin tip they'll be forever thankful for, and so much more. To bring every conversation full circle, we ask each celebrity to send us a selection of self-shot, filter-free photos of their choosing to capture the essence of their Unfiltered beauty philosophy.

Up next, we're getting to know Lili Reinhart, founder of the new acne-focused, mental health-supporting skincare brand, Personal Day. Below, she's opening up about her acne journey, answering all of our burning beauty questions, and sharing her favorite products, best-kept self-confidence tips, and more. Enjoy!

Can you tell me how your skincare brand, Personal Day, came to be?

The brand was an idea three years ago. It was kind of just put out there by my agency. "Would you ever want to have a brand? What would that brand look like?" It was a "maybe" conversation. There was a little bit of exploring a couple of different ideas. We landed on a skincare line, but there wasn’t really any kind of purpose or gusto behind it. It was just kind of like, "Yeah, I’ve had acne. Let’s create an acne line." That’s why for the first year that it was in development, it didn’t really go anywhere. The right people weren’t involved. The project kind of fizzled out for me because the passion wasn’t there.

I’ve had acne since I was 12, but I recently had to go on Accutane twice. When I went on it the first time, my acne came back with a vengeance. I went on it again. It just seemed like nothing was working for my skin and it was kind of a lost cause.

I met an esthetician in L.A., Sarah Ford, who’s now on our board of advisors for Personal Day. I started working with her, and she was like, "Are you checking your skincare ingredients?" And I said no because I didn’t think I had to. I guess I assumed skincare was trustworthy, but boy, was I wrong. I started looking up all the ingredients in my skincare and realized that so much of what I was using had acne-triggering ingredients. That was blowing my mind. I cut out all of the products that I was consistently using that had fungal acne triggers and pore-clogging ingredients. My skin started to improve. It made me think, I need to create a line of acne-care products that do not have any acne-triggering ingredients and that people can trust. They know when they try it, it will not break them out.

The presumption is that skincare that is marketed as acne-safe is going to help. With Personal Day, it’s like you’re taking out the barrier of research and trial and error.

For sure. I know I’ve been scared to put things on my skin. Now, I’m kind of a freak about it. When someone does my makeup, I prep my skin on my own. I don’t let people use random primers on me. I’ve sat in a makeup chair and been like, "Hold on," and Googled the ingredients in a skincare product before they put it on my face because when my skin breaks out, it severely affects my mental health. Every precaution I can take to make sure what I’m putting on my face won’t create or exacerbate a problem, that’s of the utmost importance to me.

So, yeah, that was the gusto I needed to pursue making a brand. I understand the questions and eyebrows that are raised when a quote-unquote celebrity comes out with a skincare line. I totally understand the suspicion. People assume, "Oh, this is a brand deal. This is a money grab." It’s like, no, I genuinely created the brand because I needed a brand that I could trust completely, and I felt like there wasn’t one on the market.

I’ve been talking about my acne publicly for eight or nine years. Seeing the response I get every time I post about it… the camaraderie of people saying, "I'm having this experience. Thank you for sharing yours." I've only ever felt encouragement when I opened up about my acne journey. To think that I could also create products that others could find effective and trust was so special. That’s really what appealed to me overall.

Speaking of the quote-unquote celebrity beauty brands, I think there’s an authenticity meter. People can tell when something is genuine, and in your case, born of personal experience.

Absolutely. I was never going to create a brand or just smack my face on something that had no relevance. I think there are a lot of brands that exist where people go, "I don’t understand the correlation between the person and the product." If you could think of a brand for Lily Reinhart, it would be an acne-care brand that supports mental health—that is the most "me" brand that I could think of, so to actually be doing it is sort of incredible. I'm so lucky that things came together. It's very exciting. Something was a concept a couple of years ago, and now it's an actual thing with results that people are so stoked about. And it's changing people's skin, and it's absolutely changed my own skin.

Every time I use my own products, I smile a bit to myself, because I think, Wow, I helped create this thing that I myself am using, and am seeing great results from. I feel so confident and happy when I share that with the people around me, like when I share it with my boyfriend, my assistant, and my friends. I'm like, "Try this. Be a test dummy with me on these lab samples, and let's see which ones we like best, and which ones help our skin." So I've been very all hands on deck every step.

I think when people are struggling with acne, you're kind of cherry-picking products from a variety of brands that might or may not work for you. You might hear about this awesome cleanser from one brand that worked for someone else. So you try that, but you're using a serum from another, and so on and so forth.

You're exactly right, and I feel like that's why people have 25-step skincare routines because you're not getting what you need all in one line or all in one product. And it's frustrating. I don't want 13,000 products on my bathroom counter. It stresses me the fuck out. I have OCD, you know, like I'm a Virgo with OCD, and I get overwhelmed. I get stressed. I need to simplify. The thing that really differentiates Personal Day from other brands is the fact that it is acne care, but it is also skincare. We have ingredients in our skincare that are for the long-term health of your skin. So it's not only treating and preventing acne, it is absolutely keeping your skin healthier in the long term. So people without acne, like my CEO who doesn't necessarily have acne per se, use the skincare line every day. Her skin has seen a noticeable difference because of the ingredients we have in there. So hopefully, you can rely on Personal Day for your skin's all-around needs—not just acne.

Historically, people have had to choose, right? You can choose that powerful acne cleanser and you use it until your acne is gone. After that, it's drying, it's harsh, it's actually doing more harm than good. How did you develop Personal Day in this way, to be both acne-care and long-term skincare? Were there any challenges along the way?

Our formulas have acne treatment ingredients, but we wanted them to have skincare-level ingredients too. It's adding niacinamide, squalene, and hyaluronic acid. On top of that, you have these actives like azelaic and salicylic acids. We're the only acne care brand with this new acid, called mevalonic acid. It basically repairs your skin on a molecular level. We have exclusivity of that in the acne care space, which is super exciting for us. We have that in two of our products—our moisturizer and one of our masks.

We wanted the brand to be inclusive. You don't just use it when you're breaking out. You use it afterward to help prevent breakouts. You use it because it's not drying. Sometimes, breakouts come from skin barriers being damaged, and when you have acne and you're using actives, your skin can get really dried out, which is why we created our hydrating mask. It's so lovely. When you are breaking out, it is still very important to keep your skin hydrated. We created this really nice mask. It has a really pretty green color to it, and it's packed with super hydrating ingredients.

What were some of the biggest lessons or learning curves?

I had no idea the massive undertaking it would be and how long the process would be, although it wouldn't have deterred me. If you told me, "Hey, this is going take three years to get it right," I would have said, "Okay, then let's do it." But being three years later, and now it's an actual thing, and I hold the products, and I have the products on my bathroom counter, I'm like, "Oh, shit, this is me. This is my brand." I had no idea it would actually come to fruition.

I learned that I could be a founder and I could help create something that can help people. I love to talk about mental health. I love to talk about and share my acne experiences and my feelings about body positivity, like my body dysmorphia. I'm an open book, but to actually create something to help people is taking it one step further, and I think that just learning that I'm in the position and able to do that, I feel so grateful and lucky for everything that has led up to this.

I can create a skincare brand, but I can also create an effective one. I understand the suspicions around celebrity brands. I get it, but the connection for me is so real, and the proof is in the pudding. I hope that people can see that I've always really tried to be authentic with my fans, and I hope that they see this as an authentic piece of myself and a piece of my heart that I've put into this, so they can walk away trusting it.

It's easy to think of acne as only skin deep. It's a skin condition, sure, but it can do a number on confidence, mental health, on everything. Can you share a little bit about your personal experience? I know you've been very vocal about your acne struggles in the past.

Yeah, it's rough. I have a very, very rough time when my skin is bad even going outside. I've been in the industry since I was 12, but I’ve been dealing with acne mostly in the last 10 years. Dealing with acne while filming or being on a photo shoot or doing press… You can't hide. People are staring at your face. I think there is such a feeling of shame around acne because for so long since magazines were invented, they showed women and men with clear, beautiful skin. Anything other than that was supposedly shameful and wrong and dirty. I think there's also this kind of gross misconception that having acne makes you dirty. Like, I can't have that "clean girl" aesthetic if my skin is bad. That's how I felt for a really long time. And I still very much have good days and bad days. If I'm feeling more depressed in a period of my life, then, yeah, a breakout is enough to absolutely ruin my day. I don't want to leave the house. I don't even want to be on a Zoom call, or I’m on a Zoom call with a spot treatment on my pimple or a pimple patch on. When I am feeling more confident, it's easier to kind of push that aside. But I still wear baseball hats when I break out on my forehead.

I've shown up to set and gotten a cortisol shot in a big pimple to make the inflammation go down, which I don't suggest doing, because it created a dent in my skin, which I had to get microneedled and fixed. Unless it's your wedding day and you need to really settle that shit down fast, I suggest staying away from it because it can create divots that you have to spend 1000s of dollars fixing with other treatments.

I love when people are vocal about mental health. I myself have anxiety. I feel like the conversation is always about how when your skin isn’t looking its best, it can affect your mental health, but I think we can flip the script on that too because there are times when I'm in a darker place with mental health and that reflects on my skin. I think it's like a give-and-take.

You go to a dermatologist or whatever, you're breaking out, and sometimes they go, "Well, how's your stress level?" I laugh at that question. Do you think there's a human being on this planet who's not stressed out right now in this climate? Stress, travel, diet, hormones, everything in the world affects your skin, and it's like you just sometimes can't fucking win. I think I've accepted it. I'm 28, and I still have acne. I don't think it's going away, so it is what it is. It's something I'm gonna have to deal with my whole life. That's fine because there's nothing I can do about it, but talking about it, making it feel less shameful, following accounts that support acne positivity on Instagram and TikTok… It's important to surround yourself with good energy around it. I think it makes a world of difference. If all you're seeing on social media is gorgeous glam shots of people, then yeah, you're probably gonna walk away feeling pretty bad about your acne. I've unfollowed people. I've muted accounts because they make me feel like shit. That's not real life. You don't walk around on the street and see perfect skin.

The two main pillars of [Personal Day] are empathy and compassion. I wanted those two things to be evident in the vibe of the brand. When you click on our Instagram page, when you click on our TikToks, and when you go to the website, we want the consumer to feel seen and heard. And if people don't even know that I'm connected to it, that almost makes me feel better because the products speak for themselves.

I love the name of the brand. Can you tell me why you chose Personal Day to encapsulate the brand and its message?

No one tells you how hard it's going to be to choose a name. I've had to choose a name for my production company, I've had to choose a skincare name, and then I've had to choose the product names. Finding something that is not copyrighted in the skincare space is nearly impossible. It was a journey and took a really long time. Personal Day was a name that was in the middle of a list of maybe 30 other names, and I was like, "Wait—let's circle that one." A personal day is a day that you take care of yourself. It’s a day of self-care, and acne care is self-care, and skincare is self-care. I was like, "Oh, this is making sense. This is coming together." Acne is such a personal and intimate experience, and taking a personal day is a personal experience. It just made sense.

I love that. It's unique!

Thank you! I didn't want my name in there. I was like, "My name will not be in this brand." I didn't want the word "heart" in there. I didn't want it to say "By Lili Reinhart"—nothing. I want the brand to speak for itself. I will be so happy if and when the brand stands on its own and people don't even know I'm associated with it. That means the products are speaking for themselves and that's always been my number one thing. There's no point in having a brand or having products if they don't work. They have to work. That's why it took three years from start to finish to make it right. I'm sending these products to people I love. I would be mortified if I sent them a product that screwed up their skin or didn't work.

One hundred percent. I think Personal Day has such a comforting vibe.

Good, I'm glad! I want it to feel cozy. For our brand shoot, we shot on film. I brought my own little point-and-shoot film camera because I love the feeling of film. It feels cozy. We want Personal Day to be your big sister giving you advice on your skin and looking at you with empathy, love, and acceptance. And just chill vibes. We want it to feel calming and relaxing.

You mentioned makeup earlier and how you do your own skin prep and you look up ingredients in the makeup chair. What makeup products do you use and love?

I have looked up like every foundation ever, and I use Armani's Luminous Silk Foundation. To be honest, no makeup has no acne-triggering ingredients, right? But you find what's the best out there. I use Armani makeup, and I use their concealer pretty much every day. But also, on a day-to-day basis, I don't wear a lot of makeup. If anything, I use a little spoolie to brush up my brows and a brow pencil—the Hourglass brow pencil. It's hard to find a brow pencil for blonde eyebrows, but we get there. Other than that, I'm a lip balm girly. Armani has never broken me out, and so that's my tried and true right now.

I actually heard from an esthetician that that's the only foundation she will recommend to her acne-prone clients.

Wow, there you go. I was looking up everything because, on Riverdale, I was wearing makeup for 16 hours a day, so I had to make sure what I was wearing for that long wasn't going to screw up my face. So, yeah, I did a lot of research. You'd be surprised when you plug something in that you're using every day and it has like, 13 fungal acne triggers. I'm like, "Okay, I will be throwing this in the garbage. Thank you very much."

Are there any beauty trends that you regret buying into? On the flip side, are there any beauty trends that you're happy you embraced?

I was never really into the heavy contour in like, 2017 I think. Like heavy makeup was the thing—heavy contour, heavy bronzer, heavy foundation. I had a makeup artist do that to me, and I looked at myself in natural lighting and was absolutely horrified. I lean very much toward the "clean girl" aesthetic: light foundation, light concealer, just the brows, and a little bit of mascara.

You're speaking my language. I don't think I have a face that handles heavy makeup well, or it's just not my look. Whenever a makeup artist does a heavy smoky eye on me, I look in the mirror and I have an identity crisis.

One thousand percent! Just because something's a trend doesn't mean it works for you. If I'm working with a new makeup artist, I say I don't like eyeliner on my waterline. You cannot tightline my eyes with black liner. It makes my eyes look incredibly small. It doesn't work for me. So when I do a smoky eye, I do like a brown or a taupe, or, like, even a purple, because I have green eyes, so I like a more mauve-purple. I've even done red eye shadow or pink. I like to play around with that. But yeah, no black smoky eyes for me. I'm a brown-neutral girl.

Same. I had a black smokey eye once, and I think it's gonna haunt me for the rest of my life.

One thousand percent. I'm thinking of Facebook photos of me from when I was 15, and it's absolutely horrifying. Overplucked brows and a smoky eye. Kill me.

Same. How has your approach to beauty evolved over the years? And would you say it's different now than, let's say, like when you were in your teens?

I mean, to be honest, I've always stayed pretty tried and true to the minimal makeup esthetic, When I've tried to branch out and try something different, I've always kind of come back to the same thing where I like to play up my eyes because I think I have nice eyes. I don't know if a red lip is my thing. I don't think heavy blush is my thing. I don't think heavy contour is my thing. I want to look nice and have glowy skin, but not crazy dewy. I want pretty brushed-up brows, but nothing crazy. I like a couple of individual lashes at the end of my eyes when I'm going to an event.

But it's important that I tried things and saw how it photographed. I wouldn't have known, "Okay, we're not putting eyeliner on the waterline," and "Okay, we're not doing an orangey red lip because that doesn't look good on me." Even clothing-wise, some things on the carpet, I'm like, "This looked great in the fitting, but it looked absolutely horrible on the carpet because the color wasn't right with my skin down, or the shape looks weird." I absolutely have looked like shit on a red carpet and learned my lesson, but I'm sure there are still plenty more lessons that I will be learning in the future. That's how we grow.

I think that's something that TikTok disguises from you. You're not born with a built-in aesthetic, and you just know everything that works for you and what doesn't. My 20s have not been the best years of my life. I'm 28 and fuck no, these have not been the best years of my life. I'm praying and hoping, thinking that my 30s will be fucking great, and I'll have gotten shit figured out, and I will be 30, flirty, and thriving.

I'm turning 30 this next birthday, and I honestly can't wait. I have no qualms.

I think it's great. Let's be in our 30s and let's know ourselves and know how to take care of ourselves. I think that’s super important. Growing up, in movies, it was like, "You need to feel better? We're going out, we're getting drunk, we're texting boys. I have never in my life responded to that. I learned in my 20s that I don't like to drink. I don't drink. I'm not completely dead sober, but I have maybe two drinks a year. I don’t party, I don't go to bars, I don't go to clubs, and it's not because there's anything wrong with them, but I just genuinely have learned that even though a lot of people portray that as being fun for them and fun to do in your 20s, it's not something that makes me happy.

Literally sitting on my couch brings me joy. I look forward to it. Sitting with my dog and watching either Love Is Blind or an incredible horror movie. I'm gonna sit, I'm gonna enjoy my night in my house where I can do my skincare and be not seen by people, and be in my little cozy cotton pajamas. That's me living my life and being so happy.

I think we're kindred spirits. I'm firmly in my grandma era, and I don't even think it's an era. I think it's just my personality. I'm going to be at home making soup.

Everything I know how to cook is in a Crock-Pot. I'm from Ohio, so…

I'm from Michigan.

There you go. It's a Midwestern thing, making making shit in a Crock-Pot. It's a vibe. And like, you live your life how you want to live your life. In my early 20s, I felt like I was doing something wrong because I didn't like to get drunk and because I didn't like to go bar hopping. When you find your people and you surround yourself with people who don't force you to do those things, or also find joy in being a homebody… it's just finding your people who understand you and don't try to force you to do those things.

That being said, I'm grateful that I had people around me to get me out of my comfort zone, and I still do. I still have friends who are like, "Come on, let's try this."

I love that. Last but not least, what is your unfiltered beauty philosophy in seven words or less?

Hmm. Looking in the mirror and feeling like myself. I mean that in the way of like seeing me, seeing my skin, seeing my eyes, connecting to myself. I want to look in the mirror and look like myself.

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