Allison Holker is a busy woman. She’s been on So You Think You Can Dance either as a contestant or an All-Star since season 2, she stars on VHI’s Hit The Floor and most recently recreated some of the most iconic dance movie scenes with husband tWitch on Buzzfeed. We recently had a chance to talk to Allison about something other than dance and she was just as enthusiastic about makeup and beauty as she is about dance.
What’s your first beauty or makeup memory?
I grew up not understanding makeup, I wasn’t really taught from a young age, how to use your moisturizers and how to use your primers on your face. I didn’t learn any of that. My first few jobs, I was a kid; I was hired to do the High School Musical films for Disney. Even then it was very minimal, light makeup. I was supposed to be playing a kid and I was a kid. So, I’ll never forget the first time I went into So You Think You Can Dance and I was 18 years old and at this point the only makeup I’d ever worn was very minimal, and we were supposed to do ballroom. And I was like ‘great, this is so exciting, I’ve never done this before’ but ballroom dancers go 100% with their makeup. So they tanned my body, they slicked my hair back, they gave me spit curls and they glammed my face up and I looked like old Hollywood with the nice bright red lip, the strong eyeliner, the lashes. I’ll never forget that because that was the first time I saw myself with makeup on my face. I loved it and it became some new for me that I started learning about at that time.
Have you learned any beauty tricks on set?
The girls I’m working with teach me so many things. I literally go to bed with so much cream on my face, I wake up in the morning looking like a new clean car. I’m shiny, I’m waxed up, I look beautiful. Before I got to bed, I hydrate my face a lot. I wash it, I put a treatment on, I put a serum on my face, I put eye cream on my face. And then I wake up and my face is set in and has a nice, natural shine to it and now it’s ready for the makeup to go on. And I think the biggest thing I’ve learned is that you need a lot of Vitamin C for your face.
Any time you put makeup on your face, a primer before makeup is a necessity. I happen to use Colorescience Skin Brightening Primer and I feel like it really sets nice on my face for my foundation. What I learned from Hit The Floor and So You Think You Can Dance is both shows believe in the Beauty Blender. I love the Beauty Blender, it just sets your foundation so nicely.
What’s the one thing you won’t leave your house without doing?
I do not leave the house without my eyebrows fixed. I have very thick eyebrows already but all of us have those little places we have to fill in, so that is my daily thing. I use the Anastastia soft brown pencil and it’s literally the one thing I will not leave my house without done because I think eyebrows are the most crucial part of your face and if you have your eyebrows looking good, you look good.
What do you always have to have in your makeup bag?
My undereye concealer from Tarte. That’s a necessity for me. I always have to have my Maybelline Rocket mascara. I keep my Coco Chanel with me everywhere because I sweat a lot when I’m dancing and I don’t want people to smell that.
I love a good gloss so I always keep a natural coloured gloss is always important but also, I always carry a stain on me for my lips because I’m a dancer, when I’m dancing I can’t wear gloss. I think dancers need to be aware when you’re dancing if you’re wearing a gloss, your hair will get stuck to your face and it doesn’t look that good in the lights. So there’s a stain that I love to use from Hourglass. And I have multiple colours and it’s always in my bag.
And I always have the Nars Amour blush because if I need a touchup, I always go for blush, that’s what I notice the most. And blot pads because let’s be real, with anything eventually your face is going to get greasy so you have to clean your face periodically. So blot pads are a necessity in your bag.
You can watch the season finale of Hit The Floor August 11 on VHI and catch So You Think You Can Dance every Wednesday on Fox.
