What's In Actress Pia Glenn's Makeup Bag?

What's in your makeup bag? A woman's stash, in some ways, an extension of herself. Does she carry utilitarian items, or is her mix full-on glam? Is it organized, or is her collection piecemeal around the house? Is there a method behind the madness?

I asked the question to actress Pia Glenn. (You may have see her alongside Will Ferrell as Condi Rice in You're Welcome America.) She's a friend of mine, and somehow manages to always look ridiculously fine, so I had to know the answer.

The first thing that happens when you ask Glenn what's in her bag is that she slightly arches a beautiful brow and asks, “Which one?” She keeps the goods in a few different places: a cosmetic collection at home, one in her gym bag, and a tweezer case she carries around with her.

“I am a person who wears makeup” she says, “I have a lot of it. Most of it is MAC, which I got for free from doing theatre. There’s no shame in my game!”

When it's time to dip into her makeup stash, Glenn says the key to getting glam is knowing what to play up, and how to work with your natural features. “My eyes are so narrow it looks like I actually don't have eyes,” she says, “So I am glad I know how to do makeup so that I don't walk around startling people.” She hates wearing mascara, so she does a lot with eyeliner and shadow. “I’ll match my eye shadow to fit my outfit or my mood."

She's learned a lot of what she knows from an some unexpected source: Her drag queen friends. Glenn says it taught her about the spectrum of what is possible, and the looks that one can create.

Although Glenn says she's not a huge fan of actually putting on makeup (though she loves the results, she says!), one step she'll never skip is sunscreen. Her favorite brand is called Solar Protection by Fallene Cosmeceuticals. “It’s this really wonderful customizable product” she says, “You and I would buy the same product, and it comes with light and dark tints. If you mess up, you can just lighten it.”

Another beauty bag essential are Sally Hansen wax strips. She carries them in a Ziploc bag. “You never know when you might want to forcibly remove some hair,” she says. She tells me about a time she helped out a girl with her eyebrows at the gym. “She was worried they were a mess," she laughs.

As often as she wears makeup, Glenn emphasizes the importance of taking a few days off, too. "It is important to me emotionally to not wear makeup everyday," she says. It's taken a while to get to that place for Glenn, who started wearing cosmetics very young, and was decked out in a full face of makeup and donned acrylic nails by high school. “It was like, of course you are going to wear makeup — you’re a lady.”

A peek into Glenn's bag feels like a peek into her life: a little bit of glamour and a little bit of fun.