Addison Rae on Her New Beauty Launch, Those Famous Lashes, and Kourtney Kardashian’s Best Advice

How does 19-year-old Addison Rae Easterling, the second most followed person on TikTok, keep a captive audience of 52 million? You know, other than dining out at Nobu with her new BFF Kourtney Kardashian? This month, it’s by letting us in on a highly-requested beauty hack: the secret to her enviable eyelashes. Developed pre-quarantine, Easterling is launching her own makeup line called ITEM Beauty, beginning with a six-product drop next week.

The teen has assumed the role of “chief innovation officer,” overseeing the creation of the line’s jelly eyeshadow, brightening powder, brow definer, lip oil, a contour duo, and, yes, mascara—all using clean, cruelty-free ingredients. With the ear of Gen-Z at her will, Easterling says she’s committed to creating makeup that accentuates a person’s natural beauty—and, also, gets you crazy-long lashes.

Between recording a new podcast with her mom and sneaking in episodes of Big Little Lies, Easterling took time to preview the venture exclusively with ELLE.com (products will be available on ITEMBeauty.com beginning August 11). Below, she reveals her favorite products, who her beauty icon is (hint: heyyy sisters!) plus the business advice she got from Kourtney Kardashian.

TikTok star, podcaster, and now the founder of a beauty brand. You’re doing it all, congratulations!

I’ve always been around makeup since I was a little girl. My mom was a makeup artist and I was a competitive dancer. So for performances, we would do the lipstick and the eyelashes together. So I’ve always been around makeup and super comfortable with it. I think just being able to bring something I’ve always loved to life, but in my own way and vision, being a co-founder has been a dream for me.

So your official title with ITEM Beauty is “chief innovation officer.” What does that mean exactly?

So I’m a co-founder and chief innovation officer, which mean I work with the team to create the brand and products focused around just loving yourself and expressing who you are. I’ve tested the products and put a lot of thought into what I love and what my audience would use and just brought a fresh perspective to clean beauty. So everything that the brand stands for is really just self-expression and self-love and confidence.

We love some self-love! Have you been practicing self-love during quarantine?

I think self-love is always super important and expressing who you are naturally. These products are just meant to enhance your features and enhance your beauty, instead of masking and covering it. So I think, over quarantine, I’ve just really been taking care of my skin as much as I could and just trying to take some “me time” every once in a while, while still focusing on all my projects that I have coming in that are super exciting.

Speaking of projects… What product from your beauty line are you most excited for people to try?

So my two favorite products are the Lip Quip, which is a really, really nourishing lip oil that I use so much and it smells so good. It’s a super shiny lip that always looks good with everything. I also love the Lash Snack because if anyone knows me, they know I’m obsessed with mascara, probably too much sometimes. But it’s really amazing and has such good ingredients like castor oil to nourish the lashes while giving them a dramatic look.

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Everyone is obsessed with your lashes. What’s your secret sauce to a long lash?

Definitely the Lash Snack is one of my secret tools—I have it on right now. And just really taking care of them, making sure you don’t sleep with mascara on, or don’t pull on your eyelashes. As much as you can avoid that, do so. I think the ingredients in Lash Snack have definitely played a part as well because castor oil is really good for your eyelashes.

And I love curling my eyelashes, so even before bed sometimes I’ll curl them, which is sometimes weird, but I think that’s my little beauty thing that I do that’s kind of random.

Has your beauty routine changed at all during quarantine?

I definitely think I’ve become more natural with my makeup. So I’ve stopped using so much just because I let my skin breathe. But with the products I have at ITEM now, they’re all very beneficial for your skin as well as making it look nice and great. So I think just really focusing on enhancing my features instead of trying to cover them so much.

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What about your TikTok beauty routine. Has that evolved in quarantine?

I think for my TikToks, it really just depends. Some days I’ll have super fun looks that I’ll try just for the sake of the video. For the most part, I keep it pretty natural and just something that looks nice and has a natural lighting. That’s exactly what I intended on doing with ITEM—creating products that were just super simple and easy to put on that also look good.

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What’s the best beauty advice you’ve gotten from Kourtney Kardashian?

I’ve pretty much got the same advice from everyone I know in the industry, and it’s just to really do things you’re passionate about and things you love and enjoy and doing them with confidence.

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Who is your biggest beauty icon?

That’s a great question. I feel like a lot of people I look up to just really allow themselves to express their thoughts and ideas through their makeup. So I love James Charles. He’s a good friend of mine. He’s great. I love the Kardashians. They’re amazing. They always have great creative minds and do super fun things with their looks.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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