Anna Cathcart Loves Drugstore Products, Especially This $3 Foundation — Interview

Jul 31, 2023

By Gabi Thorne

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Kitty Covey is not someone to be messed with. The spunky younger sister in Netflix's To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before… is quick to humble everyone around her with brutal honesty, sarcasm, and witty one-liners. Anna Cathcart's performance is so convincing that when I first meet her at the Allure offices, I’m honestly kind of expecting to meet real-life Kitty. I don't.

I anticipate the squeak of sneakers but hear the clack of heels before anything else when she arrives. Instead of overalls and a T-shirt, she's dressed in a plaid two-piece skirt set.

Her auburn hair is styled into a half-up look with loose curls cascading around her, not the space buns or pigtails often seen on Kitty. Aside from the big, wire-framed glasses, their styles are nothing alike. But off the bat, it's easy to tell the character and the actor, at the very least, share an affinity for their families — Cathcart has her mother and older sister (her "best friend for life") in tow.

Kitty doesn't just march to the beat of her own drum — she's likely to abandon the drum set for the tuba instead. I can see that same confidence and lively energy in Cathcart. "When I'm passionate about something, I'm very excited and speak a mile a minute," she tells me. But there is a more mature air about Cathcart off-screen — it's evident that she isn't a tween anymore.

Cathcart started playing Kitty at 14, but now, at 19, she's getting the chance to lead her own Netflix series, XO, Kitty. As its name suggests, the show follows the youngest Covey sister. In it, she travels across the world to enroll in the South Korean boarding school her late mother once attended (conveniently, the guy she's been dating long-distance since the movie trilogy's final installment goes there, too). Kitty will have to adjust to a new country while being away from her family and finding out that her beloved actually has a whole girlfriend — he's been telling everyone that Kitty's his pen pal (yikes on bikes).

Though she's older than Kitty, who is 16 in the show, Cathcart noted that her own personal growth mirrors Kitty's in many ways. "In XO, Kitty, [Kitty is] going through this period of her life where she's discovering who she is and learning how to be independent for the first time," Cathcart says. "I'm in that stage as well, in different ways, but those same shifts are happening in my life, so it was very cool to get to experience that together."

XO, Kitty was shot in South Korea; it was Cathcart's first time in the country. The demanding filming schedule meant she didn't have as much time to explore as she would have liked, but she did discover a few new things, such as her love of facials. Cathcart got her very first facial in South Korea. She was worried she would feel uncomfortable or stressed during the treatment, but in reality, the facial ended up being so relaxing, she fell asleep (relatable). "I'm someone who doesn't fall asleep easily. So that was a sign [that] I like facials," she shares. She tells me she hasn't had time to book a facial since she's returned home to Vancouver, but she's eager to plan one when she gets a chance.

Now that she's officially a facial convert, her curiosity about skin care has only increased. "I’m always asking different people that I work with, ‘What do you suggest? What [do] you think is needed?’" she says. Her current nighttime skin-care routine is pretty simple: If she's wearing makeup, she’ll reach for micellar water, specifically one from Vichy Pureté Thermale Micellar Water for Combination to Oily Skin, before continuing with the rest of her routine. "Micellar water is a go-to, I need it," she swears. Otherwise, she starts with a milky cleanser before piling on toner, moisturizer, and an acne treatment. Recently, she discovered the Bioderma Sébium Mat Control moisturizer, which has a light formula she loves for her oily skin.

She also embraces minimalism with her makeup, which I could see with the look she's wearing during our interview. The most visible makeup on her face was the flush on her cheeks and the smoky shadows focused on the outer corners of her eyes. Because she's often doing her makeup on the go, travel-friendly products are her besties. She has a singular makeup bag (not so relatable) that she dumps into her backpack so she can do her makeup wherever.

Though she is excited to learn more about makeup and skin care, don't expect that learning to take place in the aisles of higher-end beauty retailers. Those large stores might be like Candy Land to some, but she prefers to steer clear. "I'm one of those people that will walk into Sephora and get so intimidated by all the products," she says. "There's just so much. I don't know what works for me. I don't know how I'm going to find out." Because of that, drugstore products are her main staples.

She's loyal to Rimmel's Stay Matte Liquid Mousse Foundation, which she loves for its mattifying finish. She warms up her cheeks (and sometimes even her nose) with the Benefit Cosmetics GALifornia Powder Blush, which has been in her makeup kit for years. As for eye makeup, a recent trick she learned is to apply brow powder instead of eyeliner or eye shadow in her outer corners. "It just pulls the look together." She usually finishes her look with some clear brow gel and lip gloss. She's a big fan of glossy lips, so a balm or gloss will always have a home in her makeup bag. Her favorite is Glossier Balm Dotcom. "Even on no-makeup days, it is still a product that I use because it's perfect for every level of glam," she says.

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But her "number one beauty product, hands down" is Clean & Clear Oil Absorbing Sheets & Blotting Paper, which she swears by for refreshing her oily skin at a moment's notice. "I will use six a day because [the sheets] will freshen you up, [whether] you're wearing makeup or not," she says. "Your face feels nicer and lighter. Also, it completely mattifies you."

Though she still feels like a newbie to the beauty world, I can tell that she's an expert in the hair styling department. If you scroll through her Instagram, you'll see her hair cascading in the most perfect curls — something I tell her to which she seems pleasantly surprised and flattered, responding, "That's so kind!"

Curls have become one of her go-to styles once she mastered her technique last year. What's her secret? She uses Drybar's The Wrap Party Curling & Styling Wand, and since her hair holds a curl well, the next day curl is "where the best hair is."

Speaking of hair, I noticed hers looked reddish in some photos and dark brown in others, so I had to know if it was natural or the result of hair dye. It's the former — in fact, Cathcart swears she'll never dye her hair. "I think my hair color is something that I love about myself, and I think it's really special," she tells me. After she initially accepted the role of Kitty, she was asked to dye her hair darker, so she would look similar to her on-screen sisters. But she refused, asking if hair spray, wigs, or anything else could be done instead. "I'm really glad that [my hair] didn't have to be changed and that I stood my ground with that one, and they made it work. [I'm] so very grateful," she says.

When we last saw Kitty in the film trilogy, she was a preteen in middle school, but in XO, Kitty, she is a 16-year high schooler. So naturally, her style is starting to evolve as she leaves some of her kid-like aesthetics behind, like her braided pigtails and space buns. In the trailer, there's a small snippet of Kitty getting ready for school by straightening her hair and applying some lip stain. Though Cathcart is more of a lip gloss girl, we'll see her and her on-screen character evolve as they both enter new eras of life.

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