TikTok Beauty Guru Kensington Tillo Shares Her Must-Have Lip Liners

The content creator gushed about her makeup favorites, growing confidence and 2024 highlights with SI Swimsuit last week.

Kensington Tillo / Jason Sean Weiss/BFA.com

Kensington Tillo, also known by her handle @kensnation, has taken the beauty world by storm. With 319,000 followers and counting on Instagram and 1.6 million on TikTok, the Los Angeles-based content creator is beloved for her viral tutorials, expert product recommendations, and red carpet-worthy glam. At the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 60th anniversary party at the Dante Beverly Hills, Tillo not only stunned on the red carpet in a gorgeous Cristopher Esber-designed chocolate brown strapless cut-out gown, but also opened up about how transformative 2024 was for her.

“The best part of my year [was] how much I got to travel,” the 24-year-old told the brand on Nov. 15. “I honestly just got to see so many new places, meet so many new people, eat so many new foods. Yeah, it was a good year of travel.”

Kensington Tillo / Jason Sean Weiss/BFA.com

When asked to describe her year in a single emoji, she chose the 🥳 one—a fitting choice for someone who attended exclusive events like the Wicked premiere in Los Angeles, filmed a video with Hailey Bieber, went viral as the “third Jenner sister” in a clip alongside Kendall and Kylie Jenner and even walked the runway for L’Oréal Paris during Fashion Week. Tillo also celebrated major accomplishments including a Times Square billboard for Kosas and a fun, flirty campaign for Wildflower Cases this year. Her go-to drinks of choice that accompanied a party-filled 2024, she tells the magazine, are a hugo spritz and dirty martini.

Tillo’s beauty must-haves

This love for makeup and expressing herself and her creativity through beauty is a constant in Tillo’s life. We obviously had to ask what her no. 1 favorite product is and while she narrowed it down to just lip liner, she has two standout brands.

MAKEUP BY MARIO Ultra Suede® Sculpting Lip Pencil, $24 (sephora.com)

Sephora

This lip liner, an Allure 2024 Best of Beauty Award winner, offers a long-wearing, full-coverage matte finish and comes in 20 gorgeous shades.

MAKE UP FOR EVER Artist Color Pencil Longwear Lip Liner, $24 (sephora.com)

Sephora

For the SI Swimsuit event, she donned the ‘Versatile Chestnut’ shade, which is aptly named for how universally flattering it is. These lip liners are a celebrity favorite and best seller for good reason. The entire MAKE UP FOR EVER collection will be 30% off as part of Sephora’s black friday deals on Wednesday, Nov. 27.

Confidence and modeling

Despite her access to some of the best celebrity makeup artists, Tillo revealed in a TikTok ahead of the SI Swimsuit event last Thursday that she prefers to do her “own makeup for events and carpets.” She also wrote in her caption that her glam for the night “may be my favorite look I’ve ever done.”

Tillo’s journey has been deeply personal, too. In the same TikTok, she reflected on her early days modeling full-time after moving to Los Angeles and how much she admires Sports Illustrated Swimsuit for what it represents. “My relationship with modeling has gone very back and forth over the past few years, but I love everything that Sports Illustrated [Swimsuit] stands for,” she said. She added that this year, she’s focused on building her confidence and is incredibly proud of how far she’s come.

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