Ariana Grande’s infamous ponytail is tied back in a satin bow as she’s preparing to walk Vogue through her beauty routine. Ahead of a ’60s-esque cat-eye and “pretty in pink” makeup look, she preps her skin. “It’s important to protect your skin as much as possible when you’re wearing so much makeup,” she says. “Clearly, I wear a lot of makeup.”

After an oxygenating serum, she applies La Mer moisturizer with a twist: “I’m going to mix it with SPF.” A cooling eye balm from her r.e.m. beauty brand comes next, followed by Shiseido eye masks. “Which way are these supposed to go, world?” she asks. “Because I do them this way—but I have to be wrong.” Right or wrong, by the time she pulls the masks off, she’s primed for makeup.

The singer starts by smoothing on “a pump and a half” of r.e.m.’s new Sweetener foundation. Concealer comes next, followed by loose powder. “I like to set pretty quickly after I apply,” the 30-year-old says. “I just try to make sure that nothing could possibly move.” Next, Grande decides to make an “out-of-order” move by filling in her brows with a MAC pencil. “I’m currently half Glinda,” the star says. “I’ve been bleaching my eyebrows for a year now, and I definitely need to touch them up.” The shape she prefers is straight, lifted, and “Audrey Hepburn-ish.” She adds, “I was always fascinated by Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe. You can tell that they were doing these makeup tricks before anyone really had it figured out yet.”

Dipping a fluffy brush into her Bobbi Brown eye-shadow palette, she swirls a pink hue all over her lids. “One of my favorite things to do is create a ’60s-looking cat-eye,” she says. Today, she’ll dust on a “shadowy version of a cat-eye instead of a liquid line.”

She begins by drawing a pale pink wing shape onto her lids with r.e.m.’s Multi-Use Eye Stick. “I’m just coloring like a four-year-old,” she confesses. “But it will come together, trust me.” And it does, after she dons Dior Rosy Glow blush and mixes two dark brown shadows to create a powder-based cat-eye.