Liv Tyler has been in the limelight for most of her life. The daughter of Aerosmith front man Steven Tyler and seventies model/singer Bebe Buell, the statuesque brunette with the impossibly ivory skin started modeling when she was 14 and transitioned into acting three years later. But it’s not a specific film or tear sheet that she’s most proud of. That honor goes to her long-standing contract with Parfums Givenchy. Over the past nine years, Tyler has hawked everything from fragrance to foundation for the French brand—and even lent her impressive pipes to a cover of INXS’s “Need You Tonight” to promote its Electric Rose scent. “My whole life, since I was a little girl, all I ever thought I would do is be a singer,” Tyler tells us as we sit in her living room, having a quick chat before she jets off to do a public appearance. After just 15 minutes, however, it becomes clear that her true calling just might be cosmetics.

Clad in a black Marni cashmere sweater and a pair of tuxedo pants, Tyler is getting ready to promote Givenchy’s latest Rouge Interdit Satin Lipstick at Sephora, a launch that has special meaning to her. “He made it for me,” she explains of Givenchy artistic director of makeup Nicolas Degennes’ latest creation, a black lipstick that looks pure obsidian at first glance but applies with just a hint of a mulberry stain. Liv’s Lips, as the bullet is appropriately called, is part of Degennes’ holiday collection, but it was originally a prototype just for Tyler that she insisted go into production. “I’ve always loved sheer berry stains,” she explains, reminiscing about an early lipstick addiction to Clinique’s Black Honey, which compelled Degennes to create the product for her as a gift. “I went through one in a month—it’s like crack,” she jokes, elaborating on how she requested a whole box of the black bullets the next time she saw Degennes.

The interesting, gel-like pigment casts a slightly dark shadow with an inadvertent plumping effect we notice as makeup artist Matin Maulawizada applies it to Tyler’s famous mouth, adding multiple swipes of Givenchy’s Noir Couture Mascara to her lashes and a few dabs of its Hydra Sparkling Magic Lip & Cheek Balm—another Tyler favorite. Running off a short list of other makeup must-haves, Liv insists that she’s really more of a skincare junkie. “I believe in exfoliation,” she deadpans, explaining that she’ll use a mitt at least once a day or every other day to slough away dead cells and let her skin naturally regenerate. “My grandmother taught me at a very early age to take care of my skin,” she continues, revealing other complexion tips, including masks, which she tries to do three times a week. “I alternate them,” she says of a collection of Mario Badescu tubes and tubs that she applies before slipping into a steaming hot bath—or dancing around the kitchen in her beautiful home in New York, where she’s been spending more concentrated time recently.

“I’m being Milo’s mom,” Tyler says when the conversation turns to what she’s working on at the moment. Having just wrapped production on a small project in L.A., the 35-year-old is taking a break to spend more time with her eight-year-old son with Spacehog front man Royston Langdon. That doesn’t mean she’s not still thinking about that next big part, though. “I love television as a medium,” she says, pointing out that the small screen holds an allure for her as an actor—and has offered up plenty of, er, research opportunities of late. “I’ve been watching a lot of [it],” Tyler says, disclosing a newfound addiction to the ABC musical drama, Nashville. “Some of the songs in it are actually really good!” she contends. In the meantime, there’s always beauty. “I’ve thought about doing a skincare line,” Tyler reveals as she traces on another coat of her namesake pout perfector and prepares to head out the door—an idea we would 100 percent get behind.