With Pretty Little Liars wrapping up its final season, Shay Mitchell should have some time on her hands. But, as we discovered when we reached the Canadian actress during a rare moment of downtime at her home in L.A., that isn’t the case. Below, we talk to the Bioré brand ambassador about her recent trip to Morocco (for Hannah Bronfman’s wedding, no less) the country she wants to visit next and why she can’t stop washing her face. 

I saw that you were just in Morocco. 

I was! Morocco is one of my favourite places to travel to. It’s just so beautiful and the people are amazing. I always have such a wonderful time when I go there. 

Were you there for Hannah Bronfman’s wedding? Based on the Instagrams, it looked gorgeous. 

Oh my god everything…there’s not one thing that could have been better. It was just spectacular: her dress, the parties they had before and after the wedding…it was just amazing. 

What is your approach to hair and makeup as a wedding guest? 

Well, I think it depends on where the wedding is and what kind of theme it is. You know Hannah’s was in Morocco and it was really hot outside, so I think I could speak for the majority of the women that went, we didn’t wear a lot of makeup just because it ends up melting off and you don’t want to have to be worrying about that. I like to just do tinted moisturizer, little bit of brow and a lip; you’re wearing sunglasses outside so there’s no need to do eye makeup.

Right and like any sort of sweat—we’ll just call it dewiness—that does occur is your natural highlighter.

Exactly, exactly.

So did you do any sort of special treatments before hand, lasers or anything like that?

I do laser hair removal. My good friend does it for me. It’s so easy, it just doesn’t hurt at all. And it’s nice, especially with travelling all the time, not to have to worry about [hair removal]. And then when I was in Morocco I obviously went to a few Hammam, which is a traditional Moroccan spa treatment where they scrub off all the dead skin and they put oils on you. 

Did you enjoy it? I’ve heard either people love it, or find the scrubbing too abrasive. 

No I absolutely loved it! But then again it’s like when I get massages, I love extremely hard massages. 

What is your skincare routine right now? 

I’m pretty good about washing my face consistently, morning and night. But travelling is one of the times where you arrive at wherever you’re going and you just want to wash your face—or at least I do. The flights I take are 18 hours, 21 hours, so I always make sure I have my wash with me, and I’m constantly washing my face.  The product I really love is the Biore Charcoal Cleanser, it truly leaves my skin feeling tingly. When I get to the hotel I’ll do the 1-minute Charcoal Mask, it keeps my skin feeling clean and prevents you from getting a breakout throughout your trip. You don’t want that when you’re taking great photos and all of a sudden it’s like, ‘Hello, I have a little family on my forehead.’

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Biore Deep Pore Charcoal Cleanser ($10.49), at drugstores and mass-market retailers. 

                                            

So no crazy sheet masks on the plane or anything?

Oh no, I definitely do those too. One time I did do the Self-Heating One Minute Mask on the plane. [It probably] scared the person sitting next to me. 

I want to talk about Pretty Little Liars. The series finale is coming up. It’s an end of an era for you. 

It really is. And it’s crazy, because I keep seeing people counting down, ‘Only 5 more episodes left, 4 more!’ And you’re like, ‘Woah.’ When we wrapped [filming] last October, I knew that I’d be seeing the girls again, that we would be doing press together for the ending of the show. But now, knowing that the show is literally on the last few episodes we are fully done—like no more press done—and we’re really not going to be talking about it much after this. So that is totally surreal to me. The amazing part is that we built all these great relationships that I’ll have forever.

Do you guys all have a group chat? How do you plan on staying in touch?

Oh yeah, we have a group chat. 

Do you have a favourite memory from filming the series?

I would have to say the first thing I ever shot and the last thing we shot all together. It’s just coming full circle.

What do you have coming up next?

Right after we finished shooting the show, I went to Boston and shot a psychological thriller. I’m really excited for that, and I’m currently writing another book right now that I can’t wait to share. I’m also focusing on my YouTube channel; travelling is something that I’ve always loved doing, so the fact that I will be going on more trips later this year, I’m super excited to take everybody along with me and put it on my YouTube channel. 

What places are on your bucket list? 

I’m going to be going back to India, so I’m excited about that! 

Are you usually a carry-on girl or do you like to check your suitcase?

I check my things. If I’m taking photos in different places for Instagram and if I’m shooting content, I want to have different outfits. I’m definitely not a carry-on girl. [Laughs]

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