Jennifer Garner covers the September issue of Allure Mag. The photoshoot is pretty – it’s not like they were trying to break any new ground with Garner in particular. It’s mostly outdoors, with Garner styled to look feminine and pretty and naturalistic. If you’re forcing me to nitpick (why do you force me?!!), the only bad thing I can say about these pics is that Garner’s lips look out of control. People have debated the naturalness of her lips before – some people think she gets lip injections, some people say they’re natural. I don’t really know, but I do think they look fuller and plumper in these photos than they usually look. There’s some Kardashian happening here. Anyway, you can see the slideshow here and here are some highlights:

Jen doesn’t want to work with her husband: “Really, you don’t want to see a couple onscreen. People see paparazzi shots of us together all the time. There’s no mystery . . . People are sick of us.”

She doesn’t want to get in shape for a role: “There were times I had to watch every calorie that went into my body. Doing something like that again…it’s not exactly on the top of my list.”

She doesn’t want to walk the carpet with Ben either: “Sometimes it’s a pain because my heels are so high and it would be really nice to have his arm. And he’s such a great date! But it can be too much. I think especially for women, they can really lose their identity and just become ‘wife of,'” she says.

Her workout regimen: “I’ve been working out with Valerie Waters for 13 or 14 years. I’ll do different things. I did Spin for a little while, and I like yoga. I’ve been doing Pilates with this woman who was trying to get my abs back in shape after the last baby kind of did me in.”

Skincare: “I’m starting to use more stuff that has things like alpha hydroxy [acid] or retinol. But I really don’t believe that your skin-care products have to be the fanciest things in the world. I like drugstore products, especially sunscreen, because I use so much of it. I like Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Liquid sunscreen SPF 70.”

She’s always wanted to be a mom: “[As a kid,] I had a baby doll tucked under my arm everywhere I went,” Garner says. When she was a young teenager, “my friend and I ran a babysitting service, C&J Babysitting. I think we made $2 an hour. If you’d said to me, ‘You could be a mom or you could be anything else in the world,’ I would have been a mom.”

Her mom: “My mother has the healthiest lack of vanity I’ve ever known. No layers, no perms, no colors.” No ear piercings, either. “Look,” she says, pointing out her unpierced lobes. Does she have any tattoos? A flash of shock streaks across the actress’s face. “Oh, my gosh, no! Garner girls don’t have tattoos.”

She had a clothing allowance as a kid: “We had a clothing allowance of $200 twice a year, and that had to buy our winter coat, our underwear, our shoes,” she says. To this day, Garner says she’s thrifty, although she prefers to call it “having common sense.”

On the possibility Ben will run for political office: “Right now [Ben] feels like he can do more good for people politically from outside the system,” she says. “Would I be surprised if one day he did go into politics? No. But not now.” And he would have her support. “I’m along for the ride,” she says.

[From Allure]

Can you imagine all of the gossip that will come out if Ben really does run for political office one day? Although Jennifer Garner would be the perfect “political wife” – and perhaps she’s more suited to political office than Ben, quite honestly – I think any campaign Ben would wage would be a hot mess. The stories of his past indiscretions would come out and it would be… amazing gossip.

I’m side-eyeing Jennifer’s comments about walking the red carpet with Ben, though. “But it can be too much. I think especially for women, they can really lose their identity and just become ‘wife of.’” But isn’t that the exact game Jennifer and Ben played to get him his Argo Oscar? Then she was more than happy to be seen as the ‘wife of’ and I think it’s too cute by half for Jennifer to now act like it’s all about her feminist principles and being seen as a separate person. She has happily played up the Mrs. Affleck role when it suits her, and when it suits his Oscar campaign.

Photos courtesy of Allure.