Kate Winslet was named the latest face of L’Oreal Paris. She joins the other “faces” like Viola Davis, Gemma Chan and Helen Mirren. I mean, L’Oreal knows what they’re doing – Kate is known for having that “English rose” look, and her skin has always been gorgeous. To promote her new endorsement, Winslet chatted with Harper’s Bazaar about not wearing much makeup during the pandemic, how she’s rubbish at doing her hair and how she loves the L’Oreal tagline: “Because you’re worth it.” Some highlights:
How it feels to get a L’Oreal contract at the age of 45: “It feels really timely for me, because what I’ve been saying a lot in the last kind of six months is that this decade coming up, it feels like there’s a huge shift amongst women. We’re using our voices in different ways. More importantly than anything else, I think that sense of sisterhood and women coming together, not judging each other, learning how to openly compliment one another, and really standing up for one another—that’s changed. For me to be a part of L’Oréal, knowing that these things are important to me, and knowing that they’ve always been very important to them, it just feels fantastic.”
No-makeup pandemic: “What’s been so nice is that we’ve all been unified in our joy of not having to put makeup on and not make so much of an effort. I’ve actually enjoyed really not wearing makeup, and certainly wearing less of it. It’s time that is better used doing, frankly, other things. A lot of kind of pomp and circumstance comes hand in hand sometimes with hair and makeup, and actually just being your truthful, authentic, fresh self—it just feels nicer. If there’s anything that has shifted for me in the last year, it’s that we can go easier on ourselves. We can just relax a little bit. I think we scrutinize ourselves a lot. Just not looking in the mirror quite so much has been really relaxing.
Because she’s worth it: “Think about that phrase: because I’m worth it, because we’re worth it, because you’re worth it. It’s really kind of a remarkable thing to feel. What’s so great about L’Oréal is that they give us all permission to say that. And for me, being “worth it” means that I’ve lived my life. I’ve got the marks and the scars and the flaws and the imperfections, but that doesn’t mean that I haven’t come out the other side a more sincere human. I’m more confident with who I am and more fully rounded as a person, as a woman.”
Her favorite beauty look: “When my skin is behaving—which, at the moment, it is, thank God—just a really clean face, you know, sharp jaw. A good coat of mascara, a sculpted eye, and a fat red lip. To me that’s like, “Don’t mess with me.” Because you have to feel confident enough to be able to pull off a red lip, I think. So for me, if I’m wearing a red lip, I’m like, “Here I am people.”
She’s not good at doing her hair: “I’m not very good with my own hair. I just don’t have time! I very rarely dry it, and I actually don’t like putting too much heat on my hair anyway. I always let my hair dry naturally. I do like it when it’s, like, loosely tonged a little bit around my face, but I’m rubbish at doing it. I end up my burning my forehead with the tongs. I’m just like everyone else. I’m totally crap. So I always appreciate a really great hairdresser.
Hopes for the rest of 2021: “Well, I’m at a time of great reflection in many ways, because Mare of Easttown was incredibly tough. And now that it’s finally come out, I feel like I can really kind of let it go, because it was nearly two years’ worth of my life and a very, very intense character. I’m taking some downtime, which is amazing. So for the rest of the year, I just hope for family time and just to be able to kind of get back to being myself—really just properly being myself again. Just sort of decompressing in ways I really, really need to. Sometimes my job can be so intense, it can actually make me feel, first of all, not myself, but also can sometimes make me feel not well and not healthy. Just because I make such enormous commitments to those characters, and it can be quite exhausting. I just hope for some me-time actually.
Kate has the kind of face where she can “take” a lot of makeup and not really look radically different. Which is why less is more for her – she can go bare-faced and I doubt she even looks washed out. Or maybe she still needs to slap on some lipstick. But I agree with her, I hope that the pandemic has shifted a lot of stuff when it comes to hair/makeup/style. I know tons of people are just waiting to break out their gowns and cute party clothes and get all done up, but I would love it if more people decided to phase in more lowkey looks from here on out. No makeup, comfortable clothes, etc.
IGs courtesy of L’Oreal Paris.
We were commenting on another post recently about going braless… I’ve also stopped blow drying my hair. I’ve always blow dried, but when I stopped over the pandemic my hair started looking so much healthier! I’m embracing my waves and it seems a lot less frizzy in the summer. I’m all for the world moving more towards a natural look. I’ve had it with Kardashian-level contouring etc.
Heat damages hair. I’ve stopped doing it for almost 2 years and the changed in my hair have been radical. No more frizz, no mora tangles, no more breakage, etc
I can’t remember the last time I used a blow dryer on my hair. Really only ever at the hairdresser’s when I get it cut.
Does anyone have advice (or maybe a future @Celebitchy product post?) for air drying? My hair is pretty short, and some days it turns out great, but other days it’s ends up looking bumpy and weird. At the height of the pandemic, my hair was long and I found that much easier to manage.
@tealily – You can try different ways of air drying that the CGM method approves.
I have curls and I air dry. I usually sleep with a silk/satin bonnet (lol at myself) and airdry with a microfiber hair turban thingy.
Even if you have straight hair the CGM will still do wonders or you.
OK she does look really different without makeup. I thought the header photo was early aughts Madonna!
I wonder if they have the same plastic surgeon?
She’s definitely wearing makeup in that pic. It’s a L’Oreal promotional shot. It’s just “barely there” makeup, which probably means foundation, concealer, powder, brow pencil/powder, mascara, eyeliner, beige eye shadow and nude lip color and liner.
She was fantastic in Mare of Eastown.
SO good. I think often about how good she was so I can only imagine how hard that character was for her to shake. I really hope she wins the Emmy.
Meh. I still wore makeup most days during lockdown and I still do. Because I love makeup. It’s a form of expression and a creative outlet for me. My makeup skills have actually grown exponentially during lockdown because I had more time to play and experiment.
This. My makeup is for me and I was and am bummed that I can’t really wear makeup when I mask. I barely do anything (my art is on paper, generally) but I LIKE putting in that effort. I like wearing makeup. It wasn’t a societal requirement for me.
Going without it was nice for a little while, but later on I started to miss it.
Same, I started wearing more not less and having a lot of fun with it.
There was a time I wouldn’t be caught dead outside the house without makeup. Now, I use a tinted moisturizer and a slick of mascara, and I’m good. So for me, it was very freeing!
Kate has great skin, but Kate has lines, a mature face, etc. On Mare of Easttown, she threw her vanity away, and showed her face with minimal makeup, no eyemakeup to speak of, and nothing camouflaged by great makeup tricks It was for the part, and I appreciated it. I think I will watch that show again. Love the acting.
Sigh. Faux sisterhood strikes again, lol.