Cate Blanchett: ‘Skincare Is Your Canvas’
The Oscar winner talks about how she gets that glow. (Photo: Courtesy of SK II)
Praising someone for her consistency may seem like an odd compliment, but it makes sense when it comes to Cate Blanchett. She always looks incredible (perhaps even better in her mid-40s than in her 20s) and has been perpetually recognized for her talent over a 25-year-plus career — her Best Actress nod for Carol at this year’s Academy Awards was her seventh Oscar nomination, and she’s already won two.
When it comes to her skin, at least, Blanchett credits her glow to a dedicated use of SK-II products, and has been an ambassador of the Japanese brand for 15 years. “I don’t experiment with skincare, because that’s kind of your canvas, in a way,” she told Yahoo Beauty, just as SK-II launches its new RNA (Radical New Age) collection. Here, the blue-eyed Australian beauty discusses red-carpet prep and her early years spent playing dress-up and slathering on baby oil, as well as her present role as a conscientious and busy mom of four.
Were you interested in beauty from a young age?
I don’t know if it was beauty per se. I was interested in change. My sister and I used to play this game where she would dress me up and I’d stand in front of the mirror — I’d sort of inhabit the costume she’d give me — and then we would give it a name and make a story up. So I was interested in how clothes or makeup [could change you]. Like, I always used to steal my mum’s and I put makeup on to make my face look different. It was more clown-like.
What were the beauty standards as you came of age in Australia?
When I was in high school it was that bronzed sort of beach bunny thing. I tried [to tan], I tried, and then covered myself in baby oil and went on the top of our tin roof. My mother one day just climbed up the ladder and said, “Please get down.” She gave me a big lecture on the fact that my pale skin was actually really beautiful, and why was I trying to be like all the other girls. That was really great because I went, OK, I’m not going to do that.
Did she give you lots of other beauty advice?
I think just by example. She was very no-fuss and quite individual in her looks. She was never trying to look like anybody else, and she always moisturized. You do look up to your mother, and I think you tend to imitate those things. It wasn’t that she lectured me, I think I just naturally followed in that.
Now you have your own daughter, in addition to your three boys. Since you’re so educated about skincare, are you extra conscious about what you use on them, your daughter in particular?
I’ve started her on SK-II! I mean, she’s 14 months, but you’ve gotta start them soon! [Laughs] No, no. I might wait til she’s 14. But all my children have — I think most children do — really beautiful skin. You know, you hold a baby and they’re so soft. But you do worry with a girl. Like the other day she tripped and had a little graze on her top lip, and you go, “Oh my god! It’s going to scar!” [Laughs] I’m super, super conscious about the kids’ skin. I think it’s because of growing up in Australia where the sun is so strong. My mother was very conscious of our skin, you know with sunscreen and the incidence of skin cancer so [high]. You really do have to put on 50 and you have to walk in the shade.
Speaking of SPF, do you wear it every day? What products do you use every morning?
I put the SK-II Facial Treatment Essence on, the LXP serum and the moisturizer, and then if I’m in Australia I put on the Facial Treatment UV protection. If I’ve had a particularly late night and gone to bed with my makeup on, I wash my face in the morning, but otherwise I just tend to cleanse it at night.
(Photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)
With something like the Oscars, do you get excited about planning out your look — not just the gown, but your hair and makeup?
Yeah. I work with people I like and respect and who have got really interesting ideas. It feels similar to working with my sister in front of the mirror, saying, “What are we gonna do? Oh, if I put that on I can be blah blah blah.” It feels fun, you know? I feel that there’s a lot of talk about who’s going to wear what, and you gotta remember you’re there because of your work and the rest of it’s just the fun bit. So yeah, I find it fun. I don’t take it too seriously.
When it comes to your film or stage roles, do you feel the hair and makeup really affects how you embody the character?
Oh god, yeah. Of course. Particularly in film. You look at Hail, Caesar!, and those masks are really thick, and then you look at a film like Brooklyn and the masks are very thin. It depends on the requirement of the film, the genre that you’re in. But definitely it’s the conversation with the costume designer and the hair and makeup people where you start to simultaneously think about the character from the inside out and the outside in. I really love that collaboration with the hair and makeup team. As soon as you walk onto a bare stage dressed a certain way an audience will read meaning — before you open your mouth, before you make a gesture. It’s very powerful and you want to harness that. To be able to work with hair and makeup, yeah, that’s a big part of the process.
What has been your favorite role, beauty-wise, so far?
They’ve all been quite different. I relish playing the version of Bob Dylan. And I also loved playing Elizabeth I, especially the first time around, because we charted the hair and makeup journey, the visual journey, as much as the emotional, psychological, vocal journey. I really enjoyed that process, just those little sort of incremental changes.
Are you adventurous with beauty in real life?
I’m not. I don’t experiment with skincare, because that’s kind of your canvas, in a way. It’s also the biggest organ on your body, so I don’t want to be putting garbage into my skin. So that is unchanging, unwavering, and has been, basically, ever since I discovered SK-II all those years ago — god, 15 years ago. In terms of different colors or whatever, I will go far out as is needed, as left of center as is needed, for a role. But I probably tend to be more adventurous with what I wear than the makeup.
You’re promoting SK-II’s #ChangeDestiny campaign, which is about realizing you can make changes in your life as well as skin. What have been some of the changes you’ve experienced?
It’s often like that stop-motion photography, like the opening of a flower: if you were to sit there you’d fall asleep, you wouldn’t see the change. I think you get so photographed or you make films, which is a horrible, indelible documenting of the aging process. I actually think my skin — it sounds ridiculous — but it’s in a better condition than it was 20 years ago. It’s more consistent. Frankly, I think about it less. You know, people didn’t comment on my skin in my early 20s, they started commenting on my skin when I was my early 30s, and that’s when I had been using SK-II for a few years. So I can’t ignore that.
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