The One Thing Jennifer Garner Always Keeps In Her Purse

Actress Jennifer Garner shows off her smooth complexion at the premiere of her film Danny Collins this spring. (Photo: Getty Images/Taylor Hill)

There’s one thing actress Jennifer Garner does every single day: slather on sunscreen in the morning. “It’s something that you have to be diligent about,” Garner tells Yahoo Health. “It has to be a non-negotiable part of your life.” The Neutrogena spokesperson is advocating for sun safety as part of Melanoma Monday (today, May 4) and Skin Cancer Awareness Month, which lasts all May.

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She applies Neutrogena Ultra Sheer dry-touch first thing in the morning, she says. She likes the product because it’s lightweight and disappears. “I hate that feeling where you just feel a little bit gritty and greasy all over,” Garner confesses.

For touch-ups on the go, Garner always carries a stick sunscreen in her bag. “It doesn’t leak and it holds up really well, so I don’t have to worry about it,” she says. The sticks are also a convenient way to protect her three kids, Violet, Seraphina, and Samuel, she says: “If I need to grab ahold of the kids and reapply on them, I’ve got it right there.”

Jennifer Garner plays in the waves — and reveals her fit figure — in Hawaii. (Photo: Splash)

Nowadays Garner is known for her smooth, glowing skin. But earlier in life, friends called her “Casper the ghost” because she was so pale. Before her acting success, Garner spent her days inside working at a theater, building sets and making costumes. “During those years, lucky for me I was involved in something where I was not outside ruining my skin for later,” she says.

Early-morning workouts are another key part of the star’s routine. She exercises five or six days a week, she says, and tries to finish before her kids wake up. Her routine, created by her trainer of 15 years, Valerie Waters, includes cardio, weightlifting, bodyweight training, and Valslide exercises. For fun, Garner loves the dance cardio classes at Body By Simone, which she takes with friends.

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Garner also builds some flexibility into her fitness schedule. “Sometimes my workout is only 45 minutes, and occasionally it’s only half an hour,” she says. If she really doesn’t feel like working out, she skips a day. “But I make sure to never skip two days in a row,” she says. “It’s very, very easy to tell yourself you can never work out again if you’ve missed a week, so I try to be serious about never going more than a couple of days without a workout of some kind.” 

Many days, she and husband Ben Affleck (who recently beefed up for his role as Batman in the upcoming Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn Of Justice) work out at the same time, and they sometimes work out together. When their schedules don’t align, they help the other person free up time for exercise — Garner will listen for the kids while Affleck works out, or vice versa. “It’s part of our lives — lucky for us, it’s part of our jobs in a way,” Garner says. “But it’s very easy to want that for your partner, since everyone feels better when they’re moving their bodies every day.”

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