How does Isabella Rossellini look so good at 67?
The 67-year-old Golden Globe-nominated actor and model Isabella Rossellini has long been an advocate for confidence and beauty at any age. In 2016 she made headlines for being ‘re-hired’ as an ambassador for French beauty brand Lancôme at the age of 63 (she was removed as the face back in 1996, when she was considered ‘too old’ at 43). She shares with us five brilliant pieces of advice on how to embrace your years with grace – and why beauty isn’t all skin-deep.
Ignore negativity
I started modelling at 27, but I haven’t always been confident about my looks. Sometimes people say to me, ‘Oh, you have the courage to grow old without doing plastic surgery,’ and I always tell them: it’s not that I’m immune. I don’t look at myself in the mirror and say, ‘I’m the fairest of them all.’ I still have the voice that says, ‘You’re getting old, you’re too fat, you should hide this, you can change that.’ But I try not to listen, because that voice is negative. Instead, I try to listen to the voice that says, ‘Hmm, that red lipstick is quite pretty. It goes very well with your sweater.’
Looks aren’t everything
I didn’t grow up with an emphasis on looks. My mum was Ingrid Bergman. Nowadays, people say, ‘Oh, she was so beautiful,’ but at the time she was considered the girl next door. She wasn’t thought of as ugly, but she wasn’t considered an arresting beauty, either. She was, however, the definition of beauty in the sense that she emphasised health and energy and exercise, eating well and taking care of yourself.
Celebrate your uniqueness
Don’t think about there being a standard of beauty to which you have to adhere. Instead of fitting yourself in a mould, find something you love about yourself. Whatever it is, don’t hide it. Make it your strong point. Mine is my lips; they are a good shape for red lipstick. No longer is there a rule that you have to be blonde and blue-eyed, thin and 20 years old. No longer do you have to be ‘perfect’. Do what feels good for you
I haven’t had any plastic surgery. I have an organic farm, and I don’t know how I would reconcile eating organic with having a Botox injection to paralyse muscles to avoid expressing. I’d rather say, ‘Let me try to be the best possible old woman I could be.’ I mean, there are things that drive me crazy – you know, sometimes the neck is very difficult to accept. But I try not to listen to that voice because I think that’s a voice of destruction and insecurity.
Have fun with make-up
Nowadays women use make-up for fun, and almost always for ourselves. It’s not just an instrument of seduction, but also an instrument of self-decoration, of pleasure, of play. I always have several red lipsticks. I’m an ambassador for Lancôme and the shade I prefer right now is its L’Absolu Rouge Cream in 012 Rose Nuance, £27. It’s not too red, and you don’t have to be very precise. I just put that on with some mascara, and that’s it.
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