Kate Winslet’s Relaxed Approach to Beauty Keeps Her Looking and Feeling Amazing at 45
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Mare of Easttown star Kate Winslet has learned to prioritize wellness over beauty.
“I have learned that health comes before reaching for a mirror or a bottle of product,” the 45-year-old actress said.
Here’s what she does to keep herself looking and feeling her best.
Compared to her Hollywood counterparts, Kate Winslet’s presence has always been refreshingly real. Since she broke onto the scene in Titanic, the 45-year-old actress has never tried to be something she isn’t, and her role as a distressed mom and determined detective in Mare of Easttown highlights that candid persona.
To put it frankly, Winslet’s Mare Sheehan looks disheveled most of the time—and for good reason, she’s solving a crime while battling her own inner demons. But that didn’t stop the show’s streamer from commenting on it. “HBO said, ‘Does Kate have to look so …’ And I said, ‘What, like sh*t? Yes. Kate does have to look like sh*t,” Winslet recalled to The Times.
If she’s going to play a real, working mom who’s unraveling a teenage girl’s murder, she wants to look like one—because to her, authenticity is important. And that—more than anything—is what makes her so attractive.
When it comes hair, makeup, and skincare, Winslet dabbles in it, but doesn’t give it too much of her energy. As she’s gotten older, she’s realized that beauty truly comes from within.
“Honestly, I have learned that health comes before reaching for a mirror or a bottle of product,” she told British Vogue in 2017. “And if anything, I do look in the mirror less and less as I get older. In my twenties I probably thought about my appearance more than I do now, for the simple reason that as I get older I have more important things that concern me than how I look.”
She continued: “My approach to beauty these days comes from a place of wanting to feel happy and healthy. Plus I know that I feel my most beautiful when I feel like I am being a good mum, and when I am doing my best in my job and in loving my family. If I look after myself first and can look after everyone else even better. And that is something I have only been able to learn with age.”
With that being said, here’s how Winslet ensures she’s always putting her best foot forward.
She keeps skincare simple and hydrating.
“My routine is pretty fast because it just has to be,” she told Vogue, adding that she always has wet hair because there’s hardly ever time to dry it. Still, she always takes her makeup off “no matter how tired I am” using Tracie Martyn’s Amla Purifying Cleanser and a flat facial sponge to make sure her face is “truly clean.”
As a former Lancôme ambassador, she uses her old favorite Lancôme Tonique Confort to nourish her dry skin, “and then I slather up with Advanced Genefique Sensitive,” she said, which she calls a “two-for-the-price-of-one product.”
“It combines two serum concentrates with a vitamin E boost, all in one bottle. Shake, slather, done,” she added. “It’s really hydrating and fresh and fast to use. All of this takes me about three minutes. Four if you include brushing teeth.”
When she has a long flight or really needs a boost, she’ll throw on Lancome’s Advanced Génifique Hydrogel Melting Mask and get the occasional facial. “In the U.K. I see Glenda Barton at The Skin Company,” she told Vogue. “Her facial totally transforms the skin, working with the body’s own muscle memory. Her heat-generated sculpting techniques literally put freshness and vitality back into the face without using any chemicals or peel type things, the idea of which scares me.”
As Winslet’s gotten older, she’s careful not to forget the skin on her body. “I probably moisturize my body much more these days than I used to,” she told Vogue. “This Works Skin Deep Dry Leg Oil is fab. I mix it with a couple of drops of lavender essential oil, which is really nice and not crazy expensive.”
She hydrates rests, and repeats.
“Sleep and health play a big part in looking fresh. If I’m over-tired or stressed, no amount of make-up and hair can disguise the impact of that on one’s face,” Winslet told Vogue. “My top tip would be water. Water, water, water. Keep the body hydrated and the skin will follow suit.”
Quick, light makeup is a must.
For her day-to-day routine, Winslet doesn’t do much but apply “the thinnest-of-thin-layers of foundation,” curl her lashes “out of habit more than anything,” and sometimes, she’ll throw some mascara in her pocket before heading out the door. “If that’s as much as I’ll achieve, I’m proud of myself,” she told InStyle.
She prioritizes exercise, not her weight.
Earlier this year, Winslet opened up to The Guardian about the “shocking and straight-up cruel” body shaming she experienced in her 20s, particularly after The Titanic. “I was still figuring out who the hell I bloody well was!” she told the outlet. “They would comment on my size, they’d estimate what I weighed, they’d print the supposed diet I was on. It was critical and horrible and so upsetting to read.”
Now, she simply hates talking about her weight, she recently told The Hollywood Reporter, discussing how she intentionally kept on pounds for the role of Mare.
And when asked how award ceremonies might change post-pandemic by Vanity Fair last fall, she had one thing to say: “I don’t like having to squeeze my hot-and-bothered mum-on-the-school-run body randomly into a red carpet dress that I’m never going to wear again.” In that moment, she committed to becoming a dress repeater, adding: “Everything will have to be let out, but whatever.”
Winslet enjoys exercise, “but not fanatically,” she told Vogue. Her go-tos are power yoga, barre cardio, and walking her dog.
She’s really into green juice and stays away from too much salt and alcohol.
If she must get glammed up for a red carpet event, the Ammonite star will amp up the green juice that she already enjoys often. “Our fridge is always full of spinach, kale, cucumbers. I’m vegetarian and my husband is vegan, so there’s a lot of plant-based focus in our home,” she told InStyle. She’ll also temporarily nix the wine and salty snacks.
“Whilst my life would be too dull without salt and the odd glass of wine, we all know that cutting them out makes for a healthier complexion,” she told Vogue. “At least it does in my case.”
She stays off social media.
You may’ve noticed that Winslet doesn’t have an Instagram, and neither do her kids. “Social media just isn’t a part of our lives, which is amazing,” the mom of three told InStyle. “I don’t need that noise in my life, and neither does my family ... As a mom, the one thing I want to be able to do for my kids is to protect their childhood. It’s over and done with so quickly. This time in their lives is precious.”
To her, beauty is all about experience and knowledge.
If you haven’t gathered, Winslet doesn’t get wrapped up in the surface-level. She’s wiser than that. “Beauty in your 40s is about depth and experience. And good habits,” she told MiNDFOOD in 2017.
And instead of getting a pedicure or manicure when she has a spare minute, she’d much rather practice another form of self-care: “Sit down with a cup of tea and a good crossword!”
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