We asked Oscar-winning actress Jessica Chastain — who was recently announced as the new face of True Botanicals — about the kissable lip balm, small-ear-appropriate earbuds, and nonirritating retinol she can’t live without.
I’m a New Yorker, and I’ve had these hats forever. I discovered them on set. Usually, when I’m on set, I like to do shopping on the weekends. If there’s a James Pearse store, that makes me very happy because I love the feel of its cotton. Its T-shirts were already kind of part of my everyday uniform and then, when I discovered the beanies, it was heaven. In New York, with the weather especially like it is right now, I’ll put one on every time I go outside.
I love lip balm. I like to dab my lips with a little bit of lipstick, but I love moisture and moisturizing my skin the most. I love that this isn’t sticky. I think some lip balms can be a little sticky, and I have a pet peeve that if my hair gets stuck on it, it’s not something I want to wear. This just feels natural: I love the smell; it’s kind of sweet. And it feels kissable — if I am lucky enough to get a kiss, it’s not going to deter the person (my husband).
There’s probably a pattern through all of my favorite things, and that’s hydration. Being a redhead, I have very sensitive skin and hair and I need to constantly hydrate myself. With Philip Kingsley, I don’t even use it as directed; I use it maybe a couple times a week when I take a shower, I’ll put it on the ends of my hair, twist my hair up into a topknot, and go to sleep like that with wet hair. I never rinse it out; I just keep it in my hair overnight. It’s all about the moisture, and I like what it does in terms of giving me a little bit of shine. It’s a natural way of keeping frizz at bay as well.
I like the size of it: It’s a mint that you have to commit to. Some people don’t like the chalkiness of it — I love it. I like a smooth mint; I like it chalky, like an Altoid, almost. But it’s bigger and softer than an Altoid. I also probably like the fact that I can’t buy it in the United States. So I’m someone who really stocks up on it when I travel to the U.K. I’ve got, like, 40 rolls of it in my house — there’s a drawer filled with them. And I bring them everywhere. When I’m doing press or when I’m meeting people and signing autographs, I always make sure that I’m not thrown into a situation where I don’t have a mint (and a Sharpie).
I think they’re just so beautiful and chic. I have them in the rose-gold color, and I love them. I had a panic at one point: I was in a taxi and I thought I left the case in there because I was on a call. Luckily I found it the next day, but I was going to go out and buy another pair. I love that they don’t hurt my ears. I have small ears, so if it’s a hard earbud, it really doesn’t feel good after taking calls for a while. I also love that they don’t fall out.
I don’t really have a signature scent. I choose a different scent for each character I play, and so I always discover new perfumes, but Le Labo is my favorite perfumery. I have multiple that I wear, and I love the orange-blossom one. (I also love the rose, labdanum, and the iris.) I’ve had a very long relationship with that company: The orange blossom I wore for The Tree of Life, I wore labdanum for Lawless, and I wore rose for Scenes From a Marriage. So it depends on what I’m playing.
The bottles are made from 100 percent recycled ocean-bound plastic. The company works by going into the rivers and cleaning the rivers of plastic, because once it goes from the rivers to the ocean, you can’t use it anymore. So it’s actually working to clean up our rivers. I also am very particular about water. I don’t like to drink it that often. Some people are like, “I’m addicted to water,” but for me it’s always like, “I’ve got to drink some water.” And there are certain waters that I just don’t like because they are either mineral-y or there’s a saltiness to them. This one I like. And I also like the size of the bottle. It’s wide, so it feels almost as if I’m drinking from a small glass.
I love the company because I’m vegan. It’s cruelty-free; it’s vegan; it’s organic. It’s everything I want in my skin-care routine. And I love retinol because I also don’t like wrinkles, so I want to do whatever I can to get rid of them. But traditional retinol, I think because I’m a redhead and because I have dry skin, could leave me with little dry patches and flaky and not so great [skin]. The True Botanicals retinol works two times faster than the traditional retinol, and it doesn’t leave my skin with those side effects, which, especially when I’m doing work where I’m being photographed or I’m being filmed, I don’t want dry patches on my face.
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