Kate Winslets Beauty Secrets

Oscar Nominee, Lancôme Ambassador, and all-around cool-girl Kate Winslet dishes on her beauty tips, tricks, and secrets.

"When I'm slinging on mascara for the school run I got to know that I'm not gonna make a total mess with the five minutes that I have." - Kate Winslet

STYLELIST.COM: What's your five-minute makeup routine, before you take the kids to school?

KATE: "For school it's mascara, lip balm, and a little bit of concealer if I need it. That's literally it. But when I'm slinging on mascara for the school run I got to know that I'm not gonna make a total mess with the five minutes that I have. So I use Lancôme Definicils High Definition Mascara because is it really, really idiot proof. You can build with it and it doesn't flake."

Arnaldo Magnani - Getty Images

"You can hide a multitude of sins by throwing on a pair of dark shades." - Kate Winslet

STYLELIST.COM: What products are always in your travel bag?

KATE: "Lip balm, a mirror and a pair of dark glasses. You can hide a multitude of sins by throwing on a pair of dark shades. I really like Body Shop's lip balms - they're great! And just a little compact mirror to make sure that I'm keeping it together - especially if I'm getting off of a plane and there's going to be paparazzi there. So I always have those knocking around at the bottom of a bag somewhere."

Bauer-Griffin

"The last thing I want is to be having a conversation with Penelope Cruz for her to be thinking 'Oh, my God! Kate is caked! - Kate Winslet

STYLELIST.COM: You've looked so gorgeous at all the awards shows, but always natural. Do you find that less is more on the red carpet?

KATE: "There's a very fine line between wearing enough makeup but not too much - up close it could not look great. It's all very well to look at everyone in a photograph on the red carpet but at the end of the day we're all standing next to each other shaking each other's hand and saying 'Hello.' The last thing I want is to be having a conversation with Penelope Cruz for her to be thinking 'Oh, my God! Kate is caked!' You're always aware of it's not TV or a movie. It's real! It's real time."

Vince Bucci, Getty Images

"I haven't done any exercise since October!" - Kate Winslet

STYLELIST.COM: How are you keeping yourself in red carpet shape for this awards season?

KATE: "In the past, I've always tried to adhere to not eating a lot of bread and getting as much rest as possible before a big event. But this particular awards season, because I'm so happy and thrilled that this is happening to me, I really want to be able to enjoy it. So I'm trying to be very relaxed, not doing any exercise (I haven't done any exercise since October!) and I'm eating what I want in moderation. Putting restrictions on yourself can increase the stress levels, and you can become obsessed with how you look. And I don't want to be obsessed with how I look. I want to really enjoy being out there - these moments because they might not come around again."

Dimitrios Kambouris, WireImage

"What I love about Jill is she is very light of hand..." - Kate Winslet

STYLELIST.COM: I know you work will Jillian Dempsey for makeup. What do you like about her style?

KATE: I have been working with Jill since just after I did Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. So about five or six years now. I met her because she works also with Kirsten Dunst, who was in Eternal Sunshine. What I love about Jill is she is very light of hand but at the same time it doesn't necessarily mean that she uses less makeup. She's just very, very clever about the products she does use, and she knows how to make the skin look great."

Giulio Marcocchi - Getty Images

"There have been times when Jill literally has 25 lip colors all over the inside of one arm..." - Kate Winslet

Q: What's your favorite red carpet feature?

A: "Lip color is something that is always important - there's been many occasions where Jill literally has 25 lip colors all over the inside of one arm and 25 all over the inside of the other arm and she goes 'Okay, these are our options.' It's also all about having healthy-looking skin, and making the eyes pop and without looking overdone."

GABRIEL BOUYS, AFP/Getty Images

"It's all about feeling confident." - Kate Winslet

STYLELIST.COM: What's been your favorite makeup look so far this awards season? What about it did you love?

KATE: "I really, really liked the makeup that Jill did for me at the SAG Awards. I just really liked it. It was occasion-appropriate. It was just very clean. Sort of warmed up my skin a little. And she made me look very...you know...just fresh! And confident, and it's all about feeling confident."

Steve Granitz, WireImage

"I enjoyed looking sort of peachy and dewy." - Kate Winslet

STYLELIST.COM: You've played such diverse characters over your career – which was your favorite, from a beauty standpoint?

KATE: "I think I would never want to say 'Oh, I looked beautiful in that!' but my favorite look and when I felt kind of prettiest was Sense and Sensibility. It had a very fresh, young, sweetly soft look and not very much makeup. And just really lovely period hair. The look worked very well for the character I was playing and I enjoyed looking sort of peachy and dewy. It was a really nice moment. Of course, in those days I had a little bit of a fuller face and my skin was soooo good. You know I could get away with absolute murder. Whereas now I can't."

COLUMBIA TRI STAR

"It's great sadness to me to curb my chocolate intake." - Kate Winslet

STYLELIST.COM: When you filmed Sense and Sensibility you were 20. What could you get away with then that you can't at age 33?

KATE: "Now, I really need my sleep. I can't eat too much chocolate. I mean I don't care to get fat particularly but like I'll just break out. And it's great sadness to me to curb my chocolate intake. I mean who the hell wants to have to do that in life. So I have to keep an eye out. I can't have too much sodium if I'm traveling a lot or if I'm doing a red carpet because I will get puffy around the eyes. I'm just like everybody else. You know? There is no magic formula. Now I do have to pay attention to these things. In the old days I didn't have to."

Tom Wargacki, WireImage

"I looked a lot like my grandmother, who died 6 months before we made the film." - Kate Winslet

STYLELIST.COM: Which role was your least favorite in the sense that they were the farthest stretch from your natural beauty comfort zone?

KATE: "The Reader - in the movie I aged 38 years. So I had to have 7 hours worth of prosthetics applied many days because I age up to 68 years old. And it was a very...I mean it was not me at all. But it didn't scare me; it was actually quite moving because I looked a lot like my grandmother, who died 6 months before we made the film. The technicians who designed the prosthetic makeup went to visit my mother, who's in her early 60s, to get a sense of how my face would age. It was a very painstaking process and a lot of care was taken in finding that look. I was fascinated by it."

Melinda Sue Gordon, The Weinstein Company