Brace yourselves, beauty followers: the Way of Winslet is upon us. In some ways, it’s hard to imagine Kate Winslet spearheading a beauty trend. Those high cheekbones, the elegant mouth, her perfect eyebrows (which, by the way, she does nothing to), all spell classic rather than trendy. Hers is a face that Lancôme (say it Winslet-style, with a long, rolling and ever so sultry “a”) reserves for its most classic offerings.
Except that classic is back. At least, classic in a 1930s and 1940s film-noir sense — red lipstick, painted nails, dewy skin and pin curls, those enduring symbols of glamour and womanliness. Just check out the Gucci and Dries Van Noten AW11 catwalks.
Which also brings us to Mildred Pierce, the new Sky Atlantic miniseries, with Winslet in the title role. The story begins in 1931, in Depression-era California, with Mildred as a downtrodden and somewhat frumpy wife and mother. Winslet starts out with shortish, mousy hair and barely any make-up, then progresses, as the character grows in confidence and success, to longer, honey-coloured curls and red lippy. The progression was partly a means of getting the message across, but “also to do with the period, as in a short space of time hair lengths changed quite dramatically”, Winslet says.
However, no matter how severe her money worries, Winslet’s Mildred always has red varnish on her toenails. “That was a conscious decision on the part of the costume designer Ann Roth and the make-up artist Linda Melazzo. Women took great pride in their toenails and fingernails back then. Painted fingernails look glamorous. Even if you’ve got no make-up on, when you have red polish on, it makes a real statement about who you are as a woman. But Mildred is so unglamorous, I felt that was wrong, you know. But the toenails, we decided that would be the one thing she had.”
As I was doing it, I was thinking, ‘Oh God, I really need to shave my legs as well’ In fact, Winslet has carried on that part of the trend. “Because I wore red polish for 17 weeks straight, I now don’t like looking at my toenails with nothing on. I have something on now,” she says, slipping off a high-heeled Louboutin to display a plum paint job. “A year or so ago that would not have been the case. And that’s not a big pedicure job, that’s me going, ‘God I can’t bear to stare at my naked toenails any more.’”
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It turns out she is good at DIY beauty — she did her make-up all by herself for this event, which is unusual when you’re an A-lister being wheeled out for one-to-one interviews with the world’s press.
“I normally do my own these days, except for red-carpet events, as I’m not good with eye shadow and smudginess and things like that.” She has also applied Lancôme Teint Miracle foundation to her bare legs. “It’s great — it’s really thin, so it never looks caky.” And though we can’t all afford to rub £25 foundation onto our limbs, she brings things back down to earth with: “As I was doing it, I was thinking, ‘Oh God, I really need to shave my legs as well.’ That was last week’s attempt,” she says, pointing to a small nick in her knee. She’s not a leg waxer: “I’m just too impatient. I can’t be doing that thing of leaving it for 10 days. No. So bikini line, yes. Underarms, I’m getting quite into waxing them actually. It’s painful, way more painful than the bikini line, but just two rips and it’s done.”
Then again Winslet always has been something of an unofficial mouthpiece for real woman and sensible attitudes towards how we look. And in Mildred Pierce, she isn’t shy about flaunting it au naturel, displaying “a rocking body”.
“Ha, ha, ha, that’s so funny,” she guffaws. But for her, the debate on her body is old news — she hasn’t even weighed herself since 2005. “I make the best of what I’ve got now,” she says. That means following a Pilates DVD on a mat at home or on towels when she’s away, and she runs. “I started running a little about a year ago, which I didn’t think I could do because I have a back problem, but it’s been okay. It’s not much — 2½-3 miles a few times a week, when I’ve got the time.” She eats sensibly, but is not fanatical (this morning breakfast was a piece of toast and half a handful of Smarties, which had been left in her hotel room for her kids). “Being healthy is more important than anything. I’m a single mum now, and I am much more aware of being healthy and strong for the kids,” she says. And setting them a good example. “Not long ago I realised that, when I was growing up, I never heard the women around me saying anything positive about themselves physically, and I don’t want Mia to grow up like that,” she says. “So, if she comments on something like my belly or whatever, I say, ‘Yeah, you know I’m so proud of that because I had you and Joe, and it’ll always be a bit rumply like this.’ I try to turn those things into something positive.”
As for Botox, trust me, there’s none there. “I’m glad you said that,” she says, with a face that moves with more animation than Nick Park could shake a stick at and possesses some fine wrinkles. “First of all, I can’t imagine putting needles in my face, I think it’s really scary. And I have no desire to freeze and paralyse parts of my face — and this is for my job, too. I have a really pronounced frown here, and I use this muscle a lot and this muscle,” she points to the centre of her forehead, “and I need that muscle. I need all this stuff to move around for my work.”
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For her Lancôme work, however, she was meant to be talking about the limited-edition make-up collection she has created with the brand for her autism charity, the Golden Hat Foundation. Except that we never got round to it. So, in the spirit of the sisterhood, I can tell you that it will be on counters in November, and that, yes, it does include a really great red nail polish.
Get the Mildred Pierce look