on make-up, skincare and fragrance

While sourcing inspiration from the past, British film and TV star Lucy Boynton has become something of a modern-day beauty icon, regularly walking the red carpet with striking looks that ooze creativity in ways that feels unbounded by conventional beauty standards. It's this "relationship with make-up being something that's expressive and decorative and playful – rather than enhancement," that makes Boynton's beauty philosophy so joyfully inspiring. She's at once otherworldly and quietly relatable.

But 'beauty' is very much a journey for the star best known for her roles in titles including Bohemian Rhapsody, The Ipcress File and The Politician. There's plenty to navigate, she tells us, revealing ongoing skin struggles (which, as anyone who's suffered with spots will know, corresponds to confidence); challenges with hair health (amid colour changes dictated by work); and finding the motivation to move ("as it's hard to persuade myself to get into a gym," she shares).

Boynton is speaking to us as the face of Chloé fragrance, a contract that encouraged her to "interrogate" her own relationship with scent, she reflects. Now, perfume "always feels like that final touch to feeling complete," she adds – an invisible embellishment that's for her and those she makes memories with.

Below, see more of the actress' eloquent thoughts on beauty as both a means of self-expression and self-care.

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On first discovering the world of beauty...

"My mum was a journalist who wrote about beauty products throughout her career, so I grew up with her very covetable bathroom beauty cabinet; my sister and I were alway digging into her products and I've always had that association with something being very elegant and grown-up about self-care. Then, I got into my teens and beauty became a kind of necessity – when your skin changes and you decide to become a bit more of an author of how you look."

On those who have influenced her approach to beauty...

"My mother has been a big influence from a self-care perspective. And then in terms of beauty as decoration as I really enjoy it now, Jo Baker – the major make-up artist who I most frequently work with – has been the biggest influence. She pulls references from the most abstract corners and the kind of periods that I love: the ‘60s and ‘70s. But then she'll find other spectrums and textures in the rooms that we're getting ready in or something and that'll immediately change and inform the looks. Having that perspective has really changed my idea of beauty and my relationship with make-up – seeing it as something that's expressive and decorative and playful, rather than a beauty enhancement."

On the importance of make-up as a means of self-expression...

"I started to enjoy it so much more when I realised it could be a form of self-expression or experimentation, because I think so often – especially growing up – there's a pressure to get it right. As soon as you realise that it's this open opportunity and that you are a blank canvas to decorate and express how you please, you realise it's a kind of art form; there is no right and wrong. Then it's just fun and free and unleashed."

On her favourite make-up products for her signature style...

"All of Jo Baker's products from Bakeup Beauty, her range. I don't have the skill to do the kinds of graphic liner and other specific details that make-up designers that I work with can, so I like that her eyeshadow palettes are really pigmented but really easy to blend and apply with your fingers, and her Playbox has loads of face gems that you can just stick on. Her mascara, the Tarantulash mascara, is amazing. I use that with the tubing Kevin Aucoin The Volume mascara which immediate gives ‘60s lashes – which, when in doubt, is my kind of go-to direction."

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On skin struggles and cultivating confidence to go make-up-free...

"I think it's always people with perfect complexions that are able to champion the freedom of no-make-up looks. I really struggled with my skin growing up and recently it's changed again in the last few years while filming – when I'm doing 14-hour days in really heavy make-up and under heavy lights my skin reacts to that and just breaks out. For a while, I felt too self-conscious and shy about going out with no make-up on. But when my skin got really bad, I was forced to become less precious about my appearance and people's perception of it because it was out of my control. Funnily enough, since then I've got much more confident about it. But it's a developing relationship. I'd really love to get to a point where I don't just have to have what I would deem ‘good skin’ to be able to go make-up free."

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On her skincare journey...

"I think it's very much ongoing; I’m still trying to figure out what works because even when I've found a really great collection of products, either the season changes or my work environment changes. I'm always trying to find products that are really clean and good for sensitive skin, and at the moment I'm using a lot of Yellow Rose products and a lot of Weleda products, which are just very gentle."

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On caring for her hair throughout various colour changes...

"I've done too many colour changes recently! I see a great colourist, Mark Selley in London, who I followed from salon to salon; he’s at Jo Hansford now. He has the kind of magic hands and is the only reason I have any hair left after the amount of colour changes I've had to do. We change up products that we're using each time and experiment with what works. At the moment I’m trying out K18, that healing mask, which is working great. When I'm blonde I love the Christophe Robin Baby Blonde hair mask, which keeps it a really beautiful ashy, cold tone, but also seems to really hydrate it. I'm always experimenting with very moisturising and conditioning products."

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On developing loyalty to fragrance...

"It was through my relationship with Chloé that I really started to interrogate my own relationship with fragrance. I'm such a sentimental person and fragrance is the most acute sense that triggers memory. I realised I really love the idea of having a fragrance that is specific to you, because my favourite thing is smelling a perfume and immediately knowing the person who wears it and it reminding me of a time and place. So I started being much more loyal to my fragrance and sticking to one for that sentimental reason. The Chloé fragrance is a really elegant scent; it's very floral without feeling too youthful. It feels really elegant and it's really long lasting, which I love. I wore it all throughout lockdown and in quarantine as well because I realised it made me feel much more put-together. I think a really beautiful fragrance always feels like that final touch to feeling complete."

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On applying perfume...

"I try and go both wrists, the inside of the crook of the arm, and then behind the ears so that it catches in the hair – then you kind of get that aura. Supposedly you're supposed to spritz it behind your knees as well, which is probably more effective in summer."

On pre-event beauty body and facial treatments...

"Because I have to take my skincare more seriously now, before an event or something I get a facial treatment, which in the UK will be with amazing Guendalina Gennari, otherwise known as 'the skin sculptor'. In LA, I see Cynthia Franco, who does these amazing head-to-toe treatments – it's a full facial and then a body treatment where she wraps you up like a burrito in this hot blanket, and you just sweat everything out. You leave feeling like you've had a reset."

On post-event wind-down rituals...

"A long bath and a glass of wine – probably red or something sparkling. It's nice when you're in the full hair and make-up that you love, but I also love the paring back of everything – taking off the fancy dress and the hair and make-up and heels and just getting comfortable again. Usually a long bath and a glass of wine is the remedy for that."

On the importance of being active...

"I realise I feel my best when I'm really active, which is why I love living in London and why I've previously loved living in New York; you get to walk everywhere and so it becomes integrated into your day. I love the form of exercise where you're tricked into exercising, as it's hard to persuade myself to get into a gym. I love when it's related to my work as well – for example, I once had to do ballet classes for a role. I randomly got into ice skating at one point just to find a form of exercise that is a fun activity rather than a dedicated and a disciplined hour. So, again, it’s like the journey with my hair and skin; I'm constantly looking for a new activity or new adventure to help me keep active."

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On the beauty of reading books...

"You have those little things I think that return you to yourself and I find when I haven't been reading as much I feel much more scattered, whereas reading is something that really centres me and pulls me back into feeling much better.

"Caleb Azumah Nelson writes really beautiful books. He's just released another one called Small Worlds, which I'm about to start, and I loved his book, Open Water, which I thought was just beautiful. But this time of year I go to something like Shirley Jackson or I keep going back to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I guess with Halloween having just passed I'm in that kind of headspace, and especially when it gets wintery. I want something really dark and cosy."

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Caleb Azumah Nelson 'Open Water'