Tres Jolie

Actress, director, and humanitarian ANGELINA JOLIE talks makeup, her punk-hair moment, and why she’ll never be a girlie girl

- Angelique Serrano

On a chilly January evening, Angelina Jolie nestles into a couch inside the highly fragrant Guerlain boutique on Paris’s Champs- Élysées. We’re meeting to toast the launch of Mon Guerlain Eau de Parfum Florale, for which she is the face. Jolie’s face, apart from softly smoked eyes, looks natural. “We’re all pretty natural,” she says of her family. She takes her time as she discusses her makeup skills (they’re good, but daughter Zahara is more the enthusiast), her skin (cared for by a dermatologist since she was 11), and her views on what it’s like to age when you’re known as one of the world’s most beautiful women.

How beauty-aware were you growing up?

Did you experiment with your hair and makeup? I’m sure I had my moments when I was little where I would put makeup all over my face, but I was a bit of a tomboy. And then I was a bit of a punk. Nowadays it’s very popular to dye your hair blue, for example. In my day you bleached it and used a Sharpie [for color].

You did that?

Yeah! I suppose my early memories were more as a creative person—and then early on as an actor. It’s a mask; it’s a part of creating a character. I’ve never gone to a girlfriend’s house and played makeup. I’m not one of those women who say, “Hey, let’s have a night and do each other’s hair.” I’ve never been that, but I find that really sweet. I buy a lot, especially for Z [Zahara]. She went through a period of trying different things, but she’s pretty natural. I remember she had a girlfriend over one night, and they said they were going to do dress-up and did I have any makeup?

What did you say?