“I’m an actress, and I’ve lived in New York for almost fifteen years. Primarily I’ve done film, although in the past few years, I did my first Broadway play, and now I’m doing my first TV show, Covert Affairs, which is a spy show about being a young woman in the CIA. I just wrapped this movie called Red Machine, which is sort of a thriller set in Alaska, and I have a movie coming out in the fall called Looper, which is like a sci-fi movie that Rian Johnson wrote and directed—the guy that made the movie Brick, do you know that movie? It’s cool. Brick is sort of film-noir and this one is more Blade Runner, but it’s Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis. I think it’s going to be good!

I think for myself, what shines through the best is when you feel good about yourself, you know what I mean? Confidence. It comes from a psychological place: how you feel about yourself and what you want to put out there initially, and then after that, I think it comes from a nutritional place—what you eat really affects how you look, and the better you are to your body, the better you feel, and the better you look, and the better you feel about how you look. When I put chlorophyll in my water, for example, I know that I feel more hydrated, and I just feel—this is going to sound so weird—but your sweat smells better, and it’s literally cleaner…you feel like the system is running cleaner. It’s chlorophyll drops, like what’s in a plant. A makeup artist was drinking it once, and her water looked black, and I was like, ‘What are you drinking?’ But after a week drinking chlorophyllic water, you do feel like the system runs better. And breakfast is really important. I started reading a lot about what the great nutritionists eat for breakfast, and one of the nutritionists I like is called Dr. Weil. He said he has fish for breakfast, so I started having fish for breakfast: a broiled piece of salmon with cold green tea and greens. Do yourself a favor and have that for breakfast one day, you feel so good! Super clean protein—it burns evenly so you don’t have that sugar rush, crash, caffeine, rush, crash cycle. You feel good and even for so long. If you have a doughnut and a cup of coffee, you’re going to crash; you’re going to be grouchy.

In my off time, I really go crazy low-maintenance. I rinse my hair with apple cider vinegar, and it takes all the product out. I’ll stop dyeing my hair, and my roots come out. I just try and give my body a break: just wash your face, and put on some sunscreen. You can pour apple cider vinegar in your bath too. I’m really obsessed with what you can put in your bathtub—I am a bath person, but only in a sort of detox-y way. I get too antsy sitting in there for too long. I’ll put oatmeal in my coffee grinder, and pour that powder in my tub. Super good for your skin. You have skin like a baby! And I put Greek yogurt on my face—you know, the 0% Greek yogurt, the Fage. You just scoop it out—it’s all cold when you put it on—and by the time it’s so warm that you don’t want it on your face anymore, you take it off. It’s really good for you—I mean, your skin looks so good. It hydrates because of the milk, but the lactic acid just gently takes the thinnest finest layer of skin down. And it’s cheap; you can get it at the bodega.

I keep switching my skincare routine recently—I’ll go back and forth between Super by Nicholas Perricone Free Clean cleanser, and then I love this Bliss Fabulous Foaming Face Wash. But then there’s also this line out of Canada that I really like called Pure & Simple. Their stuff is so gentle. Sometimes when things are so pure, it’s actually too strong on my face—just because it’s pure doesn’t mean it’s gentle, but I find Pure & Simple to be really awesome. I’m sort of obsessed with the Advanced Night Repair by Estée Lauder. I know you’re only supposed to use it for 21 days, but I use it all the time. And I’m learning my way with La Mer. I got the cream first, and it was really too heavy for my skin. When I was filming Red Machine, I was in the mountains and the snow and the dirt for 6 weeks: we’re shooting in the dark, we’re shooting all night, we’re shooting with animals, I’m covered in fake blood—talk about wear and tear, it’s no joke. When I came back, I really wanted to try and heal and be gentle and hydrating. So I bought the original La Mer, but it’s too heavy. So then I backed up into the lotion, which I like—it’s much thinner and lighter.

I live for the Lancôme eye makeup remover, because it can take everything off at the end of a 15-hour shoot day when you have a lot of makeup on. I don’t want to spend 18 hours washing my face when I come home. It’s oily, but that’s why it can take off 15 hours of eyeliner! I literally have to soak two pads in it, put it on my eyes, take that off, and then start washing my face. You don’t even open your eyes with all that stuff on. But if I’ve got a row of fake single lashes on, and so many layers, it breaks it all up. My eye cream, which I think is the best cream in the world, is Shiseido. I’ve been wearing the eye cream since I was 21—literally, a makeup artist gave me eye cream when I was 21, and she was like, ‘Trust me, put it on.’ I want to write her a thank you letter. I’m 35 now, and I know it makes a difference.

I do wear mascara, Maybelline Great Lash. It’s so good; the Very Black is very black—I just like it. And my favorite blush is Bobbi Brown Pale Pink. It looks like it should be too bright, but it sort of makes you look like you just had sex, so I love it. It’s just the right amount of just had sex. I love Giorgio Armani Face Fabric; it’s nice and light. I mean, if I’m actually going to be photographed, I’ll go all the way to foundation, but for real life I’ll just put on Face Fabric. And sometimes I’ll wear a hard red lip—crazy red Dior 999. Good, right? It’s so blue for a red; it’s so matte. If you’ve got nothing on your face but curled lashes and a red lip, it can’t be all bad. And then I love this Rodin Olio Lusso—it smells so good. I just bought her hair oil, and her body one. My hair is really too light and fine to put hair oil in the day, but it’s nice at night. I’ll come home and wash it and not dry it to try to give it a break, and then rub a bunch of hail oil into it, wrap a towel around my head, and go to bed. I keep Perricone’s lip balm next to my bed—it’s really good, super hydrating. And there’s a scented clay disk over the light bulb in my bedside lamp—the heat of your light bulb burns the oil so your bedroom smells good when your lamp’s on at night. Dude, when you turn on your lamp in your bedroom and you sit there and read for 10 minutes, all of a sudden you’re like, sniffs! And, say you’re having sex? It’s really great.”

—as told to ITG