'I just moved to New York from Austin, Texas. I just finished filming Sin City: A Dame to Kill For and an untitled Terrence Malick film—I'm so excited for them to come out. Before I became an actress, I was a cellist. I’ve been playing since I was 14, was in a lot of bands, and acting was more of a hobby. But a year ago, I had a really big life shift: I broke up with my boyfriend, moved out of my house, and got fired from my job all in the same week. The next day, I was crying on my way to deposit my last paycheck, and I got into a car accident. It was time to make a change. [Laughs] That’s when I decided to take acting seriously. I had always wanted to do it, and at that point, what did I have to lose?

Since I started acting, I had to quit a lot of bad habits. I've tried to stop biting my nails, because people always look at your nails during auditions. Truth be told, I still have a 'cheat nail,' but I've been cheating less and less. I also had to stop smoking cigarettes, because it makes your skin look completely different on camera. And I started following a macrobiotic diet. My dad was a holistic doctor, so putting good things into my body has always been something I’ve strived for.

I also try to put good things on my body. For my skin, I swear by grape seed, coconut, and jojoba oils. At night, I wash my face with Bobbi Brown Extra Bright Advanced Foaming Cleanser, which I really love, then I moisturize with a mix of oils, like jojoba and grape seed, to sleep in. In the morning I’ll use a more exfoliating cleanser, and then put on a really light moisturizer, like Lancôme’s Bienfait Aqua Vital Lotion. If I want to even out my skin tone, I wear a little MAC StudioFix Powder in NC35. I like my freckles, so I don’t use very much of it.

When I'm doing my makeup, my favorite feature to enhance is the brows. They frame your face—good eyebrows are so important. I swear by the Anastasia Brow Kitbecause it has stencils, a perfect angled brush, different cream shadows, and powders; I’ve had it for so long. In acting, they say if people can’t see your eyes, there’s no point, and strong brows help. I wear Lancôme Hypnose Drama mascara every day, and, when I want to feel a little more stylized, I draw in a cat eye with Bobbi Brown Longwear Gel Eyeliner in Black Ink. It makes me feel like a Sixties icon.

I try to keep my hair pretty natural, pretty as-is. It’s very curly, so I tame it a bit with Kevin Murphy Hair Resort Spray and then blow-dry it. I feel like people think curly hair is distracting (which is unfortunate). My hairdo today is a lazy interpretation of the ‘40s and the ‘80s at the same time. You coil one side and stick a little pin in; that's it.

I’m kind of lax about hair, in general. I stopped shaving my armpits in part to experiment with pheromones, but also because I just didn’t feel like shaving them anymore. I wanted to see if it would draw different types of people to me... It's only been a few weeks, so, no conclusions yet. Otherwise, for scent, I wear a little amber oil.”

—as told to ITG

Callie Hernandez photographed by Emily Weiss in New York on September 23, 2013.