“Don’t touch your eyebrows and refrigerate everything.”

The last several years have been a beauty whirlwind for Emilia Clarke, with lavish character makeovers and massive hair transformations for roles in Solo: A Star Wars Story, Last Christmas, and of course, Game of Thrones. Now in quarantine, Clarke has gone back to her roots (literally) by embracing the beauty of a simple—but effective—beauty routine. We caught up with Clarke, who serves as Clinique’s Global Ambassador, to chat about her skincare philosophy, next hair goal, and her unusual mascara trick for getting long, fluttery lashes.

How does your skin feel these days, and have you changed your routine in the last year?

It’s interesting, because you go through phases of being like ‘Ah, okay, it needs more hydrating,’ but then you might get more spots. So it kind of goes with the seasons, for sure. But the Moisture Surge 100 Hour has been its saving grace. Because it allows your skin to make more water. So it’s not like you’re putting on a thick moisturizing lotion that can sit and make the spots, it’s actually encouraging your skin to behave better. And I find that has been a complete saving grace. Because I get really, really dry skin. I get dry patches. London in winter, I mean, it’s been snowing, you’re inside, you’ve got to whack all those radiators on and then go outside and it’s freezing. Everyone’s gonna get patchy, like that’s just something that everyone’s going to go through, and the stress of living in a pandemic. I’ve also just done a lot of making sure my skin is as clean as possible—like even more so than normal. And then I’ve also been doing a lot of face masks.

Are you a big water drinker naturally? How did you manage to stay hydrated while filming around the world?

I’ve always got my flasks with me, I’ve always got my big bottles of water with me. And you just kind of keep topping it up. Back in the day, when we first started, it was all plastic bottles, and then we got rid of them. And then it was a water cooler. And then it was the one where everyone got a flask with every season. It was just a very easy thing to kind of always be topping that up and keeping that on you. And making sure yours was labeled.

Are you planning any more hair transformations, or are you sticking with your natural hair color for now?

Yeah, no, I’m done. This is my natural natural hair color—no hairdresser has treated it. So this is me. And my next goal is to grow it to my bum. I just want it really, really long.

Are you doing anything special to help it grow?

That’s where lockdown been quite helpful in that I wash my hair once a week, which helps your hair. The less you wash it, the better it is. Not needing to tong it, not needing to do something to it, allowing it to dry naturally. I’ve got really brilliant shampoo and conditioners, and I just kind of stuck to what I know. I do a lot of hair masks as well, and whisper sweet nothings to it. Just loving it. I’m just trying to take this moment to like give it as much goodness as it can.

What beauty treatments have you been missing during quarantine?

I’ve been missing massages. Oh my god, that’s my number one. My number one is a good massage and then facials. I could do with the industrial clean facial, like a professional person coming along and really getting into it. And then nails. I’m pretty basic when it comes to those kind of spa treatments. I’m like, just rub my face a bit, rub my back a bit, paint my nails.

For nails, I’m a gel girl, because I can’t be bothered to wait for things to dry. All I’ll do is cuticle oil, or use Clinique Moisture Surge instead, and nail strengthener. And that’s it. And then at some point the strengthener comes off, and I might put it back on again.

My hands gets so dry. So the Moisture Surge is is genuinely amazing when your cuticles are dry instead of a cuticle oil. It’s brilliant.

What is one piece of beauty wisdom that has been passed down to you?

My mom’s, which I’ve spoken about endlessly, is don’t touch your eyebrows. I love it. Just don’t—just leave them completely as they are. My granny was also very into the tea spoons in the fridge. I would often keep my Moisturizing Lotion, face masks, and eye creams in the fridge. Eye cream in the fridge is good because what you really want your eye cream to do is to get rid of puffy eyes. So yeah, don’t touch your eyebrows and refrigerate everything.

My mom taught me, and this sounds really ridiculous, but she taught me this as well. Genuinely if I have the time, which I do at the moment, when you’re putting your mascara on, it helps to think to the end of your lash. If you want to have long lashes a.) get Clinique’s High Impact mascara, and b.) as you’re putting it on, think about the end of the lash. I promise me you’ll get a little bit of extra length.

We know you love a hashtag. Give us a hashtag for how you hope the rest of 2021 goes.

Just #Joyjoyjoyjoyjoyjoyjoyjoyjoyjoyjoyjoyjoyjoyjoyjoy, like a whole page of Instagram. That is genuinely how I feel—I want everyone to be get a little bit of that. And then #breathbreathebreathebreathebreathebreathebreathebreathe. And then #partypartypartypartyparty. [Source]