Cate Blanchett can't remember a time when she wasn't in dialogue with Mr. Armani – face-to-face or remotely – about femininity. More specifically, the two are aligned in their belief that it isn't monolithic. “I have always embraced this idea that it’s a dance with these many dualities within us, and we don't need to prioritise one,” she tells me. With this in mind, “certainty and confusion can coexist,” she notes; “being in your 50s and feeling like a 16-year-old can coexist – and that's not a madness, that's what femininity is”. Frankly, “it is volcanic, and it's quiet, simultaneously”.
This philosophy extends to the renowned actress and producer’s perception of beauty. Despite our culture’s visual literacy, beauty – of course – is a feeling. “I think often we have a very narrow field of focus when we talk about beauty, but I find beauty in unexpected places. And through collaborations of various kinds over the years, my lens has widened – and I'm really grateful for that,” she tells me. While she feels beauty can be an aspiration, it’s far from one of chasing perfection, she adds. “Self-consciousness is the enemy of beauty,” she reasons: “the more one focuses on trying to attain it, it's like a mirage”.
This, in some part, explains her passion for perfume. “What I love about fragrance is that it has nothing to do with the so-called outward expression of beauty,” she says. Blanchett has been an ambassador for Giorgio Armani’s Sì since it launched a decade ago – and is currently representing its new impactful iteration, Sì Eau de Parfum Intense. “With fragrance you can create an atmosphere; it’s very emotionally, subconsciously charged,” she says. Naturally, it’s a tool for her craft. “Anything that can help inhabit a character or atmosphere on set I will do,” she says. “Finding a scent for a character allows you to operate on a much more subconscious level.” Though, off-duty, she utilises fragrance to encourage anticipation, “which is where desire sits,” she explains. “I want to feel hungry and excited and desirous going into the day and ready to embrace the unexpected, which the world is full of. And I think fragrance is a great way of having agency or shaping that sense of anticipation and excitement.”
Embracing the unexpected is “something that takes a lot of courage,” she admits, “and I'm really cognisant of that”. Blanchett’s new Sì campaign (in which she leads a series of powerful women, symbolic of the multifaceted nature of the fragrance as much as femininity) embodies how saying ‘Sì’ – ‘yes’ – can create possibilities. I wonder what she’s thankful to have embraced. “Saying yes to being with my partner, who I’ve been with for 26 years! Trusting that instinct and weathering the good times and the tricky times as it continues to evolve – it has presented me with so many opportunities that I'm grateful for, not least of which my four kids.” On a professional level, “it's always been the projects that I was most terrified of because I think if you turn that fear into excitement some incredible opportunities come – so I'm grateful for finding the courage to say yes to those moments when I'm terrified”.
Reflecting on her “internal and external evolution” at age 54, we touch on how beauty culture has shifted. “You get asked less and less how it feels ageing,” she says. “I often got asked that once I was over the age of 30 – as a woman, actress, someone in the public eye.” She continues, “your emotional and intellectual life evolves as much as your physical appearance, I think”. Increasingly, she focuses on health “and that notion of ‘wellness’,” though she jokes of not knowing what the word means. Today’s mental health agenda, “and the toll that not being mentally and spiritually healthy can take on you physically,” is so interlinked with beauty, she notes. “I'm grateful for the fact that we're talking more holistically about the notion of beauty. I grew up in the ‘80s and ‘90s, when there was a very acute pressure on women and their ‘use by’ date from a beauty point of view. And I'm appreciative to all the women who have come before me who have completely challenged that conversation and knocked it off the agenda.”
So, what does her holistic routine look like? “I'm very conscious of what goes into my body – you have to think about what is in the water, literally. I take collagen and probiotics. In Chinese culture, it's been referred to as a second brain and I think gut health is incredibly important for your skin – and so that's money well spent.” Throughout her childhood in Australia, Blanchett’s mother was very sun-conscious and so now, to her, “sunscreen is a beauty product”, and she “wouldn't ever use a moisturiser without sunscreen protection”. When it comes to make-up, she favours formulas that “feed your skin while you wear them”. Her favourite foundation is the iconic Armani Beauty Luminous Silk, “which is fantastic because you don't need a lot of it,” she says, revealing her dislike of feeling caked in make-up. “And I know how great it is because even in front of HD cameras picking up every pore, you can have a sort of non-make-up look, while covering a few things that you don't necessarily want to share with the world!”
This less-is-more ethos applies to her consumption of beauty, too. “I think that thoughtless, endless consumption has no beauty in it. And I think that as a brand, as well as an individual, if you don't embrace sustainability, you face the prospect of being utterly irrelevant.” With the new Sì Eau de Parfum Intense she’s “excited by the fact that, for this fragrance, L'Oreal and Mr. Armani have collaborated with local NGOs” and that the bottle is made to last. Refills, she explains, appeal to her as they help guide consumption. “I think that there's a thoughtfulness to that and, therefore, a beauty to it.” In her role as global ambassador for Armani Beauty she’s very conscious not to try to inspire onlookers, (“my kids keep telling me, ‘Not everything can be a teaching moment!’”) but if anyone can – and does, both eloquently and effortlessly – it’s she.
Sì Eau De Parfum Intense is available from 6th September at Boots.
