How Jennifer Garner Is Dealing With Maskne

Devon Abelman
·5 min read

Before my phone interview with Jennifer Garner begins, she has some questions of her own. In true mom fashion, she asks me where I've been sheltering in place and if everything has been OK. (Brooklyn; yes, I'm adapting to everything.) For a second, I feel like I'm catching up with an aunt instead of a celebrity of Jennifer Garner proportions. 

Once we get to the task at hand — chatting about beauty, her kids inevitably come up. She mentions their favorite sunscreen — from Neutrogena, of course, because their mom is a spokesperson for the brand — and they all have a different way they like to apply it. Although Garner doesn't give me specifics, I nod along as if I, too, know Violet likes her sunscreen slathered on like this while Seraphina prefers it like that. 

What's Garner's favorite kind of sunscreen? She shared her pick, as well a recent addition to her skin-care routine: toner. “That is something I would be skipping," she tells Allure. "That is something I've adopted during quarantine. We'll see if I keep it up.” 

ALLURE: How has your skin-care routine changed during this time? 

JENNIFER GARNER: I'm always pretty good about taking care of my skin, but I have been a little more into doing masks and taking the time to exfoliate and just taking a little better care. I have not been wearing as much makeup.

I've been really into the whole Neutrogena family of masks during quarantine because they're so inexpensive and you can try a different one any day of the week. One day I got onto Zoom and I accidentally forgot that I had a mask on, I was peeling it off as the camera came on. It was like, "whoops," but I was all dewy.

But if I am going to do an exfoliant, it is usually the Hydro Boost Exfoliating Cleanser because I know that it's going to give me a lot of good hyaluronic acid while I'm exfoliating. 

ALLURE: What do you think is like the most important part of your skin-care routine no matter what?

GARNER: It has always been one thing, and even if I hadn't had this job for so many years, I would have one thing to say sunscreen. Nothing looks better in your fifties than sunscreen in your twenties. Never forget it. For me, this summer, I love spray-on sunscreen because we're not supposed to touch our faces; we are supposed to wear sunscreen. This you can just spray on and go, and you don't even have to rub it in. 

ALLURE: When did you realize SPF was so important?

GARNER: Pretty early on. I would say that I got pretty serious about sunscreen in my 20s. Although I wasn't outside all that much, I was always in a theater or working at a theater. I wasn't really somebody who went to the beach, so my skin was saved by a very geeky adolescence and early adulthood.

ALLURE: Now that we are wearing masks a lot, have they changed anything about your skin-care routine?

GARNER: Absolutely. You have to just take the extra step. That's why I've been exfoliating a little more and using an exfoliating cleanser. I do think it's so important to wear a mask, and it can also trap things in your pores, so you just want to be mindful of that. You just have to make sure you really are putting a clean mask on a clean face and cleaning your face when you take it off.

I also really like toners, like a pore-refining [one], after wearing the mask. It is a great way to make sure you've gotten everything out of your skin as well.

ALLURE: How do you like to apply toner?

GARNER: I put it on either the edge of my washcloth, which I don't know if you're supposed to do that, or a cotton pad so that I can see what else has gotten out of that skin.

ALLURE: Have you made any other beauty discoveries while sheltering in place?

GARNER: I learned how to blow-out my hair for the first time in my life. [Hairstylist] Adir [Abergel] and I FaceTimed. We actually ended up posting it on Instagram. He had to teach me in real-time, and I did not have extra time to be coy about it. We just had to get it done because I had to be on The Tonight Show from home. I've done my own hair and makeup for so many things over the last few months, and I've learned a bunch.

ALLURE: Anything makeup-related?

GARNER: I have learned the importance of powder in front of a camera, which, I mean, I've been powdered a million times in my life, but I'd never paid attention. Now, I get it. I've also learned the importance of your neck matching your face.

ALLURE: When you do your eye makeup, do you like to do something in particular for your virtual appearances?

GARNER: I don't really trust myself to do a ton, but what I will do is I'll take a liquid eyeliner, and I just go right, right into the lash. Then, smoke it up a little bit with either a brush or Q-tip. If I only do that, mascara, and eyebrow pencil, then, I feel like, OK, I've done a great job.

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Originally Appeared on Allure