Cate Blanchett's Beauty Evolution

On her beauty role models: I remember seeing Ingrid Bergman when she played Golda Meir, and also Liv Ullmann, and thinking wow, says Blanchett (pictured here in 1994). I discovered them as older actors, so I admired their work first. Then I looked back at their work and saw what incredible beauties they were when they were young and how, as older women, they were still incredibly beautiful. I thought, I want to age like that, to have an inner life.

On shunning the sun: It was desperately uncool to be pale, says Blanchett of being a teenager in Australia. I used to cover myself in baby oil and lie on the tin roof, until one day my mother said, You're mental—would you come down? Then I went through a goth phase where I was pale, she admits. Although the goth period didn't last, Blanchett did revisit it with this look in 2000.

On staying grounded: I trained to work in the theater, and my husband and I have been running Sydney Theatre Company for four years now, so I think producing other people's work and facilitating and mentoring other people helps, says Blanchett, pictured with her husband in 2004.

On developing a positive self-image: In the end, I think it's the women who you're closest to—your mother and your grandmother—that have the most influence, she says. Of her own mother (pictured left, with Blanchett) and grandmother, she says, They're both really practical and unadorned; they're non-interventionists.

On raising children: I do worry that there is a whole generation of girls whose mothers are terrified of aging; it sets that example, says Blanchett, pictured here pregnant with her second (of three!) sons. I mean, I've got boys, so it's not as fragile.

On her skincare regimen: I am really, really lazy, so it has to be easy and it has to work for me to bother, says Blanchett, who has been using SK-II products for ten years. (She's also the spokesperson for the brand.) One of her tricks? When you wear a lot of makeup, either on film or when you go out somewhere, you feel as if you've put a mask on, so I use the Facial Treatment Essence on over it. It sets the makeup and you feel like you've got your skin back. And every morning and night, she slathers on intensely moisturizing LXP Ultimate Revival Cream.