In a genius PR move that could only have been negotiated by the likes of Samantha Jones, actress Kim Cattrall has teamed up with Charlotte Tilbury to front a sexy new campaign for the brand’s Pillow Talk Beauty Soulmates collection. “Who needs a man when you’ve got Pillow Talk?” Cattrall croons in the kitschy campaign video. To learn more about how this delightful beauty collaboration came to light, Bazaar caught up with Cattrall to chat about her makeup philosophy, key Charlotte Tilbury products, and the inspiration behind that infamous face-peel episode. (You know the one.)
First of all, I grew up watching Sex and the City, and I feel like that episode of you getting the peel was just the funniest and most important beauty thing I had ever seen on television.
What’s funny about that—I don’t know if I should tell you this—is they would always rob things from our lives on that show. I had been at an awards ceremony, and I was going for this kind of breezy summer look. So I asked the makeup artist if instead of doing a foundation, we could just do one of those tanning creams, right? So I’m getting my hair and my makeup done. They’ve got the tan stuff on, my hair is taking a little longer, and then they take the tan stuff off of my face. And it’s a little darker than we thought it should be. [Laughs.] We didn’t know what to do! We had to go downstairs and go through the press line. And I remember my publicist at the time saying, “I’m so glad that you didn’t win.” I said, “What?” She said, “You would have had to go onstage with this ruddy, muddy complexion.” People weren’t saying anything to me there, but I could tell something was up. So, [the writers] just took it one step further and made it about a chemical peel.
That’s so funny. I had Fraxel done a couple weeks ago, and I was like, “Oh, I’m in my Samantha moment!”
Life imitates art.
Why did the ideas of self-love and owning sexuality at any age speak to you in particular when it came to this campaign?
I think it is all of those things: self-love, and, more important than that, I think it’s about being authentic. Whether you’re liked or not, you’re yourself. When you put makeup on, when you go out and do your day, that you have confidence that you look good. You look good because you take care of yourself, right? That’s a great message.
What has surprised you the most about beauty as you’ve gotten older?
I guess it’s cyclical; the looks come and go. When I came up in the ’80s, the amount of makeup that I wore was almost like put on with a trowel. It was just way, way, way too much, and I couldn’t find myself. And for a while, I thought, well, that’s okay because I’m playing a character, and makeup is such a big part of what I do. And then I realized in my 40s and 50s that what I was losing was—I wasn’t seeing me. I didn’t want to wear so much makeup. I wanted to accentuate the positive, of course, as we always do. But I also wanted to look like me. I’m not a model.
To me you are!
I don’t do the runway. I never felt that kind of pressure to look and be a certain way. I think the only thing I ever did was exercise more and go on a diet for periods of time, off and on. But that was kind of it.
What aspects of your physical appearance do you love more now as you’ve gotten older?
My legs. I love my legs. I like to swim. I do yoga, stretching, things like that. I walk a lot, especially in London and New York.
Do you have a holy grail beauty product that you’ve used for most of your life?
I think my holy grail has always been lipsticks, I think because it travels easy, I like the color, and there’s just something about it that makes me feel good, better. Like it’s fixing the world. It just pops. I think it reflects my mood better than, like, eyeshadow or blush or anything else.
What kind of mood do you have to be in for different shades of lipstick?
In Pillow Talk, there’s quite a range there. I love the Love Talk lipstick; I think that’s really nice. I like the shade Dream Talk as well. That’s good. I was always scared of really strong lipsticks because I always thought they looked older, but I find them very glamorous and very chic now—very sophisticated.
What keeps you feeling vibrant and energetic?
I think change does. Not being so scared of change. It’s incremental and consistent, but I’m embracing it. I guess I would feel differently if I still wasn’t artistically engaged and creatively engaged, but I still am.
What’s the best piece of beauty wisdom you’ve ever received from somebody older than you?
I did a film years ago called The Bonfire of the Vanities, and there was a woman called Nan Kempner who was incredible. She was so into fashion, and she collected fashion. In fact, the Met did a whole exhibit of her [looks] because she would buy the whole collection of Calvin—whomever the designer was, but mostly American designers. And I was told by the director, Brian De Palma, that I would spend some time with her because I was playing a woman very much like her. She was very tall and smoking constantly. And she said, “Darling, marry well or become incredibly successful. Because after a certain age, you want them looking at your jewels, not your wrinkles.” The older she got, the more ga-jing was around her. She died of emphysema, but she was such a character. I had many funny lunches with her.
Do you have any beauty or fashion advice for young adults who are just now watching Sex and the City for the first time?
I think that some of the looks have not maybe aged as well as we thought they might—but not my looks. [Laughs.] I’m classic! [Costume designer] Pat Field and I are very, very close. She’s a genius. The most creative part of doing that show was working with Pat Field. She created this kind of wardrobe closet for us. We were shooting to do two episodes at the same time. Some of her takes on what Samantha would be doing and pulling off were just so out of the box and so exciting. That kind of enthusiasm and that kind of connection to work is so rare, and when you find it, you want to have it for a short period of time only. You so appreciate it while you have it.
Can you give us a quick breakdown of your current beauty routine?
Well, the lipsticks are now really big for me. The packaging! I mean, girls love baubles. Why shouldn’t we have it? Makeup should be fun. It’s about experimenting. It’s like trying on a different wardrobe. You just try it on. How does it look? Mess it up, put it back on. People are so scared of getting it wrong that they forget that to get it right, all you have to do is do it. Just keep doing it and say, “I’m liking this.” You’ll teach yourself by watching.
