Beauty Around The Clock: Halle Berry

Welcome to Beauty Around the Clock, Marie Claire's weekly peek into the daily lives of some of the most game-changing women in their industries. Ever wonder how they get it all done in a day? Here's your answer.

When you think of beauty icons, Halle Berry should top your list. Full stop. Decade after decade, the 56-year-old actress has seemingly defied the aging process. She’s a natural beauty whose grace, sophistication, and style don't seem to be slowing down. 

If you’re a fan, you'll also know that Berry is an ardent actress and no stranger to hard work. Currently, she’s busy with two Netflix projects (a sci-fi film, The Mothership, and a thriller, Our Man From Jersey) and a new gig with Pendulum as Chief Communications Officer. And through it all one thing remains constant: her flawless skin.

I sat down with Berry over Zoom and asked her how she defines her signature look; her answer was definitive. “I don't have a signature look.” Indeed, spoken like a true beauty queen. 

Here, Berry shares what fuels her throughout the day, and even takes a moment to share her beauty icon. We’re taking notes. 

Rise & Shine 

The first thing I take in the morning is vitamin A-D-K, fish oils, and collagen in my coffee. Then, I take either Pendulum Metabolic Daily or Glucose Control supplements. Their probiotics have been really helping me heal some gut issues that I've had. 

Morning Maintenance 

I do school runs in the morning. I have two kids, so I'm usually up early, like 6:00 a.m. driving one of them to school. That's very much a part of my mornings. And then I come home and do my fitness routine around 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. I workout usually every day, or four days a week, sometimes five, depending, but usually four days a week.

Power Start

I stopped eating breakfast over 20 years ago. Everybody needs to break their fast from the night at different times, and so I've learned to really listen to my own body and not follow those conventional thoughts that, "Oh, breakfast is the best meal." The best meal is whenever you break fast. And for me, that's around 2:00 p.m. every day. 

I start off my morning with one cup of coffee, and that's all I’ll have until 2 p.m. And I use hazelnut, like milked hazelnuts instead of any kind of milk, and I do a sugar substitute, and that gets me through.

Fitness Fix 

My fitness routine changes. Some days it's more cardiovascular-heavy. Some days it's working with light weights. Sometimes it's calisthenics, sometimes it's yoga, sometimes it's Pilates. I just recently got a Pilate machine at home, which I love, love, love. Sometimes it's that. I just try to mix it up. I think our bodies get used to the same exercises. So for me, it's always been important to do different things all the time.

Signature Look

I don’t think I have one. I know that I’ve steered toward a more natural look. I have realized that less is more and less is best when you're going down that path of life. So I've gotten in touch with just taking care of my skin, staying healthy, exercising, and going down my natural path. I wear very little makeup these days, other than when I'm going out to an event or something like that, but even then, I try to keep it as natural as possible. And in real life, I'm kind of makeup-free these days, I think it's been working for me.

But when I do wear makeup, my makeup artist is always trying new things on me. He uses Chanel and MAC Cosmetics a lot. Ogee Organic makeup is another favorite. It’s easy, it's very creamy. I want my skin to stay supple, so I don't use a lot of powders, or things that make it look dry. I go for nude shades. 

For skincare, I love Knesko, Olga Lorencin—she's been my aesthetician for over 25 years—and Ole Henriksen.

Signature Scent

I'm not really that big on fragrance these days and it's because of my children. They're always telling me, "Mom, that smells terrible. We don't like you smelling like that. You don't smell like mom." They're the ones that deter me from wearing a lot of fragrance.

They like the clean, soap smell. 

Beauty Icon

Dorothy Dandridge. She's been my beauty icon since I can remember understanding what a beauty icon was.

P.M. Routine

My night skincare routine consists of cleansing, moisturizing, using different serums, acids, and masks. I'm sort of mixing and matching and figuring out what's working. I’ve noticed that as I’m going down the path of life, my skin changes a little bit, and so I'm trying different things and finding out what's actually working and what's not. It's been a really interesting and fun process actually.

Lights Out

I eat my last meal around 5:30 p.m and by 6 p.m., I'm done eating. So from 2:00 to 6:00 are the times that I eat food.

When I'm winding down, I usually start with a glass of red wine. I found these wines by Dry Farms. They're a natural wine. They have a low sugar content and they're lower in alcohol, so it makes it an easier drinking wine. Heart disease runs in my family, and so my heart doctor's like, "If you can have a glass of a natural red once a day, that's good for heart health." So that's something that's not every night, but four times a week.