5 minutes with...Kate Hudson and Goldie Hawn

Ok, it’s official: I totally have a girl crush. On not one, but two women, actually. The objects of my affection are Kate Hudson and Goldie Hawn, veritable Hollywood royalty, who I had the absolute pleasure of interviewing earlier this week. To say that I loved chatting to them is an understatement. They were so lovely, and so down-to-earth that interviewing them was more like chatting to friends (in fact, after the interview I spent most of the day wishing they were my best friends) Here, we chat beauty, bad hair days, mother-daughter bonding, and staying grounded when growing up in the limelight...

bh: Kate, you’re the face of Almay – can you tell us a bit about what made you align yourself with that brand?
Kate: One of the reasons I met with Almay, and one of the reasons why I thought it was such a good fit was because they really focus their products on the kind of make-up that I genuinely use and that I like. So I can actually talk about the products and believe in them, and be honest about how connected I feel to what the brand represents. Their products are about being able to maintain a beautiful look, but not being too heavy. You know, having a soft appearance rather than too much pigment and too much make-up. I love being able to put a foundation into my hands and apply it straight to my face, and have it feel light and easy while still giving good coverage. Everything feels comfortable and it’s good for sensitive skin.

bh: So do you have sensitive skin yourself?
Kate: I do. A lot of my life involves sitting and having make-up put on; whether it’s on a movie set or for a photo shoot. When you’re wearing that kind of make-up all the time your skin does get all this sensitivity, so it’s important that you make sure you have make-up that is easy on your skin and not too harsh for it.

bh: Do you do a lot for your skin then? Because it always looks so clear and radiant. Talk me through your daily skin care routine…
Kate: For me, it’s pretty simple. When I wake up I rinse with water, but when I go to bed I take my make-up off and clean my eyes. I just use a simple soap, and then I just moisturise my eyes. I can’t put too much stuff on my face so it’s very simple.

bh: Goldie what are your skin care secrets? What tips can you give us for maintaining a youthful appearance?
Goldie: Well, thank you very much! One of the most important things of all is sleep. Getting enough sleep is so important – as are things like ingesting good oils, making sure you keep your face soft by removing dead skin, and using sun guard every day. I also take the time to really massage my creams into my face. Massaging your face brings the blood up to the surface of your skin and it starts to feed your skin in all these different areas, so that’s what I do on a daily basis.

bh: You guys recently teamed up to work together for Almay Mother’s Day campaign. Can you tell us a bit more about it? How was it working together?
Kate: Oh yeah! Well, for Mother’s Day we ended up doing something for Almay that honoured mothers and daughters. It was fun to have a day working together, taking pictures and being able to spend time together. We also got to talk with different people about the importance of relationships, and their bonds with their mothers. It was really fun.

bh: Kate, what’s the best beauty advice your mum ever gave you when you were growing up?
Kate: Funnily enough, we’re not really that kind of family, we don’t give beauty advice. She was more about being in tune with how we were feeling, and teaching us that the idea of beauty, or whatever that is to somebody, comes when you feel good or when you feel happy. The rest kind of follows. My mom was always interested in health and beauty from the inside out; getting us to take our vitamin C and oils, and drink good greens and spirulinas and chlorophyll…more from a health perspective. I think that’s more of what I learnt from my mom: that being active and good health is the most important beauty regime because that will affect you for the rest of your life.

bh: Goldie, what about you? What were you also taught that beauty comes from the inside when you were growing up?
Goldie: You know, when I was younger I was flat chested, I was coming in to my hormones so my face was all over the place, I was awkward. I wasn’t asked out by boys and I didn’t think anybody would ever love me. It’s the hardest time for a girl to feel good about herself – and often times the girls who do feel good about themselves are the early developers. So I don’t think that I developed that ‘inner beauty’ relationship with myself when I was very young. But I think that I was forced to develop it quicker than other girls my age because I was becoming more successful and people start perceiving you in all different ways. Some people think that you’re beautiful; some people think you’re ugly. They voice a lot of opinions, so you then have to become resilient to it – and to do that you have to learn and to understand who you are and what you really think about yourself. And that’s where I think I learnt about my inner beauty.

bh: did your experiences growing up make you quite conscious of how Kate would handle being brought up in the limelight? How did you help to keep her grounded?
Goldie: Well…how can I say this? Katie was a very adorable child and became more beautiful in her growth. But the problem for me was when people would say, “oh what a beautiful little girl”. I wanted them to know how beautiful she was on the inside; because when a little girl constantly hears how beautiful they are they begin to perceive themselves only in terms of how they look on the outside. And of course in some ways it’s lovely to know that you’ve got a nice face, but it’s also bad to be dependent upon it. So I was conscious to make sure to always stress – to Kate, and others – that, yes, Katie is beautiful; but she’s also a wonderful person and has so much to offer.

bh: Kate, is there a particular feature or personality trait that you inherited from your mum that you absolutely love?
Kate: I think…yeah…I think it’s my mom’s spirit. When mom and I get going and we start to laugh, we’re really spirited, and I think I get that from my mom. When mom and I get laughing it’s so pure and for me it’s where I’m happiest.
Goldie: There are a lot of things about Kate that isn’t just about me, her mother. Katie is a lot like my mother in certain ways. When Kate was asleep, she was pregnant and she was lying on the couch sleeping and I just burst into tears! She was my mother; she looked just like her! Her forehead is shaped just like my mom’s, and when she laughs and smiles that big gorgeous smile, her teeth look like my mothers teeth. So I mean are often times it’s about the family of origin: mothers, and then grandmothers, and then great grandmothers. That’s how we find out who we are and what we’re made of.

bh: Now, I have to ask you guys something that all of our members want to know about both of you: how on earth do you get your hair looking so amazing, all the time?
Kate: Oh my god, hours. Hours of work!
bh: Really?
Kate: Yes! My hair is not me, it’s not me doing it. Now, mom knows how to do her hair, like mom’s got the hair down pat. My hair, it changes on a daily basis. If I wake up and it’s a good hair day it’s like, “I’m going to put on my high heels and strut.” But truly, my hair wants to be something different everyday; curly to frizzy to oily…it just has no idea what it wants.
Goldie: Hair is interesting. I mean, I really think that to a lot of people hair is everything. Bad hair takes over everything, it really does. I think if somebody has bad hair it doesn’t matter what else is happening. A thousand years ago I went to audition to become a cabana girl and they said to me, “could you please lift the bangs off your forehead?” And I had to take my hand, and take off my forehead the very thing that I always thought made my face work. And I said to myself, “I so don’t have this job”. That was a bad hair moment!

So do you love Kate and Goldie as much as I do? What is the best thing you think you've inherited from your mum?