BRITISH VOGUE Known to millions of fans as Daenerys Targaryen, Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke has also appeared in hit films like Solo: A Star Wars Story and Me Before You, and is Clinique’s global brand ambassador. Here, she talks to digital beauty editor Hannah Coates about everything from jade eggs to her favourite hair tool.

On how she wakes up in the morning

My first port of call in the morning is to put my contact lenses in, because without them I am blind! Immediately after putting them in, I will do a little yoga, and then I’ll get a tea. I’ll shower, wash my face, and put on my make-up. So basically the morning ritual is to see! And I can’t communicate until I’ve done at least a little bit of yoga, because it helps me feel out the day.

On what she does before bed

On her evening skincare regime

I take my make-up off first. I do a double cleanse, using Clinique’s Take The Day Off Balm which I love, because it’s oil-based so it gets rid of all make-up. After that I’ll use a milky cleanser and a toner. Then I use the Moisture Surge 100h Auto-Replenishing Hydrator, and I slather loads of it on and take my time applying it. In the morning I’ll also do a jade face roller to find my jaw and cheekbones, and chisel this nose out!

On Clinique’s Moisture Surge 100h Auto-Replenishing Moisturiser

I’ve got dry skin so I’ve done all the research I can on trying to find a moisturiser that actually gets rid of dry skin without giving you spots – I find that loads are really thick and putting them on feels like wall paint. This formula has aloe vera in it, as well as hyaluronic acid, and what it does is magic. It encourages your own skin to create more water, which is why it’s labelled “auto-replenishing”. It’s amazing; you’re encouraging your skin to do the work to keep itself moisturised, as opposed to the moisturisers where you’re like, “just putting more Polyfilla on!” I have dry skin everywhere, so I apply it to my hands and use it as a cuticle oil, too.

On her secret to brilliant brows

Just don’t touch them! I make sure I don’t have a unibrow but that’s pretty much it. I’ve never shaped them in my life – all hail the women who do theirs because I’d be so scared to do it. I just brush them if I’m putting make-up on. The idea of applying pencil to them makes me want to cry.

On her go-to hair hero

It’s not a product but a thing! The Dyson Airwrap hairbrush. It’s a game-changer. I don’t understand the wand but all I need is the brush head and my hair is done. Suddenly, I’m a low maintenance girl. It bypasses every other product I’ve ever put on my hair.

On her approach to wellness

I’m into meditation and yoga but I’m not putting eggs up my vagina or steaming it – I’m not there yet! I’ll have a nice hot bath with some lovely bath salts, and then I meditate. I know it’s a cliché and everyone says it, but during lockdown is the only time I’ve actually really done the whole meditation thing properly. Even doing my yoga every morning – where I do the exact same routine every single day – is a meditation. I don’t need to think, I can just breathe through it. I also journal, so I’ll write all the shit in my head that’s ridiculous down on paper. [I’ll do] all of this… unless I’m drunk. Then I do none of them.

On how to make an excellent bath

It has to be scalding hot. Like, burn-your-skin-off hot. I buy my Epsom salts online in bulk and I put an obscene amount of them in the water, making sure it’s really, really hot. I light candles and get my book, and whack on some classical music. My mum gave me the best Christmas present this year – this is how old I am – one of those stands you put over the bath to put your book and tea on. This one has a bit you pop up, so you can stick your book on it! After all of that I am smug and the epitome of zen.

On how she works out

During lockdown I saw my trainer online, and we do a mix of stuff. I’ve tried every exercise under the sun – I am not a HIIT girl and don’t try and make me run. I want to do things that stretch me out as much as possible – light weights and a little bit of body weight stuff make me feel strong and aligned, but not like a “she-Hulk”. What we do is make sure everything is in the right place and my back is straight, as that’s when I feel strong and good. I also walk everywhere.

On the teenage beauty product she doesn’t miss

I would say heavy kohl. Heavy, heavy, heavy kohl – never again. I also wore my hair scraped back in a bun [a lot]. It might be in a top knot now but those days are done. I did the two little hair pieces too. Bella Hadid looks fabulous [with them], but I am not copying her this year!

On the beauty icon she would like to be for a night

I’m torn! You’ve got Audrey [Hepburn]. But then I also would like to be someone who has the kind of beauty look I could never do myself. It’s hard but I would say Edie Sedgwick – her look is not something I could do now, and to be her for a night would be absolutely amazing.

ALLURE: Over the past year in and out of lockdown in London, Emilia Clarke hasn’t been tempted to chop off all her hair or dye it pink. She isn’t even itching to get to a salon for a haircut. “My plan is to grow my hair to my bum — the longest hair in the world,” Clarke joyfully shares with Allure as we chat about all the ways the pandemic has affected her beauty routine over Zoom. “When you peroxide your hair and then cut it into [a pixie], I’ve just been longing for long hair. I’m going to take it to the next level. I want Gloria Steinem’s hair circa 1972.”

To support her hair growth journey, Clarke has been taking advantage of staying home most of the time by only washing her hair once a week, masking, and air-drying. “That has given it its mojo back for sure,” she notes.

In between her shower days, you can catch the actress soaking the day away in a “hot, hot bath,” surrounded by candles with classic music cued up. Sometimes, she listens to podcasts or catches up with friends. “My friends do a lot of voice memo-ing, so I do a lot of [that] in the bath,” Clarke remarks.

If Clarke has learned anything from her days in lockdown, it’s to slow down and take her time with her beauty routines. Over the years, she admits she has been a stickler to a set skin-care routine — double cleansing, toner, and moisturizer — however; more time-consuming treatments, like sheet masks and at-home devices, have been making their way into Clarke’s regimen lately.

“I did dust off the old light mask that I got, like, three years ago,” she says. “Every once in a while after a bath, I’ll be like, oh, maybe I’ll have some light mask and see if it makes any difference.”

Clarke’s favorite beauty indulgence from 2020 is surprisingly low-tech, though: Clinique’s Moisture Surge. Although she’s the brand’s global ambassador, she makes a valid, unbiased case for it. “My skin is dry and patchy at the best of times,” she explains before adding mask wear, heated rooms, and the freezing cold hasn’t done her complexion any favors. But the “brilliant” moisturizer has.

Makeup hasn’t gone by the wayside for Clarke. If anything, the only difference is she takes it off earlier than pre-pandemic times. For her day of interviews, a glam team stops by, but on days when she does her makeup herself, her go-to makeup artist Kate Lee passed along some tips. “She’s taught me how to put bronzer on, which I have not been doing properly,” Clarke reveals before acting out her technique, tracing the shape of a C along her jawline down to the hollows of her cheeks, then another C down from there to her jawline. She calls them the “Clinique Cs.”

Lee also enlightened Clarke with the correct order for base makeup application: foundation first, concealer second. “Otherwise, you’re just moving your concealer around your face,” she says. Now, she’s only dabbing on concealer in the areas where foundation doesn’t give her enough coverage.

Makeup artist Fiona Stiles agrees with these sentiments. “Using concealer first is a waste of product and creating more work for you, as then you just have to go over the area again,” she’s told Allure in the past. “Concealer is meant to conceal, while foundation is meant to be the base, or foundation, of your look — similar to how when you build a house the very first step in creating it is building the foundation.”

Clarke’s makeup stash has also been overhauled over the past couple of months. As Clarke has sifted through it, she’s put eye shadows she’s forgotten about back into rotation. Products she’s touched a couple of times but has no use for anymore have been re-homed with her family and friends. “It’s annoying. There’s so much stuff of mine that I just give to charity, but you can’t give, like, half a lipstick,” Clarke jokes. Stars — they’re truly just like us.