Natural redhead Jessica Chastain has a little secret: She likes to choose a perfume for every character she portrays.
“I love perfume,” she says about the final step of her Beauty Secrets video, where she’s already walked us through her 25-plus products routine. “When I’m working on a character, I think about what they would smell like. When I am doing research [for the role], I’ll wear the perfume of the character, and when I’m shooting I’ll wear it every day.”
Her current scent du jour? “This is my perfume of the summer,” she says of a practically empty travel-sized bottle of Maison Louis Marie’s No.04 Bois de Balincourt, which combines cinnamon and nutmeg with sandalwood and foresty green notes. “I can’t quit this perfume right now.”
Case in point, for her role for The Tree of Life, she wore orange blossoms. But I’m more curious what Chastain thinks evangelist Tammy Faye, who she portrayed in 2021, smells like—cotton candy?
Like many of us, Chastain loves the transportive nature of scent. “It’s an immediate emotional thing,” she says about wearing the fragrances attached to the characters she has played. “Like falling into the character.”
Shop Jessica Chastain’s Beauty Routine
Director: Gabrielle Reich
DP: Dominik Czaczyk
Editor: Michael Suyeda
Associate Producer: Lea Donenberg
Production Manager: Natasha Soto-Albors
Production Coordinator: Ava Kashar
Associate Talent Manager: Phoebe Feinberg
Post Production Supervisor: Alexa Deutsch
Post Production Coordinator: Scout Alter
Supervising Editor: Erica DeLeo
Assistant Editor: Fynn Lithgow
Associate Director, Post Production: Nicholas Ascanio
Filmed at: Hotel Casa Del Mar