If there’s one thing many of us share with multi award-winning Hollywood superstar Scarlett Johansson – the highest-grossing box office star of all time – it's the experience of skin struggles.
“I started having acne as a teenager,” she tells me, though in her unique situation, Johansson was working at the time. Since making her movie debut around age 10, the now 38-year-old gained early recognition for various roles before her big breakthrough in Lost in Translation, filmed when she was 17. “I was going through puberty and experiencing that first kind of problem breakout, which I thought would go away with time, but I continued to have acne into my adulthood.” Johansson couldn’t get her head around it. “I just never thought I would struggle; I had so many resources like great dermatologists and beauty experts and make-up artists.” But, in many ways, this privilege complicated matters. “At the time so much of the messaging was like if you have acne or 'problem skin', you can make it disappear by stripping it away, and so I was in a cycle of drying out my skin and then having these breakouts and drying out my skin and getting irritation. I would get rid of some spots and then others would turn up in another part of my face – I couldn't figure out how to heal it for decades.”
Besides having access to professionals on tap, turbulent teenage skin feels particularly relatable. But so, too, does the adult experience of employing harsh active ingredients in a bid for impossible complexion perfection, all the while further unbalancing the microbiome.
“Terrified” of putting any kind of moisturiser on her face, Johansson shares that she did so, as what she perceived a desperate measure. “I was like ‘maybe I'll just stop using everything and try to heal my skin by putting this moisture back in’, and my skin immediately responded to it and started healing itself.” She didn’t realise at the time, “but I was now nourishing and protecting my skin barrier” – a term penetrating collective consciousness as the pendulum has swung back to simplicity in skincare, following years of complicated, multi-step routines touted as the only way to refine texture and welcome radiance. “I started just using very gentle products, a lot of moisture, and being consistent with my routine. If I veered from it, I would have an issue, and if not, it would stay calm – and that's that was a huge revelation for me.”
Looking at the star’s skin, you’d never know its chequered past. She is the ultimate ad for her own brand, The Outset, which she co-founded with her business partner, American entrepreneur Kate Foster – who joined Johansson in talking to me about its UK launch. I question if the actress (who chooses to eschew social media in a personal capacity) always saw herself as the face of The Outset, “a reliable line of essentials”?
“It was a later decision, because I definitely want the brand to stand on its own – it's not a celebrity brand, it's a brand that’s universally approachable,” operating like any other indie. “But I have ownership over it in a way that feels very rewarding for me, and so for me to participate in our campaigns is a pleasure – because it is personal, there's no getting away from that.” However, Johansson never wanted to have her name in the brand. “Then there would be some preconceived idea of what it is,” she feels. “I understand that desire, but I just felt it might be limiting for people.”
With her newfound belief that great skin begins with the basics of cleansing and moisturising, she says the edited product collection is truly for all. “My partner, my brother, my friend – whatever, we're all kind of looking for the same thing!”, and she road-tested it while pregnant in 2021. “Obviously, your skin changes so much when you're pregnant, and I had a lot of dryness I hadn't experienced before,” plus, it was mid-pandemic, “so everything was felt stressful, and weird”. Testing the line at a time when her skin was sensitised, while on a break from make-up, was “very telling”, she says. “Because I was like if ‘I can use these products for this time, and see really great results, then like I think we're onto something’.”
While others were playing home aesthetician throughout the lockdowns, The Outset came to represent an alternative move towards slow skincare, Foster tells me. “Skin health is a little less sexy than some of the TikTok trends, but our basic belief is that some of those trends is what got us to this place of these very overcomplicated routines and products with very harsh actives that wind up stripping your skin and creating irritation and redness, dryness, imbalances, and acne. So this gentle skincare movement can be the secret to your best skin ever.”
Skin secrets from Hollywood stars have been headline fodder for over a century, but the mystery relating to this concept is something Johansson would rather shed. “‘Beauty secrets’ was such popular term for such a long time,” she says. “And what I find to be so rewarding is people sharing their struggle, their solutions, their own journey, without judgment, which is such a welcome shift from where it's been. If we can in any way support that kind of transparency, and have it be the norm, that would be a very positive thing.”
Besides her gentle yet diligent skincare routine, Johansson shares that her wider approach to beauty is refreshingly down to earth, too. “Sleeping makes a humongous difference and not drinking alcohol, which is hard because I love to have a glass of wine, but it does disrupt my sleep,” (as do her two kids, age eight and one, she adds). “And so if I try to be more mindful about taking nights off of not having a drink, or getting to bed at a certain time, my skin does look better, 100 per cent.” But it is nice to have a glass of wine at the end of the day, I agree. “Everything in moderation, I guess.” Meanwhile, she drinks water constantly (“I don't know whether it's good or bad thing!”) and is relaxed with her diet. “I have in the past done different diets for anti-inflammation, when I was trying to understand my skin, but it’s never seemed to respond so much to what I eat.”
While her complexion might be in the best place it’s been since childhood, Johansson has a fluctuating relationship with her face as the years go by. Despite hers being viewed by billions on a public stage, she doesn’t feel that ageing as a celebrity brings added pressure. “I'm sure it has to do with how we were raised and our own feelings of mortality – all of that's complicated, right, but as soon as your face starts changing, it causes self-reflection in a way that you probably didn't have when you were younger.” For her, like others, confronting “the inevitability of ageing and what it means” is an unbounded journey. And one that's hyper-personal. “Sometimes I feel like, ‘oh, man, here we go, it's happening, and what's the future gonna be?’ The recovery of physical exercise is harder, and when you get less sleep, you notice it in different kinds of ways. And I feel sort of daunted by it. And other times, I feel like I look like the best version of myself; sexier than I have, or more confident. And it's nice to be less self-conscious and not worry about all the things that occupy your brain when you're in your 20s.” She bounces back and forth on this spectrum. “I feel like everybody does.”
Does Johansson invest in any skin treatments that bolster her confidence? “I honestly don’t! I’m scared of trying anything,” she tells me. “I think if you’ve had acne and then figured out a routine that makes it subside, you’re terrified of changing that.” I see her point. Consistency may not excite, but it never looked so good.
The Outset launches in the UK at Cult Beauty this June.
