Rosie Huntington-Whiteley on Yorkshire puddings, strong female roles and the book she's bought six times

Don't get between Rosie H-W and her gravy, ok?

This Beauty Bytes I caught up with businesswoman, model and all-round kick ass woman Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. She's just stepped up to be bareMinerals' newest Power of Good Ambassador, so we picked her brains on all things beauty, skincare and more.

Find out which book she loves so much she's bought it for six or seven people, her signature perfume and her most-used emoji below...

LA: What would you say is the worst beauty trend you’ve ever tried?

RHW: It’s funny, because I’m not really one for trends in general. Lately I would say I’ve been more into trying things and exploring colour with make-up than I’ve ever been before. But when it comes to beauty trends, I think people think of my look as being a bit more natural, more timeless, and that’s how I would think of myself with beauty. I’ve had a few beauty disasters, but I wouldn’t say I’ve had any bad trends. I mean, perhaps over-plucking my eyebrows when I was 16, everybody has that story, but that would be about it.

LA: Best beauty advice you’ve ever been given?

RHW: Best beauty advice for me would be the importance of looking after your skin, so having a really great skincare routine and being really diligent with it. I’ve been using some of the bareMinerals Skin Longevity products and have incorporated them into my skincare routine, which I find really important. The canvas of my work is my skin so I think that skin comes first and then make-up is second. And also, just really having fun with beauty, I think make-up is where you can really have fun.

LA: Best beauty product recommendation you’ve ever received? This can be anything.

RHW: Oh, best beauty product recommendation I’ve ever received? I always value recommendations for skincare products and I think it's something I get asked about a lot by other women too. I think with beauty people feel like they’re more willing to explore, but with skincare products I ask the experts. For me one of the most important things would of course be removing make-up and cleansing and toning really well, so I'd say the Mineral Cleansing Water from bareMinerals is a really beautiful product.

bareMinerals Mineral Cleansing Water, £18, Boots

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LA: I’ve not tried the water but the oil is one of my favourites, it’s great. Let’s say the house is on fire and you can only save one beauty product – what would you save?

RHW: Oh, a timeless red lipstick or something. I think things would be pretty miserable after your house burning down, so you’d want to put a bit of fire back into your life – maybe through a red lip!

LA: I like what you did there. Top three beauty brands?

RHW: For me, of course Bare, Rosie for Autograph, and then I would say a brand like NARS. I think I see that on every make-up artist’s table, and all those brands have really different values and different approaches to beauty.

LA: What’s in your make-up bag right now?

RHW: Right now in my make-up bag would be the bareMinerals Original Foundation, which is what the brand is most famous for – I don’t know if you’ve tried it?

LA: Yes, shade one is a perfect match for me.

RHW: Yeah, so you know how inclusive the shade range is! I’ve been using it for a while now. At first I was a bit apprehensive about using powder as a foundation. Like, how is that going to look on my skin, is it gonna look cakey? Am I gonna look dry? Is it really going to give me coverage? But I’m so pleasantly surprised by the coverage, how quick and easy it is to use and how glowy I look; surprisingly it doesn’t make you look powdered. I feel like I’ve got a really light foundation on, but I love to use it on the go so that would be in there. A lip balm, always, and then a mist; something that I can refresh my face with throughout the day.

bareMinerals Original Foundation SPF 15, £27, Fabled

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LA: Can you talk me through your morning and evening skincare routines?

RHW: So, morning is all about cleansing, toning and moisturising, then in the evening I exfoliate, tone and moisturise. I like to exfoliate every day, that’s something I feel is really great for me. I've been told to exfoliate towards the end of the day because then you’re at home in a clean environment, you’re going to rest and your skin’s really going to rejuvenate overnight. It’s also a great way of really removing your make-up; I wear a lot of make-up at work but I’m also somebody that really likes to wear it on days where I’m not on set. So I double cleanse and exfoliate in the evening because I really want to remove all my make-up. The cleansing oil is such a beautiful product to use in the mornings, it smells amazing and wakes up the skin really gently. I don’t think you need to really do a huge cleanse in the morning – especially if you’ve exfoliated the night before – but of course you want something to kind of wake the skin up. Then bareMinerals' Bare Haven Essential Moisturising Soft Cream and their Butter Drench Restorative Rich cream. Bare Haven for the daytime and then Butter Drench is great to use in the evening.

LA: How often do you work out and what’s your favourite way to exercise?

RHW: I work out as often as I can, which tends to be about three to four times a week. For me it’s part of my life, you know, I value exercise as being really important in my day-to-day routine, it’s as important as anything else I do. And I really enjoy it, I’ve found workouts that I enjoy and genuinely want to get up and go to. But if I’m travelling, I’m working and I'm jet-lagged – there have been weeks where I’ve gone to three different countries in one week – then no, I’m not going to get up at 5am and work out in the hotel gym. But when I’m home, then I make sure that I amp up the exercise. I would say on average it could be between two and four times a week that I get to the gym.

LA: And do you prefer being in the gym, or doing classes, or other stuff?

RHW: So in LA I’ve been training with a woman called Simone De La Rue; she has a workout routine called Body by Simone, which is a high intensity dance-cardio workout class, all with your body weight. I’ve been with her for about four years and I’ve seen incredible results with my body. Then in the UK, where I’ve been for the last few weeks, I’ve been working out at Third Space with this great trainer called Lucy and we’ve been doing weights, which was been really fun. Really tough though – I woke up yesterday morning and honestly felt like I’d been hit by a bus! But it’s an interesting one for me because I’ve been doing dance-cardio for such a long time, so I’ve really been switching it up by doing weights. I think everybody always thinks of weights as, 'Oh my god, I’m gonna bulk up', but I’ve seen great results in the last couple of weeks. Things are just moving up; I feel like everything past 30 needs to be up, so that’s cool! I try and take advantage of the places that I'm in and what’s on offer there, but yeah, exercise is something I really love.

LA: It’s really important for people's well-being as well. Do you have a signature fragrance? If not, what would you say are your go-tos?

RHW: My signature fragrance... I love Byredo fragrances and I’ve been wearing Gypsy Water for a long time.

LA: Oh very nice. Good one. So that’s like your go-to. Three most used emojis?

Byredo Gypsy Water Eau de Parfum, £105, Space NK

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RHW: Um, laughing crying face, the grinning face, and then probably the one that’s like throwing shade, it’s kind of wonky with the eyebrow raised, the smirky face.

LA: I know the one.

RHW: Oh! And the nail painting. You know when you say something sassy and then you d0 the nail painting afterwards.

LA: I was going to ask if you use that in the sassy context! 

RHW: Yeah, that’s what I use. This is really quite a big giveaway on the kind of messages that I’m sending! I think the love heart gets used quite a lot too.

LA: Yeah. What colour love-heart do you like, just the red one or?

Rosie: Red.

LA: What’s your favourite book?

RHW: One of my favourite books, and I would say the most impactful book I’ve ever read, is The Four Agreements. I don’t know if you’ve ever read it but it’s a really beautiful book. It’s about spirituality and a book that kind of changed my life, and it’s also something I’ll buy often and give away. I try and re-read it probably once a year. Often, if I feel in a certain place in my life or overwhelmed by a certain situation, it’ll kind of re-centre me with my values and then I find myself giving it away to a friend or someone. So it’s probably my most bought book and my most read book, and it’s definitely been really impactful on my life. I love that I can share it and keep passing it on to other people, then have a conversation with them about it afterwards.

LA: That’s really lovely.

RHW: Highly recommend it. Really, really recommend it.

LA: That's one of my favourite questions. How many people would you say you’ve bought it for?

RHW: I’ve probably bought the book six or seven times, yeah, and I’ve passed it on to my sister, my girl who does my nails, my mum... You know, it’s one of those books that when somebody is going through something, you’re like, 'Ah, I’ve got something you might like, that might help you get through this.'

LA: Ah, I love that. What would you say your favourite meal is? Let’s say what you'd have as your last meal.

RHW: A Sunday roast, I don’t even have to think about that. Just a good old Sunday roast for sure, 100%. Lots of roast potatoes and roast parsnips, Yorkshire pudding… Always a toss-up between chicken or beef, but I probably lean into chicken. As long as I can have a Yorkshire pudding with it – I’m sort of weird about that, about the Yorkshire pudding with the chicken.

LA: You know what, I hate when people say you can only have Yorkshires with beef. I’m like... Just no.

RHW: No. Nooooo. And if it’s your last meal you can choose whatever you want.

LA: Exactly. If it’s got gravy, I’m having Yorkshires.

RHW: Yeah, and then extra gravy. Peas and carrots, sausage and bacon, I mean, I love my English roast!

LA: Favourite TV show to binge-watch?

RHW: I think to binge-watch, my favourite TV show would be… ah, that’s so hard! Recently I loved The Handmaid’s Tale, I loved The Crown, I thought they were such incredible TV shows with really empowering women and female roles. I thought they were brilliant; great acting, great storytelling. Then, if I’m really going to binge-watch something it’d be Sex and the City, Friends, you know, those kind of curl-up-on-the-sofa and have a night in on your own, a lil guilty pleasure. Sex and the City, can’t beat it. Love Carrie Bradshaw, she’s my spirit animal.

LA: Who were you most star-struck meeting?

RHW: Oh, that’s a good question. Gosh. I mean, I’m still waiting to meet – and would love to meet – Angelina Jolie. I find you tend not to be disappointed when you meet the people who you’ve always been really a big fan of. I would say the people that I’ve met where I have been most star-struck I’ve actually been a bit disappointed, so I’m not going to mention their names! But somebody I have met who I really love – Amy Adams.

LA: Oh yeah?

RHW: Yeah, I think she’s such a terrific actress and, when I’ve met her it’s been at sort of work dos and functions, but we’ve always had a good laugh together. She’s really cool and easy-going, I think she’s fiercely talented and I’ve just really enjoyed her company, and her husband's, they’re both really lovely.