Like a lot of us, Lana Parrilla, the beloved actress from ABC’s Once Upon a Time and Netflix’s upcoming film Atlas (streaming May 24), is juggling a lot of projects. Currently, she just wrapped “One of the Good Ones” at the iconic Pasadena Playhouse and is promoting her new single, “YOU.” In between it all, she recently chatted with us about her favorite creams and “getting out of her head.”
What are some of your all-time favorite beauty products?
My favorite beauty products are skin-care products. The Augustinus Bader the Rich Cream ($300) is probably the number one best cream on the market, in my opinion. I absolutely love it. It heals my skin and I never have an issue every time I wear it. It keeps your skin smooth, clean, and your pores small—it’s just my ultimate favorite cream. I also love to vacillate between that and Valmont ($240), anything from them is also great. Valmont is a great line. I often use most of their products and I sort of combine it with Augustinus Bader.
Every so often I see my facialist in Beverly Hills, and she’s known me since I was 22 years old. She has her own products as well. I like to mix it up. It’s kind of like shampoo, when you change it up every other week or so, your hair is healthier for it—that’s how I approach my skin products. As far as makeup is concerned, I use a lot of Chanel. Huda Beauty has a great concealer to cover up those little dark spots. I tend to go high-end because my skin is important, because of the industry I’m in. But I also love OSEA—it’s a more natural brand and I’ll use a lot of their body creams, which are incredible.
Is there anything you do for wellness?
I eat extremely well and mostly eat organic. I know it’s not as affordable for everybody, but I highly encourage it. You can always go to farmers’ markets to go shopping. Eating well is critical to me and it’s been sort of instilled in me as a young girl. My grandmother was ahead of her time, so I’ve been juicing my whole life. I’d have freshly squeezed carrot juice and orange juice, and cold-pressed juices in my bottle when I was a kid. We were vegetarian six months out of the year. My mom was always healthy and a yogi most of her life. If you saw my mother, you’d be blown away by how youthful she looks. Also working out is incredible. I’ve done Pilates for about 15 years, maybe even more. Hiking is probably my number one favorite form of exercise. It’s like three in one. You get to be in nature, you get to work out and you get to spend quality time with your dog, and those are important to me.
Do you have any must-do treatments?
I feel like the most important thing is to soak your body like swimming and letting your body just be in warm, natural spring water. I love Hot Springs. There’s one place in LA called the Beverly Hot Spring. I’ve been going there since I was 18 years old. It’s the only natural hot spring in the city. So, if I can’t make it out to the desert, I’ll just drive 15 minutes to the natural hot spring in Koreatown. I soak, I steam, I sauna, and I plunge pool. So, I love cold plunges and infrared saunas.
With everything you have going on, what do you do to unwind after a long day?
That’s a good question, and I’m still trying to figure out how to do that. I am a very ambitious woman, so I just never stop. I get to slow down only in spurts here and there. I like to read and watch great movies—right now I’m hooked on Ripley on Netflix—and honestly, I like hiking meditations. When I go on a hike, I’ll sometimes listen to Audible and get through books that way, or I will just listen to nature, look out on the city and reflect on it all to practice gratitude.
Does your beauty routine vary when you’re acting as opposed to singing?
My routine is pretty consistent for both. Sometimes when I’m singing, I don’t do anything to my face because you’re just in a booth singing into a mic, so no one’s really looking at you. Most of the time, I don’t have to be dolled up for something like that unless we film behind the scenes, then I got to put a lip on. In my life, I don’t really like to wear a lot of makeup and tend to go more natural. I feel like makeup makes me look older. I’m really lucky being Sicilian and Puerto Rican because I’ve got great genes. Once you take makeup off me, it feels like I look much younger than I am, and I’m grateful for that.
What is a must-have beauty feature when you’re in music mode?
I guess it depends on the character I’m playing! A smokey eye is always great for music because it’s a bit more rock and roll and who doesn’t want to feel like a rock star? If it’s more of a chill day and we’re doing a little behind the scenes at the studio, but I want to be a little bit more natural and relatable, I’ll just do a glossy lip. When I’m performing, I want to be a little bit more intimidating and badass, I’ll do a smokey eye. For the music videos, the beauty look is tied to the story we are telling.
I love your new music video. What was the beauty inspiration for it?
The beauty inspiration was created by the director Bel Soto. He had this whole matrix vibe in mind for me. So, we ended up using wig looks for the entire shoot. I had three wigs for the whole video. One was like a purple-violet color with short bangs. Then there was another one that was like the character from The Matrix, but short. The last wig was like a pixie-style haircut, but we used all wigs because my hair is quite long now. Also, I had these cool stripped lights above my eyebrows. They glowed because they were actually lights that were wired and battery-operated, which was cool because you can’t tell! I wore those the entire time and they looked amazing.
Does performing music tap you into a different side of you?
It does! When I let myself go, just have fun with the music, get out of my head, and don’t overthink—it does. The minute I’m like “Oh God, my voice doesn’t sound great,” it totally throws me off and I must lean into the character. The character really helps me feel more confident because as an actor, I’m more seasoned and more experienced. So, I step into her mind within the music and then it frees me!
