Whether you know her as cool-girl muse Clare Arnold from Beverly Hills, 90210 or are just getting caught up with Amazon’s Reacher, Kathleen Robertson has a career that proves she’s never boring to watch. With a run of credits that includes Steven Bochco’s Murder in the First opposite Taye Diggs, Netflix’s Northern Rescue and the final season of Amazon’s The Expanse, she’s also the founder of production company Debut Content, and has a recurring arc on CBS’s Tracker come October.
With that much time filming, Robertson is also really good at keeping it “real” at home and carving out a solid work-life balance. We caught up with the star to get her beauty routine that holds up between takes, sets and Zoom calls in sweatpants.
You’re juggling Reacher, more Tracker episodes and Blessed Sacrament starting in January. What does a typical week look like right now, and does your beauty routine shift depending on which set you’re walking onto?
“Absolutely. If I’m on camera, I’m much more diligent about self-care. If I’m on Zoom all week doing meetings, or writing alone in my office in sweatpants, I tend to drop the ball on all of it.”
Beauty is having a full-on nostalgia moment, and you were part of some of the most iconic beauty looks of the era on Beverly Hills, 90210. Looking back, what beauty or hair trends from the time deserve a comeback, and which should stay buried?
“MAC needs to bring back the Bardot and Shrimpton lipsticks. My skunk hair on 90210 was pretty epic—so was the mullet, the baby bangs and lip liner drawn way outside the line. The skinny, overplucked eyebrows were not a good look, though. Although they weirdly work on Julia Fox.”
Reacher and Tracker both lean into a tougher, more grounded look for your characters. How does that on-camera styling compare to what you’d choose for yourself off-duty?
“When you play a character, they’re not you—so aside from maybe a handbag or a pair of shoes, there isn’t much overlap between the way I look on those shows and the way I, Kathleen, look in real life. You couldn’t pay me to wear a suit or a pencil skirt.”
With hair and makeup in the chair for hours between takes, has working across these shows changed how you think about your own hair-care or skin-care routine at home?
“I don’t wear makeup unless I’m on camera, and I always let my hair air-dry. I don’t want to be looked at or touched, or for the focus to be on my appearance—it’s so intense when you’re on camera. Off-duty, I’m a baseball hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, no-makeup kind of girl.”
Any products you’ve discovered on set that have become personal staples?
“So many. My makeup artist on Tracker introduced me to Shani Darden’s face vibrating device, which is great. May Lindstrom’s Blue Cocoon ($220) is heaven. I’m also into Caudalie’s face spray, Korean collagen sheet masks and Shu Uemura hair masks. I use a retinol five nights a week, plus Sahajan eye cream, Osea body scrub and Living Libations oils.”
With three productions overlapping, how do you protect time for self-care, and what does that look like when you get home at night?
“A bath, immediately, then removing all my makeup with a double cleanse using oils. I’m loving Korean skincare right now—exploring all of it. A PDRN face mist is in heavy rotation.”
Any product, ritual or piece of advice you’d pass on to someone trying to stay put-together on a packed schedule?
“Get a big metal mixing bowl, fill it with water and a ton of ice and dunk your face. No product can match it. Cut the alcohol and sodium. Microneedling. Nonstop water. Saunas. Walking. And practice gratitude.”
