Jennifer Garner Keeps This Invisible Sunscreen in Her Car

While Jennifer Garner says she’s “not great about a lot of beauty upkeep,” she takes her sunscreen very seriously. The actor considers sun protection as the number one skincare step in her routine, and it definitely shows on her face.

When we chat via Zoom on a sunny October afternoon, she’s dressed in an adorable gray “Farmer Jen” T-shirt, a nod to her farm in Oklahoma; not only is she an actor, producer and mom of three, she’s also the co-founder of the kids food brand Once Upon a Farm, and has been an ambassador for the legendary drugstore skincare and beauty brand Neutrogena for more than 15 years. Someone as busy as Garner needs tried-and-true products and self-care practices to keep herself centered amidst such a packed schedule, and sun protection is just one of those everyday essentials she’s never without.

Below, Garner shares the a products she’s used and loved the longest, the hobby she’s revisiting and the surprising time of day she feels most like herself.

The One Thing She Does As Soon as She Wakes Up

"Work out! I’ve been doing a lot of The Limit … it’s my favorite, it’s a very hard workout. It’s dance cardio, plyometrics, cardio toning. I usually do that or I’ll swim, or I do a lot of boxing. I have to do it right when I wake up [at 5 AM.]"

The One Skincare Step She Never, Ever Skips

"I never skip washing my face at night. I never skip sunscreen as you can see from my pale skin. I’m pretty good about all of it…. I’m not great about a lot of beauty upkeep, like I’ll look and think, ‘Oh, I haven’t tweezed my eyebrows in like two months.’ But I do take good care of my skin."

The One Product That's Been in Her Routine The Longest

"Probably [Neutrogena's] retinol. The combination of retinol and hyaluronic acid is so magical to me. The retinol really asks your skin to regenerate and it gets busy with it, every other night. The hyaluronic acid is just protecting and takes care of it. It makes it look dewy. This morning, the only thing I did is I washed my face after I worked out and I used the HydroBoost. I really like the Hydro Boost Water Gel ($20). That’s it! It just absorbs. I don’t have a lot of lines for 51, and when I do run out, you see that stuff really show up quickly.

"I’ve always used the Neutrogena Sesame Body Oil ($19) at the end of a shower. When I was a kid, I used the face bar. My sisters and I, even though we used no hair products—we weren’t allowed to have layers, perms, the Garner girl aesthetic is pretty much what you’re looking at right now, no makeup—we’d do the thing where you use Neutrogena shampoo and conditioner for two weeks to clean your hair of all the products."

The Skincare Advice She Shares With Her Kids

"My favorite skincare advice that I tell everyone, which I learned from Dr. Doris Day at a Neutrogena event years ago is: Nothing looks better in your 50s than sunscreen in your 20s. When you’re young, you think sun damage is never gonna catch up with you. You look great from the sun, you feel better. But you can look great from a spray tan or makeup, and you’ll be so glad when you’re not constantly covering up sun damage at my age."

The One Ingredient Her Skin Loves

"I really do think hyaluronic acid. There are two things that change your skin: hyaluronic acid and retinol. In concert, that’s a really powerful duo. This Hydro Boost line, I remember when it first came out... it has staying power because it really works, it really does change your skin. That plus the Rapid Wrinkle Repair ($28), it really does work. For me, I like to use it every other night and use an SPF during the day. I use Hydro Boost on the other nights. If you go back and forth between those two, you do not need anything from a fancy department store or a dermatologist. Those will take care of you, I promise! 

"I’m so lucky, I get to talk to the people in white lab coats and hear the research they’re doing. This stuff doesn’t have fragrance, it’s dermatologist recommended for people with sensitive skin; that’s saying something, especially for a drugstore brand."

The One Product She Recommends to Everyone

"I think you have to find the right sunscreen for you. I think that’s so important because you have to use it; you can’t give yourself an out. Skin cancer is preventable, it’s ridiculous to put yourself in the position of having skin cancer when you don’t need to. [I like] this superlight spray that’s an SPF 70, keep it in the car and wherever you go. You do need a higher SPF than you used to, the sun is stronger. It’s clean on your skin, it doesn’t make you feel gross—give yourself a little spritz every time you’re going out."

The One Thing That Keeps Her Grounded

"I do feel like consistently moving my body, getting the endorphins from a really good workout. It’s about self-care more than anything else, setting my mood for the day, starting the day doing something for myself.

"The other thing that I do on the other side, I write in a journal. I had gotten away from reading for pleasure, I was reading for work. I always read to my kids, so that adds up as we plow through novels. But I had stopped reading by myself, for myself, so I inserted that back into my life. It’s so valuable to read and I really did have to start by saying, I’m just going to do 10 pages, 10 minutes on a plane ride. I built my way back up. You have to build that muscle. I'm currently reading Barbara Kingslover’s Demon Copperhead. Now I’m one of the people who wants to talk books all the time."

When She Most Feels Like Herself

"Making Sunday dinner!"

One Thing That Makes Her Happy

"There are so many things! I tell my kids, Add to your list of things that make you happy. Recognize them and notice them when they happen so you have a larger list. My parents are in town, so seeing my parents, that’s pretty golden."