Zoe Kravitz

The Big Little Lies actress and fashion icon opens up about embracing her identity and learning to be true to herself

- Fiona Embleton

People have become bored with repetition in beauty and are embracing imperfections, diversity and uniqueness.

It’s interesting to be in an industry that defines beauty as just being physical, when to me it’s a way of life. It’s seeing somebody embrace who they are, love themselves and be a good person. For a long time there was a list of things that defined what was beautiful. If you weren’t these things, you didn’t fit into that world. Things are changing and brands are becoming more open-minded, especially YSL, which is why I’m so proud to be its global make-up and fragrance ambassador.

I’m drawn to complex scents because women are complex.

It’s why I love wearing Black Opium Intense De Nuit by Yves Saint Laurent [£78 for 50ml EDP, available January 2019]. It doesn’t smell too much of one note, you know? It’s not too feminine. It’s not too masculine. At first, you smell the sweetness and then everything else – coffee, musk – and it’s beautiful. Scent evokes memories, too, so I always pack incense sticks when I travel. It’s nice to have a consistent smell when you spend your life in hotels. I connect incense with my house in New York. I don’t get to be at home a lot, so when I am, it’s my happy place. The decor is eclectic – it’s a reflection of who I am and where I’ve been.

I identify with both my black and white roots.