6 pieces of essential life wisdom from our favourite Dame

1. It’s ok to hate the word ‘beautiful’

“Not all of us are beautiful. I hate that word. Kate Moss is beautiful, so is David Beckham, and I can appreciate a beautiful girl walking down the street. Young is beautiful. But the majority of us are something else and I wish there was another word for it.”

2. It’s ok to think you looked better when you were younger

“I looked better, without a doubt. But the great thing that happens when you get older is that you don’t give a flying fuck. I don’t look as good, but I don’t care. In my job I work with great makeup artists and I get to wear Victoria Beckham dresses, but in my other life I get on the tube and bus and go to the supermarket without makeup on. As you get older you lose the incredible insecurity of being young. Youth is wasted on the young.”

3. It’s ok to not really care about your hair

“I was never into colouring it, even now I’m not. I do occasionally get fed up and sometimes want a change and I’ll dye it then. That said, I did use L’Oreal Paris Excellence Age Perfect Hair Colourant in Light Beige Blonde a few days ago. Everything that happens to my hair happens in my bathroom, I very rarely go to the hairdresser.”

4. It’s ok not to believe lotions and potions do what they say

“I love cleansers and I like using body creams and face creams, but I don’t honestly know if they do anything for you. I like the way they make me feel – fresh, comfortable, clean and ready for the day. I do love L’Oreal Age Perfect Rehydrating Cream Night; it makes me feel good when I put it on. I am a great consumer of all that but I am realistic about what it can do. It’s more about how it makes you feel and and your feeling about yourself.”

5. It’s ok to be blown away by the Internet

“You either die young or your die old, there’s nothing in between and I’m glad I didn’t die young. I was thinking about Kurt Cobain the other day and he died without knowing the internet, and I’m totally blown away by that. The internet is a huge movement in the history of humanity – it’s maybe even more important that the creation of the printing press. If the price I have to pay to see the future is getting older than so be it!”

6. It’s ok to wear a bikini whatever your age or size

“The term “gran-bod” is disgusting, insulting, reductive and horrible. I think women should have the freedom to wear whatever they like. I love the freedom of wearing a bikini. I have a house in Southern Italy and everybody there wears a bikini no matter how big or small they are.”

Dame Helen Mirren is the face of L’Oreal Paris Age Perfect