Actress, mother, entrepreneur and now official creative inspiration behind Max Factor, Gwyneth Paltrow, 42, knows a thing or two about beauty. She tells Stylist what she really sees when she looks in the mirror.

"I know it’s a cliché, but I really do subscribe to the ‘age gracefully’ thing. You can fight it to a degree, but I accept the beauty of being a grown woman and the wisdom that comes with it. There’s nothing fun about being at that young age where you don’t know yourself and you’re struggling so much to accept yourself. There are cases where younger women really are integrated in themselves, but personally it took me a long time I wouldn’t go back for anything!

I’m not the type to look in the mirror and study my looks. God no! I’d rather die than be studying my face like that! I just brush my teeth and try to get dressed and get everyone up. The morning is definitely not the time when I look in the mirror. I don’t tend to wear much make-up either. If I’m working, I’ll wear a lot, obviously, but in my own life I’m very much a mascara and lip gloss kind of person. I do try – especially in the last five years – to be good about washing my face properly then exfoliating and moisturising before bed. Taking an inside-out approach to beauty has always been my philosophy – that and sleep, good nutrition and a bit of exercise – especially when it comes to skin.

I do think there’s a standard that women are supposed to hold themselves to, and I think it’s always been like that. As women, we always put a lot of pressure on ourselves to be at a certain standard and I’m not sure if that changes much from generation to generation. Those of my female friends that are my age are all happy about where they are and that’s really nice to see – whether it’s Stella [McCartney] or Mary who’s been my best friend since I was four, or Cameron [Diaz], or my other best friend from since I was 11. All these women are beautiful, happy to be women and are contributing something. That’s empowering to see.

I’ve worked on true self-acceptance and I think that’s only something that you can get to when you’re a bit older and you’ve lived through a lot and you have things to forgive yourself for. It’s a very interesting process – when you’re gentle to yourself and you really love and accept yourself. That level of being self-critical is indicative of a lack of happiness on a soul-level. It’s kind of amazing when it starts to happen and it enables you to better relate to yourself physically. It’s about challenging the way we were raised to view ourselves and other women.

Gwyneth Paltrow reveals her beauty routine; "I was never crazily critical of my physical appearance - I like my wrinkles"