Beauty Upkeep: The Ellen Barkin Plan

What her friend Susan Sarandon told her about being an actor and looking older: "She said, 'They'll always need women to play people's mothers. Then those of us who don't have plastic surgery will have jobs.'"

Who she wants to resemble at 60: "My mother."

Actresses whose looks she admires: "Helen Mirren, Judi Dench, Meryl Streep, Annette Bening, all those girls who don't play around with their faces."

What kind of bag she's carrying: "Balenciaga."

And what's in it: "My cell phone, glasses—I had LASIK 10 years ago, but it wore off—sunglasses, Airborne [herbal immune booster], Rosebud Salve, my keys, vitamins and an energy packet, my wallet, a lucky eye from my producing partner Caroline Kaplan, and an amulet from each of my kids."

There's no makeup in there? "No, I usually don't wear it. On a regular day, I curl my lashes with a Shu Uemura curler and apply lots of moisturizer. If I'm going out to lunch, I'll use a black Maybelline waterproof mascara—my eyes tear—and maybe a little Chantecaille concealer and Rosebud Salve. No blush because my cheeks are pink enough."

No makeup, even when she's going out to dinner? "If I'm going out with friends, I'll also do my eyebrows with pencil. And if I'm getting really dressed up, I'll smudge a black Stila eyeliner pencil on my upper lid. I also like CoverGirl lipstick, a sheer nude. And Stila glosses, because they stay put, but they're a little sticky if you're kissing. I never wear foundation. Or eyeshadow, unless I'm being photographed."

And what does she carry in a little evening bag? "Powder, because you don't want shine [if you're on the red carpet], and lipstick and maybe a black eyeliner pencil, and my phone. But actually, I try not to carry a bag at all; makeup really stays on my face, so I don't need touch-ups, and it's not like if someone needed to reach me they wouldn't know where I was..."

A clue, maybe, as to why she is so regular and approachable: "My two front teeth were broken when I was 10. They were chipped in a huge V. I had caps put on, but they were always falling off. One day when I was 13, they fell off as I leaned out our third-floor window at home talking to my boyfriend. After that, I didn't replace them till I was 19. I mean, it wasn't enough to have the little eyes and the crooked nose, but I had to have the broken teeth, too."