Leighton Meester is incredibly down-to-earth for someone who's a pop culture icon. Her role as Blair Waldorf in Gossip Girl propelled her to instant stardom in 2007. Then she and Adam Brody – The O.C.’s Seth Cohen – became noughties high-school drama royalty when they dated and eventually married in 2014.
The Leighton I meet is makeup-free, in sweats and keeps apologising for the fact that I'm chatting to her on a Saturday evening London time – all of which is at odds with her impossibly glam, waspish ‘Queen B’ character. “I'm in mountain time," she grins, referring to Calgary, Canada, where she's filming a Netflix romantic comedy entitled The Bodyguard.
Even on Zoom, her energy is fun to be around. “I pre-ordered pizza today. That's how serious I am about vegging. They've been telling me that a place called Noble Pie is where I need to get pizza. You have to order at midnight the night before. It's like pizza, but then you get hot honey for it. So that's what I have to look forward to and an episode of Drag Race, I'm going to watch that.”
“Scent can really unlock memories, or put you right back into a place that you were, if you reflect and spritz on a perfume that you used at a certain period in your life.”
This upbeat vibe isn't just a state of mind – it's also how Elizabeth Arden's new perfume is making Leighton Meester feel. The 39 year-old actor, who started her career aged just 10, is the new face of Eternal Aura, a scent that we both agree isn't a dainty floral.
“It has this uplifting yet grounding quality to it, which is exactly what I need when I'm going out into the world," she says of the perfume that starts out as a bright daytime scent, with magnolia and zippy pink pepper, before warm puffs of sandalwood unfurl on the wrists.
“Fragrance is so much less about how I put it on and then how someone else would be perceiving me, even though I think that is sort of a signature part of having a scent. To me, it's about how I feel in it and what it does as the final step to getting ready before I go anywhere. I really enjoy that part of the process – suddenly getting this signal that I can ground myself, I can transport, I can uplift myself.”
Of course, scent has this incredible power to transport everyone to the past, firing off powerful neurons that conjure up memories and emotions. “It can really unlock memories, or put you right back into a place that you were, if you reflect and spritz on a perfume that you used at a certain period in your life," Leighton tells Glamour.
“But that goes for almost any scent, like the food you ate when you were growing up or the smell of your childhood home,” she continues. "It's all very personal…I just had a snow cone recently, and the smell of it transported me directly into the ‘90s, to a roller skating rink in Florida. And I was like, whoa, I remember I had this all the time!”
Even though it's been almost 14 years since Gossip Girl wrapped on our TV screens, fans still reminisce about Blair Waldorf's preppy headbands and tweed jackets. But what did Blair smell like? Leighton hesitates. “Like an expensive hotel," she finally says. “I mean, when I first went to New York to film, we stayed at the Gramercy Park Hotel and anytime I've ever gone back there, there's a smell there and I don't know how to describe it, but maybe they have candles burning? I actually don't know because there's a bar in the lobby, so you can kind of smell that. You would think that doesn't smell good, but it does.
“So I feel like that is what I would associate [with her],” she continues. "I'd never stayed anywhere like that.” As it turns out, Blair would probably smell of Le Labo Cade 26, a custom smoky, woody fragrance, undercut with leather, that the hotel famously pumped out in communal areas.
The slightly medicinal smell of Eight Hour Cream also has a nostalgic draw for Leighton. "I remember when I was really young and starting to do photo shoots. There was actually a period where I didn't know what this cream was, I just remember that people would use it on me. And then finally one day I found out what it was and I got to look at the tube and it just was like, 'Oh, there's nothing else like it.' There's something very calming about it. If I can really think about a specific period of my life, every single time I smell that, I'm transported to my early 20s when that was sort of momentarily a mystery.”
“All the things that you worried about, certainly all the criticisms I had of myself, all fall by the wayside.”
According to Leighton, she's also all too aware of the power of hindsight. “I always give a lot of grace to my young self," she says. "I look at that person and I'm like, ‘Oh, you did okay.’ All the things that you worried about, certainly all the criticisms I had of myself, all fall by the wayside. And then hindsight gives you so much grace.”
That's not to say that she wouldn't put certain things in a time capsule from that time, including her glasses – “my whole life until I was 24, I wore glasses” – and Artichoke Pizza. “I used to live right next to a place called Artichoke Pizza when I was in New York. It was literally artichoke dip in a pizza, but to me, it was a weekly, if not an every-other-day kind of situation where I'd be like, 'What's for dinner? Artichoke Pizza'.”
But mostly music. “When I was 16 years old, and I was working in Canada, I went to a music store to buy CDs. There were a few different musicians that sort of got my wheels turning. I discovered Joni Mitchell and I was like, ‘Wait, do other people know about her?’ And Kate Bush.
"And so I remember taking these CDs home and having them in my little booklet, which yes, was glow in the dark, and it really helped me to understand how to express feelings. I could relate to this artist and someone somehow understood how I felt. I mean, I guess that's what good music does. I'm thinking lately, ‘Should I get CDs again?’ That would be kind of nice to have a Walkman so that if you're walking around, you don't have a phone, you just have a CD.”
“I'm only more and more proud and secure of how I look when I'm fresh-faced and when I wake up in the morning.”
Unsurprising for a busy mum of two, Leighton's beauty regime is pared back. “I'm aware of the beauty industry and products and advertising, and yet I still feel so sure of what works for me and what doesn't,” she says. “There have been waves of time where I've experimented, but I still feel how I've always felt, which is I always go back to the same handful of things that work for me, that make me feel good.”
These include Ursa Major Fantastic Face Wash, Elta MD Mineral Sunscreen, Josie Maran Body Butter and a “good serum” like the Cosrx Advanced Snail 96 Mucin Power Essence. “I travel a lot, days are busy, nights are even more tired and busy, so I need very few products in my regimen. I have to be simple with it.”
Makeup-wise things are just as stripped back. "I do feel good with a coat of mascara, something on my lips, and then occasionally I'll put some blush on just to sort of feel alive." She name checks Ilia Limitless Lash Mascara as her favourite mascara and Charlotte Tilbury's Beautiful Skin Island Glow Lip & Cheek in Pinched Cheek Glow for a healthy flush.
But what strikes you most about Leighton is how happy she is just being herself – something that also informs her positive approach to ageing. “I'm only more and more proud and secure of how I look when I'm fresh-faced and when I wake up in the morning," says Leighton. "Obviously, a little mascara and lipstick does a lot for me. But yeah, I think leaning into what nature has given me and really not nitpicking; being proud of whatever imperfections or blemishes or marks or lines and not trying to conform – those things are important to me and really make me feel more secure knowing that they're not anybody else's, they're only mine.”
