Taylor Schilling Shares Her Health and Beauty Philosophy

She was in town for the reopening of Origins' Cambridge store.

Taylor Schilling

Taylor Schilling talks beauty at Origins/Photo by Jamie Ducharme

The world is most accustomed to seeing Taylor Schilling in a khaki prison uniform and little-to-no makeup. Outside the cells of Orange Is the New Black, however, Schilling is an Origins ambassador, a role that brought the former Wayland and West Roxbury resident back to Boston on Wednesday for the grand reopening of the brand’s Harvard Square store.

We caught up with Schilling at Origins—a shop she says she’s been visiting since she was old enough to take the T into the city—to talk beauty, fitness, and her Massachusetts upbringing.

On her beauty philosophy:

“For the most part, I’m pretty hands off,” Schilling says. “It’s that old axiom of confidence and beauty coming from within. I think there’s really something to that. The better I feel, the more I take care of myself, the better I feel like I look.”

On her daily routine:

“I’m pretty rigorous about sunscreen,” she says. “It’s pretty simple, but it’s a big deal—it’s a big deal to do something every single day. It’s the least I can do to brush my teeth! [My daily routine is] brushing my teeth and putting on sunscreen, washing my face.”

On staying fit:

“I try to just be as active as I can be, and not to be too militant about anything,” she says. “My body will tell me if I’m not moving enough.”

On the influence of her Massachusetts childhood:

“There’s lots of Patagonia. Lots and lots of fleece,” she laughs. “The fleece helped. You wake up in the morning, and dress as if you’re going to hike. It always seemed accessible and part of the daily routine to be outdoors. The outside was always a part of daily life.”

On the beauty advice she truly takes to heart:

“Some of the best beauty advice I have ever learned is that my outside appearance is only one part of me, and there are many, many, many parts of me that are valuable,” Schilling says. “My intellect, and my spirit, and my mind are parts of me that I value just as much as how I look on the outside.”