You don’t look anything like you did in high school – and that itself might be a good thing.

But meeting actress Isabel Lucas for the first time, it’s hard for me not to feel familiar. She still looks exactly like her whimsical, naturally beautiful (high-school-aged) character Tasha Hunter (née Andrews) who appeared on Home & Away from 2003 to 2006, which I watched religiously back then. This is a compliment, by the way. Lucas is radiant at the Santé by Enjo launch, which Gritty Pretty attended, at Sydney’s Flying Fish Restaurant.

She’s here as an ambassador for the natural cleanser brand. One of the brand managers tells me before my 1:1 interview with Lucas that when they first approached her she responded with a list of questions about the company’s ethics its manufacturing policies before agreeing to get on board. I’d also later find out that she spent an additional three months testing the product before signing on. Trust me, not all celebrities are that diligent.

In her beauty talk with Gritty Pretty, Lucas reveals her favourite (natural) beauty brands, how she copes with stress and the place she goes to recharge and get inspired.

GRITTY PRETTY: Since we last saw you on the screen, can you tell us what you’ve been working on? Where are you based now?

ISABEL LUCAS: I live part time in LA and part time in Byron Bay, but all my family is Melbourne so I usually always return for Christmas to see everyone. Mostly last year I was worked on a TV series called Emerald City, which is like a reimagined version of The Wizard of Oz that we shot in Budapest and Spain, and that has just started airing on NBC in the States. And I did two other projects last year, one is a film called That’s Not Me, which was more a cameo because my friend Alice [Poulcher] filmed it and we went to acting school together and I am very proud of her. The other one is an American Indie Film with a really weird name, Science Fiction Volume One: The Osiris Child. I just loved working on that film. We shot it in Sydney, but it’s set in the future on another planet and it had a wild and amazing script.

GP: Growing up, you were the first person to introduce many of us to a natural approach to beauty. I don’t think there was anyone else on TV that really lived and breathed that message. Since then, the beauty market has changed dramatically with a greater focus on natural beauty. Does that shift surprise you?

IL: Wow! Thank you, that’s so lovely. In a way, it doesn’t surprise me because we really need to go that way. It’s a necessity. We need to be aware of our impact on the planet in all different ways of life and beauty seems like an obvious step.

That’s also why I liked the Santé by Enjo line and it’s very modern approach to skincare. It’s very simplistic and it cuts out all the cleansers, all the soaps, and you literally just use this fine technology fibre to cleanse the skin – you only need water, the natural hydration of the earth – and the product is made so beautifully and gets really deep into the pores. I was trying it for at least three months before I decided to collaborate, and I was like, “Oh, it really works. It all just gets stuck in there – and it really works!”.

GP: Speaking of natural beauty, what are some of your other favourites?

IL: I really like – and I feel like you might like it too – it’s called, Lepaar. They do a lip balm, and they have a really lovely fine face oil that comes in a little glass bottle. (Glass is also better than plastic, because it erodes over time.) They use 24 karat gold in their products, and it is really divine and nice on the skin; very natural and organic, too.

GP: I guess you don’t need any other cleanser now you have Santé by Enjo, but what does the rest of your skincare routine involve?

IL: At the moment, I’m using the Dr. Hauschka Quince Moisturiser or the Rose one. The Lepaar oil, more so for night time that one. And the sunscreen I love is Green Foot Mama.

GP: How do you find out about all these upcoming natural beauty brands. Do they approach you and then you research them, or do you find them online?

IL: Sometimes it’s just friends, like my friend Vanessa Megan makes these…

GP: She makes the BEST products!

IL: Isn’t it good?! I agree, I really love her products. Other ways I find out is through makeup artists. I really like Sarah Tammer, she always uses different vegan and conscious beauty, so she was the person who told me about Lepaar, and actually Green Foot Mama as well. And there was a vegan lipliner she was using the other day, I think it’s called Obsessive Compulsive.