Jenna Ortega Is Picky About Her Perfumes

It’s easy to assume that Jenna Ortega and the character she portrays on Netflix’s Wednesday share a lot in the way of personalities. But in a sun-soaked suite at the 1 Hotel ahead of the opening party for the Grey Zone, a pop-up boutique and art exhibition in celebration of Dior's new fragrance campaign, Ortega's funny, charming demeanor is far from her gloomy character on the show we couldn’t stop streaming last year.

The actress, one of the seven new faces of the #DareInGrisDior campaign, explains that she’s quite particular about the fragrances she chooses to wear. What she gravitates to most in the Gris Dior fragrance for La Collection Privée Christian Dior, a beloved chypre scent, is that it isn't overwhelming. “It's very minimalist and aesthetically pleasing to me which always makes me feel good and confident," she says.

Related article: On The Quest For Essences With Dior

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Ahead, Ortega shares her take on bleached brows, her complicated relationship with black hair dye, and what we can look forward to in Wednesday Season 2.

As one of the new faces of Gris Dior, what do you love most about the fragrance?

I love how androgynous it is. I think as someone who's very selective and very picky about scent, I need something that isn't too distracting or isn't too intense, but ultimately feels clean, fresh, and new. That's kind of what the fragrance is. I mean, even down to the bottle.

The sense of smell is known for evoking strong memories. What’s your first memory with fragrance?

I don't know if I can think of a specific scent or anything like that, but my mother's cooking. I can smell her frijoles from here, and they are the most incredible thing that you'll ever, ever have. Especially because it was a handed down recipe from her Tita, her grandma. So, I feel like it's just the authentic good stuff. If I think about my childhood, or I think about something like that, that is what I smell.

What is your go-to way of wearing perfume?

I do it right after I shower. It’s the first thing, especially because again, I'm nervous about something being too intense or too strong. I'll do a good healthy spray or two on my chest and neck and maybe on my wrists and rub them together for when you go in for hugs or whatever. But it's usually one of the first things that I do just so that I can live in it a little bit more and it can get familiar on my clothes before I go out. Or I'll spray it in my suitcase sometimes when I'm packing.

Between filming, press tours and other engagements how do carve out time for self-care?

I feel like that's something that I'm still learning, but it's usually at end of the day because I like to wake up at the last possible minute. When I work, I get really distracted, so I'm bad at taking care of myself then to be quite honest. When I go to bed or when I go home at night, I drink however many liters of water I need to drink. I go on my run. I go for my walk. I make sure that I eat a nice meal.

Music is a really big thing for me and something that kind of helps me de-stress. Whether it's background music or I'm singing and dancing along. That's so much fun and so good for me. Or sometimes I watch a movie because it's distracting and I still feel like I'm being fed creatively because a lot of times you are inspired by something like that.

What's on your playlist?

Well, I've been saying Sade. There's nobody more perfect. I feel like Sade is somebody that I listen to a lot.

What is a beauty trend would you like to try? What’s one you’d never do?

Ooh, that's so hard. I'm so bad with trends. It's so funny, I used to say that I wanted to bleach my eyebrows. I think it looks psychotic a majority of the time, which is why I love it so much. You look insane in the best way possible. I've always had respect for goth culture and fashion. And oftentimes they'll shave or bleach their brows so that they can do whatever shapes they want. Brows are so big on the face. I feel like you could really make yourself look different and interesting in doing something like that.

I also would not bleach my brows because my job is my job. It's just not the place to do anything like that. Unless it was for a character or a role or something like that. I feel like I should probably keep a pretty "Plain Jane" look. Sometimes, I'm not going to lie, it looks rough. You can look so interesting and so supermodel-like, and other times it's, ugh, I don't know. It definitely takes a certain face. I don't think I have the face, but I do think it would be funny as hell.

Do you have any beauty looks you regret?

Speaking of brows again, genuinely, I feel like anyone who goes through a makeup phase, you've had aggressive brows in the past and I've definitely gone too dark or too heavy before. That's been a beauty regret. And this is another one, but honestly I don't really regret it because I actually really loved the black hair. But coming back from black hair is difficult. I had never dyed my hair before or anything like that, but it was not easy to remove. And I remember that being the first time that I got frustrated over something appearance related. Hair dye is something I'm nervous about.

You were one of the first to get a "wolf cut" last year. Any tips on maintaining a shaggy hair style?

You have to be good about consistently trimming it, which I didn't realize. And I never cut my hair really. If they needed to give me a trim or something on set, that was fine. But definitely with the fringe, with the "wolf cut," especially if you want to keep that shape. That was a learning curve for me. It's nice though because it's so layered. I feel like it naturally finds its own shape and there's not much I personally have to do to it for it to kind of, you know, look presentable and easy.

There have been a few iterations of Wednesday Addams. How did you make Wednesday your own?

That was some of the most pressure I've ever put on myself. Especially because I grew up with Christina's Wednesday as well, and she's so perfect. I think she'll always be the ideal Wednesday in my brain. Everything about that was perfect. You don't want to rip anybody off. Nothing's more embarrassing or as hard of a fail as trying to do an impression of someone and it just not being as good.

I realize that it's also a very different time. I mean it's been 30 years since those movies, so you have to modernize it a little bit, especially because it takes place in current day. But I knew that they wanted it to reach a wide age group, you know, adult and kids. I realized that I did have to include some aspects or qualities that Christina's Wednesday had to kind of keep in the older group. But then I also had to add my own. Especially since we've never spent so much time with Wednesday. Maybe she is socially awkward. Maybe she does carry herself physically differently and has different mannerisms. You know, it was little things like that that made her different enough, but still familiar so that older audiences still felt engaged and like they recognized this character.

What are you looking forward to most this year?

That’s so hard. At the beginning of January, we started getting the writers together for season two [of Wednesday] and starting those conversations and just seeing all the fun places they want all the characters to go and, and how we're going to kind of make the story more exciting and kind of up the ante I guess, this time around. That has been really exciting. And also, that is something that's really wonderful about television is getting to revisit characters. Because you never get to do that. So, it'll feel comfortable and fun. I think there's going to be even more play this time around, which is really cool.

This article originally appeared in Harper's BAZAAR US.