People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People 
May 6, 1996 
 
 
Kate Winslet
The most important beauty tip Kate Winslet ever received, she says, came from her mum. "She said if I ever start to get the family whiskers--because there are women in my family that do get them--never, ever pluck! Always trim. And a makeup-artist friend told me that when I get a spot, don't squeeze! And if you must squeeze, it's essential to exfoliate." The 20-year-old actress keeps her toilette simple--with two exceptions. "My most prized possession is my pair of eyelash curlers, which I wouldn't sell to anyone," she says. Neither would she give up her dozens of pairs of funky boots, "because they mean that my feet are on the ground. Besides, I can't bear pathetic little shoes." That kind of spunk, says Richard Briers, who plays Polonius to her Ophelia in Kenneth Branagh's forthcoming Hamlet, reflects Winslet's "bloom of youth." As the fragile Marianne in Sense and Sensibility, the 119-lb.Winslet was compared to a Pre-Raphaelite maiden in the British press, but as a Reading, England, teenager tipping the scales at 185, she better resembled the chunky cherubs painted by Rubens. "For a good two or three years my nickname was Blubber," she says. "Being overweight is a family trait too. But I knew that I wouldn't work if I stayed that way."