Allure

Jennifer Garner: Her Allure Photo Shoot

The actress reveals her surprising stance on calorie-counting, the one thing a Garner girl would never do, and her mild fear of being branded "the wife of." Check out these exclusive photos from her shoot with photographer Alexi Lubomirksi at the King Gillette Ranch in Southern California.

Jennifer Garner may have made a big splash as the kickboxing, nunchaku-ing heroine of big-screen action pictures, but fanboys will be disappointed to learn that the actress's recent transition to more thought-provoking roles appears to be permanent. "There were times I had to watch every calorie that went into my body. Doing something like that again...it's not exactly on the top of my list," says the actress, who appears in Dallas Buyers Club this winter. Here, Garner poses at a ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains where Hollywood icons like Clark Gable and Greta Garbo once came to party. Wool felt coat, Shetland wool vest, leather skirt, belt, and silk-satin-and-leather shoes by Prada. Bra by Calvin Klein.

If you see her making fewer appearances on the red carpet with her Oscar-winning husband, Ben Affleck, that's a professional—not a personal—decision: "Sometimes it's a pain because my heels are so high and it would be really nice to have his arm. And he's such a great date! But it can be too much. I think especially for women, they can really lose their identity and just become 'wife of,'" she says. Wool flannel vest and dress, wool sweater, and belt by Lanvin.

The expression "natural beauty" may be overused, but it's unavoidable when describing Garner. "Shooting in this beautiful landscape, I wanted to show her as earthy and fresh as possible," said makeup artist Tyron Machhausen of this cover shot. He blended a taupe cream eye shadow into the creases and along the lower lashes, filled the upper lash lines with a dark brown pencil, and swiped on black mascara. After swirling burnt sienna blush on the apples of her cheeks, he lined her lips with a mauve pencil, smudging the edges with a Q-tip. Then he applied a sheer mauve lipstick all over.

Garner's look can be re-created with the following : Neutrogena Healthy Lengths Mascara in Carbon Black, Neutrogena Crease Proof Eye Shadow in Lasting Taupe, Neutrogena Healthy Skin Blends Natural Radiance Bronzer in Sunkissed, and Neutrogena Moisture Smooth Color Stick in Plum Perfect.

Flashback! At the recent cover shoot, Garner told Allurecreative director Paul Cavaco that posing for this photograph taken by Michael Thompson for Allure—way back in 2002—made her nervous, but now she considers the image one of her all-time favorites. And although she doesn't have the same intense workout regimen as her job required a decade ago, she does try to stay fit. "I've been working out with Valerie Waters for 13 or 14 years. I'll do different things. I did Spin for a little while, and I like yoga. I've been doing Pilates with this woman who was trying to get my abs back in shape after the last baby kind of did me in."

On the subject of skin care, Garner mentions a couple of ingredients that have entered her arsenal. "I'm starting to use more stuff that has things like alpha hydroxy [acid] or retinol. But I really don't believe that your skin-care products have to be the fanciest things in the world. I like drugstore products, especially sunscreen, because I use so much of it. I like Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Liquid sunscreen SPF 70." (Garner is a spokeswoman for Neutrogena.) Here, Machhausen touches up her lip color between shots. Silk-lace-and-feather dress by Louis Vuitton.

Hairstylist Peter Gray, shown here, prepped Garner's "amazingly thick hair" with a heat-protectant spray, then combed through a volumizing mousse. After blow-drying it, Gray wound sections of hair around a one-and-a-half-inch curling iron and smoothed on a shine serum. He softened the curls with a wide-tooth comb and pinned a few pieces back.

Besides acting, parenthood has always been part of Plan A for Garner, who, with Affleck, now presides over a household with three children. Even as a child, she took every opportunity to practice, she says. "I had a baby doll tucked under my arm everywhere I went," Garner says. When she was a young teenager, "my friend and I ran a babysitting service, C&J Babysitting. I think we made $2 an hour. If you'd said to me, 'You could be a mom or you could be anything else in the world,' I would have been a mom."

Growing up in West Virginia as the middle of three sisters, Garner took style cues from her mother, an English teacher. "My mother has the healthiest lack of vanity I've ever known," she says. "No layers, no perms, no colors." No ear piercings, either. "Look," she says, pointing out her unpierced lobes. Does she have any tattoos? A flash of shock streaks across the actress's face. "Oh, my gosh, no! Garner girls don't have tattoos." Here, photographer Alexi Lubomirski shoots the cover.

From her mother, Garner, who arrived at the shoot in Rag & Bone jeans and a white button-down shirt, also inherited a sense of frugality. "We had a clothing allowance of $200 twice a year, and that had to buy our winter coat, our underwear, our shoes," she says. To this day, Garner says she's thrifty, although she prefers to call it "having common sense."

Affleck travels often for his Eastern Congo Initiative, which brings aid to one of the most war-ravaged areas of the world, and is often rumored to be interested in running for political office. Garner, here walking to the set with Cavaco, doesn't dismiss the possibility. "Right now [Ben] feels like he can do more good for people politically from outside the system," she says. "Would I be surprised if one day he did go into politics? No. But not now." And he would have her support. "I'm along for the ride," she says.

Louis Vuitton Fall 2013 RTW Dress

Prada Fall 2013 RTW Shoes