Courtney Love turns 62 today, but this number doesn’t quite match up with how permanently she remains in collective pop culture. She somehow still reads like someone to watch, albeit with a bit of her trademark wildcard thrown in, but not someone who’s already spent decades earning that reputation.

Her staying power began with the band she founded and fronted, Hole, and their raw, riot-adjacent breakout album Live Through This, released in 1994. It was just months after the death of her husband, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. With this loss, her public identity was forever tied to one of the most mythologised bands in rock history. This made her one of the most photographed and high-profile women of the decade, with her appearance covered in the tabloids as relentlessly as her music was reviewed. She then turned to acting in earnest, co-starring Woody Harrelson in 1996’s The People vs. Larry Flynt, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination, and went on to appear in Man on the Moon and 200 Cigarettes.

Few public figures, regardless of industry, have had their faces and bodies dissected by so many competing editorials for so long. And Love responded to it all with the candor that only she can. Her take on beauty goes beyond the standard celebrity line, “I’m not doing anything.” You are always becoming more aware of yourself and it is worth reconsidering.

About skin care

In a 2013 interview with Into The Gloss, Love previously said she stuck with the same few products for years. She said it was Uma Thurman who introduced her to Karin Herzog’s Vita a Combi 2 ($52), which became a mainstay in her routine, and that she was previously obsessed with SK-II, especially the brand’s Cellumination Cream.

For masking, she points to Bioxydia’s Miracle 24 ($104), which she says “melts into the skin” after about 20 minutes. At the time, she said she likes to layer Kate Somerville’s Quench and Revive creams on top of Vita-A-Kombi 2, and also uses products from Colbert MD, Dr. Brandt, and Kanebo’s Sensai. She told the magazine that she reached for Eve Lom’s cleanser ($85) to remove her makeup. As for her habits in general, Love said she’s “pretty loyal” once she finds something that works and doesn’t like to switch products.

About the scent

When it comes to fragrances, she describes herself as a “fracas girl” who has worn Robert Piguet’s classic scent ($215) almost without deviating since she was young, but according to the same Into the Gloss interview, she’s also collected nearly every Killian scent and a few Amouage scents along the way.

About surgery and aging

What makes “Love” more interesting is its themes around surgery and aging. She was open about having a rhinoplasty early in her career, and candidly explained why, long before she became famous on Live Through This.

She also noted that she underwent a facelift at the same time as her transition from rock frontwoman to leading actress, and said she is drawn to non-surgical advances like stem cell facelifts to maintain a more youthful appearance over time.

But in a widely quoted interview with Harper’s Bazaar, Love pushed back on the idea that more intervention is always better, saying, “There are a lot of great actresses who look great as they age…To me, aging gracefully is about letting it happen and accepting it.”

She continued, “In my experience, fighting it always seems to backfire and make people look ridiculous. When you watch actresses get their work done, it makes them unrecognizable.” These days, she says she wants to “continue to be natural.”

This is a philosophy of beauty that doesn’t resolve into a neat soundbite. Love does the work, wisely warns against overdoing it, and still makes the case in defense of aging. That openness, stated as plainly as most things she says on the record, shows that she’s made a career out of refusing to soften her edges, whether she was fronting the Hall in the ’90s or playing against Woody Harrelson on screen. And it’s definitely more useful than a simple product list. Happy birthday, Courtney.