Cate Blanchett normally looks like a flawless film star, but this month's Intelligent Life assures you she is not.

On the cover of the magazine's March/April issue, the 42-year-old "Lord of the Rings" star appears makeup free and without digital retouching for what appears to be the first time.

Despite the lack of cosmetic enhancement, Blanchett -- who is the joint artistic director of the Sydney Theatre Company and is currently performing in an Australian production of a German play -- is still an ethereal beauty with age-appropriate lines around her mouth and beneath her eyes.

"She looks like what she is, a woman of 42, spending her days in an office, her evenings onstage, and the rest of her time looking after three young children," wrote the magazine's editor, Tim de Lisle.

To compare to what she is not, the April U.K. Harper's Bazaar also boasts Blanchett as a cover star, except this time she sports the traditional fashion mag look: smoky eyes, very smooth skin, and an outfit she didn't pull out of her own closet.

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"When other magazines photograph actresses, they routinely end up running heavily Photoshopped images, with every last wrinkle expunged," de Lisle continued. "Their skin is rendered so improbably smooth that, with the biggest stars, you wonder why the photographer didn't just do a shoot with their waxwork."

With her Intelligent Life cover, Blanchett proves that she's a true beauty, no matter how much -- or how little -- makeup she wears.

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