There are many reasons why we love Helen Mirren, but undoubtedly her ability to tell things as they are, is up there with the best of them. Who else can you imagine saying that a L’Oreal moisturizer “probably does f–k all” at an event she was at to promote it? And who else, at 72, can you think would post a makeup-free selfie to Instagram ahead of Hollywood’s most glamorous night of the year, The Oscars?

Indeed, The Queen star often uploads makeup-free pictures to Instagram, and not only that but photos of herself being “made-up” too — snaps she captions with phrases like, “major works in progress.” All this, of course, is in an apparent attempt to debunk the myth that Hollywood stars wake up “picture perfect” (although, in our view, Helen is always picture perfect — with or without makeup.)

But anyway, continuing along this thread, the British actress has recently revealed an incredible beauty secret — one which she says has made a “huge difference.” She told the Daily Mail,”I’ll tell you what I had done recently, which I love — I got my eyebrows tattooed. I was fed up of my brows barely being there and when one of my girlfriends got it done, I thought that they looked great. They’re very lightly and delicately done — but it means that when I get up in the morning and I have no make-up on, at least I have eyebrows. It’s made a huge difference.”

Of course, Helen is no stranger to tattoos. She famously has one on her hand, an inter-locking pattern meaning “love thy neighbor,” which she once revealed she got whilst “very, very drunk” in Minnesota. She did it because it was “the most shocking thing I could think of doing” she said in an interview in 2010. However, she went on to reveal, “Now I’m utterly disgusted and shocked because it’s become completely mainstream, which is unacceptable to me.” Here’s hoping she doesn’t come to think the same about her new eyebrow tattoos (because if anything is guaranteed to become incredibly popular — ergo “mainstream” — surely it’s a beauty secret from the gorgeous Helen Mirren).

This originally appeared on our sister site, Grazia Daily.