What Ben Barnes Can’t Live Without

I do a wardrobe cleanse every few years because I have too many choices and too many things. I’ll invite some of my pals over to take whatever they want, and then I take the rest to Goodwill. When I was getting ready for this most recent tour, I just wanted a newblack T-shirtand a newwhite one, just to have basic things. I think the photographer on my tour suggested these. And I was like,Wait, cropped is the best thing for feeling confident in my outfit. That was a relatively new epiphany for me — that that’s the way that I like to look. The faded black one is the one that caught my eye and the one that I wear the most. It has the correct shortness by the waist and slightly bigger shoulders without having your arms swim in the giant sleeve. I also have one of their green check flannel shirts, which has the same cut at the bottom, which is great.

I came across this online five or six years ago maybe, and I struggle to talk about it without sounding like I’m doing a commercial for them. I used to get headaches, I think particularly from moving to California. The way that the bottle functions just made me want to drink more water — it’s something about the straw. It’s something that I always have with me. If you go online, some fans of mine have set up accounts called “Ben and his Owala” or something like that, and you can find dozens of pictures of me, like onstage with my band or doing meet and greets. I’m getting into advanced Owala territory where, because I’ve got more than one, I’m starting to change the lid and base combos so they can be unique to me, which is ridiculous. Maybe not the person I need to be in my life, but there we go. That’s what’s happening. I did find myself saying the other day,I need to get this new color.You drive through L.A. and you see people lining up ’round the block for new sneaker drops, and you roll your eyes at it, thinking how ridiculous it is. Apparently that’s me for these water bottles.

It’s the same thing with the water bottle. I would get groggy and headache-y and I’m like, Oh, I haven’t drunk any water. This is either the emergency backup or the preventative, prophylactic system in place to make sure that I’m hydrated. But they are also just tasty as well and have like no sugar. I use half a packet rather than a full one. That’s my taste. I always have a big box of them in the house.

I’m a very big tea drinker. I drink more than one mug ofPG Tips teaevery day. But I only ever have one coffee ’cause that’s all I can bear. I find the Nespresso to be a very reliable start to my morning. The milk frother is the key. I’ve definitely experimented with being fancy with mixing different kinds of milks in there. I hit on a macadamia-nut-milk combination, which felt very luxurious. That’s probably the fanciest thing I’ve ever done ever in my life, was mix nut milks in my Nespresso machine. If I’m on set and I stay in an apartment and they have one of these, that’s usually a real moment of extra delight for me.

I think digestive biscuits are the stalwart of every British kid’s childhood. This is the ultimate tea pairing. Since I moved to L.A., they’ve become more difficult to track down, but if ever I find them in the British stores, or if I go home, a pack of these finds its way into my suitcase. It’s one of those treats that is just like pure nostalgia for me, but also is always the right thing to reach for. If you speak to most British people, I think they will always tell you it’s the dark-chocolate ones. They make milk chocolate ones … but it’s the dark chocolate ones.

I don’t know how they found me, but a few years ago they sent me a candle and body wash out of the blue. It worked, because I then found myself buying the deodorant, the body wash, the candles, the hand cream, all of it. The smells are really, really, really good. It feels like a very luxury brand, but it’s not as expensive as a lot of things. It’s also not local-pharmacy prices, but they do last a really long time. In the same way that Tom Ford makes everything smell delicious, this is the same thing. All of their scents feel quite unisex and blend well together as well. They’ve been my go-to for anything scented, really, for the past couple of years. That’s one of my treats to myself. You think,Well, I need deodorant and I need body wash, and I would like to have a scented candle and whatever. As soon as you’ve ordered it, you’re like,Oh, I just spent all that money. But you need those things anyway. It makes me happy every time I use any of them. I do use a small amount. Even though it is not, like, the most expensive thing, I still wanna stretch it out. I’m a pretty thrifty guy usually.

Even though I’m in my 40s, if I’m back in the U.K. for Christmas, my mum’ll still do me a Christmas stocking. And this was one year’s Christmas stocking gift. I do a very light spray about three feet above the pillow before bed, and it lulls me to sleep. It probably feeds into my love of scent but also my need for ritual and ceremony. Again, just one tiny spray so it lasts a really long time. In my travels, various hotels sometimes have a sleep or linen spray and I’ve tried a bunch of them. None of them can hold a candle to this particular one. I’m a loyalist for life. It’s one of the first things I pack if I’m going away to shoot something for six months. It makes it feel like your bedroom instantly without having to buy new, you know, nightstands.

[Editor’s note: This is currently unavailable for U.S. delivery, but you can sign up for email restock notifications on Kit Kemp’s site.]