With a new album soon to be launched, Gwen Stefani has stepped back into the spotlight looking spectacular and Harper’s Bazaar is showing us plenty of fun and glam examples that show her beauty in a different manner from what we might expect. Despite aiming to be an early fall editorial, the photo-shoot oozes spring and optimism with floral accessories and pink tones. In the accompanying interview with the magazine, the star reveals how she approaches her beauty routine, the secret behind her rocking body among many others.

Given the fact that most of us remember Gwen all put together with her iconic red lips, it comes as no surprise the star loves make up. So much, in fact, that it’s not uncommon to change her makeup multiple times a day: “I’ve always been a girl who loves to dress up. I already put my makeup on twice today: I put it on to take my kid to school, and then I went home, washed my face, and put it on again to have lunch with you. I like to make my husband like me more and he likes it when I’m wearing makeup.”

With her gorgeous slender figure, the star has been asked on numerous occasions how she manages to stay so fit, healthy and gorgeous. However, she always found these types of questions rather cumbersome. She jokingly states that there’s no single miracle trick behind her gorgeous figure: “I hate talking about my body [all the time]; it’s ridiculous. There is no secret: You just have to eat healthy, work out, and torture yourself!” Of course, all the on stage performing definitely helps too but she still hits the gym as much as her time allows it: “But it’s more for my brain than it is for my body.” She also explains that part of the reason she stays so fit is her love for clothes: “I like to wear clothes too much, so I try to keep focused.”

Being in the industry for so long enabled her to develop a thick skin when it comes to critiques and false rumors to the point that she detached herself from them entirely: “That someone would say something untrue or bad about me doesn’t bother me. It’s like water off a duck’s back. None of that stuff matters. There’s something in me, being this passive person, that those kinds of things don’t upset me. I know they can say anything; they can just make something up. But what are you going to do? It’s not part of my reality, so it’s okay.”

One area where she dedicates her entire energy though is motherhood. Unsurprisingly, she finds her most important role to be very energy-intensive and undoubtedly challenging albeit extremely fun: “It’s, like, the real deal, dude. It’s superfun being a mom, but it’s hard too. Finding that balance between work and family is the hardest thing I’ve ever done—by far.”

Read the entire interview in the Harper’s Bazaar September 2012 issue, the largest issue ever with a staggering 375 ad pages that hits the newsstands on August 21.

Photo courtesy of Harper’s Bazaar