Mariska Hargitay on Beauty, Mama-hood, and "Aging Like a Fine Wine"

In the light green, circular driveway of the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, she waits for her car, ignoring the throngs of reporters.

She doesn't even see the flashes from shutterbugs not so discreetly hiding in the bushes.

Mariska Hargitay has her eyes on a man – and, man oh man, is he a cute one.

Her young son August has been swooped into mama's arms and some serious canoodling is going on. He has a little hand in her hair and she plants about a million kisses on his tiny mug.

So much for her hard edge "Law & Order SVU" cop she plays on the NBC hit. Det. Olivia Benson has left the building. If a hardened criminal saw her in this mode they would just walk away laughing.

Mariska the mama is also much more fashionable that her TV alter ego. Today in LA, she is out of her standard black pants and some boring law officer shirt. 

She looks casually great in a white shirt and jeans, reflecting her "less is more" and "simple is best" approach to beauty and fashion. The daughter of big screen siren Jayne Mansfield doesn't look like style is really on her mind – but more on that in a moment.

"My life is really amazing. I love that I'm not in my 20s. Amazing things happen as we get older," says Mariska, 47, whose son is five and who recently adopted a baby girl named Amaya Josephine with husband Peter Hermann.

SIMPLE BEAUTY

Mariska says the key is "to look in the mirror and feel good about how you look."

"I want to be a role model and say to women, 'This is what you can look like if you take care of yourself.

"You can age like fine wine," she says with a laugh.

To that end, she keeps her beauty routine simple, insisting her husband doesn't like her to put on tons of makeup.

She does love MAC's Lipglass and Chanel Glossimer glosses for a quick pick-me-up. For a casual day out, she highlights those amazing peepers with Chanel's soft black liner, which creates an amazing smoked look.

That trademark choppy hair, which is always effortlessly chic, gets a boost from Bumble and Bumble Sumotech.

At night, she likes to detox in a warm bath and toss in some sea salts as a way to de-stress and get rid of toxins at the same time. "Woman are busy and often that bath is our only break," she says. 

LOVING THE LAW

She has played Det. Olivia Benson since 1999.

"I love the role. She's like so many women in that she's great at taking care of everyone else, but often forgets about herself."

"I love that she's a lioness," she says. "It's not that she's fearless. She's really scared, but she does it anyways,

"She's like this tireless, loving mother when it comes to finding justice for the victims," says Mariska.

She laughs and mentions, "I want this girl to be my best friend and take care of me."

Mariska says that it's harder to do a series about abuse victims, often children, after having her own children.

"Before I was pregnant, I knew that all my mom friends couldn't watch the show. They thought it was too difficult. I could never understand that before I was a Mom," she says. "Now, I find it more difficult to act the scenes. You go to those places in your head in a different way. You imagine, 'What if that was my son?'

"It makes you a different kind of human being and a different kind of actor. Everything just penetrates you so much deeper," she says.

LOSING HER DAD

In 2006, the same year her son was born, she lost her beloved father, former Mr. Universe Mickey Hargitay. (Her mother died years ago in a tragic car accident.)  She says that is one of the worst parts of being a midlifer.

 "Having children and losing parents. These are two events in your life for which you'll be forever changed and I am changed, she says.

She says becoming a mother was a thrill. "It changed me as a human being. I think I love harder and love deeper and feel things more deeply."

Her midlifer creed is a good one.

"Now, I take all of it, accept all of it, love all of it and am grateful for all of it. I just try to understand the world a whole lot better on a daily basis. And I don't worry about what doesn't really matter," she says in a soft voice.