How 'Insecure's Yvonne Orji's, 36, Keeps Her Skin Looking Like She's In Her 20s

Photo credit: Randy Shropshire - Getty Images
Photo credit: Randy Shropshire - Getty Images

From Women's Health

On screen and on stage, Yvonne Orji doesn’t miss a beat. And, apparently, neither does her skincare routine. The Insecure star has curated a collection of skin-loving products and practices to hydrate it, shield it from any harmful pollutants, and fight off every pesky blemish. Anyone who’s caught even a glimpse of the actress will agree maintaining a complexion that flawless is a talent worthy of all the awards. But, until there’s an honor dedicated to beauty regimens this comprehensive, fans will have to just appreciate and emulate.

Here's everything you need to know:

She exfoliates with a Clarisonic every day.

"I live by Clarisonic, I do, God bless it," Yvonne told Into The Gloss. "Ever since I got it I’ve just been like, Bzzzzzzz. It really does give me a deep clean." That is all thanks to the power brush's exfoliating powers, Women's Health previously reported. The rotating brush head does more than remove the gunk clogging your pores, it also works to rid the top layer of skin of dead skin cells. The process brightens your complexion, allows other products to penetrate the skin more deeply, and keeps skin from looking meh by promoting cell turnover (aka keep skin looking youthful).

She doubles up on the exfoliation with a chemically exfoliating cleanser.

For her combination skin (think: an oily T-zone and a dryer everything else), Yvonne uses her Clarisonic to rub Kate Sommerville's daily cleanser into her face, per ITG. The stuff is packed with papaya, pineapple, and pumpkin enzymes that gently exfoliate the skin without drying it out. Plus, the glycolic and lactic acids minimize the appearance of pores after flushing them of any makeup and day-to-day buildup.

She believes in shea butter for everything.

Whether it's for her hair or skin, Yvonne's a big fan of products made with shea butter—the fat extracted from the shea nut grown in Africa. The actress and comedian can't get enough of its hydrating properties and delicious smell. Her go-to brands? Shea Moisture, a beauty brand you can find pretty much anywhere, and Bolden's shea butter oil, which she gushed about on her Instagram.

She indulges in face masks on the regular.

With her packed schedule and this many products in her collection, you can hardly expect Yvonne keeps every product she might need on hand (there's a weight limit on luggage, after all), so she reserves some for her home routine and others to her set life. At home, Yvonne's go-to face mask is the Dermalogica Charcoal Rescue Masque, but when she's filming, she'll use sheet masks to keep moisture locked in and to "also get all impurities out," she told ITG.

She acts fast when it comes to breakouts.

"When you feel a pimple coming out of nowhere, you gotta grab this," Yvonne told The Zoe Report. The "this" she's talking about is the Mario Badescu Drying Lotion. Be it stress-induced or the always-annoying ill-timed breakout, the salicylic acid, sulfur, and calamine it's made with helps slough off surrounding dead skin cells, absorbs oil, and soothes with a gentle cooling sensation.

She's all for looking sun-kissed but still keeping protected.

The color of the sunscreen Yvonne (and everyone else with dark skin tones for that matter) uses is a big deal. Not only does it have be effective, but it can't leave behind a white, chalky trace. "Sometimes you can look like Casper the Ghost with sunscreen on, because it never blends," she told TZR. "And when it does, it looks like you have baby powder on your face. Not sexy. We want to prevent ourselves from getting skin cancer, but still..." So, Yvonne turns to Black Girl Sunscreen made by people who know exactly what look she's trying to avoid. "We were doing an episode of Insecure, and someone asked what I wanted to pack. This [was my first answer]," she added.

When she wants to look like she's been soaking up the sun, however, Yvonne will use L'Oreal's glow enhancer. "[It] helps me look like I have nothing on." She'll mix that with Drunk Elephant's Anti-Pollution Sunshine Drops which protect her skin from airborne pollutants and give her glow an extra boost.

She uses a special treatment to even out her complexion.

To reduce the appearance of dark spots, Yvonne turns to Estée Lauder's Profectionist Pro Rapid Brightening Treatment—which makes sense since she's a brand partner. "It works for all ethnicities and [skin tones]," she wrote on Instagram. "I’ve been using the serum with Vitamin C and Ferments to help fade the look of dark spots for a more even-toned, radiant look."

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