Kristin Cavallari has the best eye cream hack

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I Didn’t Wake Up Like This is Yahoo Life’s beauty series in which experts, influencers and celebrities share their skin care and beauty regimens, from their favorite products to the daily routine that keeps them looking healthy and glowing.

Kristin Cavallari knows a good opportunity when she sees one. When the television personality and founder and chief executive officer of Uncommon James decided to do a “deep dive” into the clean skin care products she was using, she was “shocked” to find out that some of them weren’t so clean after all. So she decided to do something about it.

“These high-end products that I thought were relatively clean were, in fact, not at all,” Cavallari tells Yahoo Life. “Because I was pretty shocked by that, I started to look into the whole clean beauty world… and I came to find out that really, you can say that you're a clean beauty brand and essentially you're not — at least not according to my standards.” (According to the Washington Post, “there is no regulatory definition” when it comes to “clean” skin care and beauty products, while Harper's Bazaar points out that "the beauty industry [is] self-regulated, meaning anyone can make a 'clean beauty' claim with no oversight.")

So Cavallari decided to dive into the highly-competitive word of skin care.”I felt as though there was a need for a skin care line that was, in fact, truly clean while still being effective,” Cavallari says. The result is Uncommon Beauty — a clean, minimalist line that is free of parabens and phthalates and isn’t tested on animals.

Cavallari’s skin care line has clearly resonated with people — it launched in May 2021 and the entire product line quickly sold out.

For Cavallari, using clean skin care products is not only part of a healthy lifestyle, but it’s also important to her because, as she puts it: “I'm not a big makeup person,” adding, “So it's really important for me to have my skin being clear, being fresh, [and] looking good so that I can just put mascara on and go out into the world and feel really confident.”

As it turns out, skin care is also top of mind for Cavallari’s fans. One of the questions she gets asked the most is, “‘What is your skin care routine?’” she says. Here, Cavallari reveals just that — her nighttime skin care regimen that helps her maintain her glowing complexion.

Kristin Cavallari shares her clean skin care routine that leaves her skin glowing. (Photo: Kristin Cavallari via Instagram)
Kristin Cavallari shares her clean skin care routine that leaves her skin glowing. (Photo: Kristin Cavallari via Instagram)

When she wears makeup, Cavallari wipes it away with Neutrogena Makeup Remover Cleansing Towelettes. “I've been using these for over 15 years,” she says, “and I just find that they're the absolute best.”

Cavallari then washes her face with Uncommon Beauty Daily Foaming Powder Cleanser, which contains rice brain and papaya enzymes to gently exfoliate skin. “I love this product because it's a powder, so you can control the consistency of it, depending on how much water you use,” she explains. Add a little bit of water to it and it’s a “really deep exfoliator,” says Cavallari. Add more water and it’s a “really nice, gentle, sudsy cleanser,” she says.

Next, she follows that up with Uncommon Beauty Pineapple Peptide Nectar — “my personal favorite product from our whole line” — a serum that contains vitamin C and peptides. “It's anti-aging,” she says. “It's brightening. It's hydrating. It's really everything you would want in a serum.”

After applying the serum, Cavallari hydrates her skin — though she shares that she wasn’t always a fan of moisturizers. “I've always been really nervous with moisturizers because I'm prone to breakouts,” she explains. “And so the thought of putting some heavy moisturizer all over my face has always really scared me.” That is, until her Uncommon Beauty Daily Water Cream, which she says she can “load” on and “it never clogs my pores.”

To hydrate the delicate skin around the eyes, Cavallari applies a “relatively thick layer” of her own Triple Effect Eye Cream, allowing it to soak in as she continues on with her skin care routine. “I really want my eye cream to make a difference,” the 34-year-old Nashville resident says. “I want it to be seeping into these fine lines and really doing what it's supposed to be doing — keeping me looking young!”

Cavallari adds that she also uses “a natural alternative to retinol” three nights a week. Retinol is the over-the-counter version of a retinoid, a prescription vitamin A-derivative that reduces fine lines and wrinkles by boosting collagen production.

Some nights she’ll apply an oil, such as Herbivore Botanicals Emerald CBD Deep Moisture Glow Oil, to her neck and chest for “a little extra moisture.” But Cavallari avoids putting oil on her face. “Because I'm prone to breakouts, putting oil all over my face just kind of freaks me out,” she says. “That's why I've just put it on my chest and my neck.”

But if Cavallari spots a pimple, she reaches for Karee Hays KH Blem Stick, created by her favorite Nashville-based facialist. The stick contains 2% salicylic acid to gently exfoliate the blemish, along with niacinamide to reduce inflammation.

Next, she brushes her teeth with Schmidt’s Wonderment fluoride-free toothpaste, which contains vitamins and botanical extracts and is free of artificial flavors. “It's a clean toothpaste, and it's just the perfect minty flavor,” she says.

Like many people, Cavallari can’t go to bed without putting on lip balm, so she wraps up her nighttime skin care routine by applying Uncommon Beauty Mango Lip Balm — a chunky stick that hydrates lips with coconut and sunflower seed oils, as well as aloe vera. “It smells amazing,” she says. “It’s light, it’s fresh.”

Video produced by Nurys Castillo.

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