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For singer and actor Jennifer Hudson, self care is been all about getting back to the basics right now. This includes experimenting more on her own and keeping things simple with her skin-care routine since she doesn’t have a full team regularly doing her hair and makeup at the moment. (Hey, being a Grammy- and Academy Award-winner performer has its perks.)
“I just want to make sure I take care of my skin, take care of my hair as best as I know how to do in the most natural way possible so that I could walk around feeling nice and free,” Hudson says. On my downtime, regular day-to-day, I like to keep it as minimal as possible. I feel like less is more.”
When it comes to skin care, she sticks to the Olay Regerest Whip Face Moisturizer SPF 25 ($28). It’s packed with hydrating, smoothing, and firming ingredients like niacinamide, hyaluronic acid, and amino peptides. “For me, skin is most important. That’s why I like the whip my Olay because it’s light. Even if I wear makeup, it works with the makeup,” says Hudson, who is one of the faces of Olay.
Plus, while it’s a face cream first and foremost, it also provides sun protection (SPF 50) thanks to chemical sunscreens avobenzone, homosalate, octisalate, and octocrylene. “[It] helps protect me when I go out and about,” Hudson says. But there’s another reason she swears by this multitasking moisturizer: “Being a mom, a lot of times you put yourself on the back burner and don’t have time to take care of yourself and fall outside of your routine,” she shares. “When you have something that has everything you need within one product, it makes life easier, to be honest.”
Shop now: Olay Regerest Whip Face Moisturizer SPF 25, $28
In truth, Hudson’s always been a bit of a minimalist when it comes to skin care—her skin is happiest when she just leaves it alone. “I feel like it’s the reverse of, ‘Okay, let me add this, add this, do this and that.’ It’s like, ‘No, let me allow it to be what it is,'” she says.
This pared-down approach bleeds into the rest of Hudson’s self-care routine, too. Case in point? Exercise is a huge piece of her wellness practice, but you won’t catch her doing grueling bootcamps day after day. Instead, she gives herself time to recover between high-intensity workouts and prioritizes fun movement that she actually wants to do consistently. This summer, she’ll be biking and skating as much as she can. “I love kid fun,” she says.
When she doesn’t follow her own advice, she feels the difference. “The times when I do set aside time for myself, I have so much more energy,” she says. “But the times when I don’t, then that’s when I end up feeling like I just want to completely shut down.”
Still, sometimes, it’s hard to carve out the time she knows she needs to recharge. Who can relate? And admits that taking that time for herself makes her feel bad on occasion. “Why is that?” she muses. (Please tell us if you find the answer, J.Hud…) When this happens, she says she talks to herself with kindness and compassion like she would a friend or her kids: “If you need to steal a piece of a moment to listen to some music or do one simple thing that you enjoy for a brief second, then that allows you more energy, more will, and puts you in a better space to be able to give to everyone else when it’s time to do that.” Sounds like good advice to us.
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