Laura Harrier Reveals The Secrets Behind Her Glowing Skin
If anyone is giving us skin envy these days, it's Laura Harrier. The Hollywood actress has the glowy look down pat, and we had to find out which products, treatments, and techniques Harrier swears by to achieve radiant skin.
In addition to lymphatic massage and plenty of water, the actress counts daily use of Clarins Double Serum as one of her skincare secrets. She is also partnering with the French skincare brand for the launch of Total Eye Lift, a plant extract-powered eye concentrate targeting anti-aging.
Here, L'OFFICIEL catches up with Harrier on clean beauty, maskne, and her skincare holy grails.
Have you always been interested in skincare?
Yes! Obviously it’s developed over the years as I’ve had the opportunity to work with amazing brands, like Clarins, and really incredible makeup artists, like my makeup artist Nina Park, who have taught me a lot about beauty. I’m very fortunate to have a lot of people that I’ve been able to learn from. To be honest, as a teenager I was terrified of having acne so my interest initially came from a place of vanity, but I got into taking care of my skin from there and I kept it up. Then I started working and I would spend long days on set in heavy makeup and I had to take care of it in order to keep it looking good. Now it’s something I’m really passionate about and I love to learn about.
How did you come to partner with Clarins? What about the brand attracted you?
Clarins is a brand with such a long history that I have kind of always been aware of. I had been to the flagship spa in Paris years ago before I started working with them and got an amazing facial there, so I knew their products were good and worked with my skin. I got really into their Double Serum, which I’ve been using for about a year and half now, and the difference I’ve seen from using it is huge. Such a reduction in my pores and overall smoothness, and I feel like my skin is more glowy and fine lines have faded so much. It’s something that I’m really happy to talk about and partner with because I know that it’s effective.
Clean beauty is also something that I feel good about putting on my face and recommending to other people. There are so many levels to clean beauty; there was a while where I just washed my face with manuka honey because I was so averse to putting chemicals on it, but that worked for me and I still do manuka honey masks all the time. At the other end of the spectrum are products like the Clarins Total Eye Lift or Double Serum that have so many ingredients and so much science behind them but are still based in natural ingredients.
Can you walk us through your daily skincare routine?
The first thing I do is wash my face, and I alternate between the Shani Darden Cleansing Serum and the Control Corrective Salicylic Wash, which helps with breakouts. I do my eye cream before serum, because I feel like layering serum under eye cream clogs my pores and the eye area is so sensitive. Working with Clarins I’ve learned so many of these incredible application processes; the way you apply skincare is just as important as the products you use. I’ve learned so much about lymphatic drainage and applying products with that in mind has helped so much with puffiness and bags under my eyes. Then I apply my day cream and I also don’t skip sunscreen.
At night I pretty much do the same thing but I always take off my makeup. That is one of if not the most important skincare tip. No matter how tired you are or how many glasses of wine you’ve had, you have to take off your makeup. I’ll remove it either with a micellar cleansing water or a balm, or if I’m traveling I’ll use a face wipe. I cleanse, use the Double Serum, eye cream, then a night cream.
Is there anything that you do in the middle of the day to refresh?
I love a rosewater spray. I have one in my car and a mini one in my purse, and on the airplane I was constantly spritzing it on my face to rehydrate. I also always have a good lip balm. I use Homeoplasmine, which is a French one, and I loved Dior’s Crème de Rose Lip Balm, which has sadly been discontinued, but Fresh has a similar one that’s really good.
What are your favorite face masks?
I think my main form of self care during the pandemic has been a bath, a face mask, and a glass of wine! Clarins has this amazing mask, the V-Facial Intensive Wrap, that depuffs your whole face. All of a sudden my cheekbones are popping and my jawline is so highlighted, it’s incredible. Like I said manuka honey is really great, and I really like the Summer Fridays Jet Lag Mask. I wear hyaluronic eye patches most mornings, which I keep in the fridge to depuff and try and look like I got some sleep. I’ll do a peel, like the Dr. Dennis Gross Alpha Beta Daily Peel pads, maybe once or twice a week.
How has the pandemic changed your skincare routine?
I definitely deal with maskne, which is really rough, and I haven’t really found a solution for it yet. I just try and be aware of doing less makeup, because makeup with a mask on top of it clogs my pores for sure. I feel like in the past year I’ve been much more intentional with what I’m doing and much more aware of the effort that I’m putting into my routine. I think when things feel so chaotic and out of our control, at least what I put on my skin is something that I can control. It’s definitely grounding for me to have moments to be intentional and mindful, and I think it’s really important to respect your skin and to treat it well, because you only have one face! It really makes a difference with my mental health honestly, if I’m not taking care of my skin I don’t feel good about myself.
Since turning 30, have you changed your skincare routine at all?
I feel like 30 is the new 20, so keep that same energy! I’m very blessed with good genes, and I’m thankful for that because I haven’t noticed a huge difference in my skin since the last birthday, but I am very aware of preventative stuff. Things like gua sha, being really good about the Double Serum, and eye cream is something I didn’t use a few years ago that I make a priority now because I want to prevent crow’s feet, puffiness, and fine lines. Doing lymphatic drainage massage around my eyes also makes a huge difference in how awake I look. That’s the cool thing about Total Eye Lift too, is that it literally opens your eyes, your whole eye area will be brighter and more awake-looking.
Are there any in-office treatments you swear by?
When I can get facials I see Shani Darden in LA or Iván Pol for The Beauty Sandwich, which is a really cool non-invasive treatment that depuffs and sculpts your face in an insane way. All of a sudden my cheekbones are like knife points! A sauna will also completely change my skin. I feel like whenever I look my glowiest and healthiest is when I’ve been sweating. Back when we could go to spas my favorite thing to do was go to the Korean spa and get a skin scrub, which is this crazy thing where they scrub all your dead skin off and you feel reborn afterward.
