Carrie Underwood's Rocky Beauty Past

The country singer spills about her most cringe-worthy hair moments and her current product obsessions.

Carrie Underwood
(Image credit: Marie Claire)

Is the constant touring tough on your beauty routine?

The way I travel, I'm in random water systems all over the place—hard water, soft water, whatever. And heaven forbid you have to shower on the bus, because that's like garden-hose water. By the time I get off tour, I'll go get a hair treatment and the person will be like, "Where have you been? Your ends are green and up here you have some orange going on." You just pray it will all hold up during a tour and then you can go get it fixed afterward.

How do you keep your sanity?

Sometimes we end up in really super-nice hotels with giant bathtubs, and it's nice to do the whole glass-of-wine-in-the-tub thing ... with candles. I am a candle freak.

What's your favorite scent?

Caramel, vanilla, fudge—I have a candle on the bus that smells like caramel brownie. I think it's from a line Paula Deen used to make. I love anything that smells like food.

And you're now the front woman for Olay.

I've become a very diligent skincare person. I know it's important to take care of myself. My favorite things are the Daily Facial cloths because they really take off all the gunk I manage to put on my face.

Do you like to experiment with makeup?

I'm a total makeup junkie! I had teenage sisters when I was really young—they were 10 and 13 when I was born, and I thought they were the coolest with their big '80s hair. I was totally a human Barbie doll to them—they would dress me and put makeup on me. That's where my love affair with makeup started.

What's the most cringe-worthy beauty moment from when you were a kid?

The worst of the worst was, for some reason I would put a whole bunch of gel in my bangs and comb it over. It would dry and you could, like, flick it. I remember my mom trying to talk me out of the crunchy bangs, and I was like, "Whatever—you're not cool."