Beauty Around the Clock: Kate Hudson

Welcome to Beauty Around the Clock, Marie Claire's weekly peek into the daily lives of some of the most game-changing women in their industries. Ever wonder how they get it all done in a day? Here's your answer.

Cleansers, night creams, eyes creams, lipsticks, foundations—Kate Hudson has multiple holy grails across alllllll categories. And, she could talk about their pros ad nauseam. She tests makeup like it’s going out of style and has even formulated some serums and moisturizers in collaboration with Juice Beauty. In short: she knows her stuff. It would have been easy for her to slap her name on a skincare brand and preach “How to Get Good Skin” a la Andie Anderson—there was no shortage of opportunity. But to Kate, beauty isn’t ~exclusively~ about topicals. It’s about health, movement, and wellness.

“It’s obviously so much fun to talk about beauty products, but the reality is that if you’re not feeling good internally then none of that matters,” the Almost Famous star tells Marie Claire. “So what are we doing internally and actively for our brains? What’s our mental activity that’s allowing us to feel beautiful? Then we can put on all the makeup and have fun with that. And it really is so much fun.”

As such, she’s created a balanced beauty routine, in life and business. She gets movement in on the regular and co-founded athleisure brand Fabletics. She maintains a balanced diet and created a comprehensive line of supplements via InBloom. She has a very extensive skincare routine and has launched a handful of products in collaboration with Juice Beauty. Want to find out how she does it all? Read ahead to see what mantras, products, and habits help Kate get through the day.

Rise and Shine

“I find it really hard to sleep past eight—like, ever. Seven is the normal time I wake up, sometimes earlier. I’m a total morning person. I mean, I like my nights out, but even if I’m out, I’m up. The first thing I do every morning is sit in bed and not look at my phone. I try to dream a little bit, look out the window, wake my brain up, and try not to go into immediate mode. Then, I leave my phone in my bathroom. I've been really trying not to look at it until after the kids go to school. I find it to actually be one of the harder habits that I have. It reminds me of the days when I didn't have a phone to distract me from anything. I’d maybe put on the TV if I couldn't sleep or I’d read a book or I’d pick up a landline and call my friends. I realized that those times are actually really important for what's happening in between: it’s the time for you to actually dream ideas.”

Morning Maintenance

“In the mornings, I just wash my face with water. I find that my face gets too stripped when I’m washing it too much—it gets all dull and weird. You know, water does a good job and the wash cloth is a little exfoliating. Then I’ll do all my serums—I change them up all the time. I have three that I curated with Juice Beauty and they all do different things for my skin when it needs it.” 

Fitness Fix 

“My mom [Goldie Hawn] and I have a friend, Dan Buettner, and he’s the ‘Blue Zone’ guy. He studies centenarians and longevity, so he goes around the world and studies what these people are doing that we should be learning from. One of the things is that they don’t do high octane exercise. He’s finding that people that walk a lot, people that walk steep hills eight or nine times a day, and are constantly moving without putting a lot of stress on the body [live the longest]. So, I come from a different school of workout. I don’t believe in overexertion. I like low impact, I do a lot of functional movement. I like my yoga, I like my pilates, and I walk every day. I’m a take-the-stairs-don’t-take-the-elevator kind of person. Our bodies need to be working, but you don’t necessarily need to be running from tigers.” 

Power Start 

“After a workout, I’ll do a protein shake—and I’ll load it. Let’s say I’m doing a Beauty Aura protein shake. I’ll start with a collagen base—I like vanilla—and then I’ll add my Beauty Aura in there. I’ll put Immune Powder in there as well, add coconut water and berries. It’s nice and fruity. I created each product so it had a holistic approach with long term and immediate effects. I also take my Daily Essentials every day, so that’s my greens, my minerals, and my vitamins.” 

Shop Kate's Go-To Supplements 

Signature Look 

“Honestly, I’ve always found that my favorite look is a sun-kissed look. I’ll do a really quick CC cream, then I’ll do my bronzer, and then I’ll do this Tarte blush that I still have from like 2004. I know I should throw it out, but I kept it, I couldn’t let go. It’s my favorite. 

For eyes, I always wished I could have been the girl that could do the big line. But I can’t—I’m not that girl. I have to do a crease above my crease because my eye is so hooded and flat. You know who made a really good matte palette recently? Gwen Stefani. I use it all the time. Her eyeliners are really nice, too. For mascara, I’ve been using Serge Lutens. It’s unbelievable. It’s not super thick, it’s just really black and fine. It’s great for long lashes and it doesn’t clump.”

Signature Scent 

“Anything with orange blossom. I like Jo Malone, but I also really like Le Labo’s.” 

Cheap-But-Chic

“It depends what drugstore you’re talking about. There’s some that have the thing that I love the most: Egyptian Magic. That’s my go-to balm. I put it on my kids, I use it for diaper rashes, I put it on my lips and my elbows. I’ll use it on my hair in the summer—it’s just so good. The other drugstore product that I really like is the Maybelline mascara. It’s always a good mascara."

Shop Kate's Favorite Makeup Products 

Beauty Icon 

“That’s so hard. I really love women and I think there are so many beautiful women. I have some peers that I find to be just stunning, and then I have some older women that I find to just be so insanely beautiful—like Jane Birkin. I like the more rock & roll girls. That’s my energy. Stevie Nicks to me is the ultimate beauty icon. But then I was also growing up in the ‘90s supermodel era. I was the kid who grew up watching George Michael's “Freedom! 90” music video going, ‘Oh my god, these women are just…I don’t even know how that happens.’ Christy Turlington to me was the most beautiful woman in the world. She was so natural and so different and so interesting. But Kate Moss? I was like, ‘Oh, that’s my girl.’ She was a little bit younger than the other girls. I remember watching her energy. She was so unpredictable, a little rebellious, and her face was just beyond.” 

PM Routine 

“Before I go to bed or start my nighttime skincare routine, I’ll take some of the InBloom Dream Sleep—like an hour before I’m ready to sleep. It completely calms my system. For skincare I’ve been using the Beautycounter oil cleanser and I love Tata Harper’s Regenerating Cleanser—it's really good. I also try all the Juice Beauty products and their Probiotic Cleanser. After that—it depends. Once a week, I’ll do GoopGlow. I think that’s just one of the best products and my skin loves it. I’ll typically do two serums. Sometimes it’s my Juice Beauty ones. I also love Symbiome. I like everything they do; they're one of my all-time favorites. Then I take a fan and I fan my skin to let it absorb. I get really into it. 

Omorvizca has a Midnight Radiance Mask, so sometimes I’ll put that on at night. I love Gwyneth’s night cream and the Juice Beauty Overnight Stem Cell Night Cream. And right now, I’m using Dr. Barbara Sturm’s Eye Cream."

Shop Kate's Favorite Skincare