"I went to Tokyo about two years ago, and that’s when I first found out about lip masks. But when I came back to the States I couldn’t find any—then the lightbulb went off, I should make this! That’s kind of how KNC Beauty started. I already had my jewelry line, but I didn’t know anything about beauty, so it was a whole new thing. At first I got turned down by a lot of factories because I wanted to keep the formula natural, but I finally found one and worked with their chemist to develop them. We did clinical trials as well as trials with my friends—which was really the most important to me because I trust their taste. Now I’m working on more products, and I’m also writing about beauty for ELLE.com.

I had bad skin when I was a teenager, and only when I moved from my small town to LA did I realize that there were options for beauty. When I was growing up, Facebook didn’t exist yet, all we had was Myspace—no Youtube tutorials, nothing like that. So when I moved, that’s when I had my first facial and started realizing that solutions and beautiful products exist. Now, in the morning, I use the m-61 Vitablast Serum that brightens. My moisturizer is Kate Somerville Daily Deflector SPF 50. I read this article that said that Halle Berry’s secret to her skin was that she's worn SPF 35 for the last eight years. Now I’m crazy about my SPF.

My skin routine changes on a weekly basis, but right now I’m using the La Prairie Foam Cleanser, which I love. I’ll usually double cleanse, so I use that, the Glossier Milky Jelly Cleanser, or the Brad Skincare Biophotonic Universal Cleansing Gel with seaweed, algae, sea minerals—stuff like that. It’s really good for your skin. Then I use the Dr. Dennis Gross Peel Pads daily. If I want to do a deep peel, I’ll do the Cellular 3-Minute Peel by La Prairie or the Stacked Skincare Deep Sea Mineral Peel. As of now, I’m using the Sunday Riley UFO Martian Gel Toner and the UFO Clarifying Oil which has 1.5% salicylic acid in it. It kills everything on your face. Some nights, I’ll do at-home microneedling—it doesn’t hurt that much because it isn’t the clinical one, it's lighter. What I like about microneedling is that it makes products penetrate a lot more. Especially since the products I use are expensive, I want to make sure they work. [Laughs] After that, I use the Dr. Dennis Gross Marine Moisturizer. That's a great product. I use that during the day too, plus three drops of Nude Air by Dior in Honey Beige, which has SPF 25.

When I go out at night, though, I usually wear the Koh Gen Do Moisture Foundation and I have to mix 123 and 003. If I have a big event and forgot to book a makeup artist the La Prairie Caviar-Rich Foundation is great! It has two compartments—the top half is concealer and the bottom half is foundation. When I first got it—this is hilarious—I thought the concealer was the whole thing. I basically had concealer all over my face." [Laughs]

—as told to ITG

Kristen Noel Crawley photographed by Tom Newton at The Line Hotel in Los Angeles on October 20, 2016.