“For me, less is more. I don't do Botox—I've tried it in the past but I didn't like it. I mean, I liked that I looked very rested, but I didn't like the way it felt on my face. I have thick eyebrows—thank goodness I didn’t pluck them all off in the ‘90s—and I move my face a lot to show expressions. With Botox that movement was hindered and I felt very strange, so I thought I'll give up looking really rested for the sake of more movement. I actually had a director once tell me I moved my face too much, and I said you're used to working with actresses who do too much Botox! I'm sorry, but I can move my face.

I've been passionate about skincare since I was really young. I started modeling as a teenager and that made me very conscientious of taking care of my skin by keeping my face out of the sun, having a clean lifestyle through diet and all of that. I'm actually more relaxed about skincare now than when I was younger. When I was younger I would never go to bed with makeup on or without washing my face. Now, after having kids, there have been nights where I come home exhausted, and I'm like ‘Ugh forget it, I'll just wash it in the morning.’ Sometimes [my skin] looks good the next day, and sometimes it looks really sideways.

Ninety-five percent of the time I do wash my face at night, but if I’ve taken off all my makeup the night before, I won't re-wash in the morning—I’ll just splash my face with water. I've tried so many products over the years, and one of the things I’ve always loved to do is combine a cream moisturizer with a natural oil to hydrate my skin. Eventually I made one to sell, a cream oil, and it’s my favorite product in my line, CBMe. It was so important to have hemp seed oil in it. I have dry skin, so it really works for me, but my sister has oily skin and she would not normally put oil on her skin. But hemp seed oil is perfect because it’s very therapeutic and doesn't clog pores. The cream itself is so nourishing, soothing, and yet light. At night I use my cleanser, and then I use the serum, and most of the time I don't put anything over that. In the morning I’ll do the cream oil moisturizer and if I plan to be in the studio all day I’ll leave it at that. But if I know I’ll be out and about, even when it's cloudy, I will use sunscreen.

A lot of the other housewives [of Beverly Hills] are very glamorous and love getting their hair and makeup done. I love getting that done too, but for [The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills], I wanted to be myself. Although right now, everyone has to do their own hair and makeup for the confessionals, if you can believe it. When I'm not working I don't really wear that much makeup, so I didn't want to go into that show where I was not being myself. On the other hand, [The Bold and The Beautiful] is very particular about hair and makeup—they definitely want everyone to look a certain way, so when I sit down in the makeup chair I know I'll be sitting there for a while. I also do not like powder. I'm allergic to a lot of them—my eyes get red and water—so there are certain powders I just can't use on my face. Make Up For Ever's is one that I can use. But honestly, that's the worst thing to tell a makeup artist when you start working with them, that you're allergic to powder.

I used to have Anastasia [Soare] shape my eyebrows every once in a while, but for the most part I like to keep them as natural as possible and don’t touch them. I do, however, like to define my eyes. For blue eyes, brown is always a great eyeliner to get your eyes to stand out. I've tried every pencil you can possibly imagine and I like them all, they don’t even have to be expensive. One of the tricks I learned from makeup artists is to line the waterline with a pale blue instead of black, so I'll do that a lot of times. It looks really natural, but still defines. Or, I'll do the upper waterline in brown and a light black fine line on the lash line for more drama.

Hair is something I'm awful at. That's why it's always in a messy bun, or I'll put it in braids. I do have one big hair tip, though. It’s called Malibu, and it’s a packet of crystals that you mix with water to protect hair from color-changing minerals in our water and chlorine pools. You have to be careful because they can be a bit drying, but they’re so good. I give them to my daughter Lola who has very blonde hair that can take on a green shade, and I use them too every once in a while to brighten my hair. Pools, copper piping and all the different minerals in our water can make hair look a little dingy, especially if you’re a blonde like me with highlights.

It’s been an incredibly busy year for me. Before I met my husband, I adopted my youngest daughter from birth, and through a lot of expensive testing that I was lucky enough to afford I found out she has a chromosome disorder that causes a lot of development delays. I wanted to give back to other children in need, and when I met my husband, who has such a love for children and animals, we decided to create a foundation to help both. It's called Quantum REACH, which stands for Research Education Animal Children's Health. We have programs for kids who are dealing with bullying and connect children with animals. It's been a busy year, but I'm grateful to have this. Especially with all of the drama with Housewives, it puts things into perspective.”

—as told to ITG

Photos via the author