Five years ago, actress and beauty founder Shay Mitchell went viral for doing a 58-step skin-care routine. Today, she has no regrets about it. “If I have the time, like right now — my kids aren’t here — I could do 78 steps.” It’s not excessive to her; it’s self-care, which is what she’s instilling in her daughters, Atlas Noa, 6, and Rome, 4
They are her inspiration for starting Rini, a skin-care brand for kids,(while her latest business venture follows the success of her other businesses, including the cult-favorite travel accessories brand Béis, which was just acquired by Samsonite for $210 million.)When she launched earlier this year, she received a significant amount of criticism for selling products to children. Looking back, she can see why and regrets not providing more explanation about the brand when she launched. “At the end of the day, when I come home from work, my girls see me as taking that time, putting on a mask, massaging my lotion in with the gua sha, and taking those extra beats for me. I want them to do that for themselves when they’re older,” she says. What she didn’t want to do was use products on them with harsh ingredients and actives that weren’t for children, so she created safe options for them.
“When I’m in the bath with my cooling sheet mask on and my daughters were like, Hey, can I try that?, no, because I’m obviously not going to give them the one that I’m using, but why can’t they also enjoy that? Then I would also think of our experiences from the summer and being on vacation — their skin got a little torched from the sun. I put on a Rini aloe-vera mask now; that’s no different from me putting it on just with my hands. It was just another vehicle.” The products were created in South Korea because, as you’ll see with Mitchell’s personal routine, she’s a fan of the innovation and high-quality formulas found in K-beauty.
We didn’t do a 78-step routine together, but we did do eight steps, a mini-edit of what Mitchell’s morning routine usually looks like. Here, how she gets her skin so good
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Rini Foaming Face & Body Wash
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The first step of her routine is cleansing with her brand’s non-stripping, gentle foaming wash. Her one rule for cleansing is she must wash with extremely cold water. It reduces her morning puffiness and refreshes her skin
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Torriden Dive in Hyaluronic Acid Serum
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She usually applies a vitamin C serum next, but today, she’s going right in with her hyaluronic acid. It’s one of the many K-beauty products she uses, a lightweight serum that’s become a staple in her routine for glowy and hydrated skin
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Glo Skin Beauty Bio-Renew EGF Eye Cream
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Mitchell is rummaging through her beauty bag (of course it’s a Béis bag), and she has a handful of eye creams. She’s counted eight — and this is just her travel bag — but today, she’s using a growth-factor cream she found at a South Korean pharmacy. That one is not available in the U.S., but this similar Bio-Renew cream, a tightening and firming ceramide-infused eye cream with a depuffing applicator. She’s serious about wearing eye cream, especially before glam because her eye makeup creases without it. She loves eye patches, too, usually Dior Beauty’s hydrating under-eye patches.
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Kahi Wrinkle Bounce Multi Balm Stick
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Next, she uses a balm stick, a popular product that’s hard to escape on TikTok Shop. It’s a Korean product commonly used for fine lines and wrinkles, so she applies the collagen-infused balm onto her face and it adds a bit of a glasslike finish
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CICA EXOSOmethod 20 Serum
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This product was recommended by a Korean pharmacist (who had great skin.) It’s an exosome serum made with cica, a healing ingredient that calms the skin. The serum gives her the glow she was chasing while strengthening her skin’s barrier and evening out her tone
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Heveblue Salmon Caring Centella Cream
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After that, she applies a reparative and barrier-strengthening centella cream. Its velvet texture melts into the skin for a deeply moisturizing feeling
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Round Lab Birch Juice Moisturizing UV Lock SPF 45
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Of course, as a K-beauty obsessive, she uses a popular Korean sunscreen, Round Lab’s viral lightweight sunscreen. It’s a nongreasy formula, doesn’t leave a white cast on the skin, and sits comfortably under makeup
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d’Alba Piedmont Italian White Truffle First Spray Serum
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She finishes her routine with a hydrating serum mist, d’Alba’s mix of oils, water serum, and a signature white truffle ingredient that supports the skin’s elasticity. It’s the perfect topper for the ultimate glass-skin appearance and makeup-prep step
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We’ll never see Mitchell on the internet sharing images of punctured skin from salmon-sperm-DNA injections: “I’m just not into needles. I will give birth 100 times, but the worst part was when they put the needle in my hand.” She’s less afraid of Botox needles, but ones that are going in a vein or treatments like microneedling are a no-no for her
If you can’t tell, Mitchell has fully immersed herself in K-beauty, from the products she uses daily to formulating her own brand in South Korea. Just last year, she went three times. “I learned that they have a product that they called their countertop product, something that was multigenerational — so newborns to grandmas and grandpas were using it — and a lot of that was their barrier creams. I took notice because if I can have one barrier cream or lotion that I can put into my bag that the whole family can use, that makes my life easy,” she said. She launched her dream barrier cream last month, a rich formula that quickly absorbs into the skin and can be used on the entire family.
Mitchell’s other obsession is beauty tools. On a normal day, she’s using an LED gua sha, an LED mask, and a depuffing tool, usually Shark Beauty’s or Therabody’s
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ORA Method LED Gua Sha
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TheraFace Mask Glo-LED Skincare Mask
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Shark DePuffi Instant Contrast Therapy Tool
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Facials and massages. Two popular L.A.-based professionals she frequents are Flá go-to facialist
How Shay Mitchell Gets Her Skin So Good
