Emily DiDonato Drops Her Skin-Care Routine

For Emily DiDonato, beauty is a job. And it’s one she takes very seriously. The 30-year-old has been modeling since she was 16, and she’s surrounded by beauty products (and advice on how to use them) every single day. Fed up with navigating the overcrowded skin-care market, she launched Covey, a curated skin-care line of just three products, earlier this year alongside her best friend Christina Garcia.

“For my personal skin care, I started with the kind of mentality that more was more,” DiDonato tells Glamour. “I really cared about my skin. I was a model; it was part of my job to take care of my skin. So I really thought that layering all the products that I could find that were expensive and recommended to me all at the same time was the best approach, which it was not.”

“My skin was always falling off my face, and so dry and irritated because I would go to work, and I’d get all this makeup put on my face so I was in this vicious cycle,” she continues. “So I think that was part of the reason why I started migrating to this less-is-more, very simple skin-care routine.” This simple-is-best mindset is reflected in the line, which is designed to be easy to use and not overwhelm the skin. 

So it should come as no surprise that DiDonato’s own skin is on the sensitive side. “I would definitely say that I have sensitive skin. It doesn’t take to everything, especially really strong actives. I have to be really, really careful. It gets pretty red and irritated, so I try to go for gentle products.” So, for Glamour’s latest Drop the Routine, DiDonato shares the gentle yet effective products she swears by. 

My cleanser 

Every morning and every night I start with a gentle cleanser, which is our First of All Cleanser. I really like that—especially in the evenings when I come home from a long day of work and I’m wearing a ton of makeup—it’s really an all-in-one cleanser. It removes makeup, dirt, grime from the day, but it also does a really good job of strengthening the skin’s barrier. So we have really soothing ingredients in there, like aloe leaf juice. We also have the babassu oil, which is rich in lauric acid and glycolipids, to really help to strengthen that skin’s barrier. So it’s gentle but powerful at the same time.

My serum 

I follow up with our Next Up Vitamin C Serum. I love that because we have THD ascorbate in there [a form of vitamin C], which is really gentle but really, really powerful. It doesn’t smell and is more stable than other forms of vitamin C. We also have vitamin E in there and grape-seed extract. When they all come together, they actually do help each other work harder. So that’s really great. 

Covey Next Up Vitamin C Serum

My moisturizer 

Then I layer on our Last but Not Least Moisturizer. It just does such a good job of sealing everything in. We have squalane in there, which is really moisturizing and soothing for the skin. There’s also sodium hyaluronate and glycerin, which are known super-hydrators, with some caffeine in there and green tea extract, so it really is this perfect elixir of water-based hydration ingredients, and oil moisture ingredients. It plays so well under makeup and looks great. 

Covey Last but Not Least Moisturizer

My SPF

I do some sort of sunscreen, which I’m always experimenting with. I’m slowly starting to migrate a little bit over to mineral sunscreens. And I have been testing and trying Pippette’s mineral sunscreen, which is SPF 50. 

Pipette Mineral Sunscreen SPF 50

My face oil 

In the evening my skin-care routine is the same minus the sunscreen. The only thing that I sometimes add in the evenings is I like to use a Gua Sha, and I’ll use some sort of oil on my skin to kind of help with that. I really like Biossance’s Squalane Oil. I just love the ingredient squalane. We also have some in our moisturizer. But I just wanted kind of like a pure oil and I know the benefits of squalane. It’s so moisturizing and soothing for the skin and it’s not heavy and doesn’t leave that greasy residue, which is why I love it.

Biossance 100% Sugarcane Squalane Oil

My face mask

I do them here and there. It’s more like a social or bonding moment for me, if I have friends or my mom’s in town or something like that. But I really like Skin Laundry’s masks.

Skin Laundry Hydrating Facial Sheet Mask

My lip balm

For lip balm, I really like Aquaphor. It’s just my old standby; it works so well. I also always have Elizabeth Arden’s Eight Hour Cream. 

Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream Skin Protectant

My tool

The Gua Sha is the main thing that I use. I also have a jade roller that I use sometimes. I really like to use that around my temples when I’m feeling stressed. It’s more of just a therapeutic thing.

Odacité Skin-Care Crystal Contour Gua Sha Beauty Tool