Dove Cameron on Wedding Skin Prep, Red Light Therapy, and Being a "Familiar Friend" to Change

Dove Cameron is having a landmark year. She turned 30 in January. She married her now-husband, Italian singer-songwriter Damiano David, in September. Her debut studio album, Final Girl, drops in November. Amid it all, she’s somehow created a skincare collection in partnership with Curology, a company that provides access to prescription-strength, custom-formulated skincare products. This, however, is the brand’s first non-prescription collection. It’s formulated for all skin types and echoes the brand’s long-standing ethos—that is, patients and customers deserve highly effective, science-backed skin solutions.

“I was approached by Curology a while ago,” she tells me. “I get approached by brands often, but I'm pretty picky. I know people say this, so it's kind of lost its intensity, but I really don't work with brands unless I actually love the product or line, whatever it is. I’ve never done that and I never will.” She spent months working on the collection—from choosing which products felt necessary to include to reviewing the active ingredients that would make up the individual formulas…not to mention the packaging and design elements. Now, after months of work, the Dove Cameron x Curology Collection is here. It’s new to us, but she’s been using it for months. In fact, it’s the exact skincare routine she used to prepare for her wedding (along with healthy lifestyle habits and a certain red light mask). Ahead, read our exclusive interview with Cameron, in which she discusses turning 30, protecting her moisture barrier, and embracing, never resisting, change.

“Skincare is so personal to me and something I’m authentically really interested in. I never, ever, ever want to put my name on something that I myself don't trust or I'm not impressed with,” she emphatically tells me. Long before ideating the collection, Cameron says she did her due diligence, AKA conducted her own cold, hard research. “I was always aware that Curology had a really devoted fan base, but I had never used any sort of prescriptive skincare,” she says. “I went down a really deep rabbit hole.” Eventually, she asked to meet with the team, namely Whitney Tolpinrud, MD, FAAD, Curology’s Chief Dermatologist and Medical Director. Needless to say, it went well. “Dr. Whitney impressed the hell out of me,” Cameron says. “I felt like I was at a TED Talk or like a college seminar. “I was like, ‘Wow, this is crazy. What you guys can do for personalization, and what you were able to tell me about my skin just through meeting me over the phone or through some pictures…It was all true. It was kind of witchy, actually.”

Cameron signed on. Or, in her words, “I started to become this weird fan where I was like, ‘Wait, actually, I do want to work with you. Please call me back!’” Eventually, they settled on a non-prescription collection, keeping all skin types and ever-changing environmental conditions in mind. Cameron has combination skin herself, but beyond that, she’s always traveling, whether it’s to LA, Rome, or back again. “ I'm always on planes. I'm always wearing heavy makeup for my job. I wanted to make a line that was formulated for everyone. We started developing this incredible, cute, and compact line. It’s really made for everyone, in my opinion. I could not be more excited about how it turned out.”

The four-piece collection contains a cleanser, moisturizer, hydrating primer, and lip treatment. When I ask her if it was difficult to choose just four products to create, Cameron answers honestly. “It was a little difficult because I am such a skincare addict that, of course, I'm like, ‘And then let's do this and let's do this…” Still, she’s thrilled with the final result, and appreciates its simplicity more than anything. “Focusing on hydration and skin barrier balance was important for me,” she says. “These four products are cornerstones of everything that I need. It’s a perfect compact package of four powerhouse products.”

Cameron’s focus on skin barrier balance can’t be overstated. It stems from personal trial and error. “I have always had a skincare routine. It went from being very basic to too complicated, and something that I didn't understand was contributing to the deterioration of my skin barrier. I was just doing too much all the time. Now at 30, I've really landed at this beautiful happy medium where I'm addressing all of my skincare concerns. I’m preserving the health and hydration of my skin without stripping it.”

As any dermatologist will tell you, the skin barrier isn’t static. It’s constantly responding to topical products and environmental factors, and Cameron has learned that firsthand. “I was always one of those people who was like, ‘I don't have sensitive skin. You can put any makeup on me.’ But that’s not true. Your skin barrier changes with time. If you're doing too much, exfoliating too much, or using too many actives, it can lose balance. And then you're like, ‘How do I get us back to center?’” Cameron laughs, adding, “Candidly, I was going to say, ‘Fuck, how do I get us back on track?’”

Since then, she’s learned to ignore the ever-present noise and listen to her skin. “The body is so intelligent,” she says. “I feel I am so in tune with my skin now, especially with using these four products consistently. They’ve gotten my skin barrier to such a great place. That's where I've landed now, around 30. I’m just keeping it cute, keeping it concise, and making sure that my skincare products are extremely efficient and backed by a lot of research and expertise.”

I tell her the world needs more “skin awareness,” and she agrees. “The skincare business model has become so ‘more is more,’ she says. “There's always a new trending product. I don't want to say it’s fabricated, but it's not right for all skin types. That's why the skin barrier conversation is becoming so prevalent: we're constantly throwing new stuff at our skin and changing up our routines. It's not always backed by personalized or researched skincare products. That's part of why I'm such a huge fan of Curology.”

Cameron brought this same skincare philosophy into her wedding prep. While many brides dial up the active ingredients, products, and treatments ahead of the big day, Cameron did the opposite. She was simply consistent, and it seemingly worked. Her skin looked flawless on her wedding day (as did the jaw-dropping custom Valentino creation she wore during the Tuscan nuptials, but that’s neither here nor there). “I wanted to keep my skin glowing, and I wanted to feel like myself,” she says. “I didn't want to do too much. My focus was on the skincare prep. At that point, I had been using our products for such a long time that there wasn't too much work that had to go into it.” I tell her that’s the ultimate test (nay, flex) of a skincare routine—if it’s wedding-prep-worthy. She agrees. “I definitely utilized our Ethereal Primer, which is one of my favorite products. Skin prep is one of the most important parts of makeup. It's actually more important than the makeup, in my opinion. Using a primer that pairs well with so many different foundations and highlighters and everything…The primer was really doing a lot of work for me. It really was the perfect wedding skincare prep.”

Aside from her beloved Curology collection, Cameron tells me she relied on healthy lifestyle habits, as she always does for a glowing complexion. “I was making sure I slept. I was drinking like three liters of water a day, but that's also kind of just normal for me,” she says. “I wish I could say I did some crazy wedding prep, but genuinely I drink so much water. I was trying to make sure I slept, and then I just kept it cute with our products and red light. When I press her for the exact red light mask she uses, Cameron tells me it’s the Currentbody one. “It's so good. It also travels well. It's so flexible. I usually just lay on the floor, put my legs up the wall, pass out for 20 minutes [while wearing it].”

As is so often the case in relationships, habits both good and bad can be shared. I was curious if the newlyweds share any skincare products or advice, but Cameron says if they do, it’s only circumstantial. “There was a time in the beginning of our relationship where we were staying in a lot of hotel rooms, on tour and things like that. We were sharing these really small bathrooms; we were on planes, and someone would forget something, or I would have something he didn't. There was a time when we were first dating where I wasn’t planning on spending the night, and then I’d be like, “I need a cleanser. If you want me to spend the night, I need a cleanser. But, honestly, he's pretty good with his skincare. I have him using the Lethal Glow moisturizer a little bit because it's lightweight enough and he doesn't like anything sticky. He's good on his own, though. He's a good self-care boy.”

Turning 30, getting married, and releasing a debut studio album are undoubtedly exciting life events, but they can also be stressful ones, too. Or, at the very least, they can summon a lot of change into one’s orbit. Cameron tells me she’s used to it. In fact, the collection carries a snake motif, which is inspired by her tattoos. It can symbolize so much—transformation, evolution, and renewal. I ask her about her own relationship to change, immediately qualifying it by saying, “Sorry, it’s a heavy question.”

“Listen, I live in heavy,” she tells me. “I love heavy. All of my placements on my astrology chart are in my 8th house. I have a crazy 8th house stellium, which is all about renewal, taboo, life and death, change. I'm heavy on that. First of all, I have two snake tattoos and one Medusa tattoo. [Curology] was like, ‘This is very you; it's very emblematic of you.’ And I was super excited about that. I used to count myself as a change addict. I was always this person who was like, ‘Change means I'm alive. Change means I am constantly getting closer to the fullness of who I am.’ So I would always throw myself headfirst into change. If something came at me, even if it was harrowing, I knew that it was like the assignment. It was like, ‘Okay, well, I'm not going to ignore this because it's not going to go away. It's knocking at my door.’ I would always try to make friends with change. Now that I'm 30, I would appreciate a little less change. I would appreciate a little less ‘Oh shit, now I've got to go deal with this fucking thing.’ I wouldn't say I'm as much of a change addict now, but I would say it's a familiar friend of mine. It's something that I'm probably less afraid of than the average person.”

I tell her that’s impressive, coming from someone who struggles with change. “I will say that when change shows up, it's not your enemy,” she says. “It's inevitable. It's like fighting with a really heavy wet rug. If you're wrestling with a wet rug, you are going to exhaust yourself, and you're not going to win the fight because it's sopping wet and it's so heavy. It's something you have to make peace with. Otherwise, you will exhaust yourself trying to defend against something that is like an oncoming freight train. It's not a choice you can make. Change is the only constant that we have, as people love to say. My advice would be not to fear it. It’ll probably make you let go of the things that are comforting to you—those soft places to land—but it will also introduce you to a whole new plane of existence, and you will find other alternate soft places to land. It's never trying to come on the offensive, so you don't have to be defensive. It's really your friend.”

If there’s one thing her life has taught her so far, it’s to trust herself. “Wherever you're going, even if it's a total mystery, you can handle it when you get there,” she says. “That's what I try to tell myself because I've had so much evidence of it. But you can't get to that place of evidence if you're derailing yourself from this train that is inviting you to newness.”

I tell her that her response reminds me of the famous quote, “Let go or be dragged,” something I like to repeat to myself when facing change. “Oh, I've never heard that. It's going to be my new lock screen,” she says. Matching lock screens and a love of skincare- we have in common.