The Bachelorette star Hannah Brown has no problem keeping it real, whether she's telling frontrunner-turned-villain Luke P. to back off and talking about her sex life on camera — or opening up about her battle with adult acne. In a new first-person interview for Women's Health, the former pageant queen dished all about her relationship with her skin, and how acne has affected her since even before she was striving to win Colton Underwood's heart last season on The Bachelor.
As the 24-year-old revealed during an Instagram Stories Q&A back in March, she started a course of the powerful (and controversial) prescription drug Accutane right before Colton's season started filming. But the worst of Brown's acne struggles had started months prior, just after she was crowned Miss Alabama in 2017.
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"I was supposed to look like this beauty queen, but I had acne that I couldn’t get under control," she told Women's Health. The skin condition almost kept her from auditioning for The Bachelor in the first place. "I told casting, 'You might not want me on your show because I have acne, I’m on Accutane, and my skin might get worse before it gets better.'" Clearly that wasn't a dealbreaker for casting, who assured her it was fine and put her on the show. But Brown still had to get through the Accutane treatment, so she spent much of the season makeup-free — except for her dates with Colton, which is when she turned to a few makeup essentials to keep her feeling confident.
The products she relied on? NARS Natural Radiant Longwear Foundation, for its natural-looking high coverage and long wear time. Then, she'd reach for Charlotte Tilbury's Airbrush Flawless Finish Setting Powder. "That was my lifesaver," she told Women's Health. "I kept it with me everywhere I went." Even with her trusty products, Brown was still so preoccupied by her skin's appearance that it distracted her on dates. "I was only thinking, do I need to powder my face? Do I have too much makeup on? Will he notice that I'm broken out?" she said.
The now-Bachelorette says Accutane changed her skin for the better, but she's only human, so the occasional breakout isn't out of the question — even while she was filming her current season. In those situations, she relied on Kate Somerville EradiKate Acne Treatment "to dry it out and call it a day." Hopefully, feeling "100% herself" on TV for the first time helped Brown find The One... because if they can't handle you on your worst skin days, they don't deserve you on your best.
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