Carrie Underwood Wishes She’d Taken Her Mom’s Skincare Advice

Evan Agostini/AP

These days, Carrie Underwood has her skincare routine down to a science — but it wasn’t quite that way growing up.

“If I could go back and talk to my 15-year-old self I’d be like, ‘Seriously, listen to your mom,’” she tells PEOPLE. “Drink more water, put more sunscreen on, moisturize. There are a lot of people like me who wish they did more.”

But as the face of Olay, Underwood has come to realize how important it is to take care of your skin — and that “it doesn’t have to be complicated,” she says. “I don’t have time for complicated. I don’t have space in my luggage for 20 things that do different things for my skin — I don’t know anyone who does.”

She’s always happy to make a little extra room in her suitcase for some fun makeup, though. “I love to play with makeup,” she admits. “I will go into a makeup store and walk out and not even know what happened, carrying this giant bag of stuff. But I can, because I’m on stage — I can wear things that I can’t otherwise. So I have a little bit of everything in my kit.”

Underwood will have that “kit” with her when she goes on tour this fall to promote her new album, Blown Away. But first, she’s teaming up with Olay to tout the “Beauty by Example” campaign, a new charitable initiative where women can visit Olay’s Facebook page and sign a declaration acknowledging that their moms are beautiful inside and out. For every “signature,” Olay will donate one ounce of product (up to one million ounces) to look good, feel better, a national organization that works to boost the self-esteem of women undergoing treatment for cancer.

It’s an initiative Underwood is happy to get behind. “My mom is a great example to me and my sisters, she’s just the best,” she says. “If I ever had one of those days when it’s like, ‘I don’t feel so great about myself,’ she’d always tell me, ‘You’re beautiful, you’re funny, you sing well.’ She was always a positive person in my life, which is important,” she adds. “People need more positive influences.” Visit facebook.com/Olay to join the campaign.

–Kate Hogan

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