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If you’re curious about how Food Network star Giada De Laurentiis takes care of herself, she’s shared some of her favorite routines.

And you might be surprised at what the Italian-American chef has to say.

Culinary star Giada De Laurentiis wears a black tank top in this photograph.
Giada De Laurentiis | Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images

The chef on the importance of self-care

De Laurentiis shared in 2019 at the Creative Culture’s Self-Care Summit in Los Angeles that observing how the women in her family cared for themselves influenced her own regimen.

“My mom was very good about self-care, my grandmother was very good about self-care,” she stated. “I watched them, and I became very diligent at a very young age about taking care of my skin, using sunscreen, and just keeping it healthy all the time.”

She added that her skincare routine has “gotten longer and longer and longer because as you get older, it gets more complicated! It’s become more intense over the years. With all the travel, all the makeup, the stress, I’ve had to take care of myself more rigorously.”

De Laurentiis says she washes her hair once a week and revealed the self-care routine she ‘swears’ by

Posting a rapid-fire interview on her beauty and food site Giadzy, De Laurentiis answered all sorts of questions about her self-care practices.

How often does she wash her hair? The chef said, rather sheepishly, “Once a week.”

And the one beauty routine she “swears by” is her facial care: “Exfoliate my face every, single night. Without fail.”

In her book Eat Better, Feel Better, De Laurentiis shares a coffee and sugar body scrub that she turns to for full-body exfoliation. It includes medium-grind coffee, turbinado sugar preferably organic, kosher salt, and olive oil. “I like to do it after a workout, before I shower,” she writes. “Start by combining the ingredients … and applying the scrub mixture on your skin while it’s still dry. Rub firmly with a dry washcloth or mesh scrubbing mitt, or use a dry bruch to exfoliate every inch you can reach (excluding your face and eye area).”

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The routine De Laurentiis says is weird, but not really

Asked about her “weirdest wellness habit,” the chef began that while she doesn’t “think any of my stuff is weird,” she opened up about the one practice she admits some might view as a bit eccentric.

“Going to an infrared sauna for detox,” she said.

If you’re curious about what exactly happens during an infrared sauna, the Simply Giada star shared in her book about the process.

“Unlike traditional saunas, which heat the room around you, infrared saunas heat you from within, releasing toxins and helping you to eliminate them through your skin,” she writes. “Not only is this a lot less stifling than a regular sauna, it’s actually quite relaxing, as you lie on a bed inside a pod-like machine throughout the treatment.”

She added that the treatment feels great and leaves skin looking its best. To make the most of it, she does a little prep on her own: “Many people report that their skin looks amazing afterward, and you can even burn off a bunch of calories! To help the toxins drain even more efficiently, before an infrared treatment, I put on a compression suit for 20 minutes. This gets the stagnant fluids in my systems moving so I can sweat them out.”