Haylie Duff and Marla Sokoloff Talk “Wellness Drawers,” Must-Have Retinol, and Being Friends in Hollywood for 20-Plus Years

Besides being close friends in Hollywood for “what seems like forever,” actresses Haylie Duff and Marla Sokoloff are also coworkers, with their latest project “Sweet on You” premiering this Sunday (Duff stars, Sokoloff wrote and directed). In addition to sharing why “it just works” on-set, the duo recently sat down with us to chat all things beauty.

You’ve been friends for a long time. What’s it like working together?

Marla: We’ve known each other for like 20 years or something. Is that what we’ve decided?

Haylie: Yes, it’s close to that. We like to exaggerate a little because we like being friends. But we’re close to 20 years for sure.

Marla: We did this movie together called Blending Christmas last Christmas. Haylie starred in it. Working together was just magical. We got along so well. I feel like we are creatively in alignment. We started saying, “We got to do this more. What are we going to do?” and then Haylie had an idea for a movie. At first pitch, I was like, “That’s a great idea. You’d be perfect to star in it,” and then the ball just was off and rolling.

Haylie: We also communicate really well. I think that’s one thing that, on-set especially, is incredibly important. When we would approach a scene, it was like we almost didn’t even have to talk about it. Marla would look at me from behind the camera we had a sort of unwritten communication—where we just knew what the other one needed. We’ve been like that in our real-life friendship too, so it echoed nicely into our working relationship as well. We also just have a lot of fun together. We’re a good support system for each other. I think that within the female dynamic of…what’s the word I’m looking for?

Marla: Women can sometimes not be….

Haylie: Women are not always supportive of each other in the workplace! I think that’s one thing that we both feel strongly about. We want to lift each other up. The two of us are very yin-and-yang when it comes to that.

Marla: Yes, and I always say this about

Haylie: I think I’ve said it in every interview I’ve done for this movie so far because I feel like it’s so important for someone to put it out there. She is the ultimate hype girl. Haylie’s the type of person or girlfriend who thinks all her friends are the best. For me, as a director, it gave me such confidence to know that Haylie truly believed in me. I know she wouldn’t have taken the project if she didn’t. I tell her all the time, but I love her so much and I love her on camera. The camera loves her; I’m such a fan.

You are both moms. Are you good at leaving work at work?

Haylie: I don’t know if there’s ever really the separation of church and state when it comes to that. Once you become a mom, it’s very hard to ever fully leave being a mom—your kids are such a part of who you are. You sort of instantly become a multitasker. You can be directing a scene or acting in a scene and then you can also be getting a text from home that’s like, “Hey, so-and-so has a sore throat.” And that becomes the priority. Your children never fully leave you. I don’t know if there’s ever really that like separation of that fully. I don’t know. Do you agree with that, Marla?

Marla: I always say that you have to have your kids completely set up while you’re gone. You have to be tracking them, but also not worry about them in the same way you would if you weren’t at work. Also, on the flip side of that, I think Haylie and I are pretty good about letting go once we aren’t at work. We talk about our kids, we talk about other stuff. We are able to laugh and enjoy the process instead of stress out about it. It’s the most complicated jigsaw puzzle being a working mom. There’s just so many pieces and so many things to figure out at every given moment.

Haylie: Like our bathroom situation in our shared trailer?

Marla: Yes. We should mention that we shared a trailer on this movie.

How did that go?

Haylie: We had like a half wall that had a door that would open up between our trailers. We didn’t have a lot of downtime on this movie. Sometimes when we would get breaks…if Marla and I had something that we wanted to powwow about, but we didn’t necessarily wanted to have the discussion in front of the rest of the set or in front of the other actors or something, we’d be like, “We need to go take a little potty break really quick.” We would go to our trailer really fast and she would go to the bathroom on her side and I would to the bathroom my side and we would duck our heads around like, “Okay, so when we go back to the scene, do you think this line is funny or should we change it to this?” We would have script thoughts and quite codependent the two of us, I think.

Is that where your “wellness drawer” you post on social media is?

Haylie: Oh! People saw that!

Marla: How much time do we have for this…she’s always drinking something, taking something. I don’t know what’s happening half the time. Haylie: This is where Marla and I would get into—I won’t call it arguments—but I would get mad at Marla because I’d always say, “I made you your morning cocktail of wellness juices and you did not drink it. I saw you set it down.” [laughter] I was very determined for neither of us to get sick throughout the shoot, so I would make her these cocktails of glutathione and vitamin C—I would put all these things in her water bottles and I’d bring them to her on set and she would take one sip, and I would see her set them down. A big part of my beauty routine has to do with a beauty stuff that goes on the inside. I’m like an absolute glutathione addict. As Marla knows….

Marla: Do I need to start taking this disgusting stuff? What is it going to do for me?

Haylie: I’ve told you hundred times! I discovered it through doing beauty IVs. I did it when I was sick one time and I was like, “Okay, well, I feel like death, but why is my skin glowing so much? Why do I look so great, but I feel horrible?” There’s something in it that makes your skin super glowy and even.

Marla: But it doesn’t taste so good! Haylie: All I know that it is an all-around super awesome thing. I take it every day. I’m very, very into it. I feel like if we’re going to have the beauty talk, we should start on the inside and to go out.

What beauty products are you into?

Marla: I love spas. One of my favorite things to do is to get a massage. And I don’t get a facial for relaxation. I don’t want to have my face massage. I would take it, but for me, it’s about clinically getting in there and getting masks and cool lights and all this stuff that is going to actually improve your skin. I feel like that’s not a spa thing necessarily.

Haylie: What’s the one you did recently, though? You did something really cool recently.

Marla: I went to Sonya Dakar, who I’ve been going to since I was literally 19 years old. I wasn’t getting facial for a while just because of being a mom and working and especially having little ones and she’s not near my house. There was just too many things that were not getting me there. I went for my first facial, I want to say in like three years, last week or the week before, and it was amazing.

Haylie: Three years?

Marla: Yes!

Haylie: What have you been doing in three years?

Marla: Drinking wine.

Haylie: You just pickled from the inside out? I don’t understand, your skin is so beautiful and perfect.

Marla: I do a lot of at-home stuff. I steam, I do masks, I have a very intense product regimen. I just hadn’t gotten a facial. It was amazing. I love her products so much. I feel like when I talk about her, to be honest, it sounds like she’s paying me. I pay for every product myself! I paid for my facials! I just really love her stuff; I think it’s incredibly effective. I feel so awkward talking about it because it really sounds like I’m on the home-shopping network trying to hawk her products, but I’m not, I just really like them.

Haylie: What do you use from her? Tell me.

Marla: I use her vitamin C ($88), I use her retinol ($145), which is great because I also have very sensitive skin, and it’s not like the kind of retinol you’re going to get from your derm. It’s more of the serum. I have extremely dry skin and she has a face balm that I lather on at night. My 11-year-old is getting little tiny bumps and she has this acne medicine., It’s safe for her and her developing hormones and all that; I always worry about that. Eye cream, I use it all. I would say if there’s one product I use that isn’t hers it is the Dr. Gross Peel Pads ($92). They are amazing.

Haylie: My favorite pads are the HydroPeptide ones. They’re awesome. I feel like if I don’t have time to go get a facial, I can use those, and it feels like you got almost microderm or something the day before. One thing that we have been discussing amongst some of my girlfriends are the SiO silicone pads…they make me look like a full-on killer when I go to bed. My husband looked at me and he was like, “Are we doing this now?” I was like, “Yes, we are.”

You both grew up in the business, how do you keep centered? Because you both seem so down to earth.

Haylie: That’s so nice. We tricked you!

Marla: For me, I don’t have a lot of friends, aside from Haylie, who are actors. I have a lot of acquaintances that I see and I love, but I would say the people that I surround myself on the daily aren’t people that work in our industry. That’s not on purpose—it just happens to be like that. I feel like I have a general unspoken rule with myself that I don’t get involved in drama at work. I try not to amongst the cast or whatever, especially as an actor. I think that that’s all kept me level-headed, to just see it as a job more than something you need to be getting crazy over.

Haylie: I think kind of the same for me too. I live in Texas most of the time. Most of my friends—while they think it’s great and exciting for me when I go off to make a movie or something—it doesn’t really do much for them. The more want to know when I’ll be back to play tennis or whatever with then. It’s a very normal way of life here. I think that probably keeps everything into perspective a little bit. Also, nothing like spending a lot of time with kids to keep you grounded!

Marla: Totally. Very humbling.

Haylie: Kids will look at you and be like, “You’re wearing that today, mom?” I know you get that, Marla.

Marla: I told my daughter the other day that I was thinking about cutting bangs and she laughed at me.

Haylie: You’re not going to do bangs.

Marla: I’m not talking about Dora the Explorer bangs.

Haylie: We’re going to discuss this before you do that.

Marla: I’m talking like a curtain bang or something. She was like, “Oh my God, mom, you cannot cut bangs.” She started laughing.

Haylie: I think I might be with her on this one.

Marla: I just wanted to throw it out there and see if it’s stuck. But I hear you and I see that it’s not going to.

It's Personal

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