diff --git a/polaris/hub/settings.py b/polaris/hub/settings.py
index 6603ecfa..1870dfa6 100644
--- a/polaris/hub/settings.py
+++ b/polaris/hub/settings.py
@@ -34,7 +34,9 @@ class PolarisHubSettings(BaseSettings):
     """
 
     # Configuration of the pydantic model
-    model_config = SettingsConfigDict(env_file=".env", env_prefix="POLARIS_", extra="ignore")
+    model_config = SettingsConfigDict(
+        env_file=".env", env_prefix="POLARIS_", extra="ignore", env_ignore_empty=True
+    )
 
     # Hub settings
     hub_url: HttpUrlString = "https://polarishub.io/"
diff --git a/tests/test_hub_integration.py b/tests/test_hub_integration.py
index 831d266b..9f52a030 100644
--- a/tests/test_hub_integration.py
+++ b/tests/test_hub_integration.py
@@ -1,14 +1,15 @@
-import os
-
 import pytest
 
 import polaris as po
 from polaris.benchmark._base import BenchmarkSpecification
 from polaris.dataset._base import BaseDataset
+from polaris.hub.settings import PolarisHubSettings
+
+settings = PolarisHubSettings()
 
 
 @pytest.mark.skipif(
-    os.getenv("POLARIS_PASSWORD") is None and os.getenv("POLARIS_USER") is None,
+    settings.username is None or settings.password is None,
     reason="This test case requires headless authentication to be set up",
 )
 def test_load_dataset_flow():
@@ -17,7 +18,7 @@ def test_load_dataset_flow():
 
 
 @pytest.mark.skipif(
-    os.getenv("POLARIS_PASSWORD") is None and os.getenv("POLARIS_USER") is None,
+    settings.username is None or settings.password is None,
     reason="This test case requires headless authentication to be set up",
 )
 def test_load_benchmark_flow():