this is where your life visibly splits into 2 periods – your beauty routine before and after you became a mommy. before you had all the time in the world to go out and enjoy mani-pedi with a girlfriend, do a fancy blow-dry or experimental haircut once in a while, spend a little fortune every time you visit Sephora, and have unlimited time in front of the bathroom mirror just to get this cat’s eye right. now you have neither time, nor energy, and sometimes no spare financial resources to splurge on such luxuries. but becoming a mommy doesn’t mean turning into an unkept monster with bad breath and dirty hair (at least, I clearly remember promising myself that when i was younger – that i WON’T become that kind of monster), it’s just that your beauty routine has to be adjusted to become more efficient and less time-consuming. sometimes you need to narrow it down to absolute “must”s – something without you absolutely can not leave you house, even if it’s just to do groceries around the corner. for me it’s been always mani-pedi (especially pedi!) and neat hair. but since i became a mommy, I also made little amends – nails and hair can be a bit messy (let’s call it natural, ok?), but never dirty/unkept. so may be my manicure is not always done, but i won’t let myself go outside with chipped nail polish. and while now it’s “ok” for me to step out of the house without a blow-dry but at least my hair needs to be clean or put up in a mommy’s bun with a touch of dry shampoo where needed.
to summarize, my routine routine revolves around 3 things – 1) skin, 2) hair and 3) nails. if you are want to know more details – please read below.
SKIN
do you know that skin is the largest organ in our body? so if your skin is beautiful, you are beautiful by default. as a fashion photographer who works with professional models i can also second that.
in my own beauty routine I pay special attention to skin maintenance. regular exfoliation, natural products, every day SPF (especially now that I spend more time outdoors with my son during our daily walks). but what really makes a difference is a visit to a skin professional at least once a month. since my life before Leo I am a regular at the cosy home salon in Greenpoint, E!spa (https://www.facebook.com/myespa). Eliza, the beautiful owner of the spa, is a true skin magician – with a combination of different treatments and techniques she makes your skin glow just after one visit. I really needed that magic on my first visit after a year an a half break for pregnancy and nursing. my skin was dry, clogged and sad looking. Eliza “prescribed” me a deep cleaning with microdembrasation followed by Intraceutical Oxygen treatment (my old-time favorite). after two hours of full relaxation I woke up to a refreshed new me in the mirror – my skin was silky and fresh, little wrinkles virtually disappeared, I looked like I just came back from vacation.
to keep my skin in a good shape between visits to E!spa I use Skinceuticals C E Ferulic – an anti-oxydant serum that brightens an tightens the skin. this is really the only skin product I really spurge on. as for creams I use Skinyceutial SPF50 for the day (on top of C E Ferulic) and the Original Nivea for the night. once a week I do a moisturizing mask – I am a big fan of the Korean beauty brand the Face – they have a big variety of the most delicious, refreshing masks.
as for makeup, I’ve never been too much of a devotee. I figured out quite quickly that makeup makes me look older, as well as I always felt a little weird about changing my face with the makeup too much – you need to be really good at it, and you need to commit to a certain look, otherwise it’s like “wtf?” every time, while people study your makeup, not your facial expressions. I rarely use foundation and/or powder, but I do love matifying primer the POREfessional by Benefit, as well as their pearl-like highlighter for cheekbones. just a touch of blush on the cheeks finishes my skin make-up – you really don’t need more than that to look fresh and glowing. and may be a bright red or orange lip for a special occasion.
HAIR
like many women, during the first several months of breastfeeding I was loosing a lot of hair, to the point that it was scary. fellow mamas advised that it was temporary, but I didn’t take it for granted and added liquid B-12 and 500mg biotin vitamins to my daily intake. I also used topical serums promoting hair growth, massaging them into the scalp especially along the hairline where it was most visible. new hair started growing back around Leonardo’s 6th month. the baby hair fuss was so visible and so uncontrollable that I needed to cut my bangs – otherwise it like led too funny. but hey, no complains – whatever it was, it worked!
despite advice of many, I actually wash my hair every day. I just love the crispiness and mealiness of it right after the wash. I use shampoo only on my roots, and apply conditioner to the rest of the hair and leave it on for 5-7minutes. quite often I let my hair air-dry, but every now and then I also do blow dry myself, which allows me to wear my hair down for longer. if air-dry made them frizzy, my quick get-away is a tall messy hair bun – every mama’s favorite all-occasions hairstyle.
NAILS
one this i absolutely can’t leave home without is a decent mani-pedi. everything else can be messy but not the nails. and while i prefer my face to be bare of makeup, i do love my nails colorful. however, with daily mom’s chores it’s not only difficult to keep the color for longer than a day, it’s also difficult to find time to do nail polish, because usually it takes so long to dry. I tried gel and Shellac, but both are really damaging to my nails. plus, I prefer doing my nails at home because I am never satisfied with the superficial way they do it in United States. so I finally found a solution, thanks to a friend who travelled to Japan and brought me a very unique product. it’s a gofun nail polish from Kyoto made out of scallop shell powder. it is completely odor-free, unlike conventional nail polish, and is extremely quick-drying (takes only 2 minutes!). as it uses a soap-free emulsion containing silicon, it exhibits excellent breathability and is very kind to fingernails. the pearl nacre contained in scallop shells also gives a beautiful shine to fingernails. when removing this nail polish, you don’t need to use conventional nail polish remover, as it is easily removable with alcohol. done at home, my manicure takes about 10 minutes altogether and last for about 10 days. no kidding!
DISCLAIMER: this post hasn’t been sponsored by any of the brands mentioned above. all the recommendations are based upon personal experience and should be used with healthy skepticism and caution 🙂
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