Happy Friday, dumplings! How do you plan on celebrating the weekend? For me–I usually work one or both days, so it’s not completely work-free…but as I type this, I can only think of beauty treatments I plan on doing this weekend to give me some much needed self-care time.
Compared to my early twenties, I now spend far less time doing beauty rituals. I have no idea how I had such vigilance with grooming my eyebrows or painting my nails back in college! Now, I’m not so in tune with beauty trends, or new color lipsticks to try. While I’ll never become so experimental again, recently I’ve been wanting to swing the pendulum a little back toward more maintenance.
It now seems to me that taking care of your beauty isn’t vain, or that you’re “not working hard enough” (oh man, that voice in my head). It’s a sign to yourself and to other people of how valuable you are. It doesn’t mean you have to become a slave to hair, makeup, and manicure, but as a woman, caring for yourself doesn’t just include healthy eating and fitness, but also beauty. I noticed that I’m super duper good at healthy eating and fitness, but the first thing I let go if I just can’t is always, always beauty.
#4.
The best way to change this is to make a habit of beauty, of course–just like with diet and exercise. So without further ado, here are some beauty habits I plan on adopting.
1. Wash my face after every workout: this is a big one. I teach back-to-back classes at Pure Barre, so I can easily go from 8 in the morning to about 1 in the afternoon without washing my face–by which point, my sweat has been mingling with makeup for several hours. Eeek. This past week or so, I’ve been running to the bathroom to wash my face between classes, or using a natural face wipe from Acure. I reapply a little BB cream each time. So far, this has been making my skin feel a lot happier.
2. Do a deep conditioning treatment once a week: Do you really do a treatment once a week? I used to when younger–now, it’s more like once every few months, if that. Do I really have time to sit with it on for 30 minutes?! But I vow to make the time, darn it. There are plenty of DIY hair mask options at PD including this nourishing *and* clarifying avocado hair mask.
3. Deep cleansing tea steam facial at least once a week: This is my absolute favorite way to deep cleanse my pores. I just brew a large pot of floral, herbal tea, add a drop of lavender essential oil, and stand over it with my head draped in a towel (to lock in the steam). This opens up and de-clogs your pores, and softens any flakiness so that they can be scrubbed away gently afterwards without damaging the skin.
4. Wear lip stuff everywhere I go: Coco Chanel famously said that you have to put on lipstick before you step outside the house, and I do think it’s retro to do your lips more than any other makeup. Usually I’m happy if I remember to put on lip balm before I head out in the morning. But I’ve been noticing a significant difference in how much brighter and more polished I look when I do intentional lip makeup, even for day. It just makes you feel more ready to take on anything. Even if you’re just used to lip balm, try more serious formula like lip stain, gloss, or lipstick. You’ll be surprised by how effective it is!
5. Keep my manicure neat: I always admire the look of women who maintain perfect nails, because they just look so put together. Why not me? True, I cook way too much to keep my nails pristine, but once a week complete new DIY polish is doable, costs next to nothing, and will make me look (and feel) more sophisticated. I might even add an incentive by buying new polish once every other week to keep things exciting. (That’s just $5 a week investment–not bad!) Here’s how to do a salon-quality mani at home.
6. Actually do body scrub and moisturizing: I seem to remember I used to buy sooo much body lotion through my teens and early twenties. Then in the past five plus years, I’ve barely used any body lotion at all. For once, the skin on my body doesn’t really get dry even through most of winter–lucky! But really, it’s because I’m starved for time.
Still, I’ve noticed that taking time to moisturize your body properly has a positive effect on one’s (my) self-esteem. I plan on doing a proper body scrub in the shower once a week, and moisturizing at least once a week, if not more. Tip: Put the said lotion or body cream on the bedside table so you can use it when you get to bed. This takes out the dilemma of, “gee do I stay here in the bathroom and apply lotion? Or do I run to bed?” Since the answer is always bed. 🙂
Your turn–do you already do all these beauty habits? What beauty habits are you most proud of?
Also see: Invigorating DIY Coffee Body Scrub
How to Take the Best Bath of Your Life
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Photo: Mary Hood Luttrell
