Hey all! Hope you are still enjoying these AM routines as much as we are. Please keep submitting if you haven’t yet! Today’s comes to us from Naomi, who is still using a product from the Quarterly subscription (yay!) and lots of other fun ones too… Read on!
Name: Naomi
Age: 39 (ouch!)
Current weather: schizophrenic! NYC trying desperately to molt into spring
Hair: chin length, fine, fairly straight dirty blonde without highlights but currently sun-kissed blonde (with highlights)
Skin: Fair-to-medium complexion, pernickety temperament – still experiencing a dose of winter dryness but currently pretty clear and smooth, just needing extra care and moisturising
Naomi is a regular around these parts, and Siobhan even had the pleasure of meeting her once at an event in New York. Herewith, her awesome routine!
In the shower…
Quick hair wash with California Baby Tea Tree shampoo (every week or two I use Ctonics Tantra shampoo for flakes) followed by a light condition with Suki conditioner. I use Clarisonic on my face (and sometimes décolleté) with Wei Beauty Chinese Rose Foaming Cleanser. Pits & bits get a wash with soap, currently using the one that came in my first Quarterly box (one personal care item that’s soooo easy to keep clean!). Every couple of weeks I do a full body scrub with one of the 100% Pure scrubs (not a purchase, it was free when I bought products a while back). When I don’t have a body scrub product (which I don’t tend to buy, I only use them if they came with something else) I use a body brush or the equivalent with a bit of my soap
Outside the shower…
I use one of three serums: Suki targeted bio-brightening face serum; Kahina Giving Beauty serum (a fave!); or One Love Morning Glory (compliments of a recent NMDL Friday Deal – thanks!). Then I use either 100% Pure Organic Coffee Bean Caffeine eye cream or Origins GinZing Refreshing eye cream, depending on if I feel puffiness or dark circles are a problem. After that, I us either 100% Pure Organic Pomegranate Antioxidant Hydration SPF20 or (if I’m definitely not spending any time outside) Bee Yummy Skin Food. It’s Vive Sana Polar to Solar sunscreen if I’ll be spending any real time outside, like weekends. A couple of times I week I moisturise with either Evan Healy body oil or Acure Organics Cocoa Butter + CoQ10 body lotion. I put MJ’s Herbals arnica salve on any bruises, Kahina argan oil on any extra dry patches or eczema and every couple of weeks, on days I’m only running errands or not going out in public at all, I use Kahina argan oil as a treatment on my hair and leave it in until the next day’s shampoo. Every day in winter, or as little as possible in the good weather, I blow dry my hair.
Finishing touches…
I love RMS un-coverup. Sometimes, depending on how “good” my skin is, I use Vapour Organic Beauty Atmosphere Luminous Foundation. Then I like Revolution Organics Freedom Glow Beauty Balm as blush, RMS Beauty cream eye shadow in Solar or Lunar, Shu Uemura eyelash curler, Josie Maran mascara, Anastasia Perfect Brow pencil, Dior Lip Maximiser or RMS Beauty lip balm. Okay, so now I can really see why the Desert Island Challenge was too hard for me… :)
Ha! Is she awesome, or what?
Image via
Ayo! The series continues with a very exciting entry: Soapwalla’s very own Rachel has shared her routine with you guys…because you asked. Isn’t it cool, how that works? You asked us, so we asked her, and she said yes! Soapwalla is a brand that needs no introduction around these parts: We love her deodorant and her body oil, we love her vibe, we love that she sells her stuff on Etsy with a profile pic of her playing a violin, and we love that she makes her stuff by hand in Brooklyn. She’s just good peoples. Here’s how she starts her day. Not surprisingly, she gets crafty in her kitchen…
Hair: Wavy, fine and often uncooperative
Before the shower…
In the shower…
Outside the shower…
Finishing Touches…
You knew this day would come, didn’t you? Or at least you hoped? Yeah, we know. Well, we have some very, very exciting news for you this week for this extra-special Friday Deal.
We have teamed up with Spirit Beauty Lounge, a go-to for so many of our favorite brands, to curate a special pop-up boutique on her site! We have chosen a few of our favorite things—and by a few we mean more than 25 natural-beauty all stars—for you to shop from, at a generous discount. These are the products we swear by, go back to time and again, have vetted and loved, and want to share with you.
What products, you ask? Oh you know, just the greatest ones from Chocolate Sun (self tanner), Soapwalla (deodorant), Lotus Wei (spray and elixir), Kahina Giving Beauty (argan oil and toning mist), C-Tonics (shampoo and conditioner), Scotch Naturals (nail polish), Honore Des Pres (luxe perfume), Vapour (makeup and lip/cheek), RMS Beauty (makeup and luminizer), Sheswai (nail polish), Tata Harper (cleanser and oils), Intelligent Nutrients (hair stuff), Pai (face lotion), Baggu (reusable chic bags), NVey Eco (makeup), Lulu Organics (dry shampoo), Vive Sana (sunscreen), Christy Coleman (makeup bag), our book (book!) and MORE.
Pick any and all from the No More Dirty Looks pop-up shop (doesn’t apply to other things from the site) and get 20% off your order! Enter NMDL code at checkout and you’ll get the discount reflected in your shopping cart. The deal will last until ***midnight on Monday night*** but if you shop today, Friday August 5, you’ll also get FREE SHIPPING on orders in the U.S. over $50.
As always, Spirit does ship to Canada! We think this is a pretty sick time to stock up on the best of the best….
Happy shopping, folks. Let us know in the comments what you picked!
Oh, and we love you guys. Just in case you were wondering.
It’s true: I have said nice things about this sunscreen before, but our site was much smaller then, and our book wasn’t even out, and I still love it, and it’s under-covered in the naturals world, so without further ado:
Vive Sana Solar to Power Ultra SPF 40
In my hunt for the perfect sunscreen, I’ve tried a lot and found only a few I really like. I am pale, I am pink, and I am pitta, so sun protection, especially in summer, is a bigee for me. I’d been hearing good thing about Vive Sana Solar to Polar Ultra sunscreen, so I was thrilled when I got my hands on a tube from Spirit Beauty Lounge last summer.
Vive Sana, which has an SPF of 40, calls itself the strongest all-natural sunscreen on earth. Bold! But does it live up to the promise?
Sure seems to. I’ve been using it on and off all year and can say that it stays put under makeup, offers great protection, hasn’t given me any problems (by which I mean zits), and is loaded with skin-friendly ingredients. My beef, if I have to pick one, is that it takes a while to sink in, which means you have to wait a little while when you’re doing your face in the morning, but that’s a concession I’m more than happy to make for a product this clean.
The actives here are zinc and titanium dioxide, it contains free-radical-eating antioxidants like green tea, soothing chamomile, beeswax and some skin-compatible oils. Here’s a complete list:
Active Ingredients: Titanium Dioxide 8.5%, Zinc Oxide 3.5%
Ingredients: Organic Soybean Oil, Organic Safflower Oil, Beeswax, Organic Olive Oil, Organic Avocado Oil, Organic Jojoba Seed Oil, Alumina (natural mineral), Stearic Acid (natural fatty acid), Organic Apricot Kernel Oil, Organic Glycerin, Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E), Sunflower Seed Oil, Ginkgo Biloba Leaf Extract, Oat Kernel Extract, Green Tea Leaf Extract, Chamomile Extract, Raspberry Seed Oil, Natural Green Tea Fragrance.
It’s sold at Nubonau, Spirit Beauty Lounge, and direct from Vive Sana (which also lists other retailers).
Have you tried this screen?
Holy crap is there anything harder than finding a good clean face screen that won’t break you out or cast your face in an eerie white glow? (That’s a rhetorical question, but the answer is yes: finding a good clean deodorant is actually harder. But only by a smidge.)
Anyway, in my hunt for the perfect sunscreen, I’ve tried a zillion and found a few I really like. Readers who have been with us for a bit know I love Lavera’s, and last summer I used Jurlique’s Age-Defying SPF 15 and reviewed it in our book. I’d been hearing good thing about Vive Sana Solar to Polar Ultra sunscreen, so I was thrilled when I got my hands on a tube from Spirit Beauty Lounge.
Vive Sana, which has an SPF of 40, calls itself the strongest all-natural sunscreen on earth. Bold! But does it live up to the promise?
Yuh huh. Sure seems to. I’ve been using it for a week now in sticky gross 95-plus degree weather in New York and it stays put all day, offers great protection (no new freckles!), hasn’t given me any problems (by which I mean zits), wears well under makeup or as a primer, and is loaded with skin-friendly ingredients.
The actives here are zinc and titanium dioxide (really hoping we don’t get bad news about the latter, but Vive doesn’t seem to use nanoparticles), it contains free-radical-eating antioxidants like green tea, soothing chamomile, beeswax and some skin-compatible oils.
As for the look: It’s not shiny, it’s not masky-matte. It’s just right. And because you only need a little at a time, I feel okay about the $29 pricetag.
Have you found one you like?
