Welcome to Style / Substance, a newsletter about personal style, confidence, and the psychology of fashion. Features include outfit ideas, styling & clothing care tips, reflections on how style can transform you, and product/brand recommendations to make your life easier and ensure you present your best self.
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Skincare is something I've been thinking more and more about. It’s a frequent topic of discussion with friends and clients. Beauty, in general, is an ever-evolving area—for myself in my bathroom, not to mention on a global economic scale—with overwhelming information and new product suggestions. I have products that I love, and I've tested duds, but what's great about beauty is it's a relatively lower-impact area to experiment and take risks.
I'm not a pro at makeup; I'm the closet person, so I asked Charlotte Rose Monks, a London-born and St. Louis transplant makeup artist, to show me how to take the time to hydrate and prime my skin first and foremost.
Prepping the face before makeup is something I've admittedly overlooked and fallen short of in the past. I wasn't considering the most crucial part: the actual foundation beneath the foundation. It seemed like so many extra steps and a time suck. On one hand, I don't have all this extra time to go through a 12-step routine (this one is 7). On the other hand, I prioritize taking better care of my skin (which means I'm removing something else) because it's healthy, and the habits are good for me. Plus, I want to glow. I now also see the impact. You don't need to be so rigid about these steps because, realistically, we can't make that happen all the time, but I'm working at incorporating more of this into my routine.
Watch a brief version of the skincare prep steps in the IG video link below. Shop the products featured that Charlotte uses when prepping all of her client's skin before doing their makeup. Lastly, if you need your makeup done for your next event, fundraiser, wedding, big meeting, family photos, new headshots, etc, Charlotte is your person. Bonus: she massages your face (helps with blood flow, aka an inner glow).