May 1, 2020

Skincare designed to help you sleep, a hair-smoothing drugstore find and my case for wearing lipstick during lockdown.

Skincare that helps you sleep?

If I had to make a list of all the ways my life (and all of our lives) have changed since mid-March, it would probably take me all day. The first thing that comes to mind is how procuring an Instacart delivery has escalated to a Hunger Games­-esque challenge—and the second would be my current inability to sleep despite enlisting the help of prescription-based medication and melatonin. Falling asleep isn’t so much of a problem, but the vivid dreams I have once I doze off make my sleep more draining than restorative, and then my eyes fly open at 4:30 on the dot. Every. Damn. Day. Sometimes I’m able to fall back asleep for another hour or so, but I usually just lay there until I’m so antsy that I just concede defeat and tip-toe out of my bedroom as not to wake my husband.

I’d pretty much try anything to get a solid night of sleep at this point, and that includes a skincare line called Bynacht, which launched a few months ago. More than just high-performance lotions and potions designed to address the entire spectrum of skin concerns by optimizing the skin’s natural overnight repair and rejuvenation process—the line includes aromatherapy-fueled balms and oils to help you catch more ZZZs.

The offerings include everything your nighttime skincare routine could possibly need, including cleansing gel, toner, several serum options, moisturizers, eye cream and a neck and chest treatment. I literally want all of it—but the Uberglow Discovery Kit seems like the ideal place to start. This set comes with the Perfect Nacht Sleeping Balm (which is applied to pulse points as well as the chest, nose and neck to help you drift off to dreamland), the Uber Glow Gel Peeling AHA for gentle overnight exfoliation and the Iconic Reborn Radiant Serum for a mega-dose of antioxidants, hydration and anti-aging ingredients.

Oh, and Bynacht is completely clean (it meets Shen Beauty’s stringent ingredient standards), so you can cross that off the list of things that might be keeping you up at night.

This hair treatment will help smooth things over

March 3, 2020 will go down in history as the date of my last pre-pandemic color. That was exactly seven weeks ago today. I actually blew out my hair this morning since I have a Zoom for work this afternoon, and although I’m definitely rooty, my color isn’t so far gone that I can’t bear to look in the mirror. (Yet.)

This rare heat-styling also gave me a chance to put L’Oreal’s Elvive 8 Second Wonder Water Lamellar Hair Treatment to the test. I recently finished a similar (amazing) product called Moremo Water Treatment Miracle 10 (click here to read my review), and L’Oreal’s less-expensive version seems to be the only product like it out there. In a nutshell, it’s a liquid conditioning treatment that froths up a bit when you massage it in after shampooing—and you’re done in less than 10 seconds. You can use it after your usual conditioner or on its own (which I do because my hair tends to get greasy), and you won’t believe how soft and smooth your hair is afterwards.

This awesome potion might not be able to anything for your roots—but I’d definitely recommend trying it now and having it on hand later when you can enjoy refreshed color and revitalized texture!

Elevate your SAH look with one product you already have…

Unless you do a lot of Zoom-ing (for work), your makeup has probably been on a nice, long vacation. I can count the number of times I’ve done my usual daytime look since this all began on one hand—but I’ll throw on a little mascara and lip gloss every now and again just because. Over the weekend I was feeling a bit uninspired in the loungewear department so I tried a new approach to keep things interesting: Lipstick! 

This might sound crazy but try it. The pop of color will brighten your day every time you walk past a mirror (and detract from the fact that you’ve been wearing the same sweats on and off for the past few weeks). This is an especially good idea for anyone who doesn’t feel comfortable wearing a bold red, pink (or any other color) out in public. Once you get used to it at home, you’ll feel a lot more at ease wearing a statement lip once it’s safe to venture out again (although it may be obscured by a mask when you can’t guarantee social distance!).