The Essentials: January 2023

Happy New Year, friends!! This year, you’ll find me knee-deep in marathon training for TWO marathons which I kicked off back in early December. I’m not sure how I’ll be able to get all my runs in while running after a toddler, but here’s to trying! 🥂

Last month, I really focused on keeping my breakouts to the bare minimum especially now that I’ll be sweating a lot more. And, making those little self-care rituals feel more luxurious.

Here are my essentials for the month:

HAIR: Aveda’s Smooth Infusion Style-Prep Smoother was an unexpected surprise. I’ve been using it as a base to give my curls an extra boost of moisture during this chilly season and found that it helped make my hair appear less frizzy.

FACE / SKINCARE: As usual, we got more heavy hitters in this section.

Skinfix, not sure why everyone sleeps on this brand, has this amazing eye cream that depuffs and brightens. What’s even more amazing is how upfront they are with their clinical actives and studies. Definitely give this brand a look - they are sold almost everywhere!

For my acne friends, La Roche-Posay has an adapalene gel that is now available over the counter! It’s called Effaclar and it’s a retinoid that helps speed up cell turnover and unclog pores.

For moisturizers, give this one from The Ordinary a try and this one from Nuria is made specifically for nights and has an amazing texture.

After trying, Supergoop!’s Glow sunscreen and loving it, I decided to try their clear version called Unseen Sunscreen. The formula is weightless, colorless, and oil-free that leaves behind a nice velvety finish on skin. It also layered very nicely under makeup.

Indie Lee is a recurring favorite of mine. This time I want to highlight their Clearing Mask. I use it after my runs, or any intense workout, to really deep clean my pores and rehydrate my skin.

Our winter feels more brutal than last year’s, so I wanted to give a special shoutout to Glossier’s Moisturizing Moon Mask - our skin is going to need a weekly (maybe biweekly) re-up of hydration to make it in one piece this spring.

FACE / MAKEUP: Last year, I decided to dive back into my stash of foundation and CC creams and will continue the tradition this year to cull through my collection. One of the standouts was the Juice Beauty Stem Cellular CC Cream. The glowy formula blends so nicely and can build from light to medium coverage.

For my eyebrows, I decided to try out Colourpop’s $8 Brow Gel, and you guys - the price for the formula is unreal. It has a flexible, lightweight hold and never flakes. Will definitely buy this again.

I feel like we’ve all heard about Kosas amazing undereye concealer. Their Revealer Concealer first appeared on my FYP early last summer and has been a staple in almost everyone’s makeup routine for good reason. The concealer does not cake or crease - instead, it brightens and leaves a dewy finish.

BODY: It’s become a tradition to stock up on Glossier goods during their Cyber Week sales. I want to highlight their Body Hero Dry-Touch Oil Mist. Not only does it feel so luxurious, it’s one of the few body oils that are truly mess-free and the scent is intoxicating. On super chilly (dry) days, I like to layer this over a body balm to lock in moisture.

SHOP MY ESSENTIALS:

one // two // three // four // five // six // seven // eight // nine // ten // eleven // twelve

Fitness Hacks For Busy Business Owners

Running a business takes a lot of time and effort, and sometimes it doesn’t leave a lot of time (or motivation) left for anything else, including your own fitness. The problem is that if you don’t take care of your health and fitness, your business is going to suffer eventually because you’ll burn out, and you won’t be able to continue. So, of course, you’ll need to work out how to get enough exercise into your personal life, no matter how busy you might be in your business life. The good news is there are some useful fitness hacks you can put in place that will definitely help you and ensure you stay as fit and healthy as possible. Read on to find out more. 

Schedule Your Workouts Like Business Meetings

When you run a business, important business meetings are set in stone - they’re non-negotiable, and you’ll go to them whether you feel like it or not. It won’t matter how much motivation you have or how busy you are because you know how important those meetings are, and you make them a priority. 

Why not do the same with your workouts and exercise? By scheduling them, just like a business meeting, you’ll be more likely to do the work, and soon enough, it will become a habit. Just treat them exactly the same as you would a business meeting, and everything will become much easier, and you’ll finally be making your health more of a priority. 

Do Short, High-Intensity Workouts 

If the reason that you don’t do much (or any) exercise to keep fit at the moment is that you think you have to spend hours and hours at the gym, that’s where you’re going wrong because that’s not the case at all. You can, of course, spend hours at the gym if you want to (and many people do because they enjoy it), but you can also get a lot of benefit from much shorter, high-intensity workouts. 

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is a great way to really make the most of your spare time, no matter how little of it you might have, and still get a workout that actually does something positive for your health and fitness. A 20 to 30-minute HIIT session can be enough to help make your heart much healthier and build up your muscle strength, for example, and it has to be easier to find a spare 30 minutes in the day compared to finding a spare hour or two. 

Turn Your Office Into A Gym 

Perhaps the issue is that you don’t want to leave your office (whether it’s a home-based one or an external one) to go to the gym or take a brisk walk or cycle, for example, because you’re worried you’re going to miss something important, or even miss a deadline. Sometimes there will be days when taking just a little time to exercise can feel like too much.

But what if you could multitask and exercise and work at the same time? There is a way to do it, and it’s almost like turning your office into a gym - in fact, it would probably mean that you do more exercise in the end than you would otherwise. 

The answer is a desk treadmill or walking pad. This piece of equipment is a combination of a desk and a treadmill, so it allows you to get exercise done while you’re working - you no longer have to choose one or the other. And precisely because you no longer have to choose, you’ll get a lot more done, both in terms of your fitness and your work. 

Use Technology To Make You Accountable 

There are many different fitness apps and trackers on the market that you can use and sometimes even wear to help you stay accountable and motivated when it comes to keeping fit. You can use apps to track your workouts, set fitness goals, and set everything up to send you reminders if you’ve not been active for a while, for example. 

It’s easy to ignore the fact that you really should be exercising when there’s no one and nothing there to remind you and push you, but when you have a beeping alert or a vibrating watch or anything else, it will be much harder to ignore, and you’ll feel keener to move and get fit because everything’s being tracked so you can see your progress. 

Make Your Commute Your Exercise Time 

This idea might not work for everyone, especially when it comes to remote workers, but in some cases, it could be the perfect solution for those business owners who don’t think they have enough time in the day to exercise; use your commute to get fit. 

If you live quite close to your workplace and you normally drive or take the bus, for example, why not try walking or cycling instead? In that way, you’ll get your exercise done without having to break up your working day (although taking breaks is still important, of course), and your fitness levels will improve dramatically. 

Delegate And Outsource 

One of the biggest challenges when you’re a business owner is trying to do everything yourself. No matter how hard you try, you’re never going to have enough time to get everything done, and, in the end, that’s going to make your business suffer. It’s also going to make your health suffer because you’ll be seriously stressed, plus you won’t have time to keep on top of your fitness by exercising. 

That’s why it’s such a good idea to delegate and outsource where you can. When you can hand tasks off to others, you’ll find you have a lot more free time to start taking care of yourself, and the knock-on effect of that is that you’ll be healthier, happier, and in a better frame of mind to run your business. In other words, by letting go of some aspects of control - which admittedly can be hard - you can benefit yourself and your business all in one go. It’s definitely something to consider.