The new routine

I get up in the morning, drink some water, do some stretches all while trying to remember what day it is. I pause in bed to mentally hope the Covid count isn’t terribly high relative to yesterday and check my phone. I say hi to Nick, open the windows for Suitcase, and we all sit down and watch some news.

It’s all pretty sad on the news these days, so after a few minutes I pivot to tidying the house for a while with the news in the background.

An hour to 8:30-ish I eventually look at my calendar and start letting the stress of work back into my life. I figure out when my first meeting is and decide to start getting dressed.

I put on some music from one of my playlists. These are like snapshots or little diaries, so I try to pick a month that was happy and let that run un-shuffled while I get my face routine going.

I wash my face with water and pat it dry. Put on serum (Retrouvé for face), after serum (Retrouvé for eyes), after lotion (Aesop for face and neck), after lotion (Aesop for body). I let that sit for a bit while I get out of my house robe and into some real clothes — generally something stretchy as the base layer, and then the same pair of Totême denim as every day, throw on a t-shirt, fling on a cardigan and I begin to feel like I’m in the normal world again.

I go back to the bathroom to finish my face. I brush on two Surrat dewy drops to even out my complexion. I work around my stress pimples, damn them to hell, and move on. I add some NARS blush to my cheeks, and then bit of Kevin Aucoin powder all around my face and as an eyeshadow base so I look a little more alive. I have about 20-minutes left at this point before I should truly start getting to work — either that, or people are starting to chat message me where tf is this or where tf is that — so I use this time to get a cat eye going with what used to be the most annoying Tarte waterproof paint pot and a stiff eyeliner brush. I’ve mastered it now and figured out how to set it so I don’t look like a giant raccoon loser about two hours later. I put on some eyeshadow depending on my mood from one of the four warm and cool palettes I own (NARS, NARS, Tom Ford, and Pat McGrath) I pencil in some brow hairs and brush on some eyebrow gel and call it a day.

On the days I go running in the morning — which these days is every other day — it’s this still routine more or less (mostly less).

I know I don’t have to get dressed or put on makeup (and I have definitely had some days where I definitely don’t give this many fucks) but those zero effort days make me feel even worse. Like I’m a disappointment to myself for not even trying. Ungrateful maybe? Yikes.

So I push on and do this every day even though nothing is normal and it may never be back to normal at this point.

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Photography by Charlotte Wales