Ok friends. If you once had a Lisa Frank sticker collection, this here is for you. Yes, I’m completely dating myself but I have to because I’ve been super intentional about my winter clean skincare routine knowing that my age is catching up with me. As I share this, my husband was looking through my face products asking me why so many of them were anti-wrinkling when I had no wrinkles. I looked at him and winked because the secret was in his hands.
I have no wrinkles partly from my excellent genetic makeup. The other part is the seriousness in which I care for my skin.
But I’m not here to keep secrets! If I’m winning without wrinkles, we’re all winning without wrinkles! One of the major differences in my winter skincare routine is the addition of an oil serum at the recommendation of my skincare expert Mae from Clean Beauty Specialists.
My Clean Winter Skincare Routine
Cleanser:
Snow Fox Skincare Cooling Foam Cleanser
I was using a different cleanser during the fall season and I switched to the Snow Fox Foam Cleanser because I love the way that it makes my skin feel. This is a coconut-based product so if you have allergies, this may not work for your skin. It makes my skin feel clean without feeling stripped and dry. This is important to me because the air is dryer so my skin is more prone to drying out. It also brightening agents in there and I’m obsessed with that!
Toner:
Agent Nateur Holi (Water) Pearl and Rose Hyaluronic Toner
This stuff is AMAZING. Full disclosure: I don’t really subscribe to understanding the importance of toner. I’m like, does it really make my skin look different? This is the first time that I’m able to say yes, yes it does.
Serum:
Agent Nateur Holi (Oil) Youth Serum
I’m fully convinced that everything from Agent Nateur is quality. This serum has an acquired smell but what I love is that it contains ingredients that help it reduce the dark spots that come from scars and discoloration. I mix 2 drops of this with 3 squirts of toner and then use my cold jade roller on my skin.
Moisturizer:
Pixi Beauty Rose Ceramide Cream
This is one of my favorite moisturizers. It’s almost like a gel consistency and it really seals the moisture of the oil in.
And now time for an interview! I’ve been wanting to add this component to my site for some time now but life caught up with me last month so this month I thought it was timely to interview my skincare expert Mae. I met Mae through a mutual friend whom I absolutely love and adore, Erika from EssentiallyErika.com. After having her do a skincare consult on me and seeing the difference in my skin, I was in love with both her and her products. So, without further adieu, I introduce you to Mae!
Interview With Skincare Expert Mae
Can you tell us a little about yourself? Where you live, where youāre from, etc.
I live in South Florida, but am originally from TX and spent the majority of life in Houston. I am 36 and married with a 7 year old son.
When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?
When I was really young I wanted to be a veterinarian, but that was curbed quickly, as I have always been debilitated by a suffering animal. I wasn’t a particularly ambitious child vocationally in the sense that I didn’t know that I wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer at a young age, but I have been fascinated by beauty for as long as I can remember, and not just in the physical and surface sense. I was always interested in the biology and science behind beauty, what made people feel beautiful, symmetry of faces, different cultures’ celebrations of beauty etc.
When people ask, how do you describe what it is that you do?
I explain that I am a holistic esthetician which means that I treat skin, but view it as a symptom of a much larger picture. What we eat, where we live, our hormones, our genetics, our environment all play a role in our skin and it’s important to look at the whole picture. I have been fortunate enough to partner with skincare brands that I truly believe in from an ethical and efficacy perspective and have launched an online retail space where I provide free consultations along with product recommendations for customers.
Making the leap from working for someone else to becoming an entrepreneur (especially with a family) is so hard. What was your motivation?
My husband was my biggest motivator. He saw the joy that I received from helping people with their skin and being a part of their journey to feel beautiful. He encouraged me to start calling my favorite brands to see if they shared my vision and would be willing to partner with me. Having that familial support made the leap feel much safer. I am a risk averse person by nature and often times my anxiety gets the better of me, so I am grateful that he gave me that push.
On those days that are really hard work-wise, how do you get through them?
That’s a great question, and I am not sure I have a consistent coping mechanism. I try to remind myself why I started, and looking at my clients’ before and after pictures always helps. I suffer from anxiety and sometimes that makes issues feel much grander than they are. I’ve found that in those moments, a few deep breaths and sometimes I phone call home to my mom helps. There is something really reassuring about speaking with someone that has known you your whole life and can say, “Your brain is tricking you. The sky is not falling”.
Balancing work with family can be really hard. What tips do you have for readers who struggle with that?
I have found that setting expectations is the most important. I don’t believe we can have it all. You can’t give everything 100%. I am not going to be a world-famous esthetician with a highly successful company and not have made real sacrifices along the way with regards to my family, in the same way that I am not going to be the mom that always has fresh baked cookies, a spotless house, time to facilitate enriching extracurriculars without having canceled my facial appointments, consultations and remained unresponsive to my emails. I think when we give ourselves permission to not do it all, set expectations for ourselves with our end goals in mind and share those with our family to see if we are aligned, then the balance becomes easier to find.
How did you get into doing what it is youāre doing now? What was the transitional point?
It was a gradual transition. I have always been passionate about clean beauty and skincare which came as a byproduct of seeking cruelty-free skincare. Through conversations, I realized that there was a real knowledge gap for people when it came to their skin, safe ingredients and what products would be effective for them. I found that the majority of people would look online, see a celebrity or influencer talking about a clean product that worked for them and purchase said product. Often times the product wouldn’t work (because their skin was completely different than the celebrity’s) and they would feel discouraged and go back to using their old “dirty” skincare. I felt like I could bridge that gap. The disparity between my career at the time and the desire to help people with their skin was really the catalyst that facilitated the transition.
When you made the decision to turn The Clean Beauty Specialists into a business, did you start with a business plan or just wing it?
A little of both actually. I never created a formal business plan, because I feel like it has been in my head for years. When the skincare brands agreed to partner with me and the products started coming in it became very real. I created the site and started consultations pretty quickly after that.
What does the future hold for you? Anything immediately on the horizon that we can share with readers?
As far as the immediate future, I am continuing to take it slow. A few brands have reached out to me and sent me some of their products, and I am really excited about one called Noomi Stockholm. Keep an eye out for it. Eventually, I would love to create my own product line. The idea that I could formulate something that would help someone feel beautiful in their own skin makes me positively giddy!
If a kid walked up to you and asked you for advice and you only had a few minutes to share some tips, what would you share?
Oh wow that’s heavy! I think that right now kids are growing up with so much fear, and it’s really destructive. I think my advice would be something along the lines of not being afraid of what’s different. It’s important to get to know someone and their position, and it’s always ok to disagree. Approach everything from an angle of kindness, and that will help guide you.
Interested in what Mae can do for you?
Book a consult with her now!
