InAbout Face, xoNecole gets the 411 on IGers who give us #skincaregoals on a daily. Here they break down their beauty routines on the inside and out, as well as the highly coveted products that grace their shelves and their skin.
Kimberly Ramcharitar is loved for her beauty transitions, which have us all wondering how she does them every time. At the beginning of each transition, Ramcharitar starts with a fresh face and always ends with an intricate makeup look. Transitions and beauty routines have always come naturally to her since childhood.
Ramcharitar says, “I remember playing in my mom's makeup as a child; I’ve always been fascinated by it.” That fascination continued into her teenage years when she began wearing makeup for school performances. Her performing arts teacher encouraged students to be themselves but not to overdo it with the performance makeup. “She taught me there was a time and a place to be full glam.”
Ramcharitar's love for beauty wasn’t mutual when it came to skincare. Like most teens, she viewed skincare as a chore and far from the self-care narrative that is heavily emphasized today. She says, “I had only one step in my skincare routine back then, and even that felt like a chore.” Aveeno’s Radiant Daily Moisturizer and Sunscreen combo was Ramcharitar’s go-to every morning. Ramcharitar's skin glows as she reminisces on the days when skincare was an eye-rolling thought. It is hard to believe that someone with such beautiful skin today was nearly an anti-skincare routine at a point in time.
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For women, there’s a pressure to adopt self-care routines that feel like responsibility rather than pleasure. Brands constantly try to convince us that we need at least 50 steps to achieve our goals. The more we dive into ourselves, the more we block out the noise and prioritize our well-being. Ramcharitas's love for skin care developed as she learned to discover what skincare looks like. She says, “My biggest lesson in beauty and skincare: not everything works for everyone.” Since then, she’s learned to minimize her skincare routine and develop self-care practices that align her with her highest self.
“My biggest lesson in beauty and skincare: not everything works for everyone.”
Being a beauty influencer is a dream job for many, but it has consequences. Influencers can feel pressure from the industry to keep up with the latest beauty trends, sometimes taking them further away from self-acceptance. Throughout her years in the industry, Ramcharita has learned the true beauty secret: staying true to yourself is finding your anchor. “God grounds me, which helps me remain solid in the beauty space.” Ramcharita advocates for having the heart of flesh, not the heart of stone. This bible verse regularly allows her to stand in kindness, which is the truest form of beauty to her. “People can be mean to others, but you shouldn’t let that change you. Remaining in kindness will always shine through.”
Ramcharita was kind enough to share her skincare routine with us! Read to find out more.
Her Morning Skincare Routine:
La Roche-Posay Hydrating Gentle Cleanser
La Roche-Posay Hydrating Gentle Cleanser
Amazon
“I have sensitive skin and can sometimes get irritation bumps. The La Roche[-Posay] Cleanser is so gentle and hydrating for my skin.”
BYOMA Face Mist
BYOMA Balancing Face Mist
Ulta
“I’m not a toner person; this feels like one, so it gets the job done for me.”
BYOMA Hydrating Serum
BYOMA Hydrating Serum
Ulta
“I used to get eczema under my eyes, but that has stopped since I started using this product. I love it!”
Fenty Skin Thicc, Rich, And Smooth Peptide Eye Cream
Fenty Skin Thicc, Rich and Smooth Peptide Eye Cream
Sephora
“I used to never use undereye creams, but this feels so nice under my eyes and around my mouth.”
Kiehl's Better Sunscreen SPF 50
Kiehls Better Screen UV Serum
Kiehls
“I’ve been testing sunscreens under my makeup, and this works perfectly.”
Her Night Time Skincare Routine:
Elemis Cleansing Balm
Elemis Pro-Collagen Cleansing Balm
Sephora
“I love to use this when I have makeup on to double-cleanse my skin without over-stretching.”
Dermalogica Oil To Foam Cleanser
Dermalogica Oil to Foam Total Cleanser
Dermalogica
“This is also a great way to cleanse my skin gently.”
The Ordinary Soothing and Barrier Support Serum
The Ordinary Soothing & Barrier Support Serum
Sephora
“It helps when my skin feels irritated and dry.”
Violette Fr Cream
Violette Fr C'est La Cream
Violette Fr
“What can I say? I just love this stuff! It’s lightweight, but it’s so moisturizing.”
BYOMA Hydrating Recovery Oil
BYOMA Hydrating Recovery Oil
Ulta
“This is my favorite product out of their whole skin line. It hydrates my skin well without making it too oily.”
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RELATED
While speaking to xoNecole, Eva shares that she’s a lot like the beloved 1994 character in many ways. “Lyric is so me. She's the odd flower. A flower nonetheless, but definitely not a peony,” she tells us.
“She's not the average flower you see presented, and so she reminds me of myself. I'm a sunflower, beautiful, but different. And what I loved about her character then, and even more so now, is that she was very sure of herself.
"Sure of what she wanted in life and okay to sacrifice her moments right now, to get what she knew she deserved later. And that is me. I'm not an instant gratification kind of a person. I am a long game. I'm not a sprinter, I'm a marathon.
America first fell in love with Eva when she graced our screens on cycle 3 of America’s Next Top Model in 2004, which she emerged as the winner. Since then, she's ventured into different avenues, from acting on various TV series like House of Payne to starring on Real Housewives of Atlanta.
Je-Caryous Johnson Entertainment
Eva praises her castmates and the play’s producer, Je’Caryous for her positive experience. “You know what? Je’Caryous fuels my audacity car daily, ‘cause I consider myself an extremely audacious woman, and I believe in what I know, even if no one else knows it, because God gave it to me. So I know what I know. That is who Je’Caryous is.”
But the mom of three isn’t the only one in the family who enjoys acting. Eva reveals her daughter Marley has also caught the acting bug.
“It is the most adorable thing you can ever see. She’s got a part in her school play. She's in her chorus, and she loves it,” she says. “I don't know if she loves it, because it's like, mommy does it, so maybe I should do it, but there is something about her.”
Overall, Eva hopes that her contribution to the role and the play as a whole serves as motivation for others to reach for the stars.
“I want them to walk out with hope. I want them to re-vision their dreams. Whatever they were. Whatever they are. To re-see them and then have that thing inside of them say, ‘You know what? I'm going to do that. Whatever dream you put on the back burner, go pick it up.
"Whatever dream you've accomplished, make a new dream, but continue to reach for the stars. Continue to reach for what is beyond what people say we can do, especially as [a] Black collective but especially as Black women. When it comes to us and who we are and what we accept and what we're worth, it's not about having seen it before. It's about knowing that I deserve it.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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Fortunately, five simple words have simplified my dating process and ushered in clarity faster: “Would my husband do this?”
A couple of years ago, I met an entertainment lawyer who was tonguing down a twenty-something-year-old woman for breakfast while I slurped my green smoothie and chomped on a flatbread sandwich. Okay, Black love, I grinned and thought as I sauntered out of the Joe & The Juice. As soon as I stepped down from the front door, a torrential downpour of Miami summer rain cascaded and throttled me back inside to wait out the storm.
I grabbed a hot green tea and vacillated between peering out the wet door and anxiously checking my watch. My lengthy agenda started with attending the Tabitha Brown and Chance Brown’s “Black Love” panel, and I was already late. That’s when the lawyer introduced himself to me, after he made a joke about neither one of us wanting to get soaked by the rain. His female companion had braved the storm, leaving us to find our commonalities.
We both lived in L.A. and had traveled to the American Black Film Festival to expand our network. He represented various artists, including entertainment writers, while I was working as a writer/creative producer in Hollywood.
While there is no shortage of internet advice on how to strategically meet a prominent man at conferences, if I spend my hard-earned funds on career growth, I have tunnel vision, and that doesn’t include finding Mr. Right. So, I stowed his contact details away as strictly professional.
Keep It Cute Love And Hip Hop GIFGiphyAs the humidity and mosquitoes were rising around L.A., two months later, another suitor-turned-terrible match cooled off after three unimpressive dates and a bevy of red flags. I posted what some of my friends called a thirst trap, but it was really me wearing a black freakum jumpsuit with a plunging neckline to my friend’s 35th birthday soiree despite feeling oh, so unsexy and bloated on my cycle.
I’d been waiting to post a sassy caption and finally had the perfect picture to match: “You not asking for too much, you just asking the wrong MF.”
That’s when the entertainment lawyer swooped into my DMs and asked me to dinner. I was quite confused. Is he asking me on a date? Or is this professional? Common sense would’ve picked the former. Once it clicked that this would in fact be a date, I told my mentor, who’s been happily married for over twenty years and has often been a guiding light and has steered me away from the wrong men.
Upon telling him about how we met, he emphatically stated, “He ain’t it.” He followed up with a simple question, "You have to ask yourself: Would my husband do this? Would you tell others that you met your husband, tonguing down another woman, and later married him?"
Aint It No Way GIF by UFCGiphyOuch. The thought-provoking question cleared any haze. Prior to going out with the lawyer, the first thing I inquired about was the woman.
“You saw that?” He said, taken aback that I’d witnessed his steamy PDA. Surely, anyone with two open eyes peeped him caressing her backside as he kissed her in the middle of the coffee shop.
He brushed her off as a casual someone he’d gone on a couple of dates with but had since stopped talking to. He said he hadn’t been in a serious relationship in over three years. Though I was still doubtful, dating in L.A. is treacherous and ephemeral. Making it past three months is considered a rarity.
With my antennae alert, I dined with him at a cozy beachside steakhouse restaurant where we were serenaded by a live jazz band. I’d emphasized forming a platonic friendship first.
Break Up Friendship GIF by TLCGiphy“I’ll come to you,” he obliged. I liked that he had made me a priority by driving over 50 miles to see me. I also liked the effort he made to check in with me daily. But I still couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that he initiated on a professional pretense and then alley hooped through the back door on a romantic venture, which bombarded me with confusion.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my dating life, God is not the author of confusion; any man who brings confusion, rather than clarity, is simply not The One. It doesn’t matter how many boxes he checks–eventually, that confusion will manifest itself into bigger problems, in time.
After diving into deeper conversations on the phone, post our first dinner date, I quickly realized this man was indeed not The One for me. But I’m grateful for the valuable lesson I learned.
I don’t expect some unattainable fairytale of a husband; we all have our own flaws and conflict is inevitable, but after dating for two decades, through failure and success, I’ve realized that the person I ultimately marry must mirror the values I exert into the world. He must reciprocate kindness, patience, and respect. He must be quick to listen and slow to respond. He needs to be forgiving and trustworthy, practice healthy communication, and be a man of his word at the bare minimum.
If I’d had “Would my husband do this?” in my toolbox when I was dating and floundering in stagnant relationships, in my twenties, it would’ve saved me a lot of precious time. But now that I’m equipped with the reminder, it’s allowed me to ground myself in my non-negotiables and set/maintain the standard for the special person, I’ll one day say, “I do,” to.
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