Our skin is a natural treasure that should be protected at all costs, and DeWanda Wise just came through with a nighttime skincare routine that will get your epidermis all the way together. According to DeWanda, the key to snatched skin lies in a seven-step process that requires time, patience, and a few products you can pick up at your local Walmart.
DeWanda says that although she doesn't wear makeup often, when she does, it's fabulous. For every bomb face beat, there should be an equally bomb removal method, and DeWanda has us covered when it comes to getting our skin ready for a good night's sleep. The self-proclaimed product junkie says that just like the rest of us, she's always willing to try out the latest beauty trend she found on Youtube, and put us on a few of the high-tech beauty finds she's using right now. Along with a Clarosonic Facial Cleanser, DeWanda also thinks we should invest in a handheld facial steamer ASAP.
For a step-by-step guide of how DeWanda keep her bougie beauty routine on a budget, scroll below!
*Some of these links are affiliate links. If you purchase an item from an affiliate link, xoNecole might earn a small commission.
Estee Lauder Take It Away Makeup Remover Oil
Harper's Bazaar/YouTube
Using oil before you break out your makeup remover might be the life hack you didn't know you needed. To DeWanda, by using Estee Lauder Take It Away Makeup Remover Oil, she gets a lot of the heavy lifting out of the way and prepares her skin to be primed, primped, and purified to perfection.
Le Mieux Phyto-Nutrient Cleansing Gel
Harper's Bazaar/YouTube
Made with 12 botanical extracts that help hydrate, tone, and removed makeup, the Le Mieux Phyto Nutrient Cleansing Gel is said to help restore balance and is good for all skin types. DeWanda explained that a makeup artist put her on this cleanser and she's been hooked ever since:
"I found about this cleansing gel from working on set. A lot of makeup artists who work on these sets kind of have to be experts so they spent a lot of time trial and error seeing what works for actors, what doesn't break them out the next day. Usually, the stuff is vegan, it's not tested on animals."
Clarisonic Mia Prima Sonic Facial Cleansing Brush
Harper's Bazaar/YouTube
Beauty trends may come and go, but facial cleansing brushes are forever. While somewhat pricey, these beauty tools can help clean and exfoliate skin which is why DeWanda uses this product up to three times a week:
"I got this, I feel like it was only a couple of months ago. Again, product junkie. Anytime there's a new fad or a new thing, I'm into it, I'm going to try it. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it does not. But I have found that in terms of a daily exfoliant, it's really effective. Especially going from New York to LA can be a bit finicky, and I have less drying and flaking if I make sure I exfoliate."
Sweet Chef Ginger Vitamin C Fresh Pressed Sheet Face Mask
Harper's Bazaar/YouTube
Some of the best things in life can be found a Target, and this ginger and vitamin C mask by Sweet Chef is no exception. While DeWanda usually opts for a mask that helps with inflammation, this mask promises to offer a paraben-free glow that this actress just couldn't turn down.
Lonove Nano Ionic Facial Steamer
Harper's Bazaar/YouTube
You can't pick apples from an orange tree and you can't take skincare advice from your homegirl just because she likes to watch YouTube videos. DeWanda says that she picks up a number of her beauty tips from the experts in her life, including her esthetician, who put her own this little-known beauty tip:
"My esthetician says that you're supposed to put the mask on first so then everything in the mask can actually penetrate into the skin when you steam. You know, it makes sense. It's science."
SheaMoisture 100% Virgin Coconut Oil Daily Hydration Overnight Face
Harper's Bazaar/YouTube
One thing DeWanda Wise says she's gotta have is properly moisturized skin. That's exactly why she uses SheaMoisture's overnight hydration oil, filled with all of the fatty acids your skin needs to be great.
SheaMoisture 100% Virgin Coconut Oil Daily Hydration Face Lotion
Harper's Bazaar/YouTube
Last but not least, before the 35-year-old actress ties her edges down and catches some z's, she makes sure to apply a small amount of face lotion so that her skin has all the drip it needs before she heads to bed.
Watch the full clip below!
DeWanda Wise's Nighttime Skincare Routine | Go To Bed With Me | Harper's BAZAARwww.youtube.com
Featured image by Harper's Bazaar/YouTube
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Ding. Ding. DING.
A life coach by the name of Thomas Leonard once said that “Clarity affords focus” and, believe you me, when it comes to dealing with other human beings, if you don’t get clear on where you stand when it comes to your interactions with them, you can very easily find yourself “focusing too much” on those who don’t deserve it and too little on those who absolutely do. And y’all, this lil’ PSA couldn’t be more relevant than when it comes to what I call “casual friendships.”
Let’s dig — and for some of us, dig our way out of — what it means to have a casual friend, so that you can get clear on if you really need those in your life…and if so…why?
Article continues after the video.
It Can’t Be Said Enough: Always Remember What “Casual” Means
GiphyThere’s a reason why I decided to share two videos by mental health coach Isaiah Frizzle at the top and bottom of this article. It’s because a lot of what he shares in both of them complements a piece that I wrote for the platform last year entitled, “This Is Just What Purposeful Relationships Look Like.”
It’s the author M. Scott Peck who once said, “Until you value yourself, you won't value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it” and please believe that the older (and hopefully more mature) you get, the more you tend to see just how valuable — and fleeting — time is; and that is what plays a huge role in motivating you want to only involve yourself with people, places, things and ideas that will honor your time — and when something is casual? In my opinion, it’s highly debatable that it’s worth much of your months, days, hours, or even too many of your minutes.
The main reason why is addressed in an article that I wrote back in the day entitled, “We Should Really Rethink The Term 'Casual Sex.'” The gist? When it comes to relationships, “casual” is certainly not a favorite word of mine because I know what it means. Have mercy — why would you want to invest your time, energy, and emotions into something that is, by definition, apathetic, indifferent, careless, lacking emotional intimacy, and/or is without purpose?
I don’t know about y’all but that sounds like a complete and total crap shoot to me — especially if you are going to go so far as to consider this type of dynamic a true friendship (check out “Ever Wonder If A Friend Is Just...Not That Into You?,” “6 Signs You're About To Make A Huge Mistake In Making Them A Close Friend,” “5 Signs Of A Toxic Friendship That Is Secretly Poisoning Your Life,” “12 Friend Facts That Might Cause You To Rethink (Some Of) Your Own,” and “Less & Less Of Us Have Close Friends These Days. Why Is That?” ).
To me, when you decide to call someone “friend,” it means that they are loyal, reliable, consistent, trustworthy and willing to be there to support you to the very best of their ability — even if it’s inconvenient to do so sometimes (check out “Life Taught Me That True Friendships Are 'Inconvenient'”). How in the world can you expect that from something that has the word “casual” in it?
And you know what? That actually segues into my next point about casual friendships pretty darn well.
Ponder the Purpose “Casual Friends” Serve in Your Life
GiphyA couple of years ago, Verywell Mind published an article entitled, “How the 4 Types of Friendship Fit Into Your Life.” The four that it listed were acquaintances (which I actually don’t consider to be friends; check out “6 Differences Between A Close Acquaintance And An Actual Friend”), casual friends, close friends, and lifelong friends. After reading the piece, I think they consider casual friends to be the “pleasure” friends that I mentioned in the article, “According To Aristotle, We Need ‘Utility’, ‘Pleasure’ & ‘Good’ Friends.”
And although I certainly get that, I think my “cause for pause” is calling those people “friends” when they probably should be called something like an associate or possibly even a buddy instead. Why do I feel this way? Well, I’ve shared in other articles that I think social media has jacked up vocabulary words and their true meaning on a billion different levels.
Take “friend,” for example. Facebook had us out here calling everyone we connected to on their platform “friends” when some of them, we’ve never even spoken to before — and I personally think that influenced, affected and perhaps even infected our psyche to the point where we will call folks, both online and off, “friend” even when they haven’t earned it and/or who possibly don’t deserve it.
That said, do I think that we all could use lighthearted interactions that don’t go very deep and are filled with not much more than fun? Sure. However, if we were to move this over into a sexual thing — those types of people would probably be called a sneaky link, and there is nothing significant or substantial about ‘em. In fact, if anything pretty much automatically comes with an expiration date, sneaky links would have to be it.
And that’s kind of the point that I’m trying to make about a casual friend — so long as you know that the word “casual” is being used to describe them, while you may enjoy the people who fit that bill, they aren’t really anything that you can or even should fully rely on. Instead, take them for what they are and don’t really expect much more than that. Otherwise, you could be in for some profound levels of disappointment. And who wants that?
Final point.
How a Casual Friend Can Become a Huge Red Flag
GiphyI’m telling you, y’all gonna quit clowning Tubi. LOL. To me, the best way to describe it is it’s the Cricket of current streaming apps. What I mean by that is, back when Cricket (the cell phone service) first came out, people, like me, who used it service got incessantly clowned because it was seen as a bootleg provider. Now it’s owned by AT&T, and as someone who has rocked with them since I was in my 20s, I don’t have one regret for doing so. Cricket has always been good to me, chile.
And Tubi? Well, when you get a chance, check out CNBC’s article, “CEO at 33, Tubi’s Anjali Sud on success hacks she learned at Amazon, IAC on way to top of Fox streaming” — take note of the moves the streaming app is making and the quality of programming that is transpiring in real time.
Anyway, I find myself bringing up Tubi more and more in my content because it helps to amplify some of the points that I like to make. This time, it’s a movie that’s (currently) on there calledRight Man, Wrong Woman. If you haven’t seen it before, I don’t want to give too much of the film away. What I will say is that the main female character, she had a casual friend and then she had a close friend.
That casual friend—the one who liked to kick it all of the time—was a lot of fun; however, dealing with her came with a ton of semi-unforeseen consequences. Meanwhile, the close friend? She’s what the Aristotle article (that I mentioned earlier) would call the “good friend” because she tried her best to hold her friend accountable.
And really, it shouldn’t be a shock that the casual friend turned out to be a plum trip because if someone is loads of entertainment and pleasure and yet they are indifferent towards you, they make careless decisions around you and/or they don’t really make known the purpose for you being in their life other than to pass some time — where really do you and that person have to go past drinks after work or dinner on a rooftop restaurant from time to time? And if that is all that the two of you are doing, again, why are they deserving of the word “friend”?
Hmph and don’t get me started on the lack of reciprocity that typically transpires when it comes to dealing with people like this because, while they won’t mind you spending your coins on them, taking their calls in the middle of the night or listening to all of their issues — when it comes time for them to show up for you, they very well may gaslight you into thinking that you are being dramatic, clingy or “doing the most.” Why? Well, it’s mostly because the two of you never really established what the hell the both of you are to one another.
And so, while you’re somewhere taking them seriously, they are out here seeing you casually, and as much as it might hurt to hear, that doesn’t automatically or necessarily make them a bad person. You shouldn’t expect much where no clarity is involved. After all, casual is just that: CASUAL.
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I’m hoping that you can now see why I entitled this piece in the way that I did. It’s because a red flag is pretty much a warning, and to me, a casual friend is about as big of an oxymoron (again, to me) as casual sex is. Friends and sex are both too intimate to be seen or treated casually. Oh, but if you step out and take that risk, you could find yourself getting far more involved than the other individual ever wanted to go, because casual is how things have always been. “Friend” was simply to get you more mentally and emotionally invested. SMDH.
American columnist Walter Winchell once said, “A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.” A wise person once said, “One good friendship will outlive forty average loves." Former President Ulysses S. Grant once said, “The friend in my adversity I shall always cherish most. I can better trust those who helped to relieve the gloom of my dark hours than those who are so ready to enjoy with me the sunshine of my prosperity.” Does any of this sound casual to you? Yeah, me neither.
Again, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have people in your life who aren’t on deep levels. I’m just saying that you might want to consider putting them into another category than friend, because what friends do for people? There ain’t nothin’ even remotely casual about it, sis. Not even a lil’ bit.
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