How often do you use extra virgin olive oil? Do you use it for your skin? There are so many proven health benefits for using it as part of your beauty regimen. It's a healthy fat and is rich in antioxidants. Not only is it good to use during meal preps, but it also protects the skin in numerous ways. Some of the benefits are fairly common, but there may be a few that you've never considered.
Let's explore how you can add this oil to your self-care Saturday/Sunday routines to get your skin silky smooth and glowing in all the right places:
1. Nail Strengthener
Growing your nails can be a drag at times, but olive oil can help you with the process. To give your damaged and peeling nails some extra length and life, apply lukewarm olive oil to your nail bed. When you are at home doing your own mani and pedi, incorporate olive oil into your routine. You may see some impressive results.
2. Night Body Moisturizer
It feels good to get out of a nice warm shower or bath and massage olive oil over your whole body. The oil nourishes and moisturizes the skin, giving it a nice bright glow. Go to bed feeling relaxed, and wake up with fresh silky skin.
3. Natural Face Scrub
There are so many facial skin regimens floating around, and sometimes we just can't keep track. During your self-care day, feel free to mix olive oil with granulated sugar and use it as a face scrub. Mixing the two can be great for exfoliating and cleansing the pores. It's easy to do and it doesn't take much effort. This can also be another way to save on skincare and beauty cosmetics in your yearly budget.
4. Shaving Cream
Olive oil leaves your skin soft after shaving, and you might even notice a change in the number of ingrown hairs and unwanted cysts you're susceptible to. This method also saves money because you no longer have to buy expensive shaving creams and worry about applying unhealthy chemicals to your body. Be careful though: If you are applying the olive oil in the shower, things can get a little slippery.
5. Makeup Remover
Trying to get rid of your beat face after a long night out or remove your lashes? Olive oil does the trick and does it easily. Simply apply the oil to a cotton swab or pad and rub it in a circular motion. Give your face a nice rinse and you are all set.
6. Eyebrow Grooming
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Personally, I have not paid for a professional to shape my eyebrows in at least 3 years. In order to properly prep my eyebrows before tweezing, I apply olive oil. The olive oil alleviates dryness, redness, and damage to the skin in the eyebrow area. Also, the oil keeps my eyebrows healthy and strengthens thin areas.
7. Cracked-Heel Repair
One thing you always want to keep under control is the dryness on the heels of your feet, especially in the summer when you are wearing those fabulous heels and open-back sandals. Take care of the heels of your feet all year 'round and eliminate cracked heels by applying olive oil before bed. Don't forget to seal in the moisture by wearing socks. Trust me, you will see a major difference in your feet.
8. Sunburn Remedy
After spending a day or two in the sun, your skin can get burned---not fun at all. In order to heal sunburn, apply olive oil to the affected area day and night. It will eliminate the burning sensation and soothe the skin.
If you haven't started using olive oil for your skin regimen, get up and get with it. Let us know your thoughts and if your skin experiences change for the better. Let's level up in the most natural way!
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“WaterWipes has been in my household for I don’t know how long. We don’t just use them for Noah; I keep them in the car and my makeup bag, too,” Rowland shares in an exclusive interview with xoNecole. “I also like the fact that they are natural. I’ll definitely have them in my fanny pack for trick-or-treating. This is Noah’s second Halloween, and I know he’s going to be excited and digging in his pail to try the different candy, and his little fingers will be messy. He’s going to want to get dirty. So, I love that WaterWipes is putting up ten Hallowclean stations across the country for parents to use; it’s such a great idea. I just love Halloween, and I really love Halloween with my kids, so I thought this campaign was a really great idea.”
Kelly Rowland and son Noah at the WaterWipes Hallowclean Machine in Brooklyn, NY.
Photo courtesy of WaterWipes.
She and her youngest son, Noah, attended the event, where the two enjoyed a day of family-friendly activities while he sported the most adorable astronaut costume. But the Spooky Szn fun doesn’t stop there for the Merry Liddle Christmas actress and executive producer.
We recently caught up with Kelly Rowland over Zoom to learn more about her Halloween (and holiday) plans, her keys to a healthy marriage, and she even dropped her go-to cold-weather skin routine—finally.
xoNecole: What are your family’s upcoming trick-or-treat plans? Will you do a fun group costume, or is everyone going to do their own thing this year?
Kelly Rowland: I’m preparing for tour, so I’ve been in rehearsals and pre-production. And my husband's schedule has picked up, too. But the kids are going trick-or-treating; we usually go with people we know, so mommy and daddy will definitely be home to take them. We’re actually letting the kids dress us up this year, which means my costume will be a complete surprise to me. I told Noah he could paint my face or even go to the costume store and pick something out—it’s literally up to them. So, I don’t know what that will be. And, right after, I’ll be back to rehearsals.
xoN: Speaking of holidays, what do you look forward to most during the season?
KR: We love having people over, especially during the holidays. It looks like we will be home this year—thank God— just enjoying each other and spending quality time together. I like to decorate the house and go completely ham; it always looks like Christmas threw up in my house. From the stairwells to the exterior of the house and the lights—everything. We go so crazy. I also love the smells, it’s one of my greatest memories with my mom, God rest her soul. So I love to play all of that up.
I like to bake something every day, I like to make sure there is something for the kids to do or make each day, we watch Christmas movies, and we even do a wine tasting sometimes. It’s just all really sweet and cozy.
Kelly Rowland and son Noah at the WaterWipes Hallowclean Machine in Brooklyn, NY.
Photo courtesy of WaterWipes.
xoN: We love that family is so important to you, and it always shows in your posts, especially those with your husband. What would you say has been that “key” to a healthy marriage as partners and spouses for you two?
KR: I would say, each of us doing the self-work. I have not seen marriages last long in my lifetime. I haven’t been given the tools to “make it last forever.” We just try to do the work on ourselves and not sweat the small stuff.
Communication is key for us, too. We communicate everything. Whether I’m upset or I’m not sure about something, I communicate it. I also just like being around him, he’s fun. He’s a really great person and makes me laugh. We can literally sit together and watch a game and not say anything. We understand what true intimacy is, and now we’re almost ten years into our marriage.
xoN: Now, Kelly, we have to ask. Skincare. What is your cold-weather routine and the products you’re reaching for as temperatures drop?
KR: Right now, I’m all about moisture. I will wash my face morning and night, I do not skip. I’m obsessed with this 111SKIN toner. It smells good, but it also feels good on my skin. There’s also this product from Vanessa Lee of The Things We Do. They are these coconut eye patches with these little beads. I place them under my eyes and around the corners of my mouth—talk about a game changer. I like to put them on at night and then rub in the extra serum all over my face. Between that and this lactic acid by Shani Darden, they are both game-changers for me this season.
xoN: So, since you’ve found the key to aging backwards, should we be on the lookout for the Kelly Rowland skincare line anytime soon?
KR: Honestly, that market is so saturated. I wanted to do it a while back, but I have to really think about what I want to bring to the marketplace to really impact culture. It’s not just about a product for me. I love the way Selena Gomez has created a community. I want to be able to create a community as well. When it’s not just about skincare, it turns into a space for people to be their most authentic selves. And that’s what I love.
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Feature image by Natasha Campos/Getty Images for Tres Generaciones
For her senior project, Cruel oversaw the publication of a magazine she named Onyx, including facilitating photo shoots and writing an editorial letter. Onyx, she says, was designed to serve Black teens.
Cruel became the editor-in-chief of Allure in 2021, achieving a lifelong goal after amassing the necessary tools to land the job in various roles throughout the media industry. In her current role atop the masthead of Conde Nast’s beauty magazine, she’s worked to bring the publication from “on high” and make it more accessible to readers, including Black women who look like her. She’s also worked to usher the brand into the digital era with last year’s announcement that the Allure would no longer have a print edition.
As a high school and college student, Cruel says she wasn’t ignorant of the fact that magazines weren’t very diverse. Still, she was motivated by the thought that she could contribute to changing the makeup of the industry. An internship at Self introduced her to the idea that this could be done through covering beauty.
“I was so impressed by the science of it all. It felt so accessible,” she says. “I think fashion always felt out of my reach. I’m Black. I got natural hair. I’m curvy as hell. And I’m from Georgia. I never felt like I fit into fashion, but then I got to [Self’s] beauty closet and I was like there are so many things here that I can use and that feel welcome to me. Even the people in Georgia can go to the Walgreens and get the thing that we’re recommending, for a price they can afford.”
"I think fashion always felt out of my reach. I'm Black. I got natural hair. I'm curvy as hell. And I'm from Georgia. I never felt like I fit into fashion."
Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Allure
Being a native Southerner who grew up in Albany, Georgia, informs a lot of Cruel’s perspective as an editor. As a Black woman working in mainstream media, she’s often worked for brands that her friends don’t read because the content feels like it wasn’t created with them in mind.
Cruel is also no stranger to working with writers who have felt their works have to incorporate explanatory commas to educate non-Black readers at the expense of alienating Black audiences. This awareness inspired Cruel to launch the Allure vertical The Melanin Edit when she was still the content director at Allure. “I just thought, my friends don’t read Allure, but they would if they knew there was a vertical just for them,” she says.
The Melanin Edit was inspired by Unbothered, a Refinery29 vertical that was created to cater to Black readers, shortly before Cruel began working at the digital publication as deputy beauty director in 2018.
This year, Cruel oversaw the launch of an inaugural live event for Allure’s signature Best of Beauty tentpole. For 27 years, readers have turned to the magazine to figure out the best beauty products. In 2023, beauty editors tested more than 8,000 products before deciding on the winning 391 items. Cruel, who says she’s been craving an opportunity to have some face-to-face time with Allure readers, sees Best of Beauty: The Live Event as a way to do just that.
Last month, celebrities such as John Legend were on hand for the event, which also featured “master classes” and a chance for readers to visit a Conde Nast magazine’s beauty closet just as Cruel did as an intern for Self.
Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Allure
“I believe we are doing a great service by making [Best of Beauty] modern [and] doing it in a way that can keep this legacy alive. The way it was built 27 years ago wouldn't necessarily allow it to survive and thrive in this year so we have to upgrade,” Cruel says of the event.
The beauty editor uses her social media platforms to continue this work of making beauty more accessible, especially to Black women who look like her. Recent Instagram Reels have chronicled her receiving treatments, including Hyperdilute Radiesse filler for necklines, a Pico laser to address dark spots and texture, and a Kobido face massage for an “instant flush.”
“I think every treatment people have been able to get for years, we should also be able to get, and we should be able to get safely and to our desires,” she says. “Unfortunately, the science hasn’t caught up yet to give us everything. It’s really important to me that what we convey is the safety of it all. What’s the safest way for you to get it? I’ve been turned away from treatments before, even as a beauty editor. That was many years ago, but I don’t want anyone to ever feel like that. I want them to be able to come to Allure and be like I read on Allure that this is okay for us.”
Beyond this, she’s also using her social media accounts to make the role of editor-in-chief more accessible and relatable to other thirty-something women who are navigating their own corporate jobs, as well as dating and homeownership. As much as she shows herself attending galas, she also wants to be honest about how she navigates life at the top of the masthead by going to the gym in the mornings, cooking dinner for herself at least once a week, and managing her anxiety with Lexapro.
"I think so many of us are in the same place in corporate America, finding our way, becoming bosses [and] leveling up."
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Featured image by Robin L Marshall/Getty Images for Allure
