Emmy award-winner Quinta Brunson is keeping busy thanks to her popular ABC sitcom Abbott Elementary. And so her schedule requires her to wake up around 5 a.m. for work which may vary from going to set to promo runs. Quinta gave her fans a peek at her morning routine with Elle Magazine’s series Waking Up With.
Elle/YouTube
Face
“Getting ready in the morning for me means getting ready at night,” the actress started. Quinta, the new face of Olay Retinol collection, uses their products at night, including eye cream, serum, and moisturizer. When she wakes up in the morning, she washes her face with water as she says cleansers dry out her skin. Instead, she goes right into her moisturizers. This time using Olay’s Vitamin C + Peptide 24 collection.
Elle/YouTube
Hair
“Depending on how my hair is, I’ll move to the Bread hair oil,” she said. “I like to put it on. It feels like a really good coat over my hair. I think that Bread was specifically designed for curly and kinky hair.” She also gave a nod to the Bread curling cream as one of the best curl-defining creams on the market.
Elle/YouTube
Body
She moisturizes the rest of her body with the Brazilian Bum Bum cream. “I love a good lotion. I live in L.A. and it’s dry out here and my skin is constantly craving hydration like the moment I get out of the shower, I have to hydrate my skin immediately.”
Elle/YouTube
Makeup
The 32-year-old likes to keep her makeup simple and starts her routine with Benefit brow gel as a way to tame her “unruly brows.” Next is mascara and her go-to is Pat McGrath Labs. “Mascara makes me feel like I put on a full face of makeup even if I didn’t,” she said. “It just enhances my eyes, like I put some effort in. My whole thing is trying to make people think I put a whole lot of effort in when I really did not.”
Sometimes Quinta likes to pair Anatasia’s brow pencil with Benefit brow gel to give her brows more definition. Lip gloss is another staple for the former social media sensation as well as Marc Jacobs Daisy perfume.
“I don’t like a lot of color on my lips. I think it’s just too much for my face but what I do like is something that’s a little bit of enhancement to my natural lip color and that as you can see is this Pat McGrath lip gloss,” she explained.
As a finishing touch, she uses Mally Beauty Evercolor Poreless Face Defender primer powder.
Elle/YouTube
Work Prep
Once she completes her beauty and skin routine, the actress makes coffee while she does her morning stretches. Once her coffee is ready, she checks her emails. “I try to handle as many emails as I can before I go to work because once I get to work it’s nothing but work,” she said.
Quinta Brunson Swears By Hotel Coffee & Morning Stretches | Waking Up With | ELLE
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Featured image by Elle/YouTube
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To help you better understand why this was such a mental awakening for me, I first need to give a bit of my backstory. I’m in my late thirties. I’m an attorneyand a journalist. I own a home and have traveled the world extensively. Essentially, I’ve done everything in life I set out to do. However, when it comes to dating, I struggle. Not because there is anything wrong with me per se, but because my career and “lifestyle” often create problems in my romantic relationships.
View from my hotel room
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I’ve been told everything from, ‘I can’t continue to date you because you seem to choose your career over wanting to settle down and have kids’ by a man after only the second date to ‘Maybe if you just sat down somewhere for a while, I’d actually wife you’ by someone who has honestly never proven themselves to be the settle down type. And these are only a handful of the things I’ve been told over the years.
It’s been frustrating, to say the least, and there have even been seasons where I purposely dimmed my light in hopes that my career wouldn’t push away potential suitors. I know what you’re thinking, “Girl, why would you even consider that? If they’re for you, it won’t matter what you do.” Hey, don’t judge me, but also, I one hundred percent agree.
My hotel bathroom
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That’s why this recent moment in Switzerland was right on time. When I first walked into the hotel to check in, I was blown away by the surrounding beauty. It was a five-star property with one of the world’s most famous thermal bathhouses. Yet, it was something about seeing that 90% of the hotel’s guests were couples, that forced me to sit back for a bit of introspection—while soaking in the thermal spa, of course.
As I went through the mental conversation, there was a battle of sorts. On one hand, I knew that being able to partake in experiences like the one I was having at that moment was important to me. I knew that, at times I actually love being able to dabble in the finer things—after all, I’ve worked hard to be able to afford them. On the other hand, and sadly, I knew that sometimes being a single Black woman that publicly showcases her “luxurious” habits can intimidate men and even scare them off from pursuing you under the guise of them feeling like they “can’t do anything for you, because you have everything.”
My hotel room
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So, what is a girl to do?
Do I minimize/hide the life and experiences that I have? Do I play down the hard work I’ve put in to get where I am professionally? Or, do I risk being single in exchange for being able to have said life, without backlash?
Luckily, the joy that I felt while being at this property won. There was something about taking a full day to simply pamper myself at the bathhouse and in my in-room steam shower and soaker tub, indulging in cuisine from a 2-star Michelin restaurant and doing all of this while surrounded by an amazing group of Black women that reminded me—this is certainly the life I was meant to live and that I deserve. Even if it means that right now, I’ll just have to provide it for myself until the right partner comes along. And honestly, I’m okay with that.
Restaurant at 7132 hotel
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