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
Sounds like something out of a novel, right? xoNecole had the opportunity to chat with the lovely couple about their wedding, reconnecting, and having a second chance at love.
Photo courtesy of Kai and Hicham Bouhmad
Kai and Hicham on Meeting for the First Time
Kai and Hicham got married on February 14, 2023, in Honolulu, Hawaii in an intimate ceremony, and plan on having a reception in Morocco, Hicham’s home country, later on. One of their wedding guests was the person responsible for their union, Hicham’s friend Karim. Kai reflected on that day when they met.
“I was at a party, and a guy walked in and was like, what’s going on in here? And I was like, well, this is a salon party for the salon that just opened, and they had free food and stuff, and I was like do you want some food?” Kai shares.
When they began talking, Karim brought up Hicham. “He was like, 'I have a friend that I want to introduce you to if you’re single,' and I said, ‘Yeah, that sounds cool.’ So, he was like, 'Well, I’m gonna send you his Facebook information. If you guys can talk on Facebook and see how you guys like each other.' So, that was six years ago, and we talked, and we got along pretty well, and then we started dating.”
Kai and Hicham Describe Their First Date
Because both of them are into the arts, they decided to go to the movies on their first date. At that time, Loving was in theaters, and according to Kai, she knew when she saw him that she wanted to marry him. “I just had that feeling,” she reveals.
Hicham also recalls their “wonderful” date that extended after the movies at a nearby restaurant. “It was a wonderful moment when we made eye contact,” he says.
Photo courtesy of Kai and Hicham Bouhmad
Their Breakup and Reconnection
While Kai saw Hicham as her husband, she wasn’t ready to settle down, but Hicham was. So, they decided to go their separate ways, and Kai began traveling the world. But little did she know that six years later, she would see him again. This time, Kai was visiting an art gallery that had just opened up and began talking to the art gallery owner.
“She [art gallery owner] said, ‘I’m having an art opening, the studio just opened, and we’re having a party next week, and you should come, and my boyfriend has a lot of friends, maybe I’ll introduce you to some of his friends,’ and I was like ‘Oh, okay,’ Kai recalls.
“And at this time, I had already booked my ticket to go to Morocco to explore by myself, solo travel. So I said, 'Oh yeah, this will be fun.' This was in April, and my trip to Morocco was just in August. So, I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll come to your little party, I’m there.’ I’m talking, and then she said 'Oh, my boyfriend is here, and here’s one of his friends.' One of his friends was Hicham.”
This happened on April 23, 2022, and they have been together ever since.
The Engagement
When Hicham reappeared in her life, Kai knew she was now ready to settle down. “I honestly got tired of doing stuff by myself. I was tired, everything I have to do by myself, and I just got tired of that,” Kai explains. “I just felt like I really wanted a partner who’s really supportive and generous and kind, and I really wanted a partner that was by my side.
One of the ways that Hicham convinced Kai to give him another shot was when he wore a cactus shirt to her house, which showed the journalist how much he paid attention to her. “I love cactuses ‘cause it reminds me of the desert. It’s bohemian, I love desert cactuses. When he showed up with a cactus shirt on, I just could not resist,” she says. “That sounds cheesy and cliche and might sound silly, but it just symbolized that he knows me deeply and what I love and paid attention to stuff I care about even though it was silly. That meant a lot.”
Not long after, Hicham knew it was time to pop the question. “Kai gave me [an] indication that she was ready, and so that’s how that all happened.” He continues, “dropping hints, and she was pretty much ready, and I proposed to her.”
Kai admits that they planned their engagement together, including ring shopping, engagement photos, etc.
Photo courtesy of Kai and Hicham Bouhmad
Advice on Finding Love Again
This is both Kai’s and Hicham’s second marriages, and they gave advice on finding love the second time around. They both share the same sentiment about being open and optimistic. Both come from different cultural backgrounds and while that alone could have held them back from pursuing one another, they were open to love.
“Get out of your comfort zone and don’t limit yourself and don’t fear to fail because from failure you learn to build yourself up,” Hicham says.
And at the end of the day, it’s important to establish a friendship first. “Another [piece of] advice, just make sure you like the person,” Kai says, “and that’s really important because you have to make sure even if you have a disagreement or arguments, at the end of the day, you have to ask yourself, do I like this person? And just make sure you really like them.”
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Feature image courtesy of Kai and Hicham Bouhmad
