

We Have All The Details On Serena Williams' $800 Nighttime Beauty Routine
Serena Williams just dropped her nighttime beauty routine and it's safe to say that she can add beauty maven to her long list of accolades. While most of her time is spent slaying tennis courts around the world, the rest is spent being fabulous AF alongside her husband and adorable daughter, Olympia.
In Harper's Bazaar's latest episode of Go To Bed With Me, Serena shared that one of the ways she gets the most out of her time off is bonding with her baby girl while doing their nighttime beauty routine. Featuring high-end and budget-friendly products alike, Serena gave us the tea on how she keeps her and baby Olympia's melanin poppin' both on and off the court.
After crunching the numbers on Serena's skin-clearing beauty routine, I realized that I'm not fit. Although I would love to invest in a $300 vitamin C eye serum, the way my bank account is set up, I'm going to have to give it a hard "nah". While we may not all be venture capitalist/world-class athletes/Forbes-list level millionaires (yet), Serena says the most important key to developing an effective skincare routine is finding what works best for you. She explained:
"It is so important to make your beauty routine your own and just own it."
Get a few steps ahead of the competition by creating your own version of Serena's 7-step skincare routine:
Loving Earth Cold Pressed Oil
Harper's Bazaar/YouTube
According to Serena, there's nothing a lil' coconut oil can't fix, and when she says she uses it for everything, she means everything. Serena told Harper's Bazaar:
"The first step in my routine, when I'm taking off my makeup and coming undone, I actually do something completely different. I use coconut oil because it's amazing. I use it for everything you can think of. When I heard that oil washes were good, I'm like I've been doing that for years."
Vine Vera Vitamin C Serum
Harper's Bazaar/YouTube
Along with reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, vitamin C can help fight the effects of UV damage and can offer an anti-aging effect, and you better believe it's a part of Serena's skincare arsenal.
"I ran across this product from Vine and Vera on a babymoon in Mexico and became instantly obsessed with it. I just do a couple of dabs on my face and I always give Olympia some dabs."
Vine Vera Eye Collection Age Defying Eye Serum
Harper's Bazaar/YouTube
Although Vine Vera may be on the pricier side, their reviews don't lie, sis. Serena says that her Vine Vera eye serum is one of the few products that she uses to get discoloration all the way together. The 37-year-old athlete admitted that like most women, she notices more hair above her lip and under her chin, so she also uses this serum on areas of the face that she hopes to lighten.
Hydra-Bright Golden Eye Treatment Mask x 5
Harper's Bazaar/YouTube
If there's one thing this superstar athlete takes seriously, it's dark circles, and Serena explained that she found this effective midrange product by surprise:
"I thought it must be amazing if it's pink and gold [my favorite colors], and it actually is. I usually like to sit down in my room with Olympia and watch 'Finding Nemo' because she watches it like a million times."
MZ Skin Sooth & Smooth Collagen Activating Eye Complex
Harper's Bazaar/YouTube
Next, she uses this collagen eye complex to hydrate. Since Serena has combination/dry skin, she says that staying moisturized is key:
"Sometimes when I'm traveling, I'll put this on my whole face because I feel like whatever you're using under your eyes is super moisturizing and could work for the whole face."
Ayur Medic Enrichment Cream for Age-Prevention
Harper's Bazaar/YouTube
For ample moisture, Serena applies Ayur Medic's Enrichment Cream all over her face and neck.
Mario Badescu Facial Spray
Last but not least, she seals off her hard work with a cult favorite brand of Rose water. Serena said that after being put on by a friend, she can't stay away from her Mario Badescu Facial Spray, and even uses it as a setting spray when she wears makeup.
Check out Serena's full routine below!
Watch Serena Williams Walk Through Her Nightly Skin Routinewww.harpersbazaar.com
Featured image by Jim Spellman/Getty Images
Taylor "Pretty" Honore is a spiritually centered and equally provocative rapper from Baton Rouge, Louisiana with a love for people and storytelling. You can probably find me planting herbs in your local community garden, blasting "Back That Thang Up" from my mini speaker. Let's get to know each other: @prettyhonore.
Smile, Sis! These Five Improvements Can Upgrade Your Oral Hygiene Instantly
This article is in partnership with Sensodyne.
Our teeth are connected to so many things - our nutrition, our confidence, and our overall mood. We often take for granted how important healthy teeth are, until issues like tooth sensitivity or gum recession come to remind us. Like most things related to our bodies, prevention is the best medicine. Here are five things you can do immediately to improve your oral hygiene, prevent tooth sensitivity, and avoid dental issues down the road.
1) Go Easy On the Rough Brushing: Brushing your teeth is and always will be priority number one in the oral hygiene department. No surprises there! However, there is such a thing as applying too much pressure when brushing…and that can lead to problems over time. Use a toothbrush with soft bristles and brush in smooth, circular motions. It may seem counterintuitive, but a gentle approach to brushing is the most effective way to clean those pearly whites without wearing away enamel and exposing sensitive areas of the teeth.
2) Use A Desensitizing Toothpaste: As everyone knows, mouth pain can be highly uncomfortable; but tooth sensitivity is a whole different beast. Hot weather favorites like ice cream and popsicles have the ability to trigger tooth sensitivity, which might make you want to stay away from icy foods altogether. But as always, prevention is the best medicine here. Switching to a toothpaste like Sensodyne’s Sensitivity & Gum toothpaste specifically designed for sensitive teeth will help build a protective layer over sensitive areas of the tooth. Over time, those sharp sensations that occur with extremely cold foods will subside, and you’ll be back to treating yourself to your icy faves like this one!
3) Floss, Rinse, Brush. (And In That Order!): Have you ever heard the saying, “It’s not what you do, but how you do it”? Well, the same thing applies to taking care of your teeth. Even if you are flossing and brushing religiously, you could be missing out on some of the benefits simply because you aren’t doing so in the right order. Flossing is best to do before brushing because it removes food particles and plaque from places your toothbrush can’t reach. After a proper flossing sesh, it is important to rinse out your mouth with water after. Finally, you can whip out your toothbrush and get to brushing. Though many of us commonly rinse with water after brushing to remove excess toothpaste, it may not be the best thing for our teeth. That’s because fluoride, the active ingredient in toothpaste that protects your enamel, works best when it gets to sit on the teeth and continue working its magic. Rinsing with water after brushing doesn’t let the toothpaste go to work like it really can. Changing up your order may take some getting used to, but over time, you’ll see the difference.
4) Stay Hydrated: Upping your water supply is a no-fail way to level up your health overall, and your teeth are no exception to this rule. Drinking water not only helps maintain a healthy pH balance in your mouth, but it also washes away residue and acids that can cause enamel erosion. It also helps you steer clear of dry mouth, which is a gateway to bad breath. And who needs that?
5) Show Your Gums Some Love: When it comes to improving your smile, you may be laser-focused on getting your teeth whiter, straighter, and overall healthier. Rightfully so, as these are all attributes of a megawatt smile; but you certainly don’t want to leave gum health out of the equation. If you neglect your gums, you’ll start to notice the effects of plaque buildup, which can irritate the gums and cause gingivitis, the earliest stage of gum disease. Seeing blood while brushing and flossing is a tell-tale sign that your gums are suffering. You may also experience gum recession — a condition where the gum tissue surrounding your teeth pulls back, exposing more of your tooth. Brushing at least twice a day with a gum-protecting toothpaste like Sensodyne Sensitivity and Gum, coupled with regular dentist visits, will keep your gums shining as bright as those pearly whites.
Why Do Millennials & Gen-Zers Still Feel Like Teenagers? The Pandemic Might Be The Reason.
There’s nothing quite as humbling as navigating adulthood with no instruction manual. Since the turn of the decade, it seems like everything in our society that could go wrong has, inevitably, gone wrong. From the global pandemic, our crippling student debt problem, the loneliness crisis, layoffs, global warming, recession, and not to mention figuring out what to eat for dinner every night. This constant state of uncertainty has many of us wondering, when are the grown-ups coming to fix all of this?
But the catch is, we are the new grown-ups.
As if it happened without our permission, we became the new adults. We are the members of society who are paying taxes, having children, getting married, and keeping our communities afloat, one iced latte at a time. Still, there’s something about doing all these grown-up duties that feel unnaturally grown-up. Enter the #teenagegirlinher20s.
If there’s one hashtag to give you the state of the next cohort of adults, it’s this one. Of the videos that have garnered over 3.9M views, you’ll find a collection of users who are overwhelmed by life’s pressing existential responsibilities, clung to nostalgia, and reminiscent of the days when their mom and dad took care of their insurance plans.
@charlies444ngel no like i cant explain to her why i had to buy multiple tank air dupes from aritzia #teenagegirlinher20s #fyp
The concept of being a 20-something or 30-something teenager is linked to the sentiment of not feeling “grown up enough” to do grown-up things while feeling underprepared and even nihilistic about whether that preparation even matters.
It’s our generation’s version of when we ask our grandmothers how old they are and they simply reply with, “I still feel 45,” all while being every bit of 76 years old. In this, we share a warped concept of time while clinging to a desire for infantilization.
Granted, the pandemic did a number on our concept of time. Many of us who started the pandemic in our early or mid-20s missed out on three fundamental years of socialization, career development, and personal milestones that traditionally help to mark our growth.
Our time to figure out and plan our next steps through fumbling yet active participation was put on pause indefinitely and then resumed provisionally. This in turn has left many of us hanging in the balance of uncertainty as we try to make sense of the disconnect between our minds and bodies in this missing gap of time.
Because we’re all still figuring out what the ramifications of being locked away and frozen in time by a global pandemic will have on us as a society, there really is no “right” way of making up for lost time. Feeling unprepared for any new chapter of life is a natural rite of passage, pandemic or not. However, it’s important to not stay stuck in the last age or period of life that made sense to us because self-growth is the truest evidence of personal progress.
So whether you’re leaning on your inner child, teenager, or 20-something for guidance as you fill the gap between your real age and pandemic age, know that it’s okay to grieve the person you thought you would be and the milestones you thought you’d hit before you ever knew what a pandemic was. If there’s anything that the pandemic taught us, it’s that we have the power to reimagine a better world and life for ourselves. And if we tap into our inner teenager as a compass, we can piece together our next chapter with a fresh outlook.
Sure, we’ve lost a couple of years, but there are still some really amazing ones ahead.
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Featured image by Stephen Zeigler/Getty Images