- Hi, I'm Sarah Maika.
I'm a regional airline pilot,
and this is how I work it.
I'm gonna take you through 24 hours
of my beauty and wellness routine.
I currently fly an Embraer 175.
I'll normally fly three flights
or we like to call them legs in a day.
My day can start as early as 5:00 AM
or as late as 5:00 or 6:00 PM.
I just woke up.
It's currently 6:53 here in Los Angeles,
so I'm gonna make myself some coffee
and take you through my day with me.
Before I head out to the gym,
I'm gonna have something simple, just a banana.
If I don't have a banana, I'll usually have oatmeal.
I like to eat carbs before my workout
and I'll usually wait about an hour or so
before I hit the gym so that I am able to use that energy.
I'm on my way to the gym now.
I'm wearing all black today.
And I'm gonna hit upper body, do some cardio,
come back and then get ready for work.
I love to strength train, so I weight lift a lot,
and I also like to do jump rope
and I go to boxing every now and then.
I love to exercise and workout,
not only for my mental clarity
and it just makes me feel good,
as an airline pilot, we're generally required
to have a clean bill of health in order to fly.
After the gym, I usually don't have much time to just relax,
so I'll shower, make myself lunch, drink a protein shake,
and then I just start getting ready for work.
If I start a two-day trip, I'll use packing cubes,
and that helps to keep me organized.
So this is my makeup bag,
and underneath, I have my hair tools
that I use every single time.
This is an extra laundry bag.
And then I bring my workout shoes/going out shoes.
They're perfect for either occasion.
I put them in a shower cap
so it doesn't get the rest of my suitcase dirty.
This is my toiletry bag.
And then I also use these packing cubes
to put the rest of my clothes in,
such as my pajamas, workout clothes,
going out clothes, extra uniform, et cetera.
And I pretty much pack the same things every single time.
So that's that.
And then we are ready to go.
So I just got out of the shower.
The first product that I use
is this Murad Essential Sea Toner.
[gentle music]
Then I use this moisturizer by Dermalogica.
It's the intensive moisture balance,
and I just apply that onto my face.
It is very dehydrating to be in the cockpit
because the cabin air is so dry,
so it is important to stay moisturized.
And the last step is I use this sunscreen.
It's by SkinCeuticals.
It is their physical fusion UV defense sunscreen.
I love this sunscreen because it has a little tint to it.
So if you don't wanna wear makeup,
you could even just apply this,
and it'll give your skin a nice glow,
and it just gives you a little bit of coverage,
and I feel like it helps my makeup look better.
And I apply this every single day.
It's important because as an airline pilot,
we are so close to the sun.
We're constantly exposed,
so it's important to wear sunscreen.
I also put some on my hands, my wrists, and my neck.
So now I'm gonna dry my hair.
I use the Dyson Airwrap kit.
I'm gonna use this attachment to rough dry it all over.
And then after, I switch it to this one to just dry my roots
and give my hair a little bit more volume.
[hairdryer whirring]
Now to style my hair,
I'm going to use this dryer curler two-in-one tool.
I use it every single day to do my hair,
and I feel like it's less drying
and less damaging than a typical iron hair curler.
And it's so lightweight and easy to pack,
so this is a must-have in my suitcase for when I travel.
I don't really section my hair with clips or anything.
I just grab pieces and curl it.
Next, I'm using this Caviar anti-aging perfect texture spray
and I'm just gonna spray it all around my roots.
And my hair is done.
Now I'm gonna do my makeup, get ready and head off to work.
The first product I always start with before I do my makeup
is this Palmer's cocoa butter swivel stick.
I use it as a ChapStick.
You can use it for all over moisture,
but it smells amazing,
and I found that this makes my lips the softest.
So I'll just apply a little bit of that
so my lips can be moisturized while I'm doing my makeup.
And then when I apply my lipstick, it's all nice and smooth.
Then I use this mattifying poreless primer by Milk Makeup.
And I like this one because throughout the day,
I do have combination oily skin,
and while I'm flying, after every flight, I'm always oily,
and I feel like this has helped a lot.
So I'll apply this before I go into my foundation.
So I'll just take a little bit of this primer,
and I like to apply it on my cheeks and my T-zone.
And I feel like this helps me stay a little bit more matte
throughout the day and just helps with my oily skin.
Next, I apply my foundation.
I use the Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation.
I love this one.
Because I don't use concealer,
I feel like this gives me a perfect amount of coverage
without it being too much.
And I'll just apply about a pump or so.
And I'll take a foundation brush
and I just put it on my face
and just blend it in with the brush.
And because I don't use concealer,
I also like to go a little bit under my eyes
and on my eyelids as well.
After my foundation, then I go into this cream bronzer.
This is the Makeup by Mario cream bronzer,
or it's actually the soft sculpt transforming skin enhancer.
I love this stuff.
On top of my foundation, I'll just apply it on my cheekbones
and around my forehead as well.
I really love a nice bronze look,
but I don't go too heavy with it.
I like to keep my makeup natural while I'm at work,
but I feel like this does help a lot to warm up my face.
At work there are some uniform guidelines that we follow.
For example, we can pretty much express ourselves
how we want to as long as it's neat.
So we can wear our hair up or down.
I typically wear my hair down and curled.
And then as for makeup, I like to keep it natural,
but you can do your makeup how you want
as long as it's not super bold.
And as for nails, I always like to have a manicure.
So after I use the cream bronzer,
I then set my face with a translucent powder.
This is the Laura Mercier translucent setting powder.
I'll take a little powder brush
and I like to set it along my T-zone and my cheeks.
I find my cheeks get really oily, so I'll do that,
and also a little bit of where I put the cream bronzer.
Next is I use this powder bronzer.
This is my favorite one.
It's the Natasha Denona Contour Sculpting Powder,
and this is what the color looks like.
I actually just hit the pan on my last one,
so this is a brand new bronzer.
And then I go in with a brush
that allows for a little bit more precision,
and I'll layer this bronzer
on top of the cream that I just did.
I like to add the translucent powder
before I do this bronzing step
because I feel like it helps my makeup
blend a little bit more,
rather than just applying a powder bronzer directly
on top of the cream in my foundation.
I feel like it just helps my makeup
look a little less blotchy.
I really like the look of a bronze sun-kissed glow.
I'll also put it right here and a little bit on my nose.
And it's a buildable bronzer,
so I typically do go in for a little bit more.
Next, I use this palette by Hourglass
and it's kind of like a contouring palette.
It has bronzer, blush and highlight in it.
So I take a blush brush
and I mix these two colors together.
And it is pretty pigmented, so I like to start off light,
and then I'll build it as I go.
And I'll just put it on the apples of my cheeks,
lifting it upwards.
It kind of looks like I've been outside all day,
and I really do like that look.
Next, this is my favorite step,
and it's actually a little secret that I'm spilling now.
I use this long-wear freckle makeup by Freck,
and it looks like this.
And I do have natural freckles,
but when I wear a foundation, it covers it up.
And I used to hate my freckles growing up
and I would want it to get lasered off
and I used to cry about it,
but now I absolutely love my freckles.
So I just want them to pop a little bit more
through the makeup,
and this helps with that.
With this product, you have to be quick.
So I'm gonna dot my face messily,
and then I'm gonna take my finger
and I'm just gonna pat it all around, kind of like that.
And I start off and I take my fingers and I just pat it in.
So I just go all around.
And you have to be quick before it dries too fast
'cause then the pigment is a little too strong,
and it looks a little bit more unnatural.
So I'm finishing touches,
and those are my instant freckles.
I just haven't found the right way to do eyeshadow yet,
and I just like to keep it simple with mascara
and a little bit of eyeliner,
so I'm just gonna curl my lashes
and then put some mascara on.
This eyelash curler is from Shu Uemura,
and I just hold it [chuckles]
and clamp it a couple of times.
This is my all-time favorite mascara.
It's the Maybelline Lash Sensational Sky High.
And I've been using this one
for maybe about a year, two years, and I love it.
The brush bristles are really small and precise,
and I feel like it just helps to elongate my eyelashes.
And I start with a light hand
and I just coat it a few times.
I always get it on my eyelid,
so I'm just gonna clean that up with a Q-tip really quick.
And then I'll go in with an eyeliner pencil.
This one is by NYX.
It's simple, but I love it.
It's just a black eyeliner.
And I put it on the inside of my upper waterline.
I just gently lift up my lash line,
and then I go in with the eyeliner.
And I do it all the way down to the inner corner of my eye,
and I feel like it just helps my lash line
look a little thicker.
Then I go in with my brows.
I use this basic brow pencil from Sephora.
And what I do is I use really light strokes
and I just go under
to fill in the sparse areas in the front,
but I don't fill it in a lot.
I still like to keep it looking natural,
so I'll just very lightly draw it out like this,
and that's as much as I'll do.
And then there's a little line,
and I'll take the bristle part
and just blend it into my eyebrow.
And then I take this clear brow gel from e.l.f.
There's a clear brow gel side
and a lash side for clear mascara,
but I use both of them for my eyebrows.
But I've been using this product
since I was in middle school.
This is really funny, but I have a lot of hair.
So sometimes if I'm not paying attention
or my hair gets in the way or I'm putting clothes on,
my eyebrows will get so messed up,
and it'll just look crazy like that. [laughs]
So this brow gel helps it stay in place.
It doesn't add extra color, which I like,
because I feel like my brows are already pretty dark.
So it just makes them hold its shape.
And those are my eyebrows.
The final step is lips.
I like to use a wide variety of lip products.
One that I find myself going to 90% of the time
is this lipstick by Charlotte Tilbury.
It's the Pillow Talk one.
I love it.
Once I do the bottom, I blend it first,
and then I'll apply some more to the top.
And then I go in with this lipstick by YSL.
And it's a more sheer pinky color,
but it still matches well with the Pillow Talk one
from Charlotte Tilbury.
And very lightly just apply that in the center more.
And I don't really put too much,
just a little bit like that.
And that's it for my makeup.
So I just got dressed.
It is time to go to work.
I'm gonna grab my bags, put everything together,
and then head out the door.
I have three bags with me,
so I use my suitcase, my flight bag, and my cooler.
So if I'm bringing any food for my meal prep,
I make sure that that's in there as well.
I meal prep because I try to stay healthy.
Airport food is really expensive,
and they also don't have the best option.
So I feel like meal prepping helps me stay on track
with my fitness goals.
A little tip, however, is that Seattle,
Portland and San Francisco, in my opinion,
have the best restaurants.
In my cooler I keep a lot of snacks,
and I usually do try to meal prep for my work trips.
So I'll bring a lot of protein bars, snack bars,
hydration tablets, because that's another thing,
is it's really easy to get dehydrated while you're flying.
So I feel like the tablets help me a little bit.
And then for my meals, I'll bring pasta salad,
chicken and rice and broccoli,
protein shakes, energy drinks, salad,
just anything that will hold itself well as I'm traveling.
But I do also use ice packs
and I keep those in the cooler to help keep my food fresh.
Once I have everything packed and I'm ready to go,
I head out and head to the airport.
Bye.
Once I arrive at the airport,
I check in on my company's computer,
saying that I'm here for work.
It's 2:30 PM here.
I'm waiting for the shuttle to take me over to the airport,
and then I'm gonna check in and head over to my gate.
Now, I just checked in at my gate
and I'm walking over to the plane.
Once I go through the jet bridge,
I walk to the airplane and begin my pre-flight duties.
So a pre-flight inspection
or we often call them walkarounds in aviation,
it'll take me about five minutes.
So at my airline for the pre-flight inspection,
one of the items we do is called an exterior walkaround,
and essentially we're walking
around the entire exterior of the aircraft
and visibly checking to make sure that the airplane
and all of its parts are in good working conditions.
Some of the things that we're looking for are dents
on the aircraft surface.
We're checking the condition of the tire,
condition of the engine and its parts,
looking for any fluid leaks,
making sure there's no blockages on air inlets,
and just the overall condition of the plane.
The walkaround is just one part of the pre-flight.
But before the passengers board,
we also do a bunch of other checks inside of the cockpit.
Each pilot has their own flows, as we like to call it.
So the captain has his flows, I have my flows,
and we're just checking everything.
And once we do that, then we get the weather,
we get our clearance, our route, performance numbers,
and we start inputting that
into a little computer in the plane.
We call it the MCDU.
And we'll input all of that information into the plane.
In the cockpit, I'm a first officer,
so I sit on the right side of the plane,
and the captain sits on the left.
This is where I keep my flight bag,
in this little compartment here.
This is where I sit.
I sit on the right side of the plane
because I'm a first officer.
And then my cooler bag goes behind the seat,
and it fits within this little crevice right here.
We also do a crew briefing before every flight.
So once that's completed
and all of our other pre-flight duties are finished,
then the passengers can board.
And once they're done boarding,
we essentially can just take off when we're ready to go.
One problem I have is I love snacking while I'm flying,
especially on longer flights.
For me longer is like three hours,
two and a half to three hours.
I get hungry, so I often have snacks
that I meal prepped with me.
So I'll have a protein bar or another snack bar.
I also do eat my lunch.
If it's a salad, I'll just eat that while we're flying
because autopilot's on.
But I'm also a victim of airplane snacks,
and I love the little Biscoff cookies that we have
or pretzels or things like that.
So I am guilty of eating those too. [laughs]
I have two favorite things about being an airline pilot.
One of them is the views that I get to see while I'm flying.
As cheesy as it is, we have these giant windows
and we're able to just see sunrises, sunsets,
even thunderstorms look cool from afar.
So I definitely love the views.
My second favorite part about being an airline pilot
is the camaraderie that happens between the crews
and just being able to fly with
and work with a bunch of different people.
Typically, every trip has a different crew,
and I won't fly with the same people
more than once or twice.
So every trip I'm meeting new people,
and there's a fun work dynamic that we have,
and we always have each other's backs.
After our last flight of the day is finished,
I'll do an exterior walkaround.
Typically the first officer does the walkarounds.
It's the same walkaround that we do for our pre-flight.
We just do one post flight as well,
to make sure that there's nothing abnormal
that happened during the flight,
and the aircraft is still in good condition.
So my day can end at around 11:00 or even 12:00 sometimes.
But I would say on average,
maybe around 9:00 to 10:00 PM
is when we would finish our last trip of the day.
Once I get to the hotel, wash my hands,
take off my uniform, take a shower,
and then I'll start getting
into my nighttime skincare routine.
I start by removing my makeup with this oil by Shu Uemura.
Just massage it into my skin,
and it helps to melt away
all of the makeup that I'm wearing.
Once I've washed all of the oil off my face,
I go in with my Murad Essential Sea Cleanser.
Then I take a cotton pad
and my Paula's Choice 2% BHA liquid exfoliant,
and I apply this onto my skin.
I use this moisturizer by Dermalogica.
It's their intensive moisture balance,
and I apply this all over.
Lastly, I go in with an eye cream.
It's by Neocutis,
and it's their extra moisturizing, illuminating eye cream.
And I use my ring finger and just pat that in.
And now I just need to brush my teeth,
and then I'm ready for bed.
And because I do travel a lot for work,
and I'm in different environments,
and I'm in the cockpit, which is,
the air quality isn't the best,
I am prone to breakouts.
So if I am experiencing a breakout,
I'll use a spot treatment.
Once I'm in bed, that's the time I use
to catch up on everything with social media.
I'll watch TikToks, go on Instagram, text my friends.
I also check my emails.
But because I'm flying throughout the day,
we don't have service.
So once I'm in bed and my day is finished,
I usually use that time to just enjoy my time on my phone
and use that for entertainment.
So it's 12:00 AM now, and I'm about to go to bed.
Thank you so much, Allure, for spending the day with me.