- Hey there, it's Sonequa Martin-Green.
Let's get ready to go to bed.
What'd you say?
(upbeat music)
So, here we are.
I have washed my hands, I have brushed my teeth.
It's time to get started.
And I'm gonna put these on because I cannot stand
when the water drips down your arms, I can't stand it.
It feels so gross to me, it always has.
And I got the wacky idea to use wristbands
and it keeps it from happening, it's amazing.
I used to approach skincare from
an obligatory kind of burdened place.
I would dread it even and because of that,
there would be many times where I would just skip it.
I would avoid it.
I recently in the last couple of years,
decided to change that.
And I realized that I really needed to engage
in my skincare and use this time to languish, you know.
It's also a nice moment that I have with my husband,
a lot of times it'll be the time where we really
get together at the end of the day, you know.
Let's get into the skincare, let's get into the regimen.
How about that?
Okay, so the first thing I'm gonna do is oil cleanse.
I firmly believe in the double cleanse.
And so I start with an oil cleanse
and I use Dermalogica Pre cleanse, that's it right there.
So I have super oily skin,
so oily y'all, so oily, and it was acne prone,
when I was younger,
I realized now that it was because I just, you know,
I wasn't taking care of it.
Moisturizer, like what was that?
I didn't use moisturizer and I was not eating well.
Most of the time, it was two kinds of food.
It was soul food and fast food, okay.
And so my already oily skin was going crazy.
And I'm gonna tell you something and don't judge me,
but this is gonna let you know what was really going on.
But when I was a kid,
there were times where I would look down
and see that my elbows and my knees were ashy.
I was straight up like shlouck off, shlouck,
okay, I just made the word up,
but we're gonna go with it.
I would shlouck off the oil from my forehead
and put it on my elbows and my knees.
That's crazy and that's gross.
I found Proactive when I was in college,
which was great for the time.
But then I stumbled across Dermalogica.
Once I got married and we actually went on
this skincare journey together, my husband and I,
and so Dermalogica completely changed
the identity of my skin.
But what it really was is that I was just finally taking
care of my skin and using quality products, right?
So I'm gonna go over my eyes
and I'm not gonna open my eyes again,
'cause otherwise they might get a little irritated.
And the great thing is that I love this
because the way it emulsifies, it's just so lovely.
And I'm gonna keep my eyes closed.
(water running)
Usually it's quick.
And now I'm just gonna tap my eyes dry,
and not dry anything else
'cause I'm going right into my next cleanser,
which is the Ultra calming Cleanser from Dermalogica.
I realized that I needed a really gentle cleanser
after the oil and just because my skin is sensitive.
So this is a nice gel and it's quite velvety.
So again, I'm gonna be very gentle
and not keep it on my skin for very long
Oh the brows, the brows are gone.
Too much plucking when I was a teenager
and I was a lot of folk story.
I like to be very slow because go, go, go, go,
go, go, go, go, go, go, I go all the time.
And I'm a quite high energy person.
I have to force myself to slow down, like slow down Sonequa.
Okay, and now I'm just gonna tap.
I love these cloths, I just found out about them,
they're from a company called Clear Skin Club.
I used to use a microfiber towel, right here actually.
But this company is really cool.
It's 100% organic, 100% biodegradable.
But what really got me was in their advertisements,
they were talking about the bacteria that sits
on your towels and just breeds.
And I was like (gags).
(chuckles)
And then they really got me because on the website,
it says that they, for every order they plant a tree.
So I said, okay, I'm using y'all.
So the next thing I'm gonna do
is I'm gonna go in with
the Biossance Squalane and Hyaluronic Mist
because what I want in my nighttime routine is hydration,
hydration, hydration, hydration, and moisture, of course.
And so anti-aging stuff too.
I'm gonna do a lot of spritzes, but I'm telling you,
I have to 'cause it's super, it's a super fine mist.
And I'm gonna go in and tell you my next step,
because since it does dissolve so quickly,
I like to go directly in with my next step,
which is the COSRX Snail Mucin Essence.
And we'll talk about it in a second,
'cause it's quite a thing, this snail mucin.
All right, so here we go.
(sprays mist)
Two pumps, like that.
I didn't really learn a ton of skincare tricks
and stuff from my mom or my dad.
Although I did learn the necessity
of exfoliation from my mom.
She used to use these pads, these buffer pads.
And I used to love like sneaking in
and like using her buff pads.
This is gonna sound strange,
but I don't like to exfoliate at night,
I like to exfoliate in the day.
I can't do the physical exfoliants.
My skin is just, it just don't.
I have to do the chemical exfoliants
and it has to be gentle at that.
But I like to do it in the day
because it makes my skin feel energized.
What I'm gonna do now, after that essence
is this NIOD Multilocular Hyaluronic Complex.
Because hydration is what I'm looking for,
I wanna get all of that in there and then lock it in.
Boop, boop, boop, boop.
So I just had a baby and so I had a very minimal routine
while I was pregnant, especially in the last trimester.
I would straight up just, you know,
a lot of times I would just use Bioderma Micellar Water
and then throwing oil on there,
or throw a quick like moisturizer.
My skin was quite glowy and whatnot from being pregnant.
And so now that I am coming back to
a more extensive routine, I am missing retinol
and retinoids, I was using that very, very amazing
ingredient earlier, before I got pregnant.
And then I had to stop.
'cause of course it's not pregnancy safe
and it's not even nursing safe either.
A retinol is so important in an anti-aging routine.
And it's like the champions.
If I were to rate 'em, it would be like sunscreen,
hyaluronic acid, retinol.
And the snail mucin is really fascinating to me
'cause that's also something that I just found.
I have a lot of respect for Korean skincare.
In general, I appreciate where nature meets science
with skincare, with the snail mucin, you know,
COSRX, they're very, of course it's cruelty free,
but they put the snails in such a comfortable environment
and it's this nice dark room and the snails
just walk across this mansion
and the mucin that they leave behind,
it's harvested, which I think it's dope.
So my last step with my dry face (chuckles)
is this Elemis Pro Collagen Oxygen Night Cream.
There it is.
Now, I love it, it's a lovely occlusive.
It's so thick and luxurious and velvety.
I really do feel, I feel like I can feel the oxygenation.
No one has a Mediterranean allergy.
And then when finally take something down to my chest.
I know it's all one thing, right?
Now, not quite done yet.
Done with like the products on the skin.
But now what I'm gonna do is exfoliate my lips.
So now my lips are so dry, all the time.
Like, no matter what I do, no matter how much water I drink,
I could drink a gallon a day and the lips are still dry.
So yeah, I use this scrub, it's from Handmade Heroes.
It's the Ultra Sexy Scrub.
So I take this lip exfoliating brush
and just get a little bit of the scrub
and take it across my lips.
And I gotta do it, I gotta do it neatly.
'Cause I don't wanna get in the way of the yummy stuff
on the skin, around my lips, right?
So I just (mumbles) in circles.
You know, another thing that I don't do at night
that I do during the day,
which might seem backwards, is an eye cream.
I don't think an eye cream is just like necessary.
But I like to use the ones that have like
waking up properties.
You know, that energize and brighten
and de-puff and all that good stuff,
because that's always super helpful when you're getting up,
you know, before the sun to work.
Okay, so now that I've done that
and I take another one of those handy dandy
biodegradable cloths, and I'm gonna wipe it off.
That scrub taste good. (chuckles)
And now I'm gonna use this lip mask from Laneige.
Now I feel like I could do this all day,
rubbing it in.
I'm gonna sit here like, (sighs).
So now, last thing, I can take these off.
Okay, so now this last thing is,
I've got my Jade roller here.
It was soaking in ice water and I'm gonna get into
some facial massage, a little lymphatic drainage.
Yes I am.
And this is really the moment in the regimen
when I can relax and languish and pray, honestly.
It's good prayer time, for me.
Yeah, so I go to the temple drainage points first
and then I go down to the ones that are here.
Hmm, it feels so good.
And then, turn it over. (sighs)
And then I'm just gonna come and take this down.
That's it, 'cause I can keep going,
but we're gonna stop there.
Now the absolute last thing that I do is I just hit my hair.
I use this Carol's Daughter Almond Milk
Leave-In Conditioner, black owned company.
I have a lot of black owned hair products
and I'm always, always in the market
for more black owned products across the board.
And so I just spritz my hair with this.
(sprays mist)
Just give it a little moisture before bed.
Since it is so short, I don't wrap it anymore,
I just, you know, the silk pillowcase does the trick.
And just rub it in, rub it through, rub it through.
(sighs)
And that's it, that's it.
This was so much fun, it was so much fun hanging out,
going through my nighttime regimen.
This was a lovely moment, right?
Thank you for engaging with me.
And I hope you have a good night's sleep.
You're probably gonna get more sleep than I will.
That's okay, it's more than worth it,
it's more than worth it, one day I'll sleep again.
But I am gonna go get in bed at least,
'cause it's late, so I hope you have a good night.
(blows kiss)