By Sinead M'Gee

Beauty lessons beyond lockdown

With many of us having had a shorter daily commute (my kitchen to at-home office is precisely 10 steps) it’s fair to say we’ve discovered what a little spare time can do to ramping up our beauty routine. Helped along on fast-forward by the fact we’ve had to take matters into our own hands.

Self-care as many of us knew it, was stripped back, and reduced to the bare minimum of our own capabilities. I like to think we rose to the challenge. Salon-worthyesque manicures, doubling down on skincare, and of course, DIY-tinting hair colour regrowth plus brows and lashes.

As we see restrictions relax further and the re-opening of beauty salons today, we’d love to know what beauty lessons learned in lockdown you’ll be taking beyond. Here’s mine.

If you’re familiar with 1000Hour, you will have noticed we were well ahead of the #isobeauty brow tinting trend. But I’m not here to boast. I’m here to talk about beauty lessons I have learnt whilst in lockdown. Though it may include our dye kits.

Does drinking enough water count as a beauty lesson? If yes, then absolutely write this one down. I’m one of those people that only remembers to drink water if my co-worker next to me is sipping from their water bottle. During my first few weeks working from home, I found myself forgetting to keep up my water intake. Beauty begins with hydrated skin.

Birds’ nests are for birds, not babes. This may come as a surprise but brushing your hair is just as important as putting on deodorant, even when you’re at home. With the tendency to just put your hair up in a messy bun every day, there was the odd occasion I would forget to brush my hair. But I vouch to try harder from now on. Speaking of brushing your hair, I picked up the habit of giving my brows a little brush with a Spoolie to help stimulate hair growth because if there is one thing I want coming out of lockdown, and for my future, it’s fuller brows.

And seeing as though we’re talking about brows, if you need something small, yet mighty to enhance your natural look without going ‘too crazy’ (quarantine bangs I’m talking about you), a little tint to your brows and lashes can definitely make you look more awake. Helpful to hide the fact you may have lost track of time last night and binge-watching Netflix to what would, under normal circumstances, have been close to non-lockdown alarm wake-up time.

Treat your feet like your face. I’m talking about treating feet to a foot peel! Seeing as though wearing shoes has been kind of not that important whilst WFH, it was the perfect opportunity to slip my feet into the Bathefex’s Softsole Exfoliating Foot Peel booties and get me some soft, refreshed, silky smooth feet. But be warned, if you’re into those extracting videos you see on your Instagram feed, you will become obsessed with this horrifyingly satisfying treatment.

On the topic of exfoliating and smooth skin, with that extra commute time, dry brushing before a shower is a must. Dry brushing stimulates blood flow, helps with the appearance of

cellulite, evens out your fake tan results. Trust me, this polishing ritual is ah-mazing. And just between us, it’s so quick that as long as I only hit snooze five times, instead of 20, I can even keep it up when I have to venture beyond the house for work in future.

With these basics now well and truly in my DIY skillset, will I be heading back to my local beauty clinic any time soon? Hell yes. With money saved on essentials making my bank account look way too healthy, I’m ready to up the beauty anti and take salon-care to a whole new level. A girl’s gotta support her local after all.