Recently I did an interview with my dear friend Kristen Booker — if you’re not up on her blog, Fashion Style Beauty, VISIT NOW! She offers such a fresh, individual perspective on style and self care. Anyway! I really love her series, How She Does It and I was honored to be included. She asks great questions that get you thinking. And takes wonderful pics. She snapped me during my last visit to NYC!
Kristen asked a good, simple-on-the-surface-but-thought-provoking-underneath question during our interview and I had to really take a minute to consider my answer. Her question? When do you feel your most beautiful?
Here’s my answer: “When I’ve just gotten out of the shower. I have this whole ritual where I listen to music, sometimes a scrub, adding body oils, etc. But that moment right when I’m done, when I look myself in the mirror and I feel clean, radiant and ready… that’s when I feel my most beautiful. I’m ready to face whatever may come. Even before the makeup, that’s when I feel my best.”
It’s true. Of course I feel beautiful when I’m all dolled up in makeup and pretty clothes, but that just-out-of-the-shower-so-fresh-so-clean feeling of purity can’t be denied. After that first morning shower, I feel capable and rejuvenated and ready for life. That’s when I look at myself in the mirror as I truly am. And that practice of looking at yourself in the mirror and NOT picking apart what I see, but instead celebrating and embracing and smiling back at my reflection? That is essential to me, for self love, self acceptance, self esteem.
“What worked for me to realize my beauty may not be something that works for everyone else. But at the time, we all have to get to the same point in our journey: you have to be able to look at yourself in the mirror and like what you see. You need to know you’re a beautiful person inside and out, and however you get there, get there.”
Thanks for the insightful questions, Kristen!
Bellas, when do YOU feel the most beautiful? What inspires you to appreciate your own beauty?
The dress in photo above was sent to me by Simply Be. That jacket and those ancient bedazzled flats are my own!

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