This post is sponsored by Ulta Beauty ®
I believe that how you show up in the world is who you become in the world, and that your routine needs to reflect who you want to be — that’s why I partnered with Ulta Beauty to show you my morning routine. Some of the products that help me feel like my best self, like my NARS Natural Radiant Longwear Foundation, 10X Pro Straightening & Styling Iron and Kate Somerville’s ExfoliKate Intensive Exfoliating Treatment, are essentials in my daily life. Creating your own beauty in life is important, and it’s crucial that you have the right arsenal of tools to be the person you want to be.
I hope that when you realize you’re hiding behind your clothes instead of loving how they make you feel, you have the courage to pack them up and begin again.
I hope that when your space begins to feel cluttered and uninspiring, you have the courage to release that which doesn’t serve you.
I hope that when that sinking feeling comes over you in which you wonder to yourself how you ended up the way you are, you realize that you are being primed for your personal reinvention.
I hope that when you feel worn out and tired and a shell of your old self, you realize that a part of you is dying because another is being reborn.
I hope that this is the year you realize you cannot sit idly by and wait for beauty to strike you, and so you must seek it. I hope this is the year you find out you cannot trust inspiration to come exactly when you need it, so you must act anyway. I hope this is the year you begin to understand that you cannot leave the thick of your life — the deepest, most important parts — in the hands of someone else, and so you must create them yourself.
I hope that this is the year you realize if you want a beautiful life, you are responsible for creating it. If you want to feel at ease with yourself, you can no longer take a passive role in the details of your life. You have to consciously choose everything from your morning makeup to your linens at night. You need to learn to feel grateful for the simplest things, like your morning coffee and sunlight streaming through the side of the window while you make it.
I hope this is the year you realize that how you show up to the world becomes who you are in the world. You need to realize that you are never beholden to the person that you were. You are always in the process of unbecoming and becoming again, it’s just that most often, you keep choosing the same things.
So I hope you choose again.
I hope you decide who you want to be and then adapt to the behaviors that would make you that person. I hope you pick the clothes that make you feel empowered and from them build a uniform that you can always rely on. I hope you choose the makeup that makes you feel most like yourself, and make those products part of your routine. I hope you make self-care an essential part of your week, and self-love a nonnegotiable practice in your life.
I hope you allow yourself to love the things you love, even if they’re small. I hope you read the books you like, and don’t feel like you have to finish the ones you don’t. I hope you make playlists for every mood, have candles for every season, know that money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy the tools that help you get there.
It’s not a feeling that swells and overcomes you when you’re in the presence of something elusive and hard-earned. It’s not smoothing and glossing over your every imperfection until you’ve remade yourself into someone unrecognizable. It’s not about prioritizing what looks good over what feels right.
Creating your own beauty in your life is deciding you’re going to pursue what you love, in every detail of your day. It’s choosing to take a few extra moments to get ready in the morning, and show up as the person you want to be. It’s picking the bolder color, the riskier haircut. It’s investing in what you know your future self would thank you for, and letting go of what your past self wanted to release.
But most of all, it’s showing up to your life. It’s taking the driver’s seat of it all. It’s making sure you remind yourself what you have to be grateful for even when you’re feeling defeated, it’s making sure you allow yourself joy even if you’re afraid you’ll lose it. Those things will turn you around.
It’s taking care of your body and your mind. It’s learning to clear your head and ask for help when you need it, and relax when you deserve it.
A beautiful life is something you create, but it’s also something you choose to see. Sure, you can perfect your morning routine and change every detail of your outer life, but until you choose to appreciate the work you’ve done, see how far you’ve come, and believe in how much more you can do, it will all still fall flat.
So allow yourself that this year. Risk being vulnerable enough to hope, and keep trying. Your life is in your hands. Trust yourself with it.
At the end of the day, what you put on you should be a reflection of what’s going on within you. How you show up to the world is the way you communicate to the world who you are and what you’re here to do. This year, I hope you take it a little more seriously, adhering less rigorously to the standards that others have set, and more wholeheartedly to the vision of the person you really want to be.
