“My love of skin—and beauty in general—is in my DNA. My mom is a beauty addict with twice the number of products that I have. When I was a young, hyperactive child, she wanted to help me focus and learn to be delicate. So when I was eight years old, I started giving her ‘facials,’ which at that point was just me applying French pharmacy products on her face. She was my guinea pig. [Laughs] By the time I was 15, I had to make a decision: either go to high school or professional school. Being dyslexic I chose to train as an aesthetician, which was not a well-respected job at the time in France. Female-dominated and focused on the ‘superficial,’ it wasn’t considered to be a serious career. But I fell in love with the work after a week of training; it really gave me the sense that I wanted to do it for the rest of my life. After graduation, I started my own practice in Provence, where I grew up. But at 21, I was too young and immature to run a business. I closed it after a year, moved to London to immerse myself in the language—up until then I didn’t speak English well—and found a job at a local spa. Some time later, I learned about a beautiful Japanese wellness center in Central London that took a more holistic approach to wellness and considered how stress, food, and overall lifestyle can affect the skin. I worked there for about two years before moving to New York for a short while and built up a healthy client base while working in a spa, which, for reasons, I’m not going to name. When I returned to Europe, I began working at a friend’s spa in Aix-en-Provence. It was there that I created my own protocol, which focuses on treating both the skin and the fascia—the connective tissue that surrounds our body—without pain and for maximum results. I started working for myself again in 2019 and have been splitting time in Paris and London, which is great because I get to see clients like Naomi Campbell, Penelope Cruz, Lady Gaga, and Lenny Kravitz, but also Caroline de Maigret, Marion Cotillard, and Camille Cottin.

Over-exfoliating is easy to do- good thing there are tell tale signs of over exfoliation that we can act on. Repairing your skin after the fact? That can be tricky. Learn what warning signs to look for and how to effectively do damage control below.There are few things in skin care that are more satisfying than exfoliating your skin. There’s a special joy with waking up with glowier skin the morning after applying an AHA, and the baby-soft skin that’s left the moment you rinse off a face scrub is heavenly. RELATED: The Right Way to Incorporate Acids Into Your Routine Exfoliation is a super important part of the skin care regimen, essential to keeping your pores clear of dead skin cells and helping your skin healthily and fully completing its turnover cycle.

You may have been seeing disconcerting headlines lately that question the safety of sunscreen. We talked to an expert to find out if we should really be concerned.

We all want to soak up the sun without soaking in harmful chemicals. But did you know some sunscreens can contain ingredients that aren't safe for you or the planet? Our guide will show you the best clean sunscreens that protect your skin and keep our oceans pure. Get ready for guilt-free glow!

Welcome to Klog Chats, a series dedicated to answering your biggest skin care questions with advice from skin experts. Whether you’re confused about specific ingredients or what you need to do to achieve healthier skin overall, our experts are here to guide you.This week’s question is: “Where do pimple patches fit into my skin care routine and what type of acne should I use different types on?” Here, a skin expert answers: —

Struggling to fade your hyperpigmentation? Read on for some tips to help your products work better.Hyperpigmentation is typically the result of acne, sun damage, or even hormonal changes and can leave its mark after the initial damage, making it a tricky skin care challenge to overcome. Ingredients like vitamin C and alpha hydroxy acids can help speed the process along, but if you’re making the mistakes below, you may not be getting the best results. You’re not wearing sunscreen.You probably know by now that sunscreen is a necessity for everyone, no matter the skin type or skin concern. Overexposure to the sun can lead to many future skin problems, such as accelerated aging and even skin cancer, but it can also exacerbate current concerns, including acne and hyperpigmentation. “Wearing sunscreen is essential to helping dark spots fade since they can be made worse by sun exposure,” says board-certified dermatologist Dr. Sourab Choudhury. Your brightening products can become pretty much worthless without wearing sunscreen everyday, since the spots can become even darker by just being outside. This is especially true for those who have forms of hyperpigmentation such as melasma or sun spots, as those conditions can often be caused by sun overexposure and not wearing SPF. Melasma is also caused by hormonal factors such as pregnancy or use of birth control, but the dark marks can be made worse without regular use of sun protection. Not to mention many ingredients that are popular for fading hyperpigmentation (such as vitamin C and alpha hydroxy acids) make your skin even more sensitive to the sun, meaning that applying SPF is that much more important if you want to fade your pigmentation. Dr. Choudhury recommends “either a physical sunscreen with zinc or titanium dioxide or a broad spectrum chemical sunscreen. In either case, look for at least 30 SPF and reapply it frequently when outside.”

Too many parties and too little sleep? Switch up your skin care routine with these tips to bring your skin back to life.The holidays can be plenty of fun. There’s the chance to catch up with friends and family, eat all your favorite comfort foods, and glam it up at festive parties. But all those weeks of late nights, last-minute shopping stress and too many glasses of eggnog can wreak major havoc on your skin. Thankfully, there’s a K-beauty solution to every holiday skin stressor, so read on and confidently go into the new year without anyone being the wiser! Holiday Problem #1: Too Little Sleep = Dark, Tired Eyes Is anybody well-rested during the holidays? Not a chance. You’ve likely been running around to see old friends, spend time with family, and make it to all the best parties (that just so happen to run into the wee hours of the morning) that it’s got to the point where each morning’s glance in the mirror has a panda-eyed version of yourself staring back at you. Reach for an eye-targeting mask like Wander Beauty Baggage Claim Eye Masks – Gold,which uses aloe and camu camu to not only depuff swollen and tired eyes, but brighten them too.

Today is the perfect day to pick up some life habits you can actually keep up with. Calendar-wise, it’s perfect timing: At this point, New Year's resolutions have once again become well-intentioned yet far-fetched dreams—but before you get bummed out, please remember that February is the birth month of Audre Lorde, inventor of 'self-care'. I’m very much into her definition of it, which prioritizes self-preservation over marketing buzzwords. After all, sustainable habits require sustainable processes that’ll push you towards becoming your best self, and for me, The Best Utibe is more organized, takes care of her skin, and can maintain an energy level that doesn’t leave her winded after walking up a slight incline. As with all good habits, it’s best to build slowly and steadily. I like to check in with a list to make sure I’m not letting life take me by the reins. Start here, and embellish where it makes sense:Wash your face as soon as you get homeA while ago, Ashley asserted that the best time to start your nighttime skincare routine is as soon as you get home, and I’m starting to think she’s right. Each time I postpone, the chances of falling asleep with my makeup on increase by about...3 million. My bed is a Venus fly trap for tired, foolish makeup wearers. I’m more inclined to actually do it if I have a makeup removing combo I look forward to using. Right now, that’s Pai’s Rosehip Light Work Cleansing Oil, followed by Milky Jelly Cleanser, but last month it was Holifrog’s Balmy Cleanser followed by Klur’s Gentle Matter Cleanser. As I like to say around these parts: Do you, friend.Work out at least once a weekHard at first, and then fun! OK, not fun per se, but definitely rewarding. Each weekend morning, I try to fit in an elliptical workout with a mix of incline and resistance, followed by a cycle of weightlifting, and 10 minutes on the Stairmaster. I go hard on Saturday so I can take it easy the next day, but also with the full knowledge that I may not make it to the gym during the weekdays. It still surprises me how one to two hours of effort over the weekend can make a world of improvement in my energy and anxiety levels throughout the week.Make a to-do list for the day aheadThis can be done right before you leave work, on your commute home, or in your Notes app before you go to sleep––regardless, I highly recommend. Being able to see everything required of me each day keeps my workload manageable, while allowing me to consider my long and short term professional and personal goals. Also, writing lists in notebooks...is great? Using a gel pen to cross off tasks on beautiful, minimalist stationery incites a euphoria only rivaled by sea salt chocolate chip cookies and getting money from my grandma in an envelope.Keep an eye on your budgetBudget apps like Mint and podcasts like Optimal Finance Daily can help you get started, but so does keeping tabs on things you already know are a money suck. How many times a week are you eating out? Do you really need to Uber everywhere? And when are you going to finally start your Depop account?? From time to time, I ask myself these questions, and strive to provide answers as truthfully as possible to embolden myself to make smarter money choices.Time yourself to tidy upAfter the face-washing comes the room-cleaning—but it doesn’t have to be too time-intensive. As my nighttime retinol and moisturizer soak into my skin, I give myself about five minutes (or like, one moody listen of Linger by The Cranberries) to hang up the clothes piling up on The Chair, put away miscellaneous products strewn about, and make my bed so it’s extra cozy when I go to sleep. If these habits come across as a no-brainer...you are doing SO amazing in life sweetie. Take your Gold Star (here you go), and then head to the comments to share your own bare minimum good habits. —Utibe Mbagwu

“It isn’t that I’m not confident now, but I was such a confident young woman. Very confident and headstrong. I had a happy childhood—a rustic, rural upbringing on a farm in the UK. I think my mum’s focus was to raise resilient, confident children who could hit a ball, get outside, and have a muck in attitude. Obviously our exposure to media was very different 20 years ago, and the standards of beauty were very different. But growing up, there wasn’t a lot of importance placed on the way I looked. Plus, I think my mum probably already saw a love of beauty and fashion in me and didn’t want to encourage it even more. I loved watching her get ready to go to work or out in the evening. Applying makeup and putting a nice outfit on changed her demeanor—that’s where I first learned about the transformative nature of beauty, and the creativity of it. Like most girls in the 90s I was all about sparkly blue eyeshadow and frosted pink lipstick. Modeling ignited that passion further. I was 16, and just so excited to be traveling and working in the industry. Then I got out into the big world and things started to affect that confidence. By the time I hit my 20s, I was more analytical of myself. In many ways it’s a good thing, because it’s important to be self-aware, but it’s also how insecurities are bred. [For example] I had acne as a teenager, but it wasn’t until I started modeling that people started to point it out. Now that I’m older, the physical aspect of beauty has become less important than the emotional aspect. I want my children to think of beauty as how you feel about yourself, and how you make other people feel, ultimately. I feel most beautiful when I feel good about myself and happy at home and work; I notice how exhausted I look when I’m unhappy. That sparkle goes from behind my eyes. I don’t ever like to tout myself as an expert, but I think I’m good at surrounding myself with people who are smarter than me in every way and learning from them. I’ve been sitting in a hair and makeup chair with amazing experts every day for 20 years—I think that’s an interesting POV. I knew that if there was an appetite for what I had to say around beauty, or a community that I could grow out of Rose Inc as an editorial platform, then there was a possibility that I could launch product. Starting Rose Inc was very much about getting across my deep-seated obsession so it didn’t seem like just another of the brands popping up left right and center. Plus, information I was able to pull from the platform became guardrails we hold ourselves to. My audience leans towards very versatile, multi-purpose products, in colors that are classic and easy to wear. They’re not looking for extreme, heavy makeup, or strong fashion-forward colors. That’s what the site data showed based on what was selling. I also know that my audience is very conscious, so we’ve tried hard to produce products that are as conscious as they can be without sacrificing instant, visible results.