Sleep. The number one thing that most mums yearn for more of. What if you could bottle it, hey?
Well…I think that NEOM Organics are pretty much there with their Sleep range including new gorgeous skincare which has launched this year.
I’ve been a fan of NEOM for years – it’s my husband’s failsafe for birthday and anniversary presents. When I escaped for a 4-day yoga retreat in Ibiza with my best friend for our 40th birthdays, I took with me the Sleep set including pillow spray and hand cream and, I swear… I still fantasise about that 4-night sleep, it was bloody amazing. Every night I spritzed my pillow, put in earplugs, and BOOM (or…something that sounds more restful than boom…), a whole night of restful rejuvenating proper actual sleep awaited me. It was honestly the best few days of sleep I can ever recall in my life (although, ok, I hadn’t slept for longer than 2 hours for 15 months by this point so my benchmark might have been fairly low, lolz) . I still find the Neom Sleep scent so powerful for conjuring up immediately that memory of calm and peace in an instant. Aaaaahhhhhh. Ibiza, here I come…
So, I’m completely delighted to be able to announce that I’m going to be part of the NEOM wellbeing expert panel as their Mums Wellness & Pilates expert.
I’ve been using the Sleep range fairly religiously for the past month to counterbalance the relentlessness of being mum of two wonderful and bonkers boys… who appear not to need as much sleep as I feel is just and right for my life (deep sigh).
When I had my first baby my skincare routine went out the window…and that was part of my real loss of identity because up until this point I had been bordering on obsessed about my skincare…and suddenly no time (let alone sleep) was devoted to beauty. I became really craggy and there was certainly no radiance to speak of – no glow from within as if a light had been switch off. This really affected my self esteem and became a bit of a negative cycle of loss of identity and self love: loss of self care strategies led me to feel I wasn’t worth self care strategies as there was no point as I had so far to go to get “back to normal”.
I’ve since learnt that I really need to access this part of myself, looking after my skin and the face that faces the world, in order to feel “like me”. So when Freddie my littlest was born I chose to make time every night to cleanse properly and give myself a facial massage.
Do you use face oils? What’s your skincare regime – do you have one? Lots of people are a bit nervous of putting oil onto their face, worried that it will make their skin feel greasy, but it really doesn’t. It feels gorgeous and indulgent… Oils can actually help to stabilise and regulate the overproduction of sebum.
The Perfect Night’s Sleep facial oil contains a beautiful blend of skin-nurturing essential oils. Rosehip oil which is bursting with nourishing fatty acids to help with skin’s moisture levels, pigmentation. It’s an incredible antioxidant and one of the best ingredients to help dry skin emerge blinking with a glow after this long winter. Almond oil softens, calms and helps retain moisture.
The oil is super relaxing, smells sublime and a dream to massage into skin. I love it – It’s the perfect blend for a mini facial. I use it after my nightly cleansing routine, just before bed. It’s my evening ritual to pamper myself and “reset” my skin (or my nerves after a frazzled day!).
Depending on how dry my skin is, or how dull or tired it looks (hmm, let’s not discuss that too deeply right now…), I put anything from two to six drops in the palm of my hand, take a few lungfuls of calming deep breaths, fully inhaling the sleep-inducing fragrance of the oils. Then I rub the oil between my hands to warm it up, and give my face a really good massage. I like to work it deeply into the skin with enough pressure to stimulate circulation which is really nourishing for glowing skin. A good facial massage increases the blood supply to the face, giving it a healthy glow. It also helps relieve tension from your facial muscles which we hold onto without even realising (bitchy resting face, anyone?). Massage can even help increase muscle tone and strength. Daily facial massage can work wonders for your skin, plus it’s immensely calming as a ritual before bed – win win.
I have a bedtime routine, what’s yours? I mean, we do for our children so why not for ourselves, right? Do you have a bedtime night time routine which helps you release the pressures of the day, switch off – and sleep better?
Modern life (and technology) makes it so hard to fully switch off, plus I work from home, so often the work/life balance falls well out of kilter. So I’m now much more conscious of making sure I have a non-negotiable routine in place that helps me unwind before bed. Last year I stopped taking my phone into the bedroom – this means I don’t look at Instagram or emails right before falling asleep – scrolling is never conducive to a good night’s rest with no anxiety! My phone lives in the kitchen, and quite frankly who needs an alarm clock when your children are always up by 6am?!
Soothing and calming scents (lavender, chamomile, jasmine) transport my mind and body instantly towards sleep mode, so I love NEOM body oils and lighting a candle in the bedroom in the hour before bed. Before laying my head on the pillow I use the pillow spray and have a few minutes of deeeeeeeep breathing, calming the mind. I don’t call it my “meditation practice” but clearing the mind by taking a broom to sweep out anxiety and clutter is meditation and definitely lays the foundations for a better night.
If I’ve got a bit more time to play with for my evening routine, I always use magnesium salts or Neom’s Perfect Night’s Sleep Bath & Shower Drops in a lovely hot bath.
For the past 15 years I’ve used hot cloth cleansing balms such as Eve Lom, Organic Pharmacy carrot butter cleanser, and Neals Yard Therapies Wild Rose Beauty Balm as a staple in my cleansing and evening self care routine. So it was pretty much a given that I was going love the new Neom Sleep cleansing balm.
This is my ritual every night. Every night – however much motherhood mayhem is going on. It prepares me mentally for bed and means I sleep better (even if that sleep is interrupted by renegade small people it can still be a restful overall experience if I gift myself this pre-bed time) and my skin definitely looks better. It makes me feel calmer and more ready to face the world, carving out just that non-negotiable 7 minutes of s p a c e. And it lays the foundation for realising that self care is the least selfish thing in the world – when I’m calmer I’m a much, MUCH nicer person to be around.
Tell me about your sleep rituals! What do you do to stay rested and sane?
I’d love to hear
Xxx