Clean Skin Care in the Back
Garden at the Tiny Canal Cottage
Whitney Leigh Morris
small-space lifestyle blogger and author,
The Tiny Canal Cottage
Whitney Leigh Morris
| small-space lifestyle blogger and author,
The Tiny Canal Cottage
Whitney Leigh Morris |
small-space lifestyle blogger and
author, The Tiny Canal Cottage
Whitney Leigh Morris lives in a tiny house—tiny. Intentionally tiny. The small-space lifestyle blogger (The Tiny Canal Cottage) and author (Small Space Style: Because You Don’t Need to Live Large to Live Beautifully) lives in under 400 square feet along the canal in Venice, California, with her husband, three-year-old son, and two rescue beagles. “I like to show people how they can live sustainably in small spaces,” says Morris. Her bathroom is of course also tiny, so most mornings she does at least some of her routine in her back garden. “We live in Southern California—the weather is gorgeous!” she says. Clean products are super important to Morris: “We’re inundated with potentially toxic chemicals, and the more we can reduce that, the better. I started paying attention, as so many people do, when I first got pregnant. Whatever I might have on my body needs to be healthy for my son, because we’re constantly in contact.”
6:30 a.m.: Our entire family rises with the sun, thanks to the skylight over our bed and the windows built into our headboard.
7 a.m.: My husband, Adam, makes the family a green juice. (If we’ve run out of produce for the juice, we bike up to Erewhon in the cargo bike.) We sit up at our breakfast counter with our three-year-old, West, and that’s when I drink my packet of GOOPGLOW. I love to start the day with it—it’s got ingredients like vitamins C and E, it tastes really good, and it gives your skin a glow from the inside out. It kind of feels like I’m having dessert first thing in the morning, which…I’m down for.
7:15 a.m.: We usually have some eggs from Apricot Lane Farms (we love John, Molly, and the team at the farm) and share an avocado or two.
7:30 a.m.: Out to the garden for some skin care. I want something that’s going to clean out my pores but not strip my skin. Especially at thirty-eight, the last thing I want to do is tear my skin down. No wonder everybody loves this G.Tox cleanser! And it smells amazing—so good.
Every time I get a facial, they tell me I need to exfoliate more. I’ve been using this GOOPGLOW Microderm for about a month now—and it’s my favorite new product. I love it because it sloughs off all the dead skin cells without damaging my skin. It’s kind of like this whipped consistency and texture. I take a bit while my skin is dry or damp, and I do small circles for about a minute, then I leave it on for another minute while I’m running around after my child or the dogs. When you take it off, your skin is glowier.
This G.Tox tonic is great for minimizing pores and really kind of cleaning out all the dirt. You can use a reusable cotton round so you don’t have to use a disposable one—it’s a little more eco-friendly—or you can put a couple drops directly onto your fingers. Kind of pat it into little areas that you want to target. This is a water-like serum, so it goes directly into the skin. It absorbs immediately, so your skin doesn’t feel tacky afterward. It’s this great mineral-packed solution to put on your skin.
The next step for me is the Vintner’s Daughter Active Treatment Essence. I’ve been using this since it came out—and it absolutely transformed my problem skin. I sometimes have hormonal breakouts, and this helped more than any product has ever done. It’s a tiny but mighty bottle. You can put a few drops on your hands and just press it into your skin—it smells earthy. I love it.
After that, I put on Active Botanical Serum, another Vintner’s Daughter product. I’ve used this for years—it’s got, like, sixty incredible botanicals. You just need three drops, and you do this kind of push-and-press method, where you push it into your skin. This is a real nutrient-rich moisturizing product that hydrates your skin and really helps add everything back into your skin that you might have stripped away.
Last is moisturizer. This Alpyn Beauty moisturizer keeps your skin really moist, which is great when I’m traveling or drinking alcohol and getting dehydrated. I like to use a little bit in the morning, and before I get on a plane, I do a nice extra layer to protect my skin.
7:55 a.m.: Now for a little makeup. Anytime I can get two products out of one, I’m always down. This Olio E Osso bronzer is wonderful on my lips and my cheeks for a little bit of color. This one little thing is my single most important item in my makeup routine: A serious multitasker, it pulls its weight.
I had not been able to find clean mascara that actually works for me, and this one is it. I know that it took her two years to develop this formula because it is hard to develop a clean mascara. It’s the most luxurious packaging, and I love the formula.
8 a.m.: I’d like to give the whole getting-ready process a bit more breathing room, but our tiny business is already up and running by 8, and the pups need a walk, and everyone is clamoring for something. I’ll take the time I can get!
