A French Pharmacist–Turned–Beauty Founder on the Art of the 10 p.m. Evening Routine
NATACHA BONJOUT |founder of Bonjout Beauty
For many goop editors, and Gwyneth herself, the earlier the dinner (and bedtime) the better. After all, we sell a pillow embroidered with GP’s dinner-party rule: “Please leave by 9,”—and launched a beauty series, “In bed by 9,” inspired by it. But French pharmacist-turned-beauty founder Natacha Bonjout and I bond over being night owls. “I'm a late person. I love to work by night because nobody's calling me and there is no one to call,” she tells me.
As someone who would happily stay up until 1 a.m. if not for kids, Bonjout's evenings are sacred—whether she’s at her home in New York or in the south of France, or vacationing in St. Barth’s. Like many French women, she eats a late (but lighter) dinner—and she doesn’t rush through her beauty routine: “It’s very special, especially for French women,” she says of the double-cleanse ritual. “Even as a teenager, even if it was five in the morning, I would do my proper double-cleanse at night.”
While she doesn’t cut corners, she does look for efficiency in her skin-care routine—which is why, after three years and over 100 iterations, she launched La Cream, a “six-in-one” actives-packed moisturizer that works as a gentle retinol alternative. She follows it with her first hero do-it-all product, Le Balm, the final step in her skin-care routine.
Ahead, Bonjout walks us through her very French (and slightly unconventional) nighttime rituals—including why she always applies fragrance right before bed.
6:00 p.m.
My kids eat at 6 p.m., but I don't eat at the same time. Usually, I'm still working, but I'm working from home, so the kids know I'm there while they get into their pajamas and get ready to go to bed (we have an au pair who helps with the kids).
7:00 p.m.
By 7 p.m. I'm with the kids, enjoying time with them. I try to put them to bed between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., and this is really our moment together. Usually, we go to my bedroom, sit on my bed, read two to three books, then they go to bed, and it's my time to have dinner.
8:00 p.m.
I'm very lucky because my partner, Jean, loves to cook. We eat a bit late for Americans, but we also try to eat light. We eat a lot for lunch, like pasta, and then for dinner we’ll have something like a beautiful, colorful salad or a poke bowl.
I’m very sensitive to light, so I have dimmers everywhere. For dinner, I’ll put the dimmer at the minimum so it’s very spa-like and light a bunch of candles.
9:00 p.m.
Usually, I work again after dinner. I like it when everyone's asleep, and it's quiet, and that's when I like to do my writing—but it’s hard with kids waking you up early to get enough sleep. I try not to work after 10 p.m.
10:00 p.m.
I take a shower every night. I like to use a foaming cleanser on my face in the shower. For my body, I’m on my fourth bottle of the Corpus No Green body wash—I really love it. For both my body and my hair, it has to really smell like something. I try a lot of different shampoo and conditioner brands, but I love Roz’s products.
10:15 p.m.
After the shower, I use micellar water on a cleansing pad. I really love the Furtuna Skin micellar cleansing essence—it’s absolutely amazing. I just finished a bottle this week.
Cleansing for me is two steps mandatory: The first step removes your makeup, and the second properly cleanses the skin. I learned this from my mom, who was a nurse and always did this, even when she came home from a shift late at night.
Because I’m very sensitive to light, LED masks are hard, so I prefer to use a tool with red light and microcurrent in one, like the SKORR Glow wand. I love all-in-one products. Before I use it, I’ll apply a hyaluronic serum, or any water-based serum, because you need water to conduct the current. Sometimes, I’ll use that while we watch a show—I’m watching Love Story right now.
10:20 p.m.
Then I cover my entire body with a rich, heavy cream—I love that kind of texture. My skin is super dry, so I really like something very rich and balm-like. I use it all over my body. And for my face, I apply La Cream to bare skin—when you’re using La Cream, you're not using any other actives. I love to really massage my skin while I apply it so it gets fully absorbed.
10:30 p.m.
I use two La Bonne Brosse brushes every single day. I use No.4 when my hair is wet to detangle and massage the scalp. No.3, which has boar bristles, is great on dry or slightly damp hair to add shine or cleanse your hair before getting in the shower. Then I apply the RŌZ leave-in conditioner—my hair is very dry and this helps smooth and hydrate without weighing it down.
10:45 p.m.
I always apply Le Balm before going to bed—I keep it on my nightstand. I use it everywhere—my face, neck, on the lips, and on the eyes.
And then, as my final step, I love to put a very small drop of perfume on my wrist. It’s really my moment to reconnect to myself when I apply it—you know, my kids, they always sleep with their little stuffed animals, and this is my comforting moment where I feel, "Okay, you can go to bed now." You feel well, you recognize yourself, you smell like it's you. I am always trying new fragrances, but I love santal.
11:00 p.m.
When I’m ready to go to sleep, I put on a playlist of very natural, relaxing music and I set a timer for 15 minutes to help me relax while I fall sleep. And I try to never have my phone next to me. If I can, I put it in the kitchen, far from my bed—but I’ll at least put it on the other side of the bed next to my partner so I can’t grab it.