Journalist Elena Kravtsun about well-being and favorite cosmetics
For "Available" we study the contents of beauty cases, dressing tables and cosmetic bags of interesting characters to us - and we show all this to you.
About care
When I was only offered to participate in this category, my first fears looked like this: "Bozhechka, I will have nothing to show." The fact is that I do not use some kind of super-expensive makeup, I do not choke Montale, I do not test limited palettes. To be honest, I have never even painted my hair. For the glimpse of ombra on my hair, thanks to the Balinese holiday sun. What was my surprise when I "woke up" on the set and realized that I had dragged about thirty cans and left as many more at home.
In general, my relationship with cosmetics began quite late. My mom was always sure that natural beauty is the best beauty in the world (but she didn’t have any vintage clothes and especially shoes), so retrogirls like Brigitte Bardot taught me to draw my favorite teacher of solfeggio in a music college, an incredibly elegant lady in fragrant cloud J'adore by Christian Dior. My outrageous experiments always concerned clothes (in college I managed to wear acid tights and miniskirts without blushing), but not makeup. I came to a more conscious attitude towards care and make-up after I started having skin problems - rashes and that's it. Through long trials and mistakes (among them including chemical peels), I came to the cosmetics series Effaclar of the French company La Roche-Posay for problematic and oily skin. It is hypoallergenic, without parabens, sold in a pharmacy, and it always captivates. Every day, I use their cleanser, a pore-tightening lotion, and a soothing moisturizer.
If I did not get enough sleep and woke up with swelling under the eyes, I immediately sculpt myself patches. I once flew to the Cannes Film Festival and at the Nice airport I saw Frenchwomen who were not hesitating to go on landing in these very patches. So now I'm not too shy, and I can safely ride with them in a taxi, as if this is my French style.
About gadgets
I turned on all sorts of technological gadgets and innovative technologies. Twice a week I use Clarisonic Mia 2 for facials. First, I like the vibration, however strange it may sound. Secondly, with her my face is literally washed down to squeak, I do not know how with my hands. My morning begins with a meeting with my beloved Philips Sonicare sonic toothbrush. She does not need to actively carry the teeth, she will do everything herself, even the “novice” mode is provided for the most fearful. With her appearance, my planned trip to the dentist is not threatened to turn into an execution with a drill. On all business trips, I take with me a machine to create curls BaByliss. Being in a new city, I don’t always have time to run into the salon before the event, and here you can do it yourself and in a matter of minutes. I apply thermal protection, take a curl, the machine itself draws in, and the result is beauty.
About vitamins
If many of the trips bring aromas, souvenirs, vases, then I usually carry vitamins. In Norway, I bought omega-3 fish oil, I drink it all the time, I brought a complex with magnesium from Vienna, and I was carrying 1-day vitamins of different brands from Los Angeles. I especially liked the vitamin-mineral complex New Chapter. It smells, of course, specifically, but it is from organic vegetables and herbs. You can suffer. For hair, I drop it with Pentovit, rubbing nicotinic acid into my scalp (ten days later, my head is covered with downy hair) and tons of avocado. Once a week (more often, unfortunately, it does not work out), I apply coconut oil on my hair, which I take in liters from Bali. It also helps to get a gorgeous tan.
About the relationship with the body
I must say that a month and a half ago, an amazing thing happened to me that completely changed my view on my own body. I have long wanted to go study the technique of speech. I am a writing person, and I don’t have to speak much, so I wanted to develop this skill. The course was extremely unusual. The first was an exercise to relax the whole body in a chair by Lee Strasberg, from whom Al Pacino and Marilyn Monroe studied. And then I realized that I know almost nothing about my body. I am always busy with my thoughts, articles, heroes of interviews, deadlines, traffic jams, but I don’t have enough time for my own tailbone or my right knee, but I don’t have others anymore. It just dawned on me that, besides my head, I have a body, which I recall, only if something is sore. And you also need to love him, pay attention to him.
In general, someone will think that this is obvious, but the time pressure, in which I occasionally stay, covers everything. And here I am, sitting in an uncomfortable metal chair, gradually learned to relax and concentrate on myself, to breathe hot air from the abdomen. Then we already had sounds, tongue twisters about "maneuvered, but not vylavali" and exercises for emotions. You have no idea how happy it is to return to the childish state and, having relaxed the jaw, utter one or another sound. I again fell in love with my voice, I realized that I basically like to say and sound. Now every morning of mine starts not only with a playlist from Apple Music, but also articulation gymnastics for lips and tongue.
If we talk about sports, then there was also technology without it. In order to get in shape quickly, I got hooked on an EMS workout. You are put on a special suit with wiring, and the coach first conducts cardio, and then begins strength training. You do the press once, and the muscles get charged, as if you crouched twenty times. As my trainer told me, this technology seems to have been developed for astronauts who have muscles that atrophy in zero gravity, and with the help of EMS they quickly return to normal. At the end of the workout the most buzz is lymphatic drainage massage. I love manual massage too. Once a month my husband and I go to a spa for a Thai massage, just disconnect and relax. During holidays in Bali we go for a massage almost every day. And I try to get enough sleep. Sleep is my favorite pastime, and then there's cinema, music, theater. I drink a lot of water, although I am a wild coffee lover. But I try to have two cups of water for one cup of coffee I drink.
About self-development
Without mentioning psychotherapy, talking about my attitude to beauty will be incomplete. I first turned to a psychoanalyst about four years ago to sort out personal relationships. Those sessions helped me very quickly. Now I’m trying to build my relationships with the outside world correctly. We talk about the psycho-types that I encounter at work, about reputation, about forming a personal brand and managing emotions, and this is rather not even psychotherapy, but real life-coaching, which I really like. Usually, when I mention among my acquaintances that I visit a psychoanalyst, they ask: "Why? Can't you ask yourself the right questions yourself?" The fact of the matter is that psychotherapy helps not to get hung up and look at your situation from a completely different side. After each meeting, I leave happy and on the rise.
