Our Morning Rituals, Vol. 1
Our Morning Rituals is a new lifestyle series in which the Attic editors give us a glimpse of their mornings – what do they eat? what products do they use? what do they read? In this first instalment, Editor-in-Chief Olivia Lindem gives us the first look.
To say that I'm not a morning person would be a lie. I love my sleep, but I love to savour my mornings even more than I love to sleep in. On any given day, I'll wake up and rush to make breakfast. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, even in its simplicity, and I refuse to wait for it. If I'm awake, I'm ready to eat. Thick slices of toasted bread, butter, jam, and a nice cup of coffee (one shot espresso mixed into half a mug of hot almond milk), and I'm ready to face the day.
Daniel Mallory Ortberg recently said that he wishes breakfast could take two hours so that it can be "like a French duke's," and I'm much the same. Even if it means waking up much earlier in order to be able to do so, I make my breakfasts last as long as possible. I eat slowly. I drink my coffee even more slowly. I don't unfold a crisp newspaper, but I take my time with my laptop, slowly reading blog posts and browsing Instagram as my fiancé reads out jokes from twitter and catches me up on current events. Sometimes, I read academic articles. My coffee often gets cold and I warm it up several times and then drink it cold anyway. (I really don't care.) This is my sacred time, the time that allows me to face the rest of the day with a calm state of mind.
Once I'm done with breakfast, I turn to my beauty regimen. I cleanse with Avene's lotion micellaire, apply The Ordinary's Buffet serum (a new step for me), and then apply Kiehl's SPF facial cream. Then makeup. I like to keep my routine simple – no matter what, I won't skip my Roche-Posay's mascara, my Bobbi Brown highlighter, or my nourishing lipstick (currently in "uber rose").
Then I get down to business. Lately, my days are made up of working on my thesis, writing, running my family home, and taking care of my grandmother. On a good day, I'll also fit in some reading. Once I've pulled myself together, I take a long walk with the dog (who thankfully for my routine, refuses to wake up before 10), come home, help my grandmother with her physical therapy, and then make lunch.
All pictured items author's own. Robe: old. Mug: Anthropologie. We may earn a small commission through some links in this post.