Hey, how are you?
nicole:I am good.
francene:I appreciate you jumping on. Thank you.
nicole:No, no problem. Mornings are. Super flexible. It's just, you're going to get this, this, I was not going to look like this. I was going to look cute for you. You know, I was going to do my makeup and I'm like, that's it.
francene:Well, I appreciate, I always feel like people make such an effort and then like, cause I'm working from home, I'm literally in like an old sweater. And the only thing I did was
nicole:lipstick. Whenever I'm home. I'm in like my lounge wear like my 10 cups here in my desk.
francene:I know. I don't know if you're the same as me, but I end up making like the most delicious coffee in the morning. And then I honestly don't finish it until 1:00 PM. I'm constantly heating it up. Why can't I just finish?
nicole:I feel like that's the thing with mom's like, I'll heat up my coffee. I probably hit this up already like three times, but I'm hoping I'll drink it right now with the
francene:well you look great. And I love that background by the way. And you're also blind.
nicole:It's like I'm wearing pink, pink wallpaper,
francene:or you trying to tell us that's your favorite color?
nicole:I tried for the longest time when I was a teenager. I'm like, I'm only going to dress in black now. I don't like, you know, I don't like pink anymore. Sorry. Where did you go? Oh, no. Sorry. Here it is. Um, and honestly, I think it was my favorite color. Yeah.
francene:I love, pink stock, the best color on me, but I just love color. Like, I'm fine with like a black dress when it's appropriate, but oh, I just can't stand. Not having like pops of something I just think is just so boring. Like imagine if you dress in black all the time. I
nicole:just can't. And my, my husband, whenever I want to like do the, oh, I'm aware of. A little black dress or something. He's like, no, what's wrong because I never, I never, I don't have a black dress in my closet anymore, by the way. Like never, never, never wear black, never wear brown or dark colors. They just don't like for me, like the bright colors make me feel. They make me feel great, especially now. I don't want to be wearing black.
francene:No, I'm the same, you know, the other color, that I've always wanted. I wear digressing, but the other color I've always wanted to be like, she can often cool enough to wear his white. Like I just can't. I just out with like marks on it or, you know what I mean? Like it never, I can never peel off. I always look a little bit during.
nicole:Oh, yes. Language, noise, body, student side or something, but I just, I'm not, um, I always spill stuff on myself, like makeup or. I'm like I'm I'm I have a white blazer. That's as far as I'm going, I'm not doing the whole pantsuit
francene:thing. Yeah, it'd be super cute though. Welcome. This is real beauty. D, as space where we talk about everyday products and make us feel fabulous while giving true reviews and insights into our skincare secrets. So whether it's a product that sells every second around the world, or it's a cult classic, we're here to find your little black dress in skincare and makeup. And each episode I'm bringing in a new personality to discuss all things, beauty and touch on their inspiring story. So today I'm super excited to have Nicole from lipstick and brunch. Let me just give a quick overview, even though you can probably give this yourself, but, so my understanding is you moved to Texas when you were around 25. which is interesting. Cause I actually moved to Texas when I was 25. Oh, yeah, I didn't, I didn't, yeah, I didn't put two and two together until I was doing my research. And the reason you came was to pursue your dream in photography, right? Which again is interesting. Cause we've been on a shoot together for you. Help me with my blog just to get some great pictures. And I know we bonded on our love of Jackie Smith and.
nicole:Because we're both score is November six, November 5th,
francene:November 5th as well. Oh my God. I forgot about that. I know
nicole:it's your birthday in November. And you're like, I just knew when you looked at me, I'm like, do we all have the same birthday? Oh
francene:my God. I know. I forgot God. Yeah, there's a lot. and then, so since you moved here, you have a great husband and a beautiful son. and you now showcase your fitness journey. How you kind of have that balance between indulgent food and then balanced recipes and also all things beauty. And I know we've already touched on it is just like bright colors, which I love. I love your, and if anyone hasn't looked at her content on, you know, her website or Instagram, but you always have the brightest content, like it genuinely makes me feel happy. I'm not gonna lie.
nicole:It makes me feel happy. So, you know, that's why I put it out there. Like, yeah. Color is like a feeling.
francene:Yeah, it's not. And even, um, I don't know how recent this is, but on a Monday I wait for you to poo in your inspiring message or quote, and I love it and I always share it cause I'm like, man, like we need to hear more of this, especially on a Monday.
nicole:Yes. Um, Mondays became more of a motivation Monday. Um, during the pandemic, I feel that I've been putting those out there for a long time, but I just needed, I mean, I needed those quotes. That's why I put them out there because I'm like, I need something that just tells me to keep going. If even if I don't do so much progress in whatever area of my life. Self care or like cooking or like exercise. I just want to keep going. And that's my message. Always like make progress. Don't try to be perfect. Um, so to me it can be like very little steps that is later going to amount to something great. So all my quotes would have that same thread of like, just keep going, just keep going.
francene:It's it's a good message though. And I think sometimes you just need to hear it, or, I mean, everyone's so busy, right? Like you're juggling work and even for you, so you're working, then you're also a mama, you're a wife, you know, you're keeping everything in check, but then you also have this hustle where, you know, you're such an established influencer and blogger, so it's then. You know, I'm sure like a part of it is pressure, but the other part is like, this is your passion. This is what you enjoy to do, but it's like, how do you find that balance of. All of that.
nicole:It's a lot. I also always say that sometimes I feel there is no balance. You're always sacrificing, sacrificing something. If maybe I had a nanny or a chef, I could just,
francene:oh my God, I would be so much more healthy. And the same if I had like a PT that came and just moved me every day.
nicole:There's just no balance. Even like I have a personal trainer and like, even that is a sacrifice, even though I have a trainer because he can only train me at three in the afternoon. But then that means when I come back, I shower, I have to go back to work. So even that, but I make it work. I make it work. I have to make it work because. The only time he has available. So yeah, there's, there's no balance. I'm always sacrificing something, um, like trying to do a better job for everything to feel balanced, like before. Come and sit in my office. I try to sit with my son for a while, or there's things that we do every morning. Like we always have to have breakfast together, always with my husband, always, and we always have to have dinner together. Lunch might get a little crazier because if he has a meeting or I have a meeting, we might just bring our lunch into the office. But breakfast and dinner, like the start of the day, end of the day, we're always. But, yes, I don't think there's a balance. Like it means I don't think I have a perfect. But
francene:even then, like, I'm sure, you know, when you're doing all the other stuff as well, and this is just for me, like, I need the release of exercising or like this podcast or going off and doing something for me in order to make me a better wife and a better mom, because I, you know what I mean? Like I just can't be that parent that just stays at home all day and continues to like entertain. It's like I also, for me to be better, I need that. Yes.
nicole:I agree with you. Like for me to be better, I need to feel better. And if I've been at home all day working and cooking, or, um, you know, my, my son who's a toddler has good days and bad days. Sometimes he's in here all the time and he's got a mess in my office. Sometimes it's, it's sort of, it's a good day. Um, but I, there are things I definitely do. To reenergize and refill, you know, one of them being everyday at three, I'm like, I'm out, I'm going, I'm going to exercise. And when I'm there, I put my phone away. And that hour, then I'm with my personal trainer. I, I focus on exercising and I do a lot of kickboxing and I just focus on being like the best. And it's, it just feels so great to have that time for myself where nobody's asking me for anything or, or just like for nothing. Um, and there's definitely things that I also do at home. Like whether if I take like a longer shower or I stay in the morning, just like in the morning, I always like to mask. But before calling you, I ripped off my ideals
francene:multitask.
nicole:It's funny because at my desk, which is where I spend the most time, I'm also multitasking and doing self care. Like I have, um, mass for my lips here. I have my new face here. So while I'm at my computer, I can just do my new face over here. So I always have stuff. I have my, my I elixir. Oh my God.
francene:That's, that's a good idea.
nicole:Not my desk the whole day. It really like, I don't have to leave my desk. I have, I have nail Polish here. Oh. Because my nails, that's like a thing. Like I love to do my own nails and I cannot see my nails look bad by the way. I swear by this, but it's the se it's the a C gel. It's the best, like I'm trying so many. So this one is on the higher price point at the drug store, but there's two that I swear by this one and the. It's the dry by telling Hanson dries so quickly, no lamp needed. And whenever I'm here and I noticed, oh, there's a chip. I just repaint them. So I it's funny, but a lot of my self care happened. Right here, because this is where I sit the most, but then I know that I'm doing my self care. I'm doing my, my new face, my lip mask, my everything's here.
francene:So, yeah, cause even I feel like I've not taken advantage of being at home. In that regard, like I take advantage of the fact that when I finish a meeting, I'll be like, okay, let me put the washing on, let me fill up the dishwasher. But I never about the things you can do at your desk. And you couldn't normally do if you're in the office that no one can see. And I'm the same, like why do I do my nails in the evening when I can just do them during the day, questioning
nicole:myself, you're typing. You're not going to mess up your nails. They usually dry. Especially with that Bosch, they grabbed pretty quick. I'll usually like at the start of the morning, have my mask on my, I Joe's. Um, so that happens here in the morning and that's kinda like my self-care too. And my recharge every day kind of doing something for myself every day in the morning. And then there's also when it's been a hectic day and I want to recharge where I'm like, okay, bye. I'm going to target walk at target and just being.
francene:Yeah, I'm the same targets, probably one of my favorite stores. And I think it's because it has a mix of like, you can find something cute, like fashion, they have accessories, but then they also have like, especially now they've changed up their beauty, um, area. Uh, yeah. It's so dangerous. When I go in, like I go in for, I pretend I need milk for my toddler. And then I come out and I'm like, whoa, I literally just spent like$105 and I'm unsure what I needed every time,
nicole:every single time. I'm like, but now I don't even care before I used to be like, okay, You know, I need to go get some milk bread or whatever. I need to relax. Goodbye. And I just leave. I don't even have the time to justify it
francene:well, and especially now the, of Starbucks. Right. Cause then it's a perfect combination of I'm going to grab a coffee. I'm going to walk around,
nicole:do your groceries. Oh, I mean, I could go on and on forever about. It
francene:is the best. So tell me about your relationship with beauty and how has that evolved over the years?
nicole:Well, um, I used to be the, um, you know, even as a little girl, I always used to have makeup, makeup, not skincare, the little girl. And whenever it used to come here to the us on a vacation for summer or something, I would take Caboodles for you, you know, Caboodles right. Like the Buddha goes, you know what those are now? What is that? I don't have them, but they're like a big like makeup cases for four, but there they have them at target. Actually. They've brought them back. They come in all these retro colors, like pink they're plastic. So I used to have these Caboodles. Um, cases and I used to fill them up with makeup. So I was always obsessed with makeup was always given makeup as gifts as a child, as a teenager. And I've always okay. Sprinkled a little skincare in there. Even in high school, I was more about makeup. And doing like the blue eyeshadow and all that. Um, I mean the blue eyeshadow, the frosty lipstick, classic
francene:classic nineties
nicole:slowly evolving, you know, did lipstick first eyeshadow then went into mascara then, um, then I started to care about skincare and back home. What I used to do was I used to do, uh, once I had, uh, once I got my job. At the newspaper. I used to work back home. I used to do a beauty column. So then I had this weekly beauty column come out, uh, and printed magazines, which maybe. Any young person that hears that is like, oh yeah, whatever. But
francene:that's the epitome of cool, like to be in an actual physical magazine, like that's the dream. Like anyone can do websites now. It's like,
nicole:I've never thought of it like that, but that's a good point. Um, to me, my ultimate was to be printed and I was a printed beauty column every week. And I really got into skincare then and I started to love skincare and. You know, a good Saram could do a good moisturizer, um, a good eye cream. So it was really an evolution of loving makeup, loving color. And I don't love eye shadow as much. Now I'm much more like, how can I, especially now, after I realized after losing weight, I need very little to feel better about myself because I love how makeup just, I mean, for me, makeup is. It makes me feel more confident or more beautiful. Um, it allows me to like make my, like one of my favorite things to use is foundation. Like, I love to create like an even canvas, but I'm more about that natural look like big lashes, um, dewy skin, even makeup that has skincare is something that I look for as.
francene:And do you think, um, do you think that's also changed because of a product of like your lifestyle now and not just, you know, the typical thing, like being a mom and like, we don't have time for stuff, but just in general, like just being like an adult and you have like more responsibilities, so it's like, are you going to spend, you know, an extra 30 minutes doing like your eye shadow when. You know, if you already look after your scan and you have that great canvas, it's like, you're just making tweaks. Like it's a lot quicker. Do you think that's a part of it or just in general, you've kind of changed what your perception of beauty maybe was back then?
nicole:Yeah. I mean, it's, my perception of beauty has changed so much because ever since I left. I see pictures of myself before and how much more effort I was putting into my makeup. Um, but I think that's because I was, you know, trying to feel good about myself. I'm like, okay, I look cute. I'm going to do my makeup, but now that I've lost weight. And I also, I also got Invisalign like a year and a half ago. So I feel like. I feel much better about myself. I feel that my face looks so much better than it did before. So like, yeah, I do little tweaks here and there. I try to take care of my skin care. Sorry, on my skin more so, yeah, I'm really just, um, tweaking. There's usually, sometimes I feel I'm in front of the mirror and. I don't have a plan, but as soon as I start to do my makeup, there's a moment where I'm like, oh, okay, this looks good. I'm not going to keep going. I don't wear makeup like I did before when we used to be out there all the time as well. For example, today is like a no-makeup day. For me, it's more like a tinted moisturizer. I usually don't wear makeup on the days that I'm going to go to the gym, for example, like,
francene:but on a Friday, right. Cause then you're have to, no one likes that's a no-no.
nicole:So I try to keep the makeup, um, at a minimal during the week, but then when Friday rolls along. You know, are we going to get some takeout with my husband? And I tried to do my makeup and look cute. You know, if we're going to have like date night or something, but it's just, everything has changed so much. Um, I was probably a person who did their makeup every day and now. Okay. I'll do my makeup on Friday and on the weekend.
francene:That's nice. So it's even just being like more comfortable, like in your own skin. Right.
Thanks so much for joining myself, Nicole. Please tune in next week and we will continue this fabulous conversation where we will go into more detail around Nicole's weight, loss journey. Some awesome motivational tips and we will continue down the beauty and makeup recommendations. Bye.