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In one memorable scene from the movie Sex and The City 2, the always-optimistic, always-happy-to-be-a-mom Charlotte York-Goldenblatt (played by Kristin Davis) was portrayed as having a rare moment of discomposure after being trapped alone in an uproar of domestic chores. Caught in the crossfire between an infant throwing a tantrum and a preschooler screaming for attention, she finally loses it when her oldest daughter stains her immaculate cream-colored Valentino skirt with red cupcake icing. Ashamed by her display of rage, she retreats to the kitchen pantry in tears, only to be rescued moments later by her Irish nanny, who whisks the children away like a fairy godmother taking pity on a damsel in distress.
Charlotte survives the ordeal with the kind of grace and fortitude expected of a sophisticated fictional movie character. Following a madcap holiday in Abu Dhabi with her girlfriends, she comes back home to her family much stronger and more excited to fulfill her role as a loving wife and homemaker.
Of course, not everyone can afford to wear designer clothes while baking with their kids. However, as with everything else in life, anyone can afford to be stylish if they know how to make pieces work in their favor. In this short article, we are laying out some of the best tips to help you achieve your goal of becoming a fashionable mom—and maybe even becoming the ultimate domestic goddess in your own way.
Know in Your Heart That Being a Mom Is a Job, a Very Important Job
If you want to feel empowered about being a stay-at-home mom, first make sure that you are wholeheartedly accepting this role. Being a stay-at-home mom is no joke, and it is a job that is going to be a very demanding—albeit also rewarding—one.
While you cannot expect to be perfect in everything that you do, it helps to have a willful, deliberate intent to embrace your role and to realize that what you will be doing will be as challenging as having a full-time job. Indeed, it will be even more so if you also work from home or run your own business aside from taking care of your children.
Choose Apparel That Helps You Feel Effortlessly Put Together
One of the advantages of being a stay-at-home mom is that you don’t have to worry much about wearing work clothes. However, that does not mean you should settle for outfits that make you look lousy, unkempt, and generally not put together. Just because you can wear comfortable legwear at home, that does not mean you have to look like you’re in your jammies all the time.
Here at No nonsense, we believe in creating apparel that make women feel courageous and confident. It’s true that our leggings, tights, and other products deliver comfort while allowing optimal freedom of movement, but they also look good on the wearer, providing the perfect fit while highlighting the best features of their body. These are the clothes that you’ll want to wear every day for everything, from cooking meals and cleaning the living room to attending client calls and working in front of the computer.
Create a Capsule Wardrobe That is Timeless and Easy to Mix and Match
While you might think that you need thousands of dollars just to update your closet as a stay-at-home mom, you have the option of coming up with a capsule wardrobe—one that contains the most important foundational pieces for your everyday style.
The thinking behind capsule wardrobes is quite simple: buy less clothes, find more high-quality pieces, and wear them more often. Deciding to have a capsule wardrobe encourages you to think more about what you wear daily. By considering your current needs and circumstances, you will be able to edit your wardrobe down to the essentials, allowing you to keep only the pieces that deliver the most impact.
With a stay-at-home mom capsule wardrobe, you can expect to have a lot of casual pieces and accessories, but again, the goal is to not settle for an overall wardrobe that is too casual. Aim to have pieces that will allow you to easily elevate your outfits to a smart casual or a casual chic level instead. For example, you might choose to wear black opaque tights, but instead of just wearing them with a simple dress, you can also throw in a beautiful knit sweater or a blazer to instantly bring your look together.
The idea of a capsule wardrobe is to reduce everything down to a more manageable scale. Include pieces and accessories that are 1.) high quality, 2.) stylish and useful no matter the season, 3.) easy to mix and match, and4.) will allow you to achieve different levels of comfort and style by the simple act of pairing and layering. This will make it easier for you to dress up when you need to work or run errands, and then to dress down again when you are back to doing mommy-related tasks.
Opt for Routines That Deliver Great Results with the Least Amount of Effort
When you are juggling your motherhood duties with your other responsibilities, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and to feel guilty that you’re not doing enough to take care of yourself as much as you used to. However, it might just be a matter of finding low-effort, high-impact ways of stepping up your beauty and grooming game.
For example, putting your hair in a braided bun is an easy and almost-instantaneous way to make yourself look more put together, whether you need to run to the grocery store or attend a Skype conference with a client. Another example is using tools that will help you elevate your look without eating away too much of your time. Instead of setting up an appointment with the salon, for instance, you can consider quickly running a curling wand through your hair to get those salon-worthy locks without you having to spend an hour or two with your hairdresser or paying them a single cent.
Another easy trick is the French tuck for when you are wearing a top that’s just a little too loose and you don’t have time to change. Otherwise known as the “half-tuck” or the “one-hand tuck,” the French tuck consists of just tucking in the front of your shirt, allowing you to instantly add a little bit of polish to your look.
Choose Beauty Products That Instantly Enhance Your Natural Beauty
You can apply the same principle of choosing products that deliver the biggest impact with the least amount of effort by refreshing the beauty products that you use daily. For example, if you want an instantly brighter smile, consider wearing lip products with blue undertones as opposed to orange undertones. The blue base can help create an optical illusion where the hints of yellow that may be present on your teeth will be cancelled out without you having to resort to any teeth-whitening regimen.
In a similar manner, you can use a green concealer to help cancel out any redness in your complexion. This is made possible by the fact that green sits on the opposite side of the color wheel from red. Or if you simply desire to achieve an instantly airbrushed complexion, an all-around BB cream in a color that is appropriate for your skin tone should do the trick. BB cream is an Asian beauty secret and is a simple way to achieve glowy, radiant looking skin, without requiring much effort in between changing diapers or preparing lunch for the little ones.
Bronzer is another item that you will want to have in your bag of daily beauty essentials. Using bronzer to set your makeup can immediately make you look more luminous. This product is the perfect pick-me-up for when you just want to brighten up your complexion without tanning your skin or applying complicated layers of makeup.
Being a stay-at-home mom is tough, so you are forgiven for not wanting to worry about the time-consuming matters of fashion and beauty regimens. However, tending to your wardrobe, makeup, and grooming will be a whole lot easier once you pinpoint the products and techniques that deliver the most impact. Incorporating some of these tips will help make you better prepared to face the world without the extra effort and without compromising your duties to the people who are most important in your life.
