Welcome to Beauty Around the Clock, Marie Claire's weekly peek into the daily lives of the most influential women in their industries. How do these women manage to get through the day's work?

After years of battling personal skincare ailments, former medical students Olamide Olowe and Claudia Ten launched Topicals (opens in new tab), a skincare brand for young people suffering from chronic skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis. The top priority is to provide clients with effective treatments that are effective, but not clinical and not at all sexy; despite the setbacks caused by the Covid-19 crisis, the skincare brand officially launched this summer with a moisturizing mask and a brightening serum. Here, the co-founder talks about her morning routine, self-care rituals, and the importance of inclusion in the beauty industry.

Claudia Ten: I get up around 7:00 am. The first thing I do is check my planner to see what I have planned for the day and check all my plants. I have been making an effort to grow green thumbs. I have succeeded in germinating a few basil seeds and have six or seven other plants to take care of.

Olamide Olowe: I usually sleep 9 hours. The first thing I do when I wake up is meditate and read the Bible.

CT: My morning routine in quarantine is quite simple: shower and apply sunscreen. Since my eczema is particularly bad, I spend a lot of time in the morning applying prescription steroids. Under normal circumstances, I really enjoy taking the time to put on my makeup in the morning. It's an important ritual that makes me feel better for the day. In the morning, I shower with Necessaire Body Wash (opens in new tab), moisturize with Drunk Elephant Protini Polypeptide Cream (opens in new tab), apply Everyday Humans Resting Beach Face sunscreen and a steroid for eczema. My hair is quite manageable. It's fairly fine and straight, so when I get out of the shower, I just let it dry.

OO: I spend an hour and a half on beauty in the morning, and I like to double cleanse with Dermalogica's Precleanse Cleansing Oil (opens in new tab) and Eminence Stone Crop Gel Wash (opens in new tab). After that, I like chemical exfoliants (The Ordinary Glycolic Acid (opens in new tab)), Topicals FADED dark spot serum (opens in new tab), Like Butter moisturizer (opens in new tab), Black Girl Sunscreen (opens in new tab), and Vie Beauty 30 Roses hydrating spray (opens in new tab). I've been wearing braids lately and it's so much easier. I wake up in the morning, tie my hair up, and I'm good to go.

CT: I love bushy but sculpted eyebrows (opens in new tab), nice fluffy lashes, and nude lips (opens in new tab).

OO: colorful eyeliner (open in new tab) & dark brown lip liner (open in new tab), non-sticky clear gloss in Adejiole (open in new tab).

CT: I am a huge night owl. I'm really into strength training and heavy lifting.

OO: I was a D1 athlete in college and have been taking the last couple of years off my body so I don't work out much.

CT: I tie my hair back, put moisturizer on my face, Aquaphor (open in new tab) on my lips, and call it a day.

OO: I wear my hair back in a tight high ponytail to accentuate the angles of my face.

CT: Writing down everything on the day's to-do list, random thoughts, feelings, ideas, etc., helps me feel lighter and less burdened. Exercise is also a very important wellness/mental health practice, and even just stretching and unwinding for 10 minutes can help.

OO: Praying helps to regain focus under stress. Also, I always feel 100x better after a phone call with another female founder friend.

CT: I have eczema and very sensitive skin, so I don't really like scents that irritate my skin. I used to have a lot of trouble with scents, but now I've come to accept that they smell like me.

OO: My signature scent is Tiffany & Co. Tiffany Eau de Parfum (opens in new tab).

CT: Trader Joe's Vitamin E Oil (opens in new tab).

OO: Morphe setting spray (opens in new tab)

CT: YouTuber Sarah Cheung. growing up, I never knew how to apply makeup to suit my hooded eye shape. I admire how well Sarah handles her eye shape and owns her beauty and ethnicity.

OO: Kelly Rowland

CT: Georgina Gourley, founder of Billy. She found a category ripe for destruction, the razor, and made women's body hair cool and free of the pink tax. I love that Billy raised awareness about the pink tax and the real inequalities women face.

OO: Sheila Johnson, co-founder of B.E.T.

OO: I always felt like an outsider because of my skin condition.

CT: Olamide and I both grew up and lived with chronic skin conditions. I've always suffered from severe eczema, and early feedback on our products made me confront things I'd never clearly admitted: I couldn't use skincare that other people were using for fear of a reaction, and I was afraid to go to sleepovers and have my friends ask about steroids and pouches full of ointment. I was afraid of being asked, and I avoided things that are commonplace for others (heaters, swimming pools, hand soap, perfume, fragrance candles, hair dye). Skin diseases have always been stigmatized and not properly understood. We created Topicals to change this narrative, to contribute to those growing up with these conditions and to make them feel like they are a real part of the beauty community.

CT: I moved to LA, quit my clinical research job, and started this company with Olamide.

OO: Quitting medical school to start Topicals.

CT: Focusing on looking forward, not left or right. [Inch by inch, life's a cinch. a yard by yard, life's hard.

CT: I love the soft glam look and utilize it when getting ready for a night out. Something unexpected like bushy lashes, contour (opens in new tab), then always Nectar's Glossier's Colorslide graphic liner on the eyelid (opens in new tab), or Glossier's Niteshine (opens in new tab) highlight on the inner corner Add a pop of something unexpected like Glossier's Niteshine (opens in a new tab) highlighting in the inner corner.

OO: Glossy lids and glossy lips with Adejiole's non-sticky clear gloss (opens in new tab).

CT: Nighttime is when I focus on skincare as a self-care regimen for the rest of the day. I start with a jade scrape (open in new tab). I use this tool and vitamin E oil on my face and neck for at least 10 minutes. Then I use the Biosance Squalane and Antioxidant Cleansing Oil (opens in new tab). Next, use a moisturizing cleanser such as Cerave Hydrating Cleanser (opens in new tab) Every other day, use The Ordinary Glycolic Acid Toner (opens in new tab), then Bactiol Serum (opens in new tab). Next, apply Topicals Faded serum (opens in new tab) to dark spots and recent acne scars, and finally moisturize with Topicals Like Butter overnight mask (opens in new tab) to lock everything in.

OO: Drunk Elephant's Sly Makeup Melting Butter Cleanser (opens in new tab), Youth to the Peep Kale Green Tea Spinach Gel Cleanser (opens in new tab), Topicals Like Butter Mask (open in new tab).

CT: Petroleum Jelly. Petroleum jelly is often accused these days of being the same as gasoline, when in fact it has been refined and all potentially harmful toxins have been removed. It is a wonderful multi-purpose product.

OO: My hair hood.

CT: I usually don't go to bed until around 2 a.m.

OO: 10 p.m.

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