Health and beauty ambassador, style icon and mum of two, Millie Mackintosh reveals the products and practices that get her through the day.
The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning – being totally honest – is take my prescribed meds, which are next to my bed. I take them at the same time every day to help support my mental health. I also wear an Oura ring, which tracks my sleep, stress levels, and resilience, so it gives me a lot of statistics when I first wake up.
My husband’s usually still asleep. He’s more of a night owl, and I’m the early bird. I wake up around 5:45-6am, and my kids are still asleep, which is a bonus as I like having a bit of time to myself. I’ll go downstairs, take my shot of Symprove, which is a liquid probiotic, and I’ll sit and do my meditation.
I practice transcendental meditation – or ‘TM’ – which is mantra-based. Throughout the years my meditation practices have looked quite different at different points, but this is what’s right for me right now. I set a timer for 20 minutes and I sit and keep repeating my mantra, which really sets me up for the day. Sometimes I get interrupted by the kids, but I do it as often as I can.
I like to have a celery juice in the morning before breakfast, and I wait an hour before I have my first coffee. If I have more time to myself, I’ll try and catch up on some emails, because I have the most mental energy in the morning. I also really try not to go on social media for the first hour of my day.
Once the kids are up, I make them breakfast and have mine too, which is usually something like overnight protein oats or an omelette. I’m definitely not a skip breakfast person. I like to eat something, especially before exercising. Then I’ll do the school drop-off. I alternate days with my husband, so I’ll drop one of my daughters off one day, and the other the next, so I get to have one-on-one time with them.
After drop off, I’ll go to a class or to see my PT. I tend to either do reformer Pilates or strength training. I love the Megaformer – the classes at MAD Pilates and Karve are great. Otherwise, I do low-impact resistance training. I’m all about what’s going to protect my body as I get older and what’s going to help me be stronger. My body doesn’t naturally bulk up, so I have to make sure I eat enough of the right things and get that exercise in. I also run once a week, so I work out five or six times and have a rest day on the weekend.
I get home around 10, jump in the shower, and get changed. Or – like today – I’ll stay in my gym clothes [laughs]. I work from home, so my day is a combination of life admin, emails, zoom meetings, and creating content. I’ve just finished writing my book ‘Bad Drunk’, which is coming out in January. It’s all about my sober journey, and it feels great to talk about it. We just announced it, so it’s really exciting, and a lot of my time has been spent on that recently.
I’m in my mid-thirties, and it’s really annoying because I still get acne. I’ve got to worry about ageing and spots, which is just perfect! [laughs]. A friend recently introduced me to Dr. Sam Bunting. She’s so fab, and I love how straight-talking she and no-nonsense she is. I was using a mix of things before, and now I just use her line. So, I’ll use her cleanser in the shower, then I’ll use the Brightly Serum, intense moisturiser (I love the texture of it), tinted SPF, and a lip balm. I also love the Merit cream blusher for a hint of natural-looking colour – it works wonders if I’m feeling tired!
I love body brushing and a good body butter. When it comes to my hair, love the Pantene Molecular Bond Repair Intensive Mask. I just started going to Josh Wood and I’m slowly going a bit blonder, which is a nice change. I felt stuck in a rut with my hair but cut it short recently and it feels more youthful and is quicker to style!
I’m a real treatment junkie, and I love going for treatments – that’s my guilty pleasure. My husband thinks I do this weird thing, which is that when I’m really stressed, I book in to have like a painful treatment [laughs]. I think it’s because if I’ve got loads on and I’m really stressed, it just completely takes my mind off whatever’s going on.
I’m really into polynucleotides, which are salmon stem cells with amazing anti-ageing properties. I’m currently doing a course where they’re injected into my scalp, which is good for hair regeneration. I haven’t been doing it for long, but when I had a treatment yesterday with Sadaf Jaffari at her Chelsea clinic, she said she could already see new hair growing, so that’s promising.
I’ve also done polynucleotides under my eyes with Dr. Bibi. It’s different to using filler as it just makes the eye area more hydrated and smooth, but it doesn’t add volume so they’re not puffy. She does micro drops, so it’s lots of little injections and it’s very stingy. She also does my Botox and a little lip filler.
I’ve also done Morpheus 8. Quite a few painful ones actually! [laughs]. But I think these machines are where you actually see results. They work. I’m fascinated by the technology and if it’s out there, I’ll try it. Because if it’s preventative, it’s going to help in the long run. Hopefully with all of these amazing things coming out, you might not end up wanting to do anything really drastic in the future.
I get really dry lips, so I love the Tatcha lip balm, which is like a lip mask as it’s really thick. It’s always in my bag. I also love a face mist, like the Barbara Sturm one, and the Charlotte Tilbury foundation stick is amazing for touch ups during the day. It makes you look so glowy. The Merit cream blush is also a great one to have in your bag if you need to add a bit more colour to your cheeks.I also always have my Smythson diary on me because I find it really hard to remember everything and I like to have things written down. I’ll also have my wireless headphones, so if I get a bit stressed or I’m overthinking, I put on music or a meditation and do some guided breath work. I always some snacks because I get hungry and like to snack throughout the day. Things like nuts, berries, and probably some kid’s snacks [laughs]. Not forgetting my Trip CBD gummies – I take 1-2 a day.
Halfway through my morning, I make a smoothie with protein powder, greens powder, frozen berries, almond milk, and nut butter. It’s great to keep me going and to keep my energy levels up. I also love coffee, so I’ll have two Americanos with oat milk. One before I work out and one around lunchtime.
I take a few supplements. Recently I’ve been taking some from Vida Glow called ‘Hairology’ because I really want to boost my hair growth. When I was pregnant my hair was so long, and it grew so much. Now my youngest is nearly three and my hair just isn’t the same. I also take ‘Vitals+’ by Heights, which is a multivitamin and has loads of different nutrients and things like algae oil in it, and I also take organic sea moss, which is meant to be really good for digestion. I mix the Davinia Taylor electrolytes into my water every day too.
For a quick lunch at home, I’ll make something like salmon, brown rice, and broccoli. I really try and focus on protein at every meal and to tick off having veg, protein, and some carbs.
I pick up my daughter from school at 3:30. We’ll then usually go to the playground or for a play date with my youngest Aurelia. They have dinner around 5:00, and sometimes I eat with them because I like to eat early. I’ll make them something easy like meatballs and pasta. I’ve got fussy eaters [laughs]. I’m gluten-free, so I’ll have mine with gluten-free pasta, and they’ll have it with normal pasta.
They go to bed between seven and eight. It’s been a bit later recently because we just moved house and they’re sharing a room and just don’t want to go to sleep. Because I’m an early bird, I like to go to bed early. When I was pregnant, I was going to bed earlier than I ever had, and my body clock hasn’t really recovered, so I’m normally in bed by 9.
Some nights I have a bath and others I watch TV with my husband and end up collapsing into bed. But I always do my skincare routine. I use Dr. Sam’s cleansing water and her cleanser, which makes for a really good double cleanse. At the moment there’s so much dust in the new house, so that really deep cleanse so important. Then I use the ‘Nightly Serum’, and if I’ve got any breakouts, I’ll use the ‘Neutralising Gel’ before moisturiser. I like to keep things simple, as that makes it much more achievable and something I can actually do daily.
Just before bed, I take some Trip CBD Sleep drops and Heights magnesium. Sometimes I do a Yoga Nidra meditation on the Open App, which is a really nice body scan that helps me to decompress from my day and to go from that really overactive brain into sleep relaxation mode.
Sleep is so important to me. When you have kids, you’re so sleep deprived, and when your kids actually start sleeping it’s so nice to get that sleep back and to focus on it being really good quality sleep.
By Frankie Rozwadowska
