Nikki Wolff

For in-demand makeup artist and Instagram star Nikki Wolff, Sundays provide the opportunity to switch off and partake in some serious pampering with a hefty number of scented candles thrown in for good measure. Read on to discover why she relishes the surprise factor of a busy schedule and how she unwinds when she does get the chance…

nikki wolff sunday sessions

The Wind Down

I don’t have a set schedule so my Sunday nights could be like other people’s Tuesday nights. I try and keep my Sundays free but it does vary depending on where I am in the world and what I’m doing. If I have a Sunday off I try to have the day with no makeup on; I like to give my lashes and skin a chance to breathe without too much product on my face, so I’ll just put lots of lovely skincare on. If I am having a no makeup day, I tend to have a day when I give my hair a break as well. I wash my hair daily and put mousse in it so I try and put a nice treatment in it instead. I’m an everything skincare person, but I do like to use products with lots of vitamins in, so I always use a vitamin C serum and some vitamin A because I find they really help with pigmentation. That’s my main skin concern, that and dryness.

I like to set the scene for my beauty routine, I have candles everywhere every night. I like quite varied scents, a lot of Diptyque, the Mauli Sundaram & Silence Candle, it makes the house smell like a spa and I kind of love that. I also love quite musky, rose-y, heady scents. I really like the Oskia Rose de Mai Skin Smoothing Massage Candle, I adore that. I once had a boyfriend who tried to ban me from buying candles. He walked round my flat and said, you have 37 candles, you need to stop with this obsession. That relationship didn’t last long! My boyfriend now knows better than to tell me not to buy candles! I try and focus on the moment on a Sunday. We all get so little downtime and obviously combined with social media and the amount we work, that if I actually have an evening off, I try and have an evening off and enjoy it.

nikki wolff sunday sessions

The Routine

I vary with cleansers depending on what makeup I have on. I’ll use a balm like Sarah Chapman Skinesis Ultimate Cleanse if I’ve got heavy makeup on and then I’ll use a wash to make sure my skin is extra clean. I love the Dr Dennis Gross Alpha Beta Pore Perfecting Cleansing Gel. Then I use the This Works Evening Detox Cleansing Water just to make sure everything is off my skin, and then after that I might use the Kat Burki Retin-C Treatment Complex which I love. At the moment I’m using a few things to hydrate, I like the Dr Sebagh Supreme Maintenance Serum and then I follow that with a moisturiser like Colbert MD Soothe – Night. I’ll put everything on really carefully and make sure everything has time to work, leaving a little room around my eyes for eye cream, then I’ll use a lip treatment like the Kiehl’s Buttermask for Lips, a lash serum, everything. I also use the Sarah Chapman Skinesis Overnight Facial, it’s just an all-in-one magic product that makes your skin feel completely comforted and then nourished in the morning. What I love about it is that it’s almost a cross between a serum and an oil because it actually feels like its sinking into the skin but it’s got that lovely oily texture that means it quick and easy to apply. I love masks; I like both wipe off and sheet masks. I’ve been using a Dr Sebagh mask, the Deep Exfoliating one — I don’t like to use a grainy scrub, I prefer to use a mask like that that’s gentle and doesn’t scratch the surface of the skin. I adore 111SKIN sheet masks too. I generally like a hydrating mask as opposed to a clarifying mask but I do love this one from Glamglow, the InstaMud 60-second Pore Refining Treatment. It depends totally on what my skin needs at the time. I also love Perricone MD’s H2 Elemental Energy Firming Foam Mask in the morning, it’s incredible and I just put it on when I’m brushing my teeth, just for 5-minutes. It’s so refreshing and firming.

nikki wolff sunday sessions

I’m a shower person all the way. I tend to be a bit lazy with scrubs, but I do use an Aromatherapy Associates Bath & Shower Oil and spend a bit of time applying it before I shower. I just think it leaves skin feeling so nourished and you smell like a spa afterwards, I love it. I love a highly fragranced shower gel, at the moment I love Byredo – I use their hand soaps and creams in my bathroom just generally too. I still moisturise when I get out; I’m using By Terry Liftessence Neck Cream which I adore. I always use a neck and chest cream, I like it to be separate from the rest of my body care. I feel like your neck and chest are an extension of your face and need different skincare to the rest of your body. I’ve  found since I’ve started doing that, it actually makes a difference. What else I use totally varies on what product I have at the moment; right now I’m using the Ouai Rose Hair & Body Oil which I love. I really love layering fragrance – I like my shower gel being a difference fragrance to my body cream and to my perfume, I think it just adds to everything. And then you’ve just got a multi-layered effect. It also means no one else smells like me!

I wash my hair every day. It’s always about more moisture when it comes to my hair. Because I wash it every day so it looks nice, obviously that can be really drying, so I load it up with as much moisture as possible. I use a mask every time I wash instead of a conditioner, I really like the Christophe Robin range of masks and treatments, and I also love the Delicate Volumising Shampoo with Rose Extracts – I love anything with rose in it. When it comes to styling my hair I always blow dry it. I’ll wash it then put a mousse in and then a serum or a cream in the ends and then blow dry it. It takes forever to do and is quite a commitment, but it’s so damaged at the moment so I’m really trying to give it a break at the moment and not do it on the days when I don’t have anything important on.

Bedtime

I don’t have a set bed time on a Sunday, it just totally depends on what I’ve done that day and when I’ve got to be up the next day. I love the fact that I don’t have a routine, I don’t think I could be a routine kind of girl. When I used to have to get up for school or when I had a job that required it, I used to struggle with it and with the monotony of it being a daily thing. I love the fact that every day is different and it’s why my skincare is so different all the time because I literally cater for what I’m doing each day. I have some beauty products on my bedside table – I always keep my lip treatment on there so that I can put it on before I go to bed. If I’ve had a really stressful week I use the Calm app, I listen to the Sleep Stories on there. This is going to make me sound like an old lady but I’ve recently discovered this story on there from a guy in America who paints pictures and talks you through what he’s painting and how he’s doing it – so what paint colours he’s using and how he’s painting the sky and the different brushstrokes and stuff. It sounds really boring but actually as you’re listening to it, the image develops in your mind and it’s so relaxing. I’m a bit of a hormonal sleeper, so there’ll be times in the month when my boyfriend and my friends will be like, I’m not sure how you’re functioning on so little sleep, because I’ll get like three to four hours a night. Not because I can’t sleep well, but because I’m just so busy and then I’ll get home and have stuff to do. Then there’ll be other times when I’m just exhausted and I’ll need a good eight hours to get by. So I guess that’s the time when I slightly catch up. But yeah I can’t do periods of no sleep for very long, I can kind of do two days and then I need to catch up a little bit. When I am feeling hormonal and like I can’t sleep very well, that’s when I’ll try the Calm app or drink a sleep tea. I set an alarm every night, if you looked at my alarms, they range from 3.30am to 10.30am, there’s literally no routine at all.

nikki wolff sunday sessions

Monday Morning

I can’t do the snooze thing, it does my head in when my boyfriend presses snooze. I’m like, you’ve just snoozed for half an hour but you woke me up half an hour ago! I’m pretty ready to get going on a Monday, I love my job so I feel like that most days. For my morning skincare routine I’lI use one of the same cleansers I use on a Sunday, Sunday Riley Tidal Brightening Enzyme Water Cream and then I really like the Dr Sebagh Pure Vitamin C Powder Cream for targeted treatment of my pigmentation, plus it’s fun to use because it kind of melts in.

nikki makeup sunday sessions
Image: @nikki_makeup