Alicia Keys's Guide to Wellness-Inspired Beauty, From How She Wraps Her Hair to the Skin-Care Secret That Gives Her That Glow

[jazzy, mellow music]

What's goin' on?

I'm Alicia and I am gonna take you

through my daily skincare slash wellness

slash haircare slash head wrap, okay?

So we about to get into it and have a beautiful,

beautiful time just connecting

in our bathroom 'cause where else do you connect with people

but in the bathroom is the best place.

I usually get up pretty early.

My husband's usually a little bit mad

'cause I'm out of bed so early.

He's like where are you going?

I might do a meditation, I might do a early workout.

I might just sit in some silence.

And once all of that's done, I come

into my bathroom and I love candles.

I'm a candle fanatic.

I light my candle and I believe in setting an intention.

There's something about lighting something,

something burning, that's very sacred.

And I will think about what it is

that I would like for myself for the day.

So let's say today, I'm looking

for clarity, I'm looking for peace.

I want to have more patience 'cause I am doing a lot

of homeschooling for the kids, right now.

And it takes patience, and sometime I lose it.

So I light that up and I'll put on the side.

[jazzy, mellow music] Boom.

Then, if I've been sweating 'cause I did my workout

or if I did my meditation, you have to wash the face.

My favorite thing to use right now is Osmosis.

My skin requires a little bit more strength when cleansing.

All right, so I get my little pump in, as much as I want.

I wet my hands, I lather it up.

Put it on my face, [grunts excitedly].

Gets all lathery and everything.

And now it's all about going up on the skin and on the neck.

So boom, I did that, deep cleaned it up.

And now I'mma wash it off.

Okay, so now I'm back, washed it off.

Feels good, I feel refreshed. [exhales sharply]

I've always cared about skin care,

but in way that was very frustrated

because I didn't always have good skin.

I've learned some of the secrets

and I've also found some products

that work for me 'cause everybody's different.

You gotta keep trying and you gotta keep finding what's good

for you and it's cool, sometimes it takes a minute.

Like for me, it too quite a while.

And one of the secrets that I

definitely picked up was water.

But for real, for me, I didn't really drink enough water

and I didn't even think about water

to be a part of my skin care regiment.

Water!

Out of a big ass jug like this! [chuckles]

I call this my coconut, don't it look like a lil' coconut?

Next up, I actually love this a lot.

Epicuren is one of my favorite brands.

I was always fascinated that if you put probiotics

on your face or your body, wherever you want,

how good is that?

So I love this mask.

This aloe vera calming gel, which is awesome, as well.

Like I said, I'm always looking

for something to calm it all down. [laughs]

I squirt it in my hand, as much or as little as you want.

Right there, that's about how much I got.

And then the mask, if you smell it,

it's almost milky or something.

It's very much of a powder so sprinkle it in there.

As much or as little as you want.

And you rub it together, and what I like

about it is first of all, it smells like there's food

on your face so you wanna eat yourself.

And then second of all, it has a little bit

of a grainy texture, a little bit.

And something about that feels good sometimes.

It's like an exfoliant, but not really.

It's still a calming thing.

This, I'll actually wait five minutes, this morning.

Maybe I'll make it 20 minutes.

Okay, dry it off, pat dry again.

It's off now, my skin feels really good.

I love this a lot, it's called sacred rose water.

Mm, smells amazing, oh my gosh, it's so good.

So basically, just spray your whole body

around a thousand times, as much as you need it.

And you take it in, you breathe it in, you smell it

and what I love about rose is that it's a heart opener.

It's literally a heart opener, which is why

one would give another person that they love roses.

It really does open your heart and don't we all need that?

You just need to open your heart, open yourself,

just be ready to receive all the good intentions.

And then, I'm rounding about the end

of my facial morning routine.

And I always like a good under eye something.

So this one's really cool and I like it,

especially because there's one

for day and there's one for night.

Just attention, things like that,

I get it too 'cause a lot of times,

we're not even paying attention to under the eye, right?

My mother said the other day she never put anything

under her eye for like a hundred years.

She's not a hundred, but whatever.

'Cause I get it and I feel like let's start now

to get all of these areas going well.

Finally, just a little bit of cream.

So this, it really smells quite good

and it's also a sunscreen, but for me, like I said,

my skin is very, very sensitive.

So I go very light, very light because cream,

sometimes, can be a little bit heavy.

This one is amazing, though, we love sunscreen.

We like to make sure our face has sunscreen on it.

It's so good for you.

And then, you have to have a good lip ointment, okay?

Y'all can't be around here with the dry lips.

Not gonna be a good thing.

So I love this one, mm, feels good.

And I've also learned that certain things

on the wellness side and on the intaking

into your body side, I've cut out dairy.

And also, believe it or not, getting rid of the breads.

Ugh, let me tell you, I'm the first person.

I am a bread-aholic and then obviously,

the fried foods, the oil and all that

in the skin is never really good.

Okay, so that's the morning, that's the routine.

That's the wash, that's the felling.

That's the wellness, that's the goodness.

Keep that going all day long, as much as you can.

Just take that time for yourself

and if you feel overwhelmed, if you get to a part of the day

and you just feel overwhelmed, escape to your bathroom

and just take some breaths in.

Exhale, [exhales], do that about 10 times.

And we're gonna move on to my hair routine

and how I wrap my hair 'cause so many people have asked me,

how do I wrap my hair, and I love head wraps.

They're so beautiful.

So what I do is first, I take out my hair.

I have a great oil that I use and this one

is Sahara Liquid Gold Argan Oil.

Mm, anything with argan in it, you feel good right? [laughs]

It's quite oily so it really depends on your hair type.

My hair type works with things like this.

Put it in, it smells really good.

You can put as much as you want.

Definitely get in on those ends.

Get into it and then, you can take your brush.

I love a hard brush, just a really good.

And you know, brush it, right, brush your hair.

What'd they used to tell you, brush it a hundred times?

A hundred strokes?

Okay! [laughs]

So brush your hair, stimulate you scalp.

Stimulate your scalp where it feels good.

I really love this hair mask.

I've been using that, lately.

Quite thick, but you're gettin' that love.

[funky, mellow music]

So if you were in the shower, you'd be able to put it in.

Smells good, too, so good.

My hair definitely takes a beating, for sure.

When I wear my hair in braids, you have

to actually be really careful because a lot of times,

the braids are very heavy or they're very very tight.

I'll do cornrows, which are so beautiful,

but they're very tight and so it's pulling your hair,

pulling your hair, all the time, all the time.

And so I definitely notice that

the haircare treatment is definitely super important.

First of it all, to give it a break and also,

just to really put some good nutrients in there.

So yes, my hair has taken its share of a beating.

And right now, it could use a trim, a cut.

It could use a lot of stuff right now,

but you know what, here we are.

And we gonna do what we can do in our own little bathroom.

And that's also good.

So I'm gonna go ahead and leave this

in all day because it's cool and then at night,

I'll wash it out or in a couple of hours,

I'll wash it out and it's all right.

It's just staying in there, doing good stuff.

So now that I did that, let me show you how to head wrap.

Now, I'mma flip of and get this up.

Mmkay, I'm back, see?

So you have to put the hair on the top of your head,

as close to the top of your head as you can.

One of the ways I like to do it.

There's obviously many ways to do it.

There's so many gorgeous ways to wrap your head

and it's such a beautiful tradition.

So you brush all your hair up into the place.

You get it up on the top of that head

and you find a good place, you know?

Like somewhere in the middle-ish, right here.

I like it really high 'cause then,

the wrap will sit up and will lengthen the neck

and it kinda gives a nice shape.

So that's what I'm doing.

Boom.

And then, take your hair tie and you're gonna put it in.

Do it as tight as you can handle it,

but don't kill yourself and don't kill your hair.

Then, I will basically do a basic bun.

The bigger your bun, the bigger the wrap, at this portion.

And I will just wrap another hair tie around it

and then, boom, it just stays there.

So it doesn't have to be all special looking at this point.

It's cool.

Usually my choice is...

This is not quite silk because

if it's too silky, it falls off.

So you have to get a scarf that's probably more cotton.

Like this material is not so slippery.

So the less slippery the material, the better.

Or else you'll be tugging at your thing,

all day, and it's a pain.

Depends how big you want it.

If you want it a little bit smaller,

go for the smaller scarf.

If you want a little bit bigger, go for the bigger scarf.

With the smaller scarf, you're gonna fold it in a triangle.

Like edge to edge like that, cool.

You're going to put it on the back of your head,

the long part of the triangle on the up part.

Then you're gonna wrap it around the bun like that.

So I'mma do the bigger one, because

that's what I'm in the mood for.

The larger rectangular scarf, you're going

to fold just in half, so it becomes a smaller rectangle.

And again, you're gonna start

with this long side behind you.

This is good, I never did this before, oh my God!

We're sharing, we're in our bathroom chillin'.

This is a real homegirl moment, I'm really feelin' it.

The long side that is the folded part

is gonna go behind my head.

Then, it's gonna get really long here.

Okay, I'm gonna cross it over in the front.

And then basically, I'm just going

to wrap it around my head, as many times

as it can because this is what we want.

We want it to start to get big.

Literally, I'm tucking the edges inside.

If you wanted it like this, you could totally go like this.

But what I do is I grab a second scarf!

Not the short, a long one!

So now this is the larger square and the patterns are fun.

You see how this pattern is, it's so cool

and the things I love the most is by the time I wrap it

on my head, you have no idea what the color is gonna be

or what's gonna feature 'cause it's art.

It's like a beautiful expression.

Again, this long part that's been folded,

I put it on the back of my head.

I'm gonna grab this tight because I want it to stay put.

Then, I'm gonna take this part

and my son actually put me on to this.

You see how I pull this this way so it's crossing

and it crosses up right here so you can give yourself,

almost a turban vibe, and up so that it has a beautiful,

triangle shape on your face, which will help your eyes lift.

And all the things that we want.

My son came up with this, he actually told me to twist it.

Twist the two pieces so that...

it could be more like a braid, a twist of sorts.

I twist them all the way to the bottom.

And it stays 'cause you pulled it really tight.

You're just thinking aw, look at me.

Even if I'm just gonna be able to walk around the block,

'cause I can't go anywhere, I'm still gonna be shining.

Take this, wrap it around.

I tend to like it tight, I like

that it gets these beautiful shapes.

I like that I can do what I feel.

This part is a little bit of the other scarf.

I take the last little bit of this twist part

and I literally just tuck it in.

That's it.

[funky mellow music]

You see that?

Ah!

Oh you do have to take your ears out because they get stuck.

If you want extra security, it's just boom.

And then it becomes whatever it becomes

and it's just beautiful and you get to be cool as hell.

I take another hair tie, a regular hair tie,

this one's big so you gotta stretch it,

and I literally just wrap it around like that.

Tuck it in, you can't see it anymore.

And then, it stays all day.

All day!

All right, well this is it.

My skin feels great, I feel like I set my intentions.

My head wrap is poppin' so I can go

do whatever I'm going to do.

Right now, I'm gonna go check on Egypt

and make sure that he's doing his school work.

[laughs] So I'll check on him like this and feeling amazing.

That's just it, y'all.

I'm so glad that we could connect.

Sending you love, muah!

Bye.