Last month, Nicole Richie spoke to SELF about her bedtime routine, where she talks about her curly hair rituals, her favourite wine, and how she teaches her kids to unplug. She tells Hannah Pasternak that she takes “care of every living thing in the house,” meaning both her pets and children, and begins winding down at 7:01pm.
Nicole revealed that she spends most of her day working on her brand, House of Harlow 1960, and hanging out with her kids when they’re not in virtual school. “Joel and I both travel all the time, and so it’s a lot of coming and going. I think this moment for us to really spend time with family has actually been really nice. We really love it.”
I didn’t sleep at all in my 20s, and I think to myself, Maybe that’s why I was so insane.
There are so many messages out there that you have to do it all. Everyone’s doing a million things, and we have to realize that self-care and rest is just as important, and you have to have that in order to be the best version of yourself. Something that [Harlow and I] talk about quite often—and even more so now with my kids in virtual school—is that having time to unplug is so important. That’s something that I feel like my whole family and I have been constantly having to discuss this whole past year.My bedtime routine, if it’s up to me, starts at 7 p.m.
At 7:01, I like to call it. I started that when my kids were young and they used to go to bed at seven. My friends would call me at 7:01, because that’s when I started to turn down. Now [my kids] don’t go to bed at 7 p.m., but I’m definitely trying to. So I start my routine with, well, it used to be tea. Now that has turned into wine. I’m very into Avaline wine right now. I just like to have a glass, a little splash of that, and get on the couch, watch some episodes of Yellowstone.If I take a bath, I take an Epsom salt bath.
Joel’s mom lives in Maryland, and she lives close to an Amish community. This community makes my favorite handmade soaps. So she sends me those soaps, and those are the soaps that I use at night in the bath. They’re great.I get out of the bath, put lavender oil at the bottom of my feet to calm me down, and apply all my grape seed oils and all the moisturizing things that I do. The lotion I use is Kiehl’s Creme de Corps. And then I have various oils that I use, but they’re not necessarily a specific brand. So I put on all my oils, and then wash my face with basically just Biologique products. I do a little face oil from Kora Organics.
I love talking to fellow curly-haired people, because the first question is always like, “What are you doing? What are you using?”
Kérastase makes a really great curly-hair care line. So that’s what I’ve been using, their shampoo and conditioners. Tracy Cunningham, who’s my hair colorist and also has curly hair, gave me this Khairpep hair mask that I use every day. [Editor’s note: Khairpep is now K18 Hair.] And then I’m using this Frederic Fekkai Brilliant Gloss Multi-Tasker. That’s actually made a very big difference in my hair texture.I know it’s the one rule of having curly hair is not to mess with it all day and put your fingers through it, and I do that 100 times a day, and what happens? It gets frizzy. But anyway, these products definitely help me not do that, which is good.
Then I go back to the couch, hang out for a bit, and then get in bed, and fall asleep reading.
I just finished On Beauty, and now I’m very deep into Lonesome Dove. When I’m traveling, I definitely have to have a book on me. I do like to travel with some lavender oils. I have a whole bag of things that I bring with me, like my candles and all that stuff, if I’m traveling. But I haven’t traveled in a year. I also always keep water next to my bed.I also take a few Olly gummies before bed. I love the Miss Mellow Olly capsules, and I love their Sleep gummies too. [Editor’s note: Richie is a spokesperson for Olly.]