There are influencers, and then there are Influencers. Brittany Xavier is the latter. She was part of the first wave of fashion bloggers, starting her blog Thrifts and Threads back in 2013. Since then, she's remained a source of inspiration for her 1.7 million Instagram followers. While many influencers scrambled to stay relevant during the pandemic, Xavier's audience only got bigger, bringing her fashion and lifestyle expertise to TikTok, where she's amassed 4.5 million followers.
Xavier's family is also growing—in August she welcomed her second daughter, Poppy. Like any new mom, she's noticed a few changes to her skin postpartum. “During my pregnancy, I was eating so healthy that I feel like my skin did have that ‘pregnancy glow,’” Xavier tells Glamour. “I feel like I was really self-aware during my pregnancy with what I was putting in my body, because I knew that whatever I was eating, I was giving it to my baby. I do feel like that helped my skin. I really think that affects it, even though you want to think it's all just everything you put on your face, but I really do think you are what you eat. But now I'm really having to make a conscious effort to drink a lot of water because I do feel like I'm a little bit more dehydrated now. I think it's just because I'm breastfeeding and I'm drinking a lot of coffee just to keep up with my life, so I do think I don't have that glow as much as I had before.”
That being said, Xavier's skin-care routine has largely stayed the same, as she's been sticking to the same simple, clean routine she's sworn by for the past two years. After dealing with consistent irritation that even a dermatologist couldn't clear up, she discovered the book called Skin Cleanse, by Adina Grigore, that completely changed her routine. “It was really interesting because it recommended that I just wash my face with water for a week and not use any products,” she says, “so I did that and my skin cleared up, and I wasn't using anything.”
“It also told me to up my green-vegetable intake too, and I was impressed with the fact that I didn't have to use any products to balance my skin,” Xavier continues. “It took a week to adjust. At first, my skin felt a little too oily, in the middle it felt dry, and then by the end of the week, the redness was gone. It was really an experiment to show me that I need to do less with more with my skin. After that, I cleared out all my products that were potential irritants with any fragrance, perfume, parabens, and sulfates, but really changed my outlook on skin care because I felt like, before, I was almost using too many things. Now I try to stick to the basics, and make sure that items I'm using are safe because I do have really sensitive skin.”
Sometimes “the basics” include a few carefully selected products, and other times it means doing nothing at all. “Some days if I know I don't have to shoot anything or if I'm not going to be out, I will just not worry about putting on anything,” she says. “I won't put on oils. I just want to do something else and not worry about a skin-care routine. I will take a break in a way, but it's not usually a conscious break.” Since doing the skin cleanse, Xavier says she hasn't dealt with any major skin issues, save for the occasional hormonal breakouts. Instead, she's focused on staying dewy and moisturized and targeting some fine lines.
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