One thing I was absolutely not prepared for when I got pregnant is that your beauty routine has to change pretty significantly. When I was pregnant with my first kid, I didn’t really understand how to develop a pregnancy beauty routine and HATED my skin for the entire 9 months because it seemed dull, dry and had a lot of breakouts.
However, the second time around I had already played with a few new products and found that by using the right beauty routine, my skin looked even better than normal. Everyone’s skin and pregnancy experience is different, but here are a few things I found that were pregnancy safe and helped me have a major glow up while pregnant.
Pregnancy Beauty Tips: Cut Out Harsh Chemicals
If you take a few minutes to read about what you’re not allowed to use on your skin while pregnant, the list is pretty long.
For example, I had consistently used an acne gel with benzoyl peroxide and a night cream with retinol, both of which are off limits when you’re pregnant. When I cut these things, I felt like my skin looked really dull, and worst of all, I started breaking out like crazy. That might not sound like a big deal, but gaining weight during pregnancy already is hard for self-esteem, and having really scary-looking skin made me feel even worse.
It took me several months to find a replacement for the item I had to cut, but the best face line for a pregnancy beauty routine that I’ve found is from Drunk Elephant.
The Drunk Elephant line is fairly expensive, but it works really well, and it’s also considered a clean product that is pregnancy safe (all except for like 2 of their products, which they specify on their website). A good way to check and see if something is “clean” and pregnancy safe is to check out the Sephora website, and steer yourself to things marked as “clean” at Sephora.
I have liked everything I tried from Drunk Elephant, but it’s also pretty expensive so I try to avoid buying the entire line. My three ride-or-die items are the Vitamin-C serum, the all purpose moisturizer and the TLC Framboos nighttime serum. I felt like these made the biggest difference for me and entirely cleared up my pregnancy hormonal acne, plus they made my skin seem to glow.
I didn’t want to drop major $$$ before knowing that these would work, so I bought the Littles kit, which has trial-sized samples of almost the entire line, which should last you for about a month if you’re using them every day. I did this before buying the larger sizes, and I think it was well worth the money for a month’s worth of skin care and for a guarantee that the money I was investing was worth it.
Pregnancy Beauty Tips: Use Almond Oil Obsessively to Avoid Stretch Marks
Okay, this one isn’t for your face, but it’s CRUCIAL. I read in a book that using sweet almond oil (for skin, not to be confused with the cooking kind) keeps you from getting stretch marks, if you use it consistently on your stomach. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I didn’t get stretch marks during my first pregnancy, and I was religious about applying it every morning and night. I also really liked this option because a large bottle only costs around $10, making it way cheaper than a lot of other pregnancy oils. Plus, it’s all natural.
I found that overall my skin is dryer when I’m pregnant, so I also used either a heavy lotion or oil all over my body every day after getting out of the shower.
Pregnancy Beauty Tips: Use An Alternate Eye Cream
Like I mentioned earlier, a lot of the eye creams on the market contain retinol or other harsh chemicals, and I wanted to avoid those while pregnant without letting the skin around my eyes become dull or dehydrated. My mom has always sworn by using Vaseline, and I used that while pregnant both above and below my eyes as a moisturizer. Maybe I just love a good, cheap hack – but seriously, my eyes looked even better than they do when I use anti-aging creams or skincare. I think the extra moisture, especially while pregnant, makes a big difference.
If you are wanting more of a deep moisturizer for your entire face and eyes, I really like the Jet Lag Mask by Summer Fridays. It’s called a mask, but it’s really more of a deep moisturizer that I leave on all night and don’t wash off. It works really well, and it’s a beauty staple for me.
Pregnancy Beauty Tips: Use Sunscreen SPF 30+
I hope you’re wearing sunscreen anyway, but if you’re not, you should start now. There’s a lot of research about how your skin is more susceptible to sun damage when you’re pregnant, with some stats saying up to 50% of women will get some form of sun spots on their face while pregnant. I am always really into wear sunscreen, so I always use a moisturizer with sunscreen that’s usually SPF 30 or higher.
These are some of my favorite moisturizers with sunscreen, and I recommend using one every morning even if you don’t think you’ll be going outside.
Depending on where you live and how much sun exposure you receive, you might also want to wear sunscreen on your arms and legs. When I lived in the Mediterranean the sun was very strong and caused me to get a few freckles even when I wasn’t pregnant, so I always made sure to wear sunscreen on my arms and legs before going outside. In the US, I do this a little less since the sun seems to not cause as much damage, unless it’s the middle of summer.
Pregnancy Beauty Tips: Keep Your Tan
If you’re worried about keeping your tan while pregnant (let’s be real, you feel way better when you’re tan), don’t worry – it’s still possible. I personally continued to use moisturizing lotion that had a gradual self-tanner in it while pregnant, and it was totally fine. For more on the tanning lotions I love, check out this post on my favorite at-home beauty hacks.
On my face especially, I used Isle of Paradise Tanning Drops with my daily moisturizer to give my face a little bit of an extra glow, especially since I was trying really hard to avoid too much sun exposure. I personally use the medium color, and I am careful to only use a drop or two with my moisturizer to ensure my face doesn’t look orange. I like to mix it with this moisturizer from Drunk Elephant, which helped it go on really smoothly. I put it on both my face and neck to make sure everything looks even.
Pregnancy Beauty Tips: Exfoliate Everywhere (Even Your Lips)
I found that my skin looked way better while pregnant if I was pretty faithful about exfoliating my face and body at least 2-3 times per week, and applying a moisturizer after. I don’t think it really matters which exfoliator you use; the idea is just to get rid of dead, dry skin and prep your skin so it can absorb more moisturizer.
I also found that my lips were super dry while pregnant, so I made sure to use an exfoliating lip mask almost every day and apply vaseline or another moisturizer after. My favorite lip exfoliator is from Tarte, and it has a nice minty flavor in case you get some in your mouth. BTW – for this reason, I would recommend using a lip-specific exfoliator rather than trying to use your body exfoliator on your lips.
I hope this helps you in navigating your pregnancy beauty routine, or if you’er just trying to clean up your beauty routine. One thing that I realized while pregnant is how many chemicals we put on our body on a daily basis, and I actually kept most of these changes in my beauty routine even after having a baby to avoid all of the harsh chemicals I had been using previously.
I also think that exercise and what you eat makes a massive difference in your skin, but during pregnancy and just in general. For more, check out my favorite ways to stay in shape while pregnant and my favorite healthy recipes.
Do you have any ride-or-die beauty items that you recommend in general, or for pregnancy in particular? If so please drop a comment and tell me about them, I would love to know.
Want to glow up even more? I made a few simple lifestyle changes and lost 20lbs without working out or going on a diet – you can download my free PDF on exactly what I did below.
