In the Sakara Spotlight series, we’re turning the tables on some of the amazing + accomplished souls that have chosen the Sakara Life program to enrich and fulfill their lives. Without further ado, meet the Sakaralites!
Name: Tara Foley / @tcofoley
Current position: Founder, CEO of Follain
Sign: Taurus
Tara's Day In The Sakara Life
6:30 AM
I always wake up to my human alarm clock—my 2-yr old son Henry. Mornings at home begin with Henry babbling or crying to get out of his crib. He just wants to hang out! Then we’ll play, read books, eat breakfast, and he spends time with me while I get ready. Time with Henry each morning helps me start my day with a smile and attack anything that comes my way. He’s in the best mood in the morning...and so am I. It’s going to be crazy juggling mornings with both Henry and baby #2, come September, but I’m excited nonetheless!
A healthy breakfast is imperative to fuel my very busy days ahead. I don’t have the time to think about blending, baking or generally cooking a nutritious breakfast these days--which is one of the many reasons why I’m so in love with the Sakara program. The meals are so convenient and SO delicious! To think I started today with a superfood strawberry shortcake — rather than my usual mix of bars, berries, and whatever else I can get my hands on quickly!
7:00 AM
As founder of a clean beauty retailer (and a total product junkie at heart), my morning skincare routine is actually really basic. I believe that the biggest skin investments should be applied at night (scroll down to skip ahead if you’d like)! This is because during the day you sweat, wear makeup, and are exposed to pollution and environmental damage. Don’t get me wrong, I like using high quality nutritious products all the time...I just have way fewer steps in my morning skincare routine: I usually just wash my face with water, tone (spritz on Josh Rosebrook hydrating accelerator), apply a moisturizing face oil (like Osea essential oil), and then--especially now that it’s summer--end with a mineral SPF (Babo tinted daily SPF).
Then comes makeup, in this order: brows (Jane Iredale--in blonde, actually), mascara (W3ll people), foundation / concealer around my eyes and nose (Vapour Atmosphere Luminous Foundation), bronzer (RMS Buriti bronzer), and, sometimes, a lip gloss or stain (usually Ere Perez or Ilia). Same products almost every day, unless I’m testing new products for Follain...which is actually quite often!
8:00 AM
I’ll head into our office—where the Follain “HQ” team is based. We’re growing a ton this year —on our site, and in new stores across the country: Seattle, Bethesda and Dallas. Bringing the best of clean beauty to so many more women everywhere is exciting! Besides recruiting and team-building for our office and stores, I also spend a ton of time ensuring we stick to our mission of building and selecting the safest, most high-performing clean beauty products out there. This means working with both our safety advisors and our buyer to ensure we’re on top of the newest products, ingredients and ingredient regulation and reviewing our current and potential new brands to see what kind of innovative products and ingredients we should be introducing to our customers. It also means testing A LOT of products in the office almost every day!
12:00 PM
It can be a struggle to sneak in lunch and if I’m completely honest, it’s almost always a “working lunch” at my desk, squeezed between meetings. Another reason why I love a delicious prepared healthy meal! Today’s Sakara black bean burger and salad meal was super filling and got me through the afternoon —which is pretty unique!
Days in the office tend to be back-to-back with phone and in-person team meetings, which gives me a ton of energy. Our team is filled with passionate experts--who are all fueled by the same mission, to introduce women to better beauty, that’s both safe and effective! I’m honored to work with our office team and I learn a ton from them daily. I also gain a ton of energy and inspiration from spending time where it all began—in our stores!
4:00 PM
Whenever possible I’ll hit up one of our beautiful local Boston stores to say hi to those teams, chat with a few customers, or attend an educational event. One of my all time favorite parts of any day is meeting and chatting with customers in our stores!
I’ll also use this opportunity to try products, hear what customers are requesting and saying about current products, or even just to refill my own soap bottles from home! We love beauty, but are also trying to do our best to cut back on packaging waste wherever we can — hence the soap refill program!
7:00 PM
On nights when I’m in Boston I always try to get home to be able to play with Henry before he goes to bed - tonight we went for a walk outside in his wagon. After he goes to bed, I’ll try to sneak in a quick workout. Since I’m already home, virtual workouts are my new thing. I took everything I was paying for gym memberships and classes and invested in a Peloton and Yogaglo app. Both give the option of workouts starting at 20 mins (sometimes all I can sneak in on a work night) all the way to full hour workouts. After being cooped up in the office all day, I’ll do a prenatal Yogaglo class outside in my backyard if it’s nice enough out.
8:00 PM
When we’re both home, my husband James and I will sit down to eat dinner together. Sometimes we’re really great at not talking about work, but other times we're each other’s best advisor, supporter, and outside perspective. I'm reminded every night how grateful I am for James. We rarely cook big meals on weeknights—usually throw something easy together or eat leftovers from the weekend. This Sakara soup and pinwheels were by far my favorite meal of today — sooo rich and delicious but I still felt great afterwards. I haven’t done any meal programs like Sakara since getting pregnant again, honestly because I was worried it wouldn’t be filling enough, but I’ve been very pleasantly surprised by how satiated I’ve been all day!
9:00 PM
Unfortunately, most nights I’ll hop back on my computer for a while longer to keep moving the ball forward (we have really big goals for this year!)
Before that, though, I’ll do my beloved (and involved) nighttime skincare routine. I don’t like the idea of my products seeping into my pillow more than my face, so I’ll try to apply my PM products a couple hours before going to sleep. This is always something I look forward to for two reasons: I’m usually testing new lines of products that we’re considering bringing into the portfolio; and I’m maniacal about my nighttime routine—because it’s the most important! Your skin regenerates and absorbs nutrients best when sleeping.
Needless to say I spend a ton of time in the bathroom at night. Tonight’s routine was a great one: 1) La Bella Figura clean slate cleansing balm to remove makeup and cleanse skin (love that this balm washes off clean); 2) Tammy Fender EPI peel (awesome manual exfoliant with clay, that brightens and detoxifies skin immediately, and only needs to be on for a few minutes); 3) after rinsing that off and drying skin spritzed on the Hannes Dottir toner--it’s super hydrating, calms down any redness from the exfoliant (and my sensitive pregnant skin), and helps my oil serum absorb deeper and work harder; 4) then pressed in an oil moisturizer, the Maya Chia oil (basic, single origin oil that won’t make my pregnant skin react); then 5) pressed in a powerful anti-aging skin resurfacing gel serum, the Intelligent Nutrients Time Traveler serum; and finally follow it up with 6) the Tata Harper eye cream. I let this all absorb in—it's a serious routine—but sometimes I’ll still follow it up with some May Lindstrom blue cocoon right before bed, wherever I need it most. Blue cocoon heals everything from dry patches to impending acne spots. And it’s unbelievably calming scent lulls me to sleep at night.
11:00 PM
Beauty sleep is no joke; neither is getting enough sleep when pregnant. I really need to be lights out by 11 or 11:30 to feel my best during the day. I always try to turn off my computer with enough time to read a chapter of whatever book I’m working on. This fluctuates from books on herbalism to books on leadership and team-building...my nightstand is pretty eclectic.
If for some reason I’m having a hard time falling asleep on a weeknight, I’ll light a candle, and hop in the bath with the dreaming bath elixir, a face mask, and a book. This doesn’t take that long! And it’s such a great way to end the day. If I wasn’t relaxed enough to fall asleep before, I definitely am after some tub time.
Then it’s usually lights off almost immediately for me!
