As someone who loves playing around with new beauty products and tutorials, I’m always down to try the beauty routines that celebrities, whose jobs revolve around being ~*~flawless~*~ swear by. I once washed my hair with Coca-Cola after model Suki Waterhouse claimed it gave her perfect waves, I used up precious coconut oil and honey for a mask Julianne Hough calls her secret weapon, and I was inspired by Kim Kardashian to go a week without washing my hair. So when I saw that Khloe Kardashian had posted her nightly beauty routine on her website, I knew I had to try it out.
Yes, I already have a nightly beauty routine that works very well for me. But who could turn down the chance to live like a Kardashian? Plus, Khloe's nightly beauty routine includes something that she swears makes her eyelashes more full, and I would very much enjoy Kardashian-esque eyelashes.
Here’s the routine, according to Khloe:
- 10 p.m.: Grab my liter of water and try to drink as much as possible. Usually it’s a bottle of Smart Water or Essentia (I like Essentia because of the pH).
- 10:05 p.m.: Go upstairs to my bathroom.
- 10:06 p.m.: Start my facial routine. I wash my face three times to get all the makeup I wear off. I use Kiehl’s Blue Herbal Gel Cleanser. Kylie’s obsessed with it now (she’s basically obsessed with me lol).
- 10:08 p.m.: Mix my La Mer face cream with vitamin E oil and slather it on. My face look like a Slip ‘n’ Slide!
- 10:09 p.m.: Put vitamin E oil on my lashes. I swear it makes them extra full.
- 10:10 p.m.: Brush my teeth.
- 10:12 p.m.: In bed, but checking emails. Pick up where I last left off editing “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” on my computer.
- 10:30 p.m.: Put my phone on silent. I’ll still check it, but having it on silent winds me down.
- 10:59 p.m.: Close my computer. I try to stop editing episodes around this time because I could stay up all night. I have to limit myself.
- 11 p.m.: Flip my cell phone over on my bedside table so I don’t see any light. I have a house phone so if anyone needs me, they know to call me landline. Lights out!
Simple enough, right? Could changing up my routine with a few new products and a new phone policy really give me glowing, perfectly contoured skin and long Kardashian lashes? There was only one way to find out, and that was to test it out myself. I am always wary when the Kardashians say what products they use and love, because it’s hard to tell when they actually like them and when they’re just being paid to say they like them. Here’s what happened when I lived like Khloe for a week.
Day One: Sunday
My face pre-Khloe routine.
An hour before I was planning on falling asleep, I went into my boyfriend’s bathroom armed with beauty products so that I could pretend to be Khloe Kardashian. This was very hard to do when my boyfriend kept calling me “Jessica” and I was wearing sweatpants from Victoria’s Secret instead of a waist trainer and Yeezys, but I digress.
My biggest issue with this routine, at first, was the water. To me, drinking “as much water as you can" before bed sounds like the perfect way to ensure you will wake up two or three times during the night because you had to pee. This is usually why I, myself, avoid drinking water too close to bedtime. But as someone who dislikes water and regularly forgets to drink it until she feels dehydrated, I figured this could be a good thing for me. I chugged my Smartwater before washing my face.
Khloe says she washes her face three times to get all of her makeup off, so I did too. It was my first time using Kiehl’s Herbal Blue Cleanser (which Khloe has raved about before) and I liked it (so far). It smells very clinical because it’s made with salicylic acid, which was kind of refreshing. When I'm using a cleanser that is supposed to target my acne, I always feel like it's working better if it smells like serious business — and this one does. I'm breaking out quite a bit at the moment, and was hoping that this acne-fighting cleanser would live up to its name.
Once the rigorous cleansing process was done, I moved on to the moisturizer. Since I do not have an extra $300 lying around to buy the La Mer moisturizer Khloe loves, I used my L’Occitane moisturizer instead. I mixed it with two drops of Vitamin E oil and saw that my face also resembled a Slip n Slide. Cool, and also very sexy when sleeping next to bae.
The last part of the product routine was putting Vitamin E oil on my eyelashes. I’ve heard this Pinterest hack a lot, and I’ve always doubted it. It seems too easy. I also have naturally long, full eyelashes that are quite nice (they are one of my favorite things about myself) and I’ve never wanted to mess with them. But I figured I’d try. As it turns out, oil on your eyelashes makes it pretty impossible to see.
Kiehl’s Blue Herbal Gel Cleanser, $21, Trader Joe's Vitamin E Oil, $9, AmazonLa Mer Moisturizing Soft Cream, $85, La Mer
Sitting in bed, I chugged more water, then opened up my iPad. Khloe, apparently, edits episodes of Keeping Up With The Kardashians before bed, which… what? Khloe edits the episodes? OK.
As I am not the star of my own reality show, I do not have to edit episodes before bed. Instead, I used this obvious “work” time to write this and research future story ideas.
During this work, the oil on my eyelashes was driving me insane. Every time I blinked, things got more blurry. "How does Khloe do this?” I wondered to myself, as I tried wiping some oil off. Maybe I had used too much. Maybe I was irritating my eyes. Maybe this was a horrible idea. I was nervous.
A few minutes before I wanted to go to sleep, I put my phone on silent and turned it upside down so I wouldn’t see light. I mean, I never worry about that, because unlike Khloe, who probably gets 500 texts throughout the night, literally no one texts me after midnight. I am in my late 20s and all of my friends are sleeping by then.
What would tomorrow bring? An oily pillow case? The longest eyelashes you’ve ever seen? We shall see.
Day Two: Monday
To be honest, I was pretty nervous that I was going to wake up without eyelashes. Silly, but I am very protective of my eyelashes. As it turned out, I didn't have to worry. My eyelashes were intact. I touched my face a lot. The slightly sticky oily feeling from the night before was gone, and my skin actually felt incredibly soft. I absolutely noticed a difference from adding oil to my beloved L'Occitane moisturizer.
Upon further inspection, I also noticed that my acne from the night before had calmed down a bit. And unless I was imagining things, my eyelashes were super soft. My mascara, which usually clumps a little, went on smoother than it ever has before, which was awesome.
After work, I decided to really commit to my Khloe routine and go to a SoulCycle class. I even took a Khloe-inspired gym mirror selfie in the bathroom of the SoulCycle studio, but unlike Khloe's pictures, mine featured a toilet bowl. Nice.
As the nightly routine began and I drank water, I thought, "there has to be a better way." The night before I had woken up twice to go to the bathroom, which isn't the end of the world, but I hate disturbing my sleep that way. I washed my face three times, added a little bit more Vitamin E oil to my moisturizer than the night before, and applied a little less oil to my eyelashes so that I could actually, you know, see. By 11 p.m., I forced myself to go to bed.
Day Three: Tuesday
Waking up this morning, I was pleasantly surprised to feel that my skin was still very soft and that my eyelashes were still feeling incredibly lush. My mascara once again went on like a dream and I felt like I didn’t even need my normal morning skincare routine of serum and moisturizer. Maybe Khloe was onto something.
Later at night, after a long day and a terrible commute, the last thing I felt like doing was washing my face not once, but three times, then getting work done. But I did it anyway, because I’m a trooper. This time, I paid more attention to the Kiehl’s cleanser. While washing your face three times in a row seems excessive (because it is), I noticed that my skin really did feel and look so much more clean than it usually does when I wash it quickly once. The first time the cleanser foamed up on my face, I could see it collecting the makeup. By the third time, my face was shiny and clean. It felt good!
Day Four: Wednesday
Surprise, surprise — I again woke up to soft lashes and nice skin. I could definitely get used to this! Today I decided to channel Khloe some more, and so I asked my beauty-and-Kardashian loving co-worker and friend to put my hair in the French braid pigtails that Khloe, Kim, and Kylie have been so obsessed with the last few months. While I don't have Khloe’s long extensions, I do have a similar blonde lob, so I mean, I was basically Khloe's twin for the day.
I walked around all day with these braids, feeling like I maybe looked like I was trying to hard to be trendy or that I looked like a 12-year-old, despite the fact that my friends insisted they were cute. They proved to be quite convenient during a spin class event later on, so maybe that’s why the Kardashian-Jenners love them — they keep your hair out of your face.
An hour before bed, I drank more water and washed my face three times, noting that I have never gone through a cleanser so quickly before. I then put way too much Vitamin E oil on my eyelashes, so I’m currently blinking about three times per second while trying to see my iPad so that I can type. I was once again left wondering how Khloe edits episodes with this blurriness happening. But hey, at least it was making my eyelashes feel great.
Day Five: Thursday
Today I decided that the way I would channel Khloe's spirit was by doing something I should have done in the beginning of the week: contouring. The Kardashians are known for their next-level contouring. That is, after all, the reason Khloe has to wash her face three times in order to get her makeup off. So why not really test out the cleanser? I recruited my Glam Squad (OK, fine, my co-worker who did my braids) and we did this in the middle of the office.
It took a whole lot of product to do a makeup routine that still doesn't rival Khloe's: Too Faced foundation, Laura Mercier bronzer, a Makeup Forever cream contour set, two different concealers, a Lorac powder contour set, a Becca highlighter, blush, a Beautyblender, and two brushes. All of that is on my face right now! I took a photo of the process and then after I posed for what I feel like is a Kardashian-esque selfie, but I don't know guys, I might be too far in this.
I've never been so excited to wash my face. I've contoured before, but I usually only use a powder set rather than cream and two different concealers and extra highlighter on top. I could literally feel the makeup on my face and wanted it off. When I was finally able to wash it off, hours later, I really did appreciate the extremely clean feeling of the three washes (although, to be honest, I could have gotten that feeling with two).
Oh, also, my other co-worker caught me on camera acting extremely vain and self-absorbed so I guess I really am too far gone.
Day Six: Friday
Today ended up being a really lazy day for me, which just didn't feel very similar to what Khloe's Fridays are probably like. After searching through her Instagram for something "Khloe" to do, I settled for downloading the Kimoji app on my iPhone. I spent a very long time texting friends random Kimojis until they stopped responding to me.
I didn't even put makeup on throughout the day, so washing my face three times at night felt even more excessive than usual. I will say, though, that the Kiehl's cleanser has become sort of comforting to me. The smell and feeling is very refreshing. I ended up accidentally falling asleep before applying the Vitamin E oil to my eyelashes, and I kind of felt like a fraud, to be honest. Although I will say that it was nice to be able to see when wearing my glasses in bed.
Day Seven: Saturday
When I woke up this morning, I was curious to see if my eyelashes still felt as soft and lush as they had been all week. Maybe the Vitamin E had lasting effects! It didn't. When I tried putting mascara on in the morning, I found that it didn't go on as smooth as it had been. It was a little bit more clumpy, like it used to be before I started using the oil. So that settles it then: I will officially be using Vitamin E oil on my eyelashes at night even after this experiment.
I had a bridal shower to go to, so I got ready as Khloe-like as possible. It started with a yoga session and a face mask to make my skin look as poreless as Khloe's. I then took a full 30 minutes to do my makeup, which included the basics (primer, concealer, foundation, eye shadow, mascara, blush, bronzer, etc.) and the Khloe stuff: contouring and highlighter. I normally save my contouring for going out at night or to fancier events. There's nothing wrong with contouring during the day, obviously, but I don't love the feeling of all of that makeup on my face for so long. I used a Kardashian favorite for my lipstick — Charlotte Tilbury's "Bitch Perfect" — because obviously. Then it was onto the last night of the routine, and, fine, I'll admit it: I didn't do the 45 minutes of work Khloe does. I'm sorry! It was a Saturday! I honestly don't think she does it either on Saturdays.
Is Khloe's Extensive Beauty Routine Worth It?
In the beginning of this experiment, I was very skeptical. Oil on my face?! Oil on my eyelashes?! It seemed almost too simple to be something a Kardashian does. As it turns out, I kind of love the beauty routine Khloe has before bed. The Kiehl's cleanser was very refreshing, and I found that it did clear up my acne. TMI: I was PMSing this past week, and I normally break out a lot during that time. I honestly didn't break out at all this past week, and I think I may have the cleanser to thank for that. Check out a before and after:
As for the Vitamin E oil? While I was very hesitant to use oil all over my face every night, it ended up being really great. It made my skin feel so soft, and I like that you can just mix it into your moisturizer rather than use it instead of moisturizer. For all those claiming it can make your eyelashes longer, I have to say that I really don't think that's true. My eyelashes certainly felt softer, more lush, and more amazing, but they weren't longer. Proof:
Moving forward, I'm definitely going to be using the Vitamin E oil on my face and eyelashes. I'm also going to use the Kiehl's cleanser on a regular basis. It's on the pricier side, but I'll dish out the money for anything that can help with my acne. As for the 45 minutes of work before bed? Uh, count me out. I'd prefer to veg out and relax before going to sleep rather than doing work that I do all day long. Lastly, the water situation needs to go. I'm not quite sure why Khloe drinks as much water as she can before sleeping, but it just really does not make for a great night's sleep.
