Aya Kanai is the Chief Fashion Director at Hearst Media. In her coveted position, she oversees some of the top publications in the world, including Cosmopolitan, Women’s Health, Seventeen, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, and Woman’s Day. She is also a judge for the VS PINK GRLPWR Project, rewarding 20 participants with a $10k prize to develop their original ideas, in order to empower themselves and others. We asked Aya to break down a typical morning in her life, as a media boss, wife, and mother. Find her skincare and podcast-filled morning routine below.

6 A.M. I wake up around this time. I don’t set an alarm anymore because my one-year-old daughter is my wake up notification. My Brooklyn apartment is small enough that I always hear her babbling in the other room. I get to work right away on the morning beverage situation, bottle for her and lemon water for me. I change and feed her, then we do what my husband and I call, “still the night,” which means we put her back down in hopes that she will take a little nap while we get ready. Sometimes it works, often it doesn’t.

While she is napping or just hanging in her crib, I will do my skincare! I am a devotee of Angella Kulangi for my facials. One of my 2019 goals is to have skin nice enough to not need to wear makeup. So a rigorous skincare regime is essential for maintenance of my no makeup project! Most of my face products are from Valmont. I use their toner, moisturizer, exfoliant, and mask. I’m obsessed with their formulations. My face wash that I use every morning and night is by Medical Beauty Research. I recently decided it’s time to use eye cream, so I love this one from January Labs. Sunblock is essential year round! I use the one from Clé de Peau. Okay, I know all of this sounds intense but keep in mind my intention is to NOT wear makeup. So if I take great and thoughtful care of my skin then I use a lot fewer products and the whole thing takes less time.

7:00 A.M. Getting the baby dressed. I love minimalist, gender neutral pieces by Miles and Milan. Then it’s playtime in the living room and prepping her food for the day. Sometimes my husband or I will make her food—or, my mother-in-law makes amazing nutritious food for the baby and we also use an awesome service called Yumi that makes organic fresh baby food that my daughter loves. She does a little wiggle when she eats something tasty. It’s too cute. If I have time to eat, it will sometimes be Daily Harvest, I love their smoothies. Oh yes, I also have to get dressed myself. If I am going to be on the set of a photo shoot, I love these extra comfy Vans—they have some kind of magic memory foam that makes it comfortable to stand all day—as well as Citizens high rise jeans, and a hoodie. Currently, I am loving the collection JW Anderson did for Uniqlo. I’m a tomboy at heart but I love to add little bits of flair. I am also loving these Kitsch bobby pins for a little something extra. If I have meetings in the office, I will get more dressed up 😊.

8:00 A.M. You will always find me with my Parker Thatch tote, I have several so I switch them up. It’s the ultimate mom bag that’s also chic enough to carry to meetings, fashion week, photo shoots, whatever! Often my husband and I will walk our daughter to daycare together. It’s not practical since we both need to start our day but it’s nice to walk together, chat about the day, things that are on our minds, and the family agenda. Those morning strolls are the best.  

8:30 A.M. Kiss the hubz and jump on the subway to go to work! I live in Brooklyn so I usually have a significant commute to get to set or the office, but it’s my time to listen to podcasts. Currently, I am loving Without Fail, Call Your Girlfriend, Unstyled, and Superwomen.