Inside Gine Margrethe’s Everyday Skincare, Makeup And Wellness Routine

… make myself a special drink that is one litre of water with one organic lemon with the peel left on (I just cut off the ends), two tablespoons of good-quality olive oil and mint. I’m so into herbs; I’ve been planting my own herbs for years now and I’m a sucker for mint. I put it in everything. So, I cut some fresh mint from my garden, add a tablespoon of honey, mix everything all together in a blender, filter out any big chunks then drink the whole one litre straight down. For me, this is the best way to hydrate and cleanse and I just love the taste of it. I’m also very particular about the honey I use. It needs to be from Norway and it should not be heat-treated above 45 degrees Celsius to preserve its natural vitamins, enzymes and probiotic bacteria.

Over the last six years, I’ve experimented with ingredients and learned about building formulations, which has been a game changer for my skin. I started my brand Bob Beauté because I couldn’t find the right products and I wanted to create something that works on my skin. Of course, I also created it for others, but my skin is very, very picky.

If you cleanse, use a serum and a moisturizer or a night cream, then your skin is basically full. Maybe some skin types can tolerate more than three steps, but mine would not. Every third day I’ll add a face scrub to my routine to exfoliate any dead skin cells that have built up. ZO Skin Health’s Exfoliating Polish is the best scrub in the whole world and the brand’s Complexion Renewal Pads are just as amazing.

My go-to is Dr. Different’s Zero Cleanse. It’s a South Korean brand. I’m a big formula geek and it has the best potent ingredients and formulations for the price. That’s because South Korea is at least 20 years ahead of us in terms of skincare innovation. Vitamin C tends to trigger perioral dermatitis for me, so I’ve tried all types of serums. I’ve landed on Dr. Different’s CEQ Antioxidant Serum and I use it a maximum of twice a week. Then I apply a light face cream called Niactil from Face Formula, which is a Norwegian brand. It has a gel-like, cooling texture and features my favorite ingredient: niacinamide. I also love Anua, another Korean brand with great formulations, including a 10% niacinamide serum.

…I use my Bob Beauté The Skin Booster Face Mist five times a day. Without it, I’m completely lost. My suitcase was once lost when I was traveling and I only had The Skin Booster with me, so I used it as my entire skincare routine for two days. It has antibacterial properties to target pores as well as anti-inflammatory properties that come from natural lavender oil. It also gives you the craziest glow the more you use it and the right amount of hydration for your skin.

When you have a bad hair day, you can pull it back into a tight bun, but when you have a bad skin day, you can’t tuck it away. I’m so run by hormonal chaos and my skin responds terribly to my hormonal chaos, but I don’t try to hide it because when you really try to hide it, it looks worse. And besides, haven’t we come so far that if you do have a bad skin day, we can acknowledge it and still say ‘you’re beautiful’? Because we all know that even if it’s not your skin today, it could be the next day.

…but I don’t see any difference. I normally just take my cream up under my eyes, since everything you apply below the eye area and on the contour just blends anyway when you blink. I do use eye patches because we all get tired-looking under-eyes from our constant use of screens.

I love the cooling feeling of [a gua sha]. I also like to use my hands when I cleanse. I always do some massage as well as when I’m applying cream in the morning. I like to really feel what I’m doing to my skin.

When I’m going to the office or staying at home, I just swoosh The Correctors [Bob Beauté’s creamy concealer sticks] over my skin and blend. Then I use The Corrector in shade 22 as a contour – I don’t know who I am without it! Next, I do my brows. Our The Brow Gel is formulated with hair-growing ingredients, so I use it every morning and every night before I go to bed. It’s also safe to use on your lashes. Then, our newest launch, The Bronzer, is a holy grail for me. It’s a sculpting bronzer with 3D pearls to highlight and blur imperfections and has special traceless technology so it will melt into skin and blend even though it’s a pressed powder.

I think we should have fun with it because that’s the point of makeup. So, when I have an event, I love to make a natural wing with eyeshadow and angled brush. I then use a waterproof eyeliner along my top waterline if I’m going for a more full-on smoky eye because I was born in 1989 and the smoky eye will never be out of fashion for me. Makeup and fashion are so connected for me too. I always want to create a personality around how I’m feeling, like am I bossy or cute or cool? I always go for a vibe and then my makeup and fashion choices complement each other for this vibe. For example, if I’m wearing heavy eye makeup, I need to balance that out with my clothes, and it also needs to balance the persona I’m going for.

I always go for a masculine scent, so I often buy fragrances for my husband that are secretly for me. That way, we always end up wearing the same scent. I like a fragrance that smells clean or herby and it must have a masculine edge because I don’t find anything more attractive than a woman wearing a masculine scent. That is truly wow. If you come into a room wearing it, everyone will turn their heads and think ‘who are you’? Some of my favorites are Maison Crivelli’s Safran Secret, Loewe Perfumes’ Esencia and Kilian’s L’Heure Verte.

I have also stepped up my shampoo game, but the scalp needs more attention because it’s skin and it also ages. I use a scalp serum that contributes to hair growth and density, mainly because I literally became bald after having two kids. When I experience grief, stress or pregnancy, I lose my hair. So, treating my scalp to strengthen my hair has become real a hobby of mine! And I’m so excited that we’re launching The Algae Mist in July. It’s packed with soothing algae and it treats your scalp but it’s also great if you’re sunburnt, dehydrated or red – it’s a total SOS mist.

On Fridays or Saturdays, I go into the garden with my kids and we plant or we do things around the house and that has become my workout. I do walk a lot and sometimes I walk to work but if I’m 100% honest, I don’t work out that much. I wish I could get to a point where I can set an hour, two times a week to workout, but right now I am so busy building my brand during the day. And when my kids come home from school at 4pm, that is time off for me. From 4-7pm I refuse to look at my phone. It’s sacred time because I don’t want my kids to see me work. They know I work but I want them to feel like now I’m mumma – and they come before everything.

She always says: “Whatever you do, do everything by moderation”. I haven’t followed that advice at all because I tend to hyperfocus, and if I hyperfocus, I could sit with Lego or a skincare formula and deep dive for a good six hours. But it’s about not overdoing anything that you do. Don’t do joy in moderation, but if you’re testing retinol or drinking alcohol, do that in moderation and be in control of yourself. My mother is 78 and she had me when she was 41, so this is coming from a different school of thought.