The Sunday Sanctuary featuring Milly Almodovar
A weekly series that profiles the most fabulous, hard-working, 24/7 hustlers, and how they spend their Sundays.
Milly Almodovar is a multimedia reporter, beauty editor, hispanic trends consultant, host and brand ambassador. She is a regular contributor to Good Morning America, The Today Show, The Wendy Williams Show, Rachael Ray, and local outlets on beauty trends and tech.
You can also find her on her social media channels, @millyalmodovar, sharing her beauty advice, and encouraging other women to pursue their dreams no matter what.
Milly began her career in finance. While working at a hedge fund, she started her blog, Beauty Logic. Soon thereafter, her blog quickly took off and CVS Pharmacy approached her to join their CVS Beauty Board, which consisted of four young ladies who gave beauty advice to the millions of CVS Beauty Club members.
After CVS, Milly became the senior beauty editor of Cosmopolitan For Latinas and was a sought out expert for many brands (Covergirl, Elizabeth Arden, etc.) on the growing buying power of Latinas. When not working, Milly enjoys spending time with her family, working out, salsa dancing and watching true crime TV series.
Here’s how Milly spends her Sundays-
Q: What time do you wake up or does the alarm go off ?
A: My body has a natural alarm, I don’t know what it is, but I cannot wake up later than 7 in the morning. I don’t know why, and believe me this is torture for me. I would love to sleep in and I can’t.
Q: What is your morning routine (specifically the first 15)
A: I am such a big meditator. A few years ago, I was going through a really crazy time, and I started transcendental meditation. I saw it in a Facebook post and I did some research on it and I started to take a class. I took a whole course and fell in love with it. So, in the mornings I literally meditate for about 20 minutes and I light up a candle, and then I start my breathing exercises.
Q: What is your Sunday mantra?
A: My Sunday mantra is that it's all about me. Sunday is all about self care. There was a time where I was only taking care of everyone else, and then I realized, I can't take care of anyone unless I take care of me. So, my Sunday mantra is self care, you must self care or you won’t be your best.
Q: Do you give yourself any Sunday self-care treatments?
A: Every single Sunday I put a mask on my hair. I either do a mask or a treatment my Dominican grandmother used to make, which was heating up coconut oil and doing a hot oil treatment. Then, I use an LED light every Sunday on my skin for about 20 minutes and I do a face mask. Sometimes I do dermaplaning and I also use my HigherDOSE infrared sauna every Sunday. Also, I take myself out to eat. I’m a big spend time with me person. I will take myself out, I’ll look up a really cool restaurant, a place I’ve been wanting to visit, and I’ll just go alone. I love it.
Q: What song is a good representation of your Sunday?
A: I have such an old soul. I know it sounds crazy, but I only listen to 90’s music. So I’m a big fan of 90’s R&B songs.
Q: How has your Sunday routine changed over the years?
A: On Sundays before there wouldn’t be a lot of self care. I was married before, and now I’m not, so I would do a lot of things with my ex-husband. Now I realized I really need to take care of me and do things for me, because I'm a busy mom. From Monday through Saturday I’m doing a million things. As a single mother, I’m working, I’m making sure my son is doing well with school and taking care of him, making sure he’s going to his camps I have him in.
My Sundays have changed because I’m realizing more how important it is to take care of myself and knowing that it is okay to do that. I feel like a lot of moms and women don’t think that’s okay; we think that we constantly have to be there for everyone and do for everyone, but what about us? We have to take care of ourselves too.
Q: How do you prepare for the week ahead?
A: I try to never have segments on Mondays; I always try to have them on like a Tuesday. But yes, absolutely, if I have a segment that week I will definitely start writing my notes for it and do work emails on Sundays. In our business, you have too. You might have a segment Tuesday morning, and you need the product by Monday morning, so you have too. I try not to catch up on work, but sometimes I do, I have too.
Q: What are some of your favorite Sunday activities?
A: I like a good jog on a Sunday morning, it just clears my head. I like to jog around Central Park, there really are some cool places in Central Park that you would never know you are in New York City. On 99th and Central Park West, there’s a beautiful pond, it’s like you are in the middle of Colorado or something. I find being in nature just calms me down and helps me relax.
Q: What is your ideal bedtime?
A: My ideal bedtime would be 10:30 PM.