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A Day in The Life: Joanna Czech

The celebrity aesthetician takes us through a day in her shoes (and she has quite the collection!)

“I was never planning to become an aesthetician,” says celebrity skincare guru Joanna Czech from her living room in Dallas, Texas. The Polish-born Czech was preparing to go to medical school when a failed physics class led her to enroll in summer beauty school, and the rest is history. Fast-forward a few decades and she is now one of the most powerful forces in the beauty world, with a client roster of famous faces that includes Jennifer Aniston, Kim Kardashian West and Christy Turlington Burns. She has a cult following and an ever-expanding waitlist to snag an appointment at one of her skin clinics (a flagship in Dallas and a spa inside The Webster store in New York City), and she travels the globe sharing her skincare wisdom.

Before awards show season, she sets up shop in Los Angeles so she can cater to the actresses clamoring for her signature glow before they walk the red carpet. Although she is often on the road somewhere in the world, she finds happiness at home in Texas, seeing clients and hanging at home with her husband. “I have an amazing passion for my work and love what I do,” Czech says. “I have been in the United States for 31 years, and when I first arrived, the industry was very much makeup-focused. You covered up bad skin with makeup. Now, it is focused on healthy skin and creating a great base for makeup, which I am very happy about.” Czech says her philosophy is based on creating healthy, glowing skin from the inside out. “There are still many products and techniques that I have been using since I was introduced to them 35 years ago because they work,” she says. “Fashion should be trendy, but skincare really isn’t.” Below, the Dior skincare ambassador walks us through a day in her shoes.

Joanna Czech

7:00 a.m. Rise and shine time.

7:30 a.m. I’ll eat a bit of banana and have some espresso, followed by a 45-minute workout with my personal trainer. This usually consists of a combination of cross-training, weights, cardio, kickboxing and stretching or yoga. I flip between them all.

8:15 a.m. Turn on some great music and take a quick shower, rinsing my face and body. I then use toner, serum, eye cream, moisturizer and lip balm, and if I am going to be in the sun for more than 30 minutes, I apply SPF as well.

8:30 a.m. Breakfast time. I have been following Dr. Steven Gundry’s Plant Paradox diet, which is about the elimination of lectins, which can cause inflammation. I either have goat- or sheep’s-milk yogurt with berries or a homemade carrot muffin and one or two eggs, plus another shot of espresso. Then I take my supplements, which include vitamins D3, C and B12, Omega 3, 6 and 9 and a probiotic. And by this time of the morning, I have had at least a liter of water!

9:00 a.m. I get dressed, which takes me about three minutes. I very often start with my shoes when deciding what to wear.

9:05 a.m. FaceTime my mom in Poland.

9:30 a.m. I drive to my Dallas studio.

10:00 a.m. I am with my first client. Sometime between 12–3 p.m. (between clients), I have a quick lunch prepared by my chef, which consists of some form of salad and fish, most often salmon. I also always have snacks on hand during the day, like half an avocado, a hard-boiled egg or some almonds or walnuts.

4:00–5:00 p.m. I have mint tea between clients and I drink water throughout the day. Three liters of water per day is always my goal.

7:00 p.m. This time of the evening is usually when I see my last client of the day, then I drive home and keep working, often doing virtual consultations for clients around the world in different time zones. I also use this time to check in on my New York studio.

8:00 p.m. I take my main shower and wash off the day. My routine begins at night as this is the most important time; products are more effective when skin is at rest. Don’t forget, skincare includes the body! I begin my evening routine with a shower (my evening routine is in two parts: one part before dinner and one part after). I massage my body with Nécessaire cleanser and my Biologique Recherche massage gloves. Afterward, I use a combination of Environ’s Derma-Lac Lotion and their A,C & E Oil.

8:15 p.m. Dinner (my husband heats up our prepared dinners), which is always some sort of cooked vegetables and fish or homemade soup.

9:00 p.m. I finish my evening skincare routine. I cleanse my face (I have about 10 cleansers in rotation, depending on what my skin needs on any given night), follow with my favorite toner, Biologique Recherche Lotion P50 PIGM 400, and then massage my face with my facial massager for about 7–10 minutes. After that I do an application of serum—right now I am loving Dior Capture Totale Super Potent Serum—followed by an eye cream. My final step is moisturizer. Three times per week I use a mask or two, as well as LED therapy with my Celluma Pro.

9:30 p.m. I wind down, sometimes on calls with my brother and his family or my stepdaughter, who all live in California. Sometimes I’ll watch television (my guilty pleasure is The Voice—I love music!) or I’ll do crossword puzzles or sudoku to relax. Often I will have some berries or cassava chips as a treat.

12 a.m. Lights out. I fall asleep.

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