Image: Same height! (via Instagram)
In some ways, Megan Gale is completely different to most new mums you meet. For one, she’s a world-famous supermodel, who’s currently juggling parenthood with various public appearances, her swimwear business Isola by Megan Gale, and her duties as an ambassador for L’Oreal Paris. She also has 218,000 Instagram followers cooing over every one of the baby photos she shares, which is a few more than your average parent.
But in other ways, the 39-year-old is just like any woman navigating her way through the challenges of bringing up a new baby, especially when it comes to finding time to catch up with her loved ones. “I’ve dropped off the face of the Earth with my friends,” she admits. “I’m sort of doing more of a phone-email relationship at the moment.”
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Megan and her partner, AFL player Shaun Hampson, welcomed their first child together in May this year.
In the six months since, the seriously cute River Alan Thomas Hampson has been keeping his Melbourne-based mum and dad even busier than usual. But during her recent visit to Sydney for the launch of the L’Oreal 2015 campaign, Megan made some time to sit down with The Glow to discuss beauty, fitness and every busy mum’s secret hair weapon (spoiler: you probably have it in your bathroom drawer right now).
1. Say you have 5 minutes in the morning to get ready. What products do you reach for?
“Oh gosh. Let me think. I’m all about hydration, so I think if you’re going to apply makeup you need a good base. You’ve got to apply it on your skin when it’s hydrated and not too dry and not too oily, so I think finding a good moisturiser that’s good for you is key to get started. I’m getting good at doing things quickly, being a mum.”
“If I’m like, okay I have 10 mins and I’ve gotta go out, moisturiser, usually a little bit of mascara – actually, no, a lot of mascara because I’m obsessed with it. A gloss, or if I really need a pick me up or I’m tired I might do red lips. A hint of bronzer or blush, some powder, and that’s it. With my hair, usually it’s not washed – sometimes it is, but that’s usually when I’ve set aside more time – so a quick pony or a top knot.”
Megan Gale's life on Instagram
2. How has motherhood altered your beauty routine?
“I’m still tending to lean towards the same products – I have just adjusted things in that it’s a day-to-day thing. You kind of prioritise a bit differently and think,’ okay – what do I really need to attack right now?’ So maybe it’s my nails and I need to file and put a bit of polish on them because it’s been a while and I need to go to a meeting or something for work and I want to look a bit more groomed. It might be that my skin has been a bit dry and I’ve been slack with that so I’ll concentrate on hydration. I might need some dry shampoo because it’s been a couple days since I washed my hair. It’ll depend on day to day – I won’t have as much time to do everything so it’s about prioritising what you need for the day and dealing with that when you’ve got time.
The main thing I remember [my mum friends] told me about was dry shampoo.That’s the hardest thing to get done, because washing your hair, conditioning it, drying it – especially for me as I have so much hair – takes a good 45 minutes. That’s a lot of time to yourself. If you’ve got dry shampoo handy it’s a quick fix.”
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3. Summer’s nearly here – what’s your warm weather beauty essential?
“I think it goes without saying sunscreen should be in everyone’s beauty kit, bathroom, man and woman and children. Especially because our summers are so harsh and the sun’s so strong here in Australia. It is a beauty product within itself because it’s an anti-ageing product, when you think about it. It’s an essential. Even moreso for women, moisturisers or tinted moisturisers with SPF are really important. As for more fun ones – it’s such a vibrant time of year, and it’s great to play around with beautiful bright colours for lipstick and nails and experimenting with the pinks and reds and corals.”