What do moms really wear with Megan O'Neill
The beauty editor at Goop on what she wears and how she pulls it together
What do moms really wear is a series that captures to process of getting dressed among mothers with young kids. To revisit the last installment with Sophie Green, click here.
Up today: Megan O’Neill, the longtime beauty editor who lives in Bushwick with her two sons and husband.
The morning routine, 6:45 a.m.:
We wake up around 6:45 a.m., Lagos [my son] who is 3 usually gets into our bed around then, which is how I know it’s time to get going. I go downstairs and — every day the thing that gets me going is I drink 2 glasses of this green juice that I juice the night before, it’s with celery, kale, spinach, cucumber, parsley, romaine lettuce and 3 green apples.
It just makes me feel so good, it wakes me up like coffee does and is the thing first nice thing I do for myself in a day.
The kids come down a little while later and I have a shake of avocado, banana, peanut butter and coconut water made for Monty [my 11-month old]. Lagos loves it too. And greek yogurt.
Around 7:30 a.m. my husband, Jesse, leaves home with Lagos and takes him to camp while I get Monty ready. He is a very different thing — shrieks all morning while I’m furiously getting ready. I take a shower every morning and he’s just yelling, basically toppling over garbage cans to get to me.
[Once I’m out of the shower], I get him dressed and then I get myself ready. My face routine is pretty straightforward. I start with Goop’s peptide serum, then use the beauty water cream. It’s the go-to. I layer it with Bur Bur face oil and always make sure to do it right after the shower, when I’m dry but damp.
I don’t really wear makeup. Then I get dressed. After I’m dressed, I walk Monty to daycare — it’s about a mile away, and he does not shriek while he’s in the stroller, so that is pretty peaceful.
Does the yelling distract me while I’m getting ready? It’s unpleasant, but I wouldn’t say it gets in the way of my looking how I want to.
This is a pretty typical outfit for daycare drop off in the summer. The shorts are Alemais, the shoes are Teva — I could not recommend these enough. I wish I could wear them to weddings — they are the most comfortable and functional and I like how they look. The top is vintage, from a store called Narnia Vintage, which just moved to Woodstock, and the jewelry has all been collected over the years. I love gold chains — the way they glint in the sun, how they make anything I’m wearing from a threadbare t-shirt to a string bikini feel sort of costume-y and cool and momentous.
[The look works] because Monty’s daycare is set up so that I have to carry a stroller down to the basement, and my stroller is a behemoth Bugaboo.
In the heat, this is the only thing to wear.
This morning, I saw a dad in a collared shirt doing the walk down and he was all wet and I just thought, Don’t you wish you had on a bandeau?
I love dressing for summer — I love how the sun feels on my skin. I come outside and it feels like a massage, or a hug. The more of my body exposed, the better. There’s also just something about dressing and showing skin that feels celebratory in a way that’s just not try in the winter. It’s not about feeling sexy, I just feel most like me. Which I guess is sexy, actually. It’s an authentic expression.
I always stop for a coffee on my way home. I go to this place in my neighborhood called Foster Sundry — it’s a fancy little grocery and butcher, or sometimes I’ll go to Headrest.
Both have great branding, which really matters to me. From both places, I’ll get a cappuccino and they both actually give me a cappuccino. I really hate it when other places ask if I want it big or small. There is only one size! Give me a real cappuccino. With whole milk.
I switched back to regular milk like 2 months ago mostly because I don’t think inflammation is necessarily a real threat for me with dairy. Tolerance really varies person to person from what I understand. And there is so much shit in oat milk. So I’m trying it out — trying to be mindful in a real way about [setting myself up] to live a long time.
Going to work
When I get home from drop off, I get to work. If I have to go into the city for an in-person meeting, I’ll usually schedule it in the morning so I can go right from drop off. If I don’t have a meeting first thing, I head to my computer. Sometimes there’s Zoom stuff, and it’s a lot of writing.
I don’t get lonely even though I’m writing a lot because Goop is a multi-media business. It’s such a collaborative job — so many brain storms and projects. I have enough interaction with co-workers and in-person meetings, and we go to cool places and I love getting dressed so I’m never really in a silo for too long.
This is a good example of something I’d change into for work, if I wasn’t wearing the drop off look. I love the silhouette — it reminds me of a ballerina: a streamlined waist and an a-line skirt. It’s a good formula for me and I feel like I’ll love it until I die, but white is pretty ballsy for me. I sweat a lot and I get dirty. My wearing white is like someone else wearing a bright color — like this is the risk I take.
I’m terrified of it but I also love how fresh it looks. I’ve also accepted that I’m going to be covered in stains — it is what it is and it feels nice to look this polished.
How do I want to look when I’m going to a meeting? Casually polished — what does dressing professionally even mean these days? I guess I just like looking a little more crisp for a meeting.
The Tevas give the out a good contrast (if I wasn’t wearing them, maybe I’d be in flip-flops), plus how I wear my hair and the jewelry — which I never change. In this way, I’m a one-and-done gal.
The highs and lows of emotional dressing
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Cereal Aisle by Leandra Medine Cohen to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.