What do moms really wear with Megan O'Neill
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.
