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Natasha Rothwell, Star of 'Insecure,' Eats Popsicles and Burns Things in Her ‘Wild West’ COVID-Era Bedtime Routine


Natasha Rothwell is booked and busy—normally. The former Saturday Night Live writer produces, writes in, and stars on HBO’s Insecure, which drops its highly anticipated fourth season on Sunday, April 12. She also has an overall deal with HBO, and is developing her own project with the network, which she will star in, write, and executive produce. She’s going to be in the freaking Wonder Woman sequel. She works hard and has a great dog. She’s a walking vision board.

But like you, she’s living through a pandemic. And so, her schedule has changed.

“We’re in the wild west as far as habits,” she says, of life during coronavirus. “Sometimes I’ll be like, ‘Oh man, this is a midnight snack!’ and I’ll look at the clock and be like ‘Oh. It’s 9 p.m. and I’ve been getting ready for bed since 4 p.m.’ We’re definitely in uncharted territory.”

Winding down for the night feels different when you’re living in conditions no one alive has ever experienced. Natasha Rothwell gamely walked us through her bedtime routine these days, which includes baths, popsicles, fires, jazz, and dealing with the fact that, right now, “Loneliness is part of the solution.”

The life-changing art of tidying up during a crisis:

I think that never in my adult life have I been handed this much time without expectation. I’m so used to filling my time with things, and there’s not enough things to fill this time! So I’m just trying to find moments to decompress and not be thinking about this crisis 24/7, which is hard. Right now, I like to tidy my space. I think because I’ve found as I learn more about myself that my environment really does reflect my internal, sort of shade of being. If things are messy I know that I need to tidy inward and outward. I try to make sure that my space is calm and clean and feels like it’s not something that I’m trying to get away from. I think my kind of over-cleaning is a direct result of the fact that loneliness is a part of the solution, in this new state. And so on a day when I have some anxiety, I’ll be a bit more clean around the house, and I feel like I’m participating in the solution.

Taking your loungewear look from day to night

Whereas before my routine would be getting into pajamas, now it’s taking off my work pajamas and putting on my nighttime pajamas! Being able to luxuriate in my nighttime routine is not something that I was consistently doing before. I try to turn off the news, and turn on HGTV or The Office or put on music, and just sort of separate my day from my life (I like the jazz Es—Ella Fitzgerald, Eartha Kitt, Édith Piaf). I seek comfort and familiarity right now—my sweatshirt from college, and drawstring pants that have holes in them. And then also later-in-life luxuries, like my Parachute robe that I love. It’s really comfy. I like to have one thing that’s familiar and one that’s a bit more decadent.

My makeup-free skincare routine

My sort of no-makeup skincare routine during quarantine: Cetaphil is my steady Eddie. And then afterwards, depending on what my skin is doing, I use a toner to make sure that my pores are tight and not as responsive to acne from anxiety as they’ve been lately. Then I’ll do this evening moisturizer from Sunday Riley and then the Caudalie night oil, and that’s about it. Depending where I’m at emotionally, it might be more or less indulgent. It’s fun to see what’s working with my skin and how my body is responding to the cool products that I may not have had time to experiment with before, but now I do.

The delightful life of adult braces

I use Sensodyne because I have very sensitive teeth, and then a veritable bevy of Listerine products. I have braces behind my teeth—it’s called Inbrace —I’m not doing a commercial for them at all, but it does make it tricky at night. But I have the GUM interdental brushes that get in between the braces. It’s adolescent braces shit. When am I supposed to get them off? Well, who’s to say, because I was supposed to get my braces adjusted before this went down, so I’m hoping that it’s not prolonged by the lack of adjustment, but hopefully by October.

The no-phone-in-bed exceptions

I’ve been dabbling in meditation, and it’s been a really important process. I think that meditation should be in everyone’s toolbox and I’ve definitely been taking it out of my toolbox and using it to sort of bookend my day feel a little bit of calm amidst the storm. I do Headspace, which I really enjoy—it’s very accessible. I try not to play on my phone right before bed, although it’s become increasingly hard, but lately my family and friends, we’ve been on Marco Polo. I try to let my last engagement on the phone be looking at my family’s Marco Polos from the day and just seeing their faces and that they’re good and healthy.

Team cocktail

I love melatonin—I try to use it infrequently because I don’t want to be dependent on it, but it’s nice and calming for moments when if I need a little bit of extra help to wind down.. I use about five milligrams, no particular brand. I definitely am team cocktail-at-dinner or glass-of-wine-before-the-brushing-of-the-teeth happens! I also really like sugar-free popsicles—there’s something so soothing and quick and easy about them.

The magic of burning things

I love candles. I have a whole shelf dedicated to them in my closet. If the day calls for a bath, I’ll light some candles and get in the bath and listen to music and really try to be as present as possible and not let the anxiety get the better of me. For me, smell is a very sort of strong, triggering sense. I can smell a little bit of something and instantly be 15 again. It’s a little bit of a time machine. It’s a nice thing to take me on a journey when I can’t go anywhere.

Right now I’m burning a Diptyque candle, which was a gift, and is definitely a gift in this moment. They smell amazing. I have all kinds of candles and I do not discriminate. Your two-for-five Glade vanilla candle gets me through as much as a $50 Diptyque candle. Not to get too woo-woo, but lighting a fire and burning something feels a little transformative.

Advice from a professional

My therapist challenged me with a question that I’ve found really sort of awesome, which is—at the very end of isolation when we can look back on how we spend our time, what do we want to have said about the time we’ve been given? I try to, at least at the end of the day, think about what I did that day to help me reach that goal.

Jenny Singer is a staff writer for Glamour. You can follow her on Twitter.





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Natasha Pickowicz Makes Fundraising For Planned Parenthood a Sweet Deal


It was November 9, 2016, and Natasha Pickowicz woke up with an emotional hangover. She felt stunned. Drained. Mad. Donald Trump had just clinched the election, but she still had to pick herself up, endure her normal hour-long commute, and go to her job at Flora Bar, as if nothing had happened. But at work, no one could focus. Instead the chefs, managers, and staff met to figure out how to turn pain into purpose.

So Pickowicz—the executive pastry chef at Flora Bar and Café Altro Paradiso best known for her black cardamom-heavy sticky buns—went back to basics. She proposed the idea of a bake sale. “I was like, what if we did something that everybody could relate to this nostalgic, timeless idea,” she tells Glamour. “Whether you were little and it was in your church basement, or in middle school for your field hockey team, everyone’s had the experience of setting up your table, hanging out with friends, and raising money [with baked goods].”

Simple in theory, sure, but the bake sale Pickowicz, 35, pulled off would put any PTA mom to shame. Gone were traces of Betty Crocker or Pillsbury Funfetti. Instead, in the spring of 2017, Pickowicz invited 18 world-renowned pastry chefs and friends to come together and bake 50 items each. People like Bon Appetit‘s Claire Saffitz and James Beard award-winning cookbook author Dorie Greenspan all joined forces to sell their signature goods and raise funds for Planned Parenthood of New York City with each spoonful of sugar. That afternoon, Pickowicz collected $8,000—and an annual tradition was born.

In 2018, Pickowicz raised $22,000—once again all in $5 increments. And for the third, which was held this past spring, Picowicz set the ambitious goal of $40,000. She met it, and then some, raising $96,000. The growth has been exponential, but there are certain pillars that have anchored each event. It takes place at Café Altro Paradiso, it lasts one (long) shift, and proceeds benefit Planned Parenthood of New York City, not the national organization. “It was important to me that it was about our community and what’s happening here. This way I can find out first-hand how our funds are getting used,” she says. “The money is going towards more hormone therapy centers in the boroughs. They’re also building a fleet of mobile health centers, these trucks that will park and and be based in underserved areas. So it’s these hyper-regional things that PP NYC is working on.”

And while Pickowicz’s bake sale has remained focused on New York, for New York, more and more bake sales like hers are popping up nationwide. She’s frequently tagged on Instagram in photos from bake sales in Nashville or Charlotte, or someone emails her for advice. “I’ve had young women reach out to me and be like, ‘I had a bake sale at my local park!’ And then there’s the bigger ones, like in New Orleans where they raised $60,000,” she says. “People are also doing them in red states, where they’ve gotten a lot of blow back from people in the community who are offended by it. Like this summer we saw a lot of them for Yellowhammer Fund and [to protect reproductive rights] in Alabama.”

As she begins planning for her 2020 bake sale, Pickowicz dreams of seeing even more people follow in her footsteps—and for the sale to have an even larger impact. “With the presidential election next fall, it’s going to be a really, really crucial year. And with four years having gone by, I hope that next year explodes more than ever,” she says.

This year has made one thing clear: Women are showing up, stepping up, and taking what they deserve. From politics to pop culture, women aren’t just leveling the playing field—they’re owning it. As we ramp up to our annual Women of the Year summit, we will be highlighting women across industries who do the work every day. Whether it’s the CEO of a multinational retail corporation, a James Beard Award–winning chef, or the World Cup champions, here are the women you need to know right now. So far, we’ve celebrated women in sports, beauty, and style. Up now: 12 women who have made the food world more equitable, more ambitious, and so much more delicious. From an MIT-trained flavor scientist to a chef who’s created a new canon in Southern cuisine, these women have expanded our minds and our palates. Mmm. Dig in.





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Natasha Lyonne Writes a Love Letter to Rosie O'Donnell


In a world short on joy, humor can be a unifier and a survival tool. In that spirit, we bring you our Comedy Issue, a monthlong celebration of funny (and fearless) women and the enduring power of a good laugh. Here Orange Is the New Black star Natasha Lyonne salutes the woman who made her see the value in being wholly authentic.

I first met Rosie when we worked together on a Nora and Delia Ephron play called Love, Loss, and What I Wore in 2008. Rosie had this one monologue called, “The Purse,” which Nora had written about giving up Hermès bags, and the absurdity of them. This was an eight-page monologue, and Rosie was literally able to take the audience in the palm of her hand and take them on a ride during it. The way she was able to lift and drop the volume of the audience’s laughter, it just became a piece of music. Working with Rosie, Nora, Delia, and Samantha Bee on that production taught me that there’s space for all of us. Between working on the play and doing Orange Is the New Black, I totally changed my tomboy perspective, and gained an appreciation for sharing the stage with other women.

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During the play I was coming out of a drug addicted time in my life, but Nora and Rosie adopted me into the fold, and it really healed me as a human being. Now Rosie and I are this odd couple, and we go to Broadway plays. She loves them; I loathe them. My god! Some of the productions I’ve had to sit through. It’s like nails on a chalkboard to me, but I look over and Rosie’s like, “C’mon, Tashy, that was amazing!” Then we go to Sardi’s and grab dinner.

What’s so wild about Rosie is that she’s such a subversive figure who was able to become mainstream. Recently, I rewatched an Ellen DeGeneres appearance on Rosie’s show, and they’re doing what they called the “Lebanese sketch.” It’s psychedelic! It was 1996, and they’re just dancing around being gay. Or watching her stuff in comedy clubs. It’s fucking epic, because she’s in a pantsuit with a curly shag, looking like a cross between David Lee Roth and Pat Benatar. And this was during an era when guys like Andrew Dice Clay were big, and she’s doing a Goodfellas shtick. What other woman was speaking that language?

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Rosie’s such an important figure for women. I’ll never forget introducing Aubrey Plaza to her. I was having dinner with Rosie and texting with Aubrey and I was like, “Why don’t you come over?” She came right over, and I’ve never seen Aubrey so starstruck. She’s such a weirdo and a cool cucumber, but it was almost like seeing Santa Claus—that someone who’s so iconic could be real. But that’s the beauty of someone like Rosie. She’s able to communicate, from a distance, to other young girls that it’s OK to be themselves. That’s a strength she’s personally given me.

Natasha Lyonne costars in Orange Is the New Black, which returns to Netflix this month. Rosie O’Donnell costars on Showtime’s SMILF.



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