Beauty Industry Giants Share the Wellness Advice They Learned from Their Moms and Grandmothers

Of the millions of things our moms teach us, knowing how to look and feel our best is one of the most meaningful. Maybe it's the way she washed her face, the just-right red lipstick she wore, or her signature scent that boomerangs you back in time—the common thread is self-care, with a big spritz of confidence. Jones Road founder Bobbi Brown recalls the "dedicated spa nights" she shared with her mother: "We'd put on our pajamas and do manicures, pedicures, and facial masks," she says. Deepica Mutyala, the founder of makeup brand Live Tinted, won't ever forget coconut-oil hair massages, which were a monthly ritual she and her mom shared. "We'd work the oil into dry hair, let it sit overnight, then rinse in the morning. I still do them," she says.

Manuka honey brings Barb Stegemann, the founder of 7 Virtues, a clean-fragrance brand, back; her mother loved the stuff before anyone knew about its antibacterial benefits and swore by it as a healing face mask, she says. Tata Harper, founder of her eponymous line, took the DIY route with her matriarchs, too, something that inspired her professionally: "My mother and grandmother would throw spa parties at home, where they'd concoct face masks with things like avocado and honey. These get-togethers impacted my use of natural ingredients when I developed my own line."

Below, more top hair, skin, and makeup experts shared essential lessons they learned from their leading women, and still follow today.

For Lula skin-care brand founder Sarah Uslan, cleansing her face before bed is non-negotiable, thanks to her mom's insistence: "Most of my friends in college would sleep with their makeup on, and I just couldn't—it would keep me up at night!"

Charlotte Tilbury "learned early on that lipstick is happiness in a tube," she tells us—something that explains the makeup artist and eponymous brand founder's penchant for creating iconic formulas. "It's my mother's confidence-boosting beauty secret: She would always tell me as she put it on, 'Lipstick is instant glamour, and it will take you anywhere!'"

"My mother told me to never, ever touch my brows," says Gucci Westman, makeup artist and founder of Westman Atelier. "Of course I didn't listen, and once tweezed them into a really thin shape. Now they're quite sparse, and I have to spend a bit of time obsessing over them in the morning. Listen to your mothers! This lesson inspired me to create the clean brow pencil of my dreams, Bonne Brow ($38, westman-atelier.com), to make them look naturally fuller and thicker."

Nail artist Jin Soon Choi applies a thick layer of heavy hand lotion at night—and seals in all that moisture with a pair of gloves. "It's a ritual my mom followed to help the moisturizer go deep into her skin."