Self-care will forever be our favourite hobby but we appreciate that recharging and putting yourself first looks different for everyone. Each week, we'll be asking the celeb lot to share their ideal self-care Sunday routines, the hard-working beauty products they recommend to their friends and which TV show they're currently binging…
This week it's all about internet sensation and content creator Ami Charlize. At just 16 years old, Ami has 3.2 million followers on TikTok, hosts her own podcast, Ami Charlize Private Story and just launched her second clothing edit with PrettyLittleThing. Honestly, we are in awe. 👏
"I've recently come out with my second PLT edit and working on it has been amazing," Ami tells heat, "The last one was a bit more girly and out there and this one is a little more neutral, full of day-to-day stuff I wear."
"My favourite pieces are the chocolate brown two-piece with flared leggings and a structured top - I love it!"
To celebrate her new collection, Ami chats exclusively to heat about her journey to TikTok stardom, her daily wellness habits, self-care routines and the £2 primer she wears 'every single time' she does her make-up...
On starting out
Ami is smashing it online, but where did her content creator journey begin?
"I started when I was 12 doing acting videos and I gained a small following through that. I did quite a lot of sounds that were songs but made them sad with a 'POV' too. So it could have been a scenario that I've made up and then cried to it. I used to put vapour rub under my eyes every day to make me cry!
"I think the older I got, the more I started liking make-up and skincare. When I was younger, I always said 'I don't think I'm going to be a make-up girl' I was always adamant I would never do it. Then the older I got, the more I started loving the skincare aspect.
"I started going through that teenage acne point and I think that's when I started going on TikTok to do 'get ready with me's like, 'get ready with me showing my normal skin' and how I would achieve a natural look still covering the spots I was having.
"I think ever since then it's been more beauty, fashion, lifestyle but also keeping it so relatable. I think there's quite a lot of youngsters now coming into it, but since I've begun there's only been three or four.
"As much as I love having this platform it's quite abnormal. I always want to keep being very relatable because I am still only 16. That's the goal I've always wanted to achieve."
On the secret sauce to success
What are Ami's top tips for anyone fancyin' themselves as a bit of a content creator?
"I think consistency is important but also giving back. Don't just take it all in and love everyone giving you love, make sure you're giving it back out, whether that's following people back or engaging back with your followers. My whole life, I've been such a fan girl of these people I'm now friends with. All I did was post edits with them and when they reacted back to me, it was such a nice feeling. That's what I always want to give back to everyone else.
"Also, just don't care. I feel like quite a lot of people care about what other people think of them. Hence why they don't do it and I think my whole life I was like, "I don't want to do it, because of the people at school' but you've got to just get into a mindset of you don't care what people think. Which is a hard one but I got there in the end!"
On career highlights
"Definitely my podcast - it's my little baby. I started that in December and the guests I've already had on have been dream-come-true guests. That's my main milestone and something I want to keep growing and growing if I can."
Who are Ami's dream podcast guests?
"I love Alix Earle, she is my GRWM queen. Millie Bobby Brown, I love her. Maybe even a footballer, I love Leah Williamson."
On self-care
What does the ultimate self-care Sunday look like for Ami?
"Sunday is just the perfect day. I always have a self-care Sunday, even if I'm at Arsenal until 7 p.m., I'll come home and start my self-care then.
"I use Hair Syrup once a week, I love the Rapunzel one, it's so good. I've literally got it in right now, I love to slick my hair back with it.
"I love a hair mask, a bath, shaving your legs, fake tanning… making yourself feel fresh in the morning and ready for the next week. I like lying in bed, but I also like doing things so I can't sit in my bed all day. I like getting up and tidying my room sometimes. I love the face razors... I do whatever I need to do that week.
"Always a teeth whitening strip, I've always got them in. I love the Hismile strips or Crest, now you can buy them in the UK."
On skincare
"Growing up, my skin has been so up and down. Some weeks I'm really happy with how my skin looks, the next week I'm so anxious it's going to go back to acne and things like that. For me, less is more. I've always wanted to use every single product I've been sent or the products I've been seeing on TikTok, but I got to the realisation that it wasn't working at all and just stropping my skin.
"Now I only use four products and it's a foaming cleanser from CeraVe, then I use the Niacinamide serum from The Ordinary. Then I'll go in with the La Roche Posay Cicaplast Balm. I use that every day. I got a really bad reaction to the sun and had blisters all over my face and I used that balm and it completely soothed my skin in two days.
"Then I finish off with the Tatcha Dewy Cream, oh my god, it's the best thing ever. I like to keep it simple and not use too many things on my skin."
On budget beauty buys
"I've tried so many primers and I felt like none of them really did much to buy skin and none make my make-up last anymore than it would have without it, but I got the Nivea Soft and I use it every single time I use my make-up, It makes my skin feel so nice and it's literally two pounds! I use it all the time."
www.boots.com
On make-up favourites
"I love the NARS Laguna Bronzing Cream. I've been using that quite a lot recently to give me colour on my face as I'm so blimmin' pale, I need to go on holiday! It's really, really good and also, the NARS concealer covers my skin amazingly. I'm such a NARS girlie.
"Then last but not least, I love the Iconic London Radiant Boost, which is like a tinted moisturiser. I use it every single day and it makes me so hydrated and glow, I love it."
On daily wellness habits
"My weighted hula hoop - I do it twenty minutes a day and I love it. It's just that twenty minutes where I watch something on TV and just hula hoop. It sounds so weird but I will do it at midnight or the first thing in the morning if I have to, I just love doing it."
"Also, I want to get back into manifesting and writing down your daily achievements. I've used the Five-minute Journal since I was around ten after my sister got it for me.
"My family have always said it's very important to be grateful for what you've got and I always used to write it down in the journal. I haven't done it much recently because I keep going to London and forgetting about it, but The Five Minute Journal is so good for writing your goals and what you are grateful for.
On wise advice
"My dad always would tell me, 'Who you meet on the way up you meet on the way down' and you should treat everyone with the same respect' which I think is so important and something that has stuck with me."
Quickfire round:
What show are you currently watching? I love Outer Banks so I'm rewatching that at the moment.
How do you like your cuppa? Hot chocolate - I used to have one every day.
Go-to loungewear brand? PrettyLittleThing.
Everyday perfume? Yves Saint Laurent Libre, I've used it for two years.
Go-to takeaway order? I love a Dominos margarita pizza, but you've got to have chicken strips as well!
Favourite candle? Scented Studio - they're a small business, but so good.