To play an adult film actress in Boogie Nights, Nicole Ari Parker paid a visit to a porn set with Burt Reynolds and Philip Seymour Hoffman. It’s a far cry from her role in And Just Like That, now in its third season, where she’s a socially connected mother of three. Parker’s on-screen evolution from chaotic to controlled is mirrored in her life and bedtime habits. She went from scrolling Instagram and watching late-night news to listening to ocean sounds and prayer meditations. Her nighttime skincare routine is something to behold. In short, she says, “I do everything.”
WHEN DO YOU START GETTING READY FOR BED?
I tend to catch up on my emails and rummage around at night. We just moved into a new house in Nyack, so I’ll have my private moments at night wondering if I should let go of a particular pair of leggings. I would say I start winding down around 9 or 10.
WHAT DOES YOUR NIGHTTIME SKIN-CARE ROUTINE LOOK LIKE?
I do everything. I do all of the massages. I clean my face with an oil and then use micellar water to get rid of any residue, like leftover mascara or traces of foundation around my ears. I love the Chanel face spray mist, so I’ll do that, and then I put a serum on. I mix my products up, but I like the Nuxe Super Serum. If I have a pimple or a little hyperpigmentation, I put whatever cream is good for that. I can handle heavy, so I then put a rich cream on my face. I also have a lot of balms, which are all the rage right now, but I like Aquaphor or Vaseline. I spread one of those all over my face as a sealant for all that skincare. I’ve also been going to the Maison Orveda spa on Madison Avenue, in Manhattan. They have something called the Vital Sap toner which I’ll sometimes add in.
After doing my skincare, I exfoliate my feet, put cream on them, slip silicone socks on, and then put regular socks on top of those. Then I do the same thing for my hands.
By the time I go to bed, my husband [the actor, Boris Kodjoe] is basically sleeping next to a really shiny mummy.
DO YOU TAKE SUPPLEMENTS?
I wear a lot of wigs, but right now I’m in the season of letting my hair breathe, so I’m trying to bring it back to life. I take a lot of colostrum and biotin, like Mary Ruth’s Liquid Morning Multivitamin and Hair Growth, SpoiledChild’s Liquid Collagen, and Armra’s Immune Revival. I do all of the hair collagen stuff. Luckily, my skin benefits from that.
DO YOU WATCH ANYTHING?
I was never one of those people who protected their mental space before bed. I used to be a news junkie. It was like I was watching a full season of Law & Order every night. My husband suggested I stop, and after getting a taste of finding mental peace at night, I became kind of vigilant about having sleep noise, whether it’s ocean waves or a soundscape, or an eight-hour prayer meditation from YouTube that knocks me out in 40 minutes. The benefits are night and day. Turning off my TV and phone, I was like, What I have been doing? I was not a morning person before. Now, I wake up every day with the sunrise because, even if I go to bed at 10:30 PM, I’m sound asleep from the meditation music. It’s so healing. Even my skin looks better, and my hair’s growing!
WHAT’S ONE THING YOU HAVE TO DO BEFORE BED?
I wear a silk bonnet or a satin scarf. And my husband always folds my side of the bed down. We cuddle with the 100 pounds of Vaseline on my face, and then I go to sleep.
DO YOU add any steps when you’re SHOOTING A PROJECT?
If I have an early pick-up and am able to wash my face and spritz it at home, I’ll wear a mask in the car on the way to the studio. So by the time I get to the makeup chair, I’m fully moisturized and glistening.
Being on a series makes some actors double down on their beauty routines and health and wellness. For me, the hours are so long that I can only focus on eating healthy and taking vitamins. For my skincare, believe it or not, the most I can do while shooting is to take my makeup off, put on a night cream or night balm, and go to bed.
ON TO YOUR PAJAMAS…
I love pajamas from Mckenzie Liautaud. If I want to be kind of sexy, I’ll wear a little nightgown.
ARE YOU PARTICULAR ABOUT YOUR SLEEP CONDITIONS?
My husband is from the Black Forest, in Germany. He likes fresh air and a cold breeze. That’s not me at all, so I have an extra blanket on my side sometimes. I like warm and cozy, and he likes cool and crisp.
HOW ABOUT YOUR BED?
We have so many sheets. My favorites right now are from Elisabeth York Linens. They’re white, which I don’t usually like because I put so much skincare on, but they’re so beautiful. They’re crisp and have a gorgeous thread count, and they’ve got a lovely colorful seam.
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE YOU TO FALL ASLEEP?
With the soundscape stuff, like 10 minutes.
WHAT’S YOUR STRANGEST NIGHTTIME HABIT?
Before I became skin-conscious, I had the TV on and some music playing from my phone while I was doing the Wordle and texting friends and reading funny DMs. Oh, and I had the news playing on my laptop. I was in electronics overload. The thing I would yell at my two kids about I was doing upstairs.
WHERE’S YOUR ALL-TIME FAVORITE PLACE TO SLEEP?
Oh my god, have you seen my husband? He smells the way he looks. His arms are big and soft and yummy, and he’s a giant. Sleeping with him, it’s like all is right in the world, and I say thank you god every single night.
WHAT’S THE BEST NIGHT’S SLEEP YOU’VE EVER HAD?
Our new forever house on the Hudson River is a dream, but it reminds me of sleeping in my husband’s childhood bedroom in Germany, in his grandmother’s house, where his family still lives. It’s like a fairy tale.
Jeanne Malle is a Junior Editor at Air Mail
