On this episode of the Tribe Edit, we're spotlighting Anna. She gives us a glimpse of what her days look like as she works for an investment firm. We talk easy skincare routines, fragrances, her passions and what gets her inspired, her current read (one she highly recommends!) and more. Enjoy!

What does a typical day look like for you? 

I normally wake up at like, my alarm is set for 6:45 am but I get out of bed at seven. I'll normally like do my skincare routine and get ready. Then I'll get back into bed and have a cup of tea for like 15 minutes, get relaxed. Then get dressed and leave the house.

I have a 35 minutes commute to work on the tube. It's also 35 minutes by bike. I didn’t bike in the winter quite as much, it's been quite cold but I love my bike. It brings me so much joy. I feel very free on it. On some mornings, I do take like an hour or two to do my emails before I come into the office. Sometimes when we do events at work I'm home around seven. It depends on the day.

I used to be a "meal prep on a Sunday" kind of person to give me structure but I just found it so boring and I never actually wanted to eat what I made on Sunday for Thursday. So normally I'll make dinner most nights unless I go and meet friends for dinner or spend time with colleagues or something after work. It depends. I try to be in bed between 9:30 pm and 10 pm every night and I read for an hour. I try and read every night before bed. Oh, but that doesn't always happen. It depends on what I've been doing that day and how tired I am. I am currently reading a book called 1Q84 by Japanese author, Haruki Murakami. It's a very long book, I'm reading part one but it's really good. 

I am also pretty strict about not having my phone in my room. I find it makes me feel a lot more relaxed, if my phone is charged somewhere else. I have an old-school alarm. I tried to get into meditation apps and stuff like that but never really got into it. I would love to be the kind of person that does. I will keep giving it a go see if it works for me. Sometimes I do yoga but not regularly.

For a typical weekend, I wake up probably around nine or ten. I like to sleep in. I'd wash my face and then get back into bed with a cup of tea. That's like my dream weekend morning. I spend a lot of time on my bike. I bike a lot around my neighborhood and to my friends. I also go on country walks with friends where we just jump on the train, go for a walk and then get on the train again. My ideal weekend involves a lot of time outside and a lot of eating.

“Just by changing your thought process, you can become a new person.”

What was the last country you traveled to and where's next?

I went to Portugal for work in November and to the south of France in July of 2021. So far in 2022, I was in Austin, Texas for a wedding in March. 

What inspires you and gets you going?

Something that inspires and gets me passionate is hearing different people's opinions about the world. Finding spaces where people can relate to each other, across totally different experiences and viewpoints. I feel like so much of the way we build community is through sameness and likeness. And we're finding people that are like us in various ways, which is great. But I also think that that can be really alienating and I think, and boring. I love meeting people who have different views on the world than I do. I like interacting with people who are open to changing their minds. I think it's an inspiring trait. I feel very strongly about my views and my passions, but I'm also open to changing the way I see the world if I'm presented with something new. I feel like that is one of the things that gets me excited, when I see that in action. Just by changing your thought process, you can become a new person.

How has 2022 been so far for you?

I'm really excited for this year. I feel like it is a weird time globally but it does feel like a lot of the things that have been put on hold for the past couple of years are hopefully going to be more possible this year. I'm hopefully going to be seeing my family more. Half my family's on the west coast of Canada and I have some Toronto. That's a five-hour flight, just between the two of them. Flying between can be sometimes quite far. But it's a beautiful part of the world to visit. There are lots of nice outdoor activities and it's a real part of the culture I grew up in. 

Anna’s Wishlist

“There are lots of nice outdoor activities (in Canada) and it's a real part of the culture I grew up in.” 

What did you get up to during the Christmas holidays?

I did something sort of unusual. I was gonna go back to see my family. But it was a bit complicated. They were all going to be in five different parts of Canada. My brother was going to be with his girlfriend on the East Coast. My dad was going to be on Vancouver Island, my other family was going to be in other parts of British Columbia. My mum was gonna be in Toronto. Everyone was so spread out. Then the Omicron variant made Canada tighten restrictions, as well as the UK. So, I just decided to stay in the UK. I spent some time in Somerset and also spent some time with friends. I kind of took two weeks off to relax. Thankful for technology, FaceTime was excellent for keeping in touch with my family.

Where did you grow up? 

I grew up in Toronto. But we did a bit of traveling growing up. And my dad is still a university professor. He's semi-retired. So we lived in Germany for a couple of years when he was on a fellowship there. And then he did a sabbatical in Italy, as well. But mostly grew up in Toronto.

When did you come to the UK? 

I moved here in 2016 to do my Masters. So I've been here five and a half years. I studied Global Migration at the University College London. There are a lot of Migration Stories in London. My thesis was on community sponsorship of refugees in Canada. And it's a programme that the UK now has, where groups of sort of individual citizens can get together, raise some money, and provide support to refugees who are resettled through the home office, and UNHCR and IOM. That's something I'm involved in in the UK now too. It's a nice way to meet people.

Shop Anna’s Wishlist

What's your favorite fragrance right now? 

I love and wear the Bergamot perfume from Le Labo. I feel like everyone uses Santal so I wanted something different. A friend of mine went to some sort of party with work a few years ago and brought back little sample packs a lot. I tried a bunch of them and the Bergamot one is my favourite. 

What is your daily skincare routine like?

Yeah, so my skincare routine has evolved a lot over the years and I bought into the clean beauty trends for a little while. For a while, I was buying a lot of oils from somebody who lived in my neighbourhood. During lockdown I kind of experimented with a few different things, but now I just have a routine that I stick to but it's very simple. 

I just wash my face and put on moisturiser most days. Sometimes I do hyaluronic acid, but not in the winter. In the summer, I use retinol and SPF 50 every day. 

I use mainly use SkinCeuticals and recently added the Hydrating Facial Mist from Suki Suki and the Revitalising Face Mask from Unblemished Skincare I discovered on Hamalie. It's always nice to shake things up.

How’s your relationship with social media like? 

I did download TikTok last year, which was a problem. I got really into it. But after a couple of months, I was like, no. It wasn't adding anything to my life. I do spend time on Instagram. I just don't post very much on there. I'm still Instagram shopping.

Have you visited any African countries lately?

I have been to Morocco once. The food was amazing. I visited for five days with a bunch of friends. We stayed in Riyadh in an Airbnb. I love the architecture there. Incredible foods and going to the spa. It was amazing, this was 2018.

I would like to visit Kenya. I'd also really have some friends who used to live in Senegal and I've always wanted to go to South Africa and Egypt as well. 

What's your favourite bar, restaurant or chill spot in London at the moment?

I think my favourite restaurant that I've ever been to in London, I've only been once but it's called the Barbary in Covent Garden. And it's amazing, amazing, amazing food. But I guess like my favourite spot. There's a really good pub that does an amazing roast. It’s in my neighbourhood, Stoke Newington called the Clarence tavern. I've had their roast a couple of times in the past few months, and it's so so so good.  

Where would you like to be five years?

Oh, wow. Yeah, I don't know. I've always struggled with those questions because it feels I think I've always felt like kind of limiting to be like, Okay, the thing is to think of it more like this is an exciting possibility, rather than the thing that I will do. In my current job (Anna works at an investment firm), we do a lot around promoting entrepreneurship and so I think I've been getting increasingly excited about the idea of running my own business one day. I don't know if five years is exactly the timeline, but something around there.

Anna’s Wishlist