Ali Kavoussi broke the news about Candice Swanepoel’s new cover. Shot by Yulia Gorbachenko and styled by Sandy Armeni with Hamptons as location.
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Top model candice Swanepoel on how to eat, exercise and embrace your body after having two children.
Candice Swanepoel, whose sensual images are known all over the world, also takes a step towards the new. On our pages, she appears as she really wants to be in the eyes of others and her children: wise and caring. And you should not be surprised that she cares first of all about herself (and then, of course, about the rest). After all, in matters of health, the principle of a rescue mask works on an airplane: first for yourself, then for the child. Otherwise, you will need help. By taking care of yourself, you will set a good example for those who are lagging behind, share useful habits and valuable information experience with loved ones. As we are doing now. And our heroines, who openly talk about self-acceptance, about complexes and moral traumas that still prevent your beauty from shining in full force. They have already taken a step towards themselves — let’s do it together with them and during the pandemic I got used to the fact that everyone comes to meetings in Zoom with their hair grown back and in their home clothes. So when I see Candice Swanepoel on the screen, I freeze in shock. At the zoom interview, she appears in a dazzling look: an elegant white shirt, large drops of pearls in her ears and flawless makeup. Thanks to it, her skin exudes a natural glow.Or maybe it’s just good lighting? In the head I come up with a third option: what if in that me time, while mere mortals waited for the opening stores to Swanepoel went to a beautician and have been doing aprocedure? The model laughs at a direct question: “I haven’t seen a cosmetologist since the beginning of the pandemic,and before that I went regularly, at least once a month. I have two favorite specialists in new York. Joanna Czech is incredible, I visit her before events. It uses LED lamps, the light of which soothes the skin, and makes a tightening massage-the effect is instant. And I go to another master for light peels: for two days the skin flakes a little, and then it becomes smooth. I can’t wait to get back to them!” Candice is very attractive from the first minute:
we communicate as if we met at a friend’s house. In her there is no trace of arrogance or fear of saying the wrong thing. Perhaps it’s because she grew up on a farm in South Africa and hasn’t changed much since then. A scout from a modeling agency spotted her at a flea market in Durban when Swanepoel was just fifteen; two years later, She moved to new York and soon became one of the world’s highest-paid models. She has hundreds of magazine covers and advertising campaigns, and from 2009 to 2017 she was a Victoria’s Secret angel. I ask her if it’s true that some of the angels who were preparing for the next show were starving themselves and exercising three times a day. “Being a lingerie model is like being a pro athlete,” Candice explains. — You have to stay in perfect shape. To achieve this goal, some girls actually did exercise several times a day or
went on a special diet: each of us knew exactly what her body needed. I always thought that you need to look strong on the podium, I tried to build up more muscles and start preparing in advance in order to have a well – defined legs and a round butt.” Candice says that since childhood she was very thin — because of this, she was constantly teased at school — and that she had to learn to build muscle at a very young age. “When I started working, I started flying all over the world. There was a lot of work to do, and I just couldn’t stand it if my body was still thin and weak. I started eating a lot of protein foods and drinking two protein shakes a day.” But most importantly, what is it then I learned to listen to my body. “I tried to exercise every day, but I quickly realized that I get the best results by showing up at the gym every other day. I am sure that this is the secret of health and beauty: to understand exactly how your body works.”Candice says that in recent years, she has little time for sports and caring for co-boy — after all, she is a mother of two babies. “Since the beginning of the pandemic, I have gone through several stages. In the first few weeks, I worked out intensely, just to relieve stress and relieve my brain: I
ran and rode a bike. Then step on it there was another stage when I didn’t want anything at all, and I allowed myself to do nothing. I think it’s important to give yourself a chance to relax. And now I have entered the third phase.
Because I don’t have any important shootings or shows to prepare for, I exercise, but not so much. My coach comes to my house once or twice a week, and I also dance online. It’s much more fun than normal training, and it’s very uplifting.” Most of all, she likes Zumba, as well as African or Brazilian dances. I wonder if she sticks to it any special principles in nutrition, but Swanepoel says that just eats the quality food. “I’ve been used to it since I was a child. My mother grew vegetables, and we bought milk and meat from farmers we knew. So I always knew what a healthy diet is. Of course, as a teenager, I sometimes ate at McDonald’s, but it passed very quickly.” The model admits that she can enjoy eating hamburgers or pizza, but only in those places where they are prepared with fresh organic products. “I feel my body and understand what it needs. Now I actually eat the same thing, what my children eat. I try to make them eat a lot of vegetables and protein.” Swanepoel has had periods when she took a lot of dietary supplements, but in general, she believes that there is no special need for additional vitamins and minerals if you eat right. Now she takes only one Supplement — Evening Primrose Oil: “it stabilizes hormones, relieves PMS symptoms
and prevents rashes on the face. Sometimes I want to clean my digestive system, and then I take charcoal capsules.” What about her glowing skin? It’s in the genes or proper care? “Both. I have oily skin, so I have to be careful with moisturizers, especially in the summer. As a tonic, I use natural rose water, then apply either serum without cream (in summer), or cream Augustinus Bader (in the winter). Sometimes I use serum with retinol. Once or twice a week I use exfoliators — they help to get rid of rashes. Take for this pads with acids or do belajar of sugar and honey. In general, I like to mix
home remedies, for example, masks for Volos. In general, my care is simple, I have reactive skin, so I rarely try something new.” When asked how she looked after herself during both pregnancies, Candice says she didn’t do anything special: changes her body didn’t frighten her. “I was just happy,
and all these worries about physical attractiveness lost their meaning for me. For many years I was fixated on myself and my appearance, and it turned out that I have long been ready to devote myself to something bigger than myself.” However, she admits that recovery after childbirth was difficult for her, both physically and psychologically. “It took about a year before I returned to my previous form. I remember a couple of weeks after my youngest son was born, I went to the beach and was photographed by paparazzi. I had a stomach that looked like I’m five months pregnant. But this is in the order of things: at this time in the female body is still a lot of fluid and the uterus does not have time to take the usual size. When these photos were published, there were a lot of unpleasant comments, but I decided that people should know what women really look like after giving birth, and understand that this is normal. None of us should feel obligated to instantly get back in shape! I was lucky: I spent most of my life playing sports. So when I wanted to feel beautiful and sexy again, I started training, quickly I lost weight and tightened my muscles.” The eldest son of Swanepoel, Anaca this year will be four, and the youngest, Ariel, is two. With their father, Brazilian mannequin Herman Nicoli, Candice split in 2018 and now raises children alone. She says that the pandemic has been a great blessing for her, as she now spends a lot of time with her sons. “I used to have a crazy schedule: I flew to Europe to shoot and flew back the same day, so as not to leave my children for a long time. And now we’re almost all the time together». The pandemic has forced Candice to rethink her priorities. “Our life is very busy right now. I have to work a lot because I am a single mother, and I have my own business -the Tropic of C swimwear brand- I need to keep an eye on it. I just don’t have time to sit down and think! I rarely called my parents or friends, and now I realized how important it was to talk to them out loud. And I also thought about what brings me joy and what kind of person I want to be. So lockdown is a very valuable experience for me.” Candice needs to be out in nature, where it draws energy. “I grew up in Africa with stunning beauty. It’s not like going to the beach in the Hamptons, you know? These were places of great power, and they shaped me as a person.” She looks everywhere for similar beauty and energy, but admits that it is difficult. “The best place for me is where there are just trees and fresh air.” She has always been a person who lives for the present: Candice is not strong in planning and has never set grand goals. “I’m just trying to make the best of the situations I find myself in. My motto: “Be good, think of others then good will come back to you.” She tries to surround herself with positive people, limiting their number. Swanepoel had been an introvert since childhood, but her work had taught her to open up much more than she would have liked. She
knows that in the modern world, where we are bombarded with information from all sides every second, it is not easy for her. “I tried to meditate, but I couldn’t do it in New York. Here I can’t concentrate and stop the stream of consciousness. Sometimes I manage to do something through yoga, but working on it helps me more to come: mindfulness is my growth zone.” Have her views on beauty changed? “When I was a teenager, I wrapped textbooks in glossy magazine covers. Later idolized Gisele Bundchen, Natasha Vodianova, Carmen Kass. It seemed to me that beauty is when you look like someone. But now I believe in individuality, even if it is not perfect.”