Yummy Mummy is a recurring feature on Amazingy Magazine that serves to shine a spotlight on the supermoms who combine raising a family with their own career and life goals – and look great while doing it.



This month, our Yummy Mummy is Merelinde Pulles, a free-spirited graphic designer in Berlin who not only found love, but also figured out how to let go of her fear of planning ahead. The birth of her daughter, Pina, inspired her to make a multitude of changes to her life and to lead a healthier, more chemical-free lifestyle.

Age: 31

Number of children: 1, Josepina,16 months
Status: Engaged to Thomas, planning to marry in August, happily in love for 4 years

First things first: how did you end up in Berlin, and what do you, besides being a mom?
During my time studying art in the Netherlands, I spent a few months in Berlin doing an internship. It was only five months, but after I graduated, I quickly returned to the German capital – I felt like I still had so much to discover about it, and the city just kept pulling at me. After spending a wonderful summer here, I decided to stay.

At first I worked various kinds of jobs here, but I quickly started to focus more and more on graphic design. I always liked working with computers, having worked with animation and film in art school, and graphic design turned out to be the ideal outlet for most of my creative urges.

Now that Pina is a bit older, I usually work in the evenings and on the weekends. Thomas, my partner, is an international DJ, so he travels a lot. I can only get so much work done when I’m alone with Pina, so during the day I usually focus on spending time with her.

Before the make-over, and already looking gorgeous

Applying the Hiro Space Balm with the ILIA foundation brush

A touch of RMS Living Luminizer on the cheekbones

In what ways did becoming pregnant change things for you?
One of the biggest changes is that nowadays, I feel much more comfortable planning ahead, instead of living life in a very noncommittal way. For my whole life, I always had a strong compulsion to stay free and to keep my options open. But meeting my partner changed that, and having Pina even more so. When Thomas came into my life, everything just sort of clicked, and the parts of my life and its path that I didn’t feel sure about all somehow just fell into place.
For instance, though Thomas had always known he would want kids one day, I had always been somewhat ambivalent about the subject. But as our relationship progressed, I began to feel a lot more comfortable with the idea of bringing a child into this world, especially with Thomas.

Other changes that were catalyzed by my pregnancy had to do with my appearance: before I got pregnant, I never paid much attention to my skin care regime, simply because I didn’t need to – I was blessed with easy to maintain, blemish-free skin. I never wore that much make up and used cheap brands I could find at any drugstore.

However, the first three months of pregnancy changed that dramatically: the hormonal changes gave me terrible breakouts, and in addition to that, I also ended up developing something known as the ‘mask of pregnancy,’ which are darker spots on the skin, caused by an increased pigmentation due to hormonal changes.
After the first trimester, my skin thankfully balanced itself out, and I was happy to just be another one of those glowing moms. But the pigment spots took longer to resolve: I quickly figured out that regular exfoliation can help make the skin tone look more even again. One of the products that really helped me was Suki’s Exfoliate Foaming Cleanser, for instance.

How did the skin issues during your pregnancy influence your eating and beauty habits?
I indulged my sweet tooth during most of my pregnancy, but after having Pina, I started to focus on healthy eating and buying more organic products. I make all her food myself, ensuring that nothing she eats is excessively processed or filled with unpronounceable ingredients, and of course I myself try to eat as healthy as possible as well.

Other small changes: I used to love to wear nail polish, but after having Pina, I realized I didn’t feel comfortable exposing her to the harsh fumes of conventional polishes, specifically nail polish removers. I could just imagine her sticking my fingers in her mouth at any given moment and ingesting god knows what kind of chemicals. A nice find was the peelable nail polish by Little Ondine (soon available in the Amazingy webshop), which eliminates having to use nail polish remover.

Right after having given birth, I also noticed that I let my personal care slip away more; I was really focused on my baby, and on being a mom. It took about three months before I was ready for a life outside of my home again, and becoming more aware of what I looked like.

What does your beauty routine look like now?
As I mentioned before, I never did put a lot of thought into my personal care products, but eating organically after my pregnancy naturally evolved into taking things a step further and using organic products and cosmetics as well.

Nowadays, I actively cleanse my face every night, something that I never really did that much before, and I can really enjoy using a facial mask whenever I get the chance. In the summer, I try to keep my look as natural as possible, partly also because I tend to get freckles, which I never try to hide. I usually stick to just using mascara and maybe some blush.
During the wintertime, HIRO’s L’oeuf foundation works really well for me because it doesn’t make me feel like I smeared on a mask, and still manages to create a fresh-looking glow even through Berlin’s notoriously dark winters.

Another product that has recently become invaluable to me as a new mom is Kahina’s eye serum. It reduces puffiness, minimizes the appearance of dark circles and fine lines, and creates an overall fresh look, even when you’re sleep deprived.

HIRO’s A Clockwork Peaches blush enhances Merelinde’s tone perfectly

Enhancing the eyebrows with ILIA Mascara Macao

The tangerine toned ILIA Lipstick Voila suits Merelinde’s energetic spirit well

Any last tips for the other moms out there?
As a new mom, I quickly noticed that a lot of moms tend to spend less and less time on their own appearances. I didn’t want to fall into that same trap. Ironically, it took becoming a mom to start to pay more attention to my appearance and health.

Taking better care of my changing skin, implementing new beauty routines, and putting more effort into reading labels and choosing organic cosmetics, not only makes me feel and look better, but in my opinion, benefits Pina’s wellbeing as well.

My advice to the moms out there? Make sure to carve out some well-deserved ‘me-time’ whenever you get the chance. Whether it’s taking a walk by yourself or locking yourself in the bathroom with a soothing facial mask. Feeling good and happy can only benefit your child – just the feeling alone of having spent some quality time on yourself will make you glow in a whole new way.

Want to re-create Merelinde’s look from her photoshoot at the Amazingy Headquarters? Here’s how:

Our makeup artist Claudia refers to this look as a ‘fancy, everyday look.’ It can be easily achieved in just a few steps.

You’ll need the following products:

Hiro Mineral Foundation – L’oeuf
Space Balm – Altaira
Kjaer Weis Eyeshadow – Charmed
ILIA Mascara – Macao
Kjaer Weis Mascara
HIRO Mineral Blush – A clockwork peaches
RMS Living Luminizer
ILIA Lipstick – Voilà

Step 1: Face the base

As always, start with a freshly cleaned and moisturized face. For Merelinde’s light skin tone and cute freckles, Claudia used the HIRO L’oeuf Mineral Foundation on Merelinde’s entire face, applying the powder with a foundation brush. Afterwards, Claudia used a bit of Altaira Space Balm under Merelinde’s eyes and around her nose to even out her skin tone even more. A great benefit of HIRO’s Mineral Foundation is that it not only offers coverage and evens out your skin tone, but also protects against the sun’s damaging rays with SPF 30.

Step 2: Luscious eyes

To create a fresh looking appearance, Claudia opted for minimal eye-makeup, as this look is more suited as a fancy semi-nude daytime look. She applied the Kjaer Weis Charmed eye shadow over Merelinde’s entire eyelid along the crease of her eyes, followed by just a touch of Charmed under her eyes as well. The next step made this look pop even more: after applying Charmed, Claudia took a dab of the Altaira Space Balm and applied it with an angled brush in the creases of Merelinde’s eyes, blending the Space Balm with the eye shadow, creating a nude-smoky-eye effect.

On Merelinde’s lashes, Claudia used a light layer of Kjaer Weis Mascara, followed by softly brushing Merelinde’s already neat looking eyebrows with the ILIA Mascara in the color Macao, for a bit of extra definition.

PRO TIP: Instead of applying mascara directly onto the eyebrows, make sure to wipe the brush a bit with a tissue, preventing clumps and a too-dark tone.

Step 3: Rosy cheeks and kissable lips
The seasonal lack of sunshine has all of us looking a bit pale, so Claudia opted for using a bit of blush to draw attention to Merelinde’s cheekbones and to create an overall healthy looking glow. HIRO’s A Clockwork Peaches turned out to compliment Merelinde’s tone perfectly, and Claudia applied the blush using HIRO’s Angled Blush Brush.

PRO TIP: Applying blush the right way can be tricky. Claudia recommends applying most of the color onto your cheekbones first, brushing and fading it out upwards to shape your face and add definition to certain areas.

In addition to the blush, Claudia also applied a few dabs of the RMS Living Luminizer right above Merelinde’s cheekbones and in the crease of her eyes. For the lips, she used a bright tangerine color with ILIA Lipstick in the tone Voilà – an energetic color that suits Merelinde’s free-spirited vibe especially well.