Welcome to “My Perfect Birmingham Saturday,” a column where About Town asks Birmingham residents from different walks of life how they would spend a Saturday in the Magic City if they had it their way (and COVID notwithstanding). 

 

Today’s Saturday was planned by Yazmin Cavale, CEO and cofounder of GLOW, an app that offers on demand hair, makeup, and spray tanning services – a company that is revolutionizing the beauty industry. Cavale came to Birmingham from Boston 17 years ago, following her mother to the Magic City because “I couldn’t live without her,” Cavale said. “We are so very close, and I wanted to be closer to her.” Before Boston, Cavale built a beauty career in Los Angeles, New York City, and Miami. “City life was just a lot, and I wanted to kind of slow down a little bit,” she said. “I was 26 years old, and I really wanted to slow down and enjoy life.” But Cavale has done anything but slow down, building an empire one beauty transformation at a time, building an army of GlowPros to make Birmingham even more beautiful. Typically, Saturday is one of GLOW’s busiest days, but that notwithstanding, here’s how she’d spend her day.

 

I’d sleep in and snuggle with my children. I like watching cartoons in bed with them with my coffee – it’s my favorite thing to do in the morning with them on a morning off. The kids will crawl in bed with me, and I’ll watch cartoons with them, and my husband will bring me coffee.

 

I would probably have brunch at Five, my favorite brunch place. I’d have bottomless mimosas and chicken and waffles, probably. Then I’d go to the Grand Bohemian and get a facial, then I would probably go shopping at Saks, my favorite store.

 

Then I’d go to lunch at Bottega and have whatever the fish of the day is, or I sometimes get the burger – they have the best burger. Then I’d go through the GLOW app and get a blowout done at my house by a GlowPro, my makeup done by a GlowPro, and then get dressed and go out to eat at Café Dupont. I’ll ask the chef what I should get. I’m such a foodie – I love to cook, and I love trying new things. I never get the same thing twice there. I always ask the chef what the best thing is they’re cooking tonight, because the menu is always different. From there, we’d head to the rooftop bar at the Elyton.

 

I love Birmingham because it’s such an easy place to live, and I say that with a lot of love only because I know that city life is really hard. I love how family-oriented and faith-oriented it is here. There’s no traffic and great food, and just enough to do where you can work and stay focused during the week and go out to great restaurants on the weekends and experience adventure and culture. Birmingham has been so good to me – everything I have is because I moved here. My husband, my business, my friends. It’s a really special place for me.

 

-  As told to Rachel Burchfield