I remember my freshman year, I was in line for Pollo Tropical and I saw this girl really stood out from the crowd, not for any out of this world reason, but because she looked so put together. It was midterms week and this was the first girl I saw in that week that wasn’t wearing sweats, a lose shirt and didn’t have her hair in a messy bun. Instead, she had on leggings and a tunic with some nice flats, but that’s not what stood out to me; her makeup was what made me notice. All I could think of was, “who puts that much effort into their face for school, especially for midterms week, must this girl be insane”? Her face looked flawless, no dark circles, and not a single blemish in sight. After seeing this girl I got inspired, after many, many, many tries (and then some) I finally figured out my “minimalist” makeup routine, it looks great and makes people think you actually put effort in the morning, when it only takes about 15 minutes.
Cleanse, toner, and moisturize are key to a healthy face. You don’t even have to spend a lot of money on any of the products. I recommend Cetaphil daily facial cleanser, the L’OREAL Hydrafresh toner, and L’OREAL Ideal Moisture Day Lotion each under $7.
Now for the makeup portion I like to do an all-natural approach because I’m one of those girls that believes your makeup for school and your make up for LIV should be easily differentiated and not the same. Now I swear by the brands NYX and MAC, so I incorporate these both in my routine.
I start off by prepping my face with the MAC ‘Sized to Go’ Prep and Prime Fix spray ($10), I spray it evenly on my face and this acts as my primer. Next I use my MAC Studio Face and Body Foundation ($27) with my Beauty Blender ($20), now both of these are a bit pricey, the foundation is lightweight and natural and the beauty blender is perfect for blending in foundation. Once I have my foundation on, I move onto the concealer portion. To me, covering dark circles is super important, the EASIEST way to apply concealer ( I use NYX Dark Circle Concealer) is to take your finger to the corner of your eye, work your way down to your cheek bone creating and upside down triangle and letting it sit there for like 30 seconds and blend it with your beauty blender. Sometime when I’m not feeling lazy, I like to set it with a translucent powder for a baked Kim K. look (yes there is a makeup technique called baking).
Now you could stop there if you wanted to, but I like to go a tiny bit further for the blush, bronzer, and highlighter, I promise it only takes like 2 minutes. For my blush/ bronzer I use the NARS Mini Blush and Bronzer Duo ($24) and I lightly brush the bronzer on my jaw line, my temple, and lightly on my jaw bone (making a 3 shape on your face) and I take a fan brush to use for my cheeks. For my highlighter I use NYX Liquid Illuminator and with my fingers I gently blend it under my eye and above brow bone. Lastly I use MAC False Lashes Mascara (the mii is $10) and just lightly use it.
This may seem like a lot but really it only takes about 15 min to do. No muss no fuss with my makeup routine. I kept it plain and simple, since there’s no need for smokey eye at 9 am. When in doubt, Pinterest has some pretty great makeup tips you can use to incorporate into your routine. My routine works for my normal skin type, but if you maybe get oily or have dry skin you may need to use other products. Even if you do, my steps to a basic makeup routine will make any girl look and feel good even at the ungodly hours of her 9 am class.
HCXO