Between balancing classes, extra-curricular activities, part-time jobs/internships, a social life and a million other responsibilities, being a college student is no easy task. As a girl, I also like to make sure that I look half-decent while working hard to achieve my goals. Unfortunately, I wasn’t born with the patience and skill that it takes to look like ?24/7. That being said, I really do admire those girls that are constantly on top of their hair, makeup and outfit game, y’all could really teach me a couple of things.
If you’re a total lazy girl like me when it comes to all things beauty, you know the struggle of trying to find and stick to a routine that doesn’t involve 17 steps and 10 hours of your time. I’m still in the process of establishing my go-to routine but here are some of the ways I try to adopt a fairly low-maintenance approach to beauty so I can still feel pretty most days without it becoming a burden.
Part 1: Hair
There was a short-lived phase I had in high school where I would religiously blow-dry my hair after every shower. But like I said, it was short-lived. Nowadays, I just prefer the good ol’ air-dry combined with my holy-grail It’s a 10 Miracle Leave-In Potion Plus Keratin product. Who says you can’t rock your natural locks?
You can also never go wrong with some really good-smelling shampoo and conditioner. My personal favorite is a light tropical scent that reminds me of summer (which honestly couldn’t come soon enough).
Part 2: Skin
The simple question of “What’s your daily skincare routine?” turns into a pretty embarrassing situation when all it consists of is micellar water on a cotton pad and a dab of moisturizer. I’ll throw in a face mask (like this cult Aztec Secret Indian Healing Clay one!) once a week but truly, its only purpose is to fulfill my weekly hour of de-stressing.
Growing up, my mom would use such a minimalist approach to maintaining her skin. The only way I really manage to get away with such a basic routine is because of her advice to treat your skin right from the inside out by eating healthy and drinking plenty of water. The nutrients that you get from whole, fresh and unprocessed foods makes up for the endless amount of chemicals in the skincare products we love to slather on. Besides, we need to eat well for our health anyway so why not kill two birds with one stone, amirite?
Part 3: Makeup
I am a self-proclaimed complete amateur when it comes to makeup. I used to watch YouTube tutorials for fun and understood literally nothing or would try to recreate a look with the minimal stash of products I own with terrible results.
Besides special occasions and certain days when I feel like putting in actual effort, I tend to skip a full makeup look altogether on a daily basis apart from BB cream, a quick eyelash curl and tinted lip balm. It’s really the epitome of lazy girl beauty – if I don’t put any makeup on, I won’t have to take it all off later…
Bonus Essential!
Keeping in line with my Lush Cosmetics obsession, I recently tried their Boom! Toothy Tabs which is basically a toothpaste in tablet form that contains charcoal (an ingredient known for its whitening and stain-removing properties). I use it to brush my teeth at night instead of regular toothpaste and would 10/10 recommend it to keep your pearly whites in check!
All these are by no means definitive, everyone’s got their own tips and tricks that they swear by to look and feel their best. And obviously, never forget you are beautiful no matter what, and that inner beauty and confidence always shines through what’s on the outside!