Rushing around in the morning can wreak havoc on your makeup routine, but don’t worry. We have a few great ideas to help you get out of the house quickly and still put your best face forward.
Organize your beauty products
You can easily shave valuable time off your morning makeup routine by not having to search through your entire cosmetics collection for items you need, such as your angled eyebrow brush or favourite lip colour. Separate the everyday essentials from the rest of your makeup, and keep it that way by storing them in a different makeup bag or, better yet, in a clear makeup caddy (bedbathandbeyond.ca, $20) so you can find what you need quickly.
Take care of your skin at night
Saving time in the morning starts the night before, so get in the habit of cleansing and moisturizing your face each night before bed. To help combat dry skin overnight, we like Clinique Repairwear Intensive Night Cream (sephora.com, $64). Treat any other skin problems, such as wrinkles, blemishes or chapped lips, so you’ll wake up with a smooth and healthy complexion that’s a perfect blank canvas for your makeup application.
Choose multi-purpose products
Instead of a using a traditional foundation, try a BB or CC cream. Depending on which one you choose, this all-in-one multi-tasker might have almost everything a woman needs to achieve the look of beautiful skin, including moisturizer, primer, antioxidants as well as skin-perfecting coverage, and that will help streamline your makeup routine. Other multi-purpose products to keep on hand are a bronzer and cheek and lip tints, such as Becca Beach Tint (sephora.com, $30).
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Master the natural look
A natural makeup look is pretty and sophisticated — not to mention quick. Follow these steps to achieve a polished look in about five minutes:
- Start with a fresh face, and dot concealer under the eyes. Blend with a makeup sponge or brush.
- Use your fingers or a foundation brush to apply your favourite foundation, BB or CC cream over your face. If necessary, touch up any redness or imperfections with concealer. Blend.
- Lightly brush your face with translucent setting powder. We love Shiseido translucent pressed powder (sephora.com, $40).
- Use a brow pencil or matte eyeshadow to fill in eyebrows, and then tame stray hairs by smoothing with an eyebrow brush.
- Brush a light, neutral-toned eyeshadow over your entire lid. Stick with neutrals like beige, rose or peach that are within two hues of your natural cheek, lip or skin colour.
- Give definition to your eyes by blending a darker but coordinating neutral shadow in the crease, along the top lash lines and at the outside corners of your eyelids.
- Curl your eyelashes with an eyelash curler. Apply one or two coats of mascara. Start from the base of the lashes, and wiggle the brush a little bit to create the look of an eyeliner.
- Smile and apply a cream blush or tint to the apples of the cheeks. Blend well.
- Add a coordinating colour to your lips with tinted lip balm, stain or sheer lipstick.
- If you like, finish off your look with a barely there dusting of illuminating powder wherever light would naturally hit your face, such as the cheekbones, forehead and centre of the chin.
Highlight your favourite feature
While bold lips, shaded cheekbones and dramatic eyes all take a lot of work to get right and are best saved for when you have more time, that doesn’t mean your look has to suffer. Instead, apply natural-looking makeup, and then if you have extra time, take it a step further by playing up your favourite feature. It can be as simple as applying a standout lipstick, such as Lovemarc lip gel by Marc Jacobs Beauty (sephora.com, $36), defining your cheeks with bronzer or smudging eyeshadow around your eyes for a quick smoky look.
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