The “I look great with no effort” Make-Up

I’ve noticed there are a lot of make-up tutorials out there for all kinds of make-up looks.  Day looks, night looks, Halloween looks, work look, and wedding looks, but I was thinking, what is a girl supposed to do when she is having an errand day, such as doing groceries, or going to coin laundry?  There is no look for this that is appropriate.  Work make-up looks too formal, and fun flirty make-up looks too dolly for something mundane like dropping off library books. But not wearing make-up at all is dowdy and sloppy. There is a lot of pressure on women to constantly look put together, even when going to the post office.  But we don’t live in the past era where put together house wives in pearls dominated the general image of women in public.  Now, a heavily made up face on a woman in a supermarket looks slightly out of place to me.  Also there is judgement on busy mothers with young children, from on lookers who think to themseves: where does she find the time to powder her nose and coat her lashes, when she has two screaming children she should be attending to?  (This is not a fair judgement, but something we want to avoid, none-the-less)  So what to do?  I present to you, a formula for the everyday look.  It’s about balance.  Wearing enough make-up to not look sloppy, and yet not looking like a glamour addict, make-up addicted bimbo.  The “I didn’t just roll out of bed” look, also known as the “I am put together in an effortless way” look.

1.  Tinted moisturizer.  I have dry skin, so in the morning my skin is begging for moisture anyways.  I make my own tinted moisturizer with my bb cream/foundation base mixed with a dab of face cream.  This thins out foundation and gives it a more sheer coverage, helping to minimize imperfections, but not to cover-up the subtle textures of a natural skin face. Then follow with a light dusting of face powder.  I stress a light dusting because if you heavily put on powder, then it defeats the whole effortless look.  It will be over done.

2.  Groom your brows with a brow brush and a bit of brow liner.  Just a bit.

3. Then apply eye shadow, but no liner.  Get a semi-fine shadow brush, and use any colour shadow to smoothly line the contours of your eyes. I say any colour is fine because once a shadow is applied, its edges are diffused naturally, and doesn’t cause any bold stark lines.  It gives your eyes a pop, without being too noticeable.  Also it acts as base powder for your mascara to not smudge against the base lids of your eyes.

4.  Mascara is the key to looking done up, but not over done.  Without mascara, girls really do look like they just rolled out of bed and slapped on some make-up.  But mascara makes you look awake, without looking too dolled up.

5.  Tinted lip balm!  I love this stuff.  It doesn’t cover up your lips, or add sticky gloss.  Just a bit of transparent colour, making your lips look naked, but just better.

6. And optional, if you have time, a sweep or two of blush.

And then you’re done.  Now you can rush off to meet up with your friend, not look like you just plopped out of bed. But miraculously, you still look awesome.  🙂