my 7-minute makeup routine

i’ll be the first to admit i’m not by any means a makeup genius. my knowledge begins & ends with random get-ready-with-me videos on youtube. however, now that i’ve been working in the mornings, i’ve found a routine that is simple, quick, & still gives me freedom to be creative with my makeup.

in this post i’m going to give you a summary of the makeup i use & how i do it in seven minutes every day. lessgo!!

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foundation / concealer

in all honesty, i don’t know the difference between foundation & concealer, so i’ll stick to calling it foundation. my face tends to get red a lot in weird areas, so i just dab on a tiny bit of the covergirl liquid foundation & blend it out. then i’ll use a little bit of exuviance coverblend to help out my continually dark undereyes, as well as a few spots where acne might be bad that day. finally, i dust finishing powder over everything to keep my face from excess oil & shine.

this part used to take me at least 5 minutes, but when i stopped worrying about covering every bump & spot, it only took about 2 minutes!! don’t worry about getting it ‘perfect’, because it’s not going to be flawless no matter how much you try. just have fun with it!

blush / highlight / bronzer

the blush i use is a standard ulta blush, and while it looks quite dark (especially since i’m pale as anything ahaha) it’s a pretty red-pink tone when used sparingly. on the occasion i feel like wearing highlighter or bronzer, i grab my eyeshadow palette and go at it with a caramel-brown & a cream. it does the job well, and i don’t have to buy makeup that i barely use anyway.

eyeshadow / eyeliner / brows

eyeshadow is always a bit of a challenge, but since i never really learned how to do it, i’ve always stuck to a basic formula. skin tone on lid, darker on the outside & crease, and a saturated color on the inner lid like pink or gold.

i use a pencil eyeliner and only on the top lid. pencil eyeliner is a lot easier to manage– you won’t mess up applying it as much, it won’t get crusty after a while, and if it smudges, it tends to smudge into the rest of your eyeshadow which gives a neat blending look.

okay, i know people really struggle with brows but mine are naturally really thick & full, so all i do is add eyeshadow where it’s needed & brush off the excess powder. if i had any need to ‘draw’ my brows, i’d take a bit more time in the morning. i’m lucky to be spared the expense!!

mascara / lips

i might be a little tiny bit allergic to mascara but does that stop me from wearing it?? not at all. standard black mascara does the job for me. i only do my top lashes, focusing on the outside corners to extend the eyeliner effect.

i have basically lived on burt’s bees since i was a kid, and have no intention of stopping anytime soon. unlike those egg-looking EOS lip balms, burt’s doesn’t chap your lips when you don’t reapply. i love it enough that i don’t wear lipstick except for special occasions… and for those times i’ll use neutrogena ‘color sticks’ which are basically lip balm & lipstick together. i recommend these to anybody, especially girls who are just starting to experiment with makeup.

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when we’re young it’s so easy to think of makeup as a mask with which to hide our insecurities. we think, i need to cover up my imperfections! as if they’re ugly & embarrassing. don’t you hate it when beauty companies use that word in their commercials, imperfections?! it makes you feel like you need the product because, alas, YOU aren’t perfect. but imperfections are not bad, they’re normal!

i know i’m not perfect, and now that i’ve finally come to terms with the fact, it’s easier to see through the beauty industry’s exploitation of body image. it’s much more common that we’re conscious of. if we want to be truly happy with our bodies, we need to stop seeing the beauty industry as a means to improve but as a thing to enjoy.

i hope this post can help you find a little bit more time in your day! it’s all about finding your own routine, so don’t feel confined to follow me step by step 🙂 thanks for reading & enjoy!

love, a ♥