I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve been switching between getting ready for work as normal or doing the absolute opposite and its an achievement if I’ve not got my dressing gown on. All about ✨balance✨. You’d often find me at least with my skincare done, but in recent weeks with more spontaneous video calls dropping into my calendar, I’ve making the extra effort to to go the step further and set myself 5-10 mins to put some makeup on in the morning.
Therefore, I’m setting myself a challenge to see what looks I can do in under 10 minutes, and with as few products as possible, but still switching it up a bit with colour where I can. The main reasons I can take an age with my makeup is because I love taking my time, particularly spending time blending my base, and whilst I don’t wear loads of makeup, I wear a little of many products as I like to mix and match. That being said, I’m all about getting creative and discovering different ways to make your products work harder for you and be multi-purpose; which can in turn shave valuable time off a lengthy routine. I’m talking blush as eyeshadow, lipstick as eyeliner, primer or lip gloss as highlighter…the opportunities are endless! So without further ado, I present to you the first of the “10 minutes or less looks”, which is a glowy base (shocker) but with a juicy rich deep chocolate statement lip; using only 6 products featuring the likes of Charlotte Tilbury, Too Faced and Clinique.
Benefit Gimme Brow Volumising Brow Gel in shade 6
Effortless way to groom and fluff up my brows with no other product needed to define. I may use a spoolie to brush through any excess product but for the most part, we’re good to go with a couple of careful brush throughs on each brow to give some more depth and gently define.
Charlotte Tilbury Hollywood Flawless Filter in shade 7
I’ve been loving this product as its the ultimate multi-functional base product. Its a glow booster that can be used to prime, highlight or worn alone. I’ve even seen some people get a couple of shades (absolute ballers) to conceal and bronze up with too. I skipped primer with and opted for this as an all in one prime and “foundation” base; provides an instant glow and a teeny bit of coverage as well. A couple of swipes on my cheeks, a touch on my upper lip and forehead. Super lightweight formula that glides on top of skincare, so its perfect for work from home set up. I feel like this may be the basis for success in this challenge, so you may see this in the next posts of this series to come…
Too Faced Born This Way Multi-Use Concealer in shade ‘Chestnut’
I have loved this concealer forever because its very nature is to be multi use. Full coverage but super creamy and blendable, so a little goes a long way and you only need the tiniest amount. This shade is a tad on the yellow/brighter side upon first look but concentrated in the centre of my face or inner corner of my eyes, it works well for naturally bring brightness. For this look, I cautiously add a dot on the inner part of my under eye, and blend slightly outwards with a fluffy concealer brush, but not too much cancel out the glowy base.
EX1 Cosmetics Blusher in shade ‘Love Story’
Although I’ve been reaching for a liquid or cream blush these days, powder blushes still have a big place in my heart. This one in particular will always be a staple in my collection, as I love that it adapts to your skin tone to give you a gorgeous flush of colour, and can be built up as much or as little as you desire. Focusing this colour on the apples of my cheeks but blending upwards towards my ears, using a finishing brush to diffuse the colour, and add a little to my nose too. This shade in particular I would usually use on my lips and eyes as well as cheeks; blush generally is a perfect multi-functional product in mininmalistic looks such as this, leaving the end result to be an effortless yet cohesive colour story.
Clinique Even Better Pop Lip in shade ‘Velvet Kiss’
Usually would reach for red as a statement lip, but this has converted me to statement “nude” lips – you know, that deep chocolate brown that the 90s girls loved, this is it for us particularly with deeper skin tones. Comfortable creamy highly pigmented formula in just one swipe, but you can adapt the pressure and application to sheer out to a lip tint or pack on for ultimate coverage. I went somewhere in the middle, using the pigment in the middle to blend out to the edges with my fingers; taking any excess onto my cheeks to deepen and almost act as bronzer.
Fenty Beauty Gloss Bomb in shade ‘Hot Chocolit’
Considering I’m a lipstick girl, I’m obsessed with this gloss and Fenty glosses in general. So comfortable and not sticky to wear, but this shade is IT for black girls who want a slight tinted gloss. I wear this often by itself but I love pairing it up with the Clinique lip above as the colour combo is perfect, and gives a gorgeous juicy sheen – so that’s what I did in this instance. I also decided to use this as my ‘highlighter’today too, as my base was still quite dewy from the Hollywood Flawless Filter. But I just added a couple of dots to high points / where the light was hitting, just to amp it up a little further without adding additional colour or coverage. I used my fingers to blend out initially and then just make it seamless, I blended a little with the finishing brush I use for my blush.
And there we have it! As you may have noticed, I decided not to use mascara today, as I actually forgot if I’m honest. No one can really see my lashes on camera anyway, especially with my glasses, on but if I would’ve it’d have been Smashbox Superfan mascara. If I needed my face to last through the day I’d have also lightly set my under eye with the Pat McGrath Under Eye Powder before setting with my well loved BECCA Skin Love Glow Shield Mist. And lastly because is there ever such a thing as too much glow (maybe), I might’ve added a dedicated highlighter – either the BECCA Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed or LUMA On the Glow Highlighter Stick.
What do you think of the finished look? What are your go to products for a 10 minutes or less look? Let me know in the comments!
Speak soon,
Esther xxx
EST. SINCE 94 