I don’t know about you, but I’m terrible at worrying (remembering) about makeup at the best of times. Now I’m a mum, I find it even harder to fit a makeup routine into the mix, and am lacking motivation most of the time.
However that lack of time doesn’t stop me noticing that actually my face can look dull and tired, or a breakout can takeover my chin, or actually, sometimes, you just look a bit more approachable when makeup is covering all the flaws. Plus, it’s nice to look and feel nice sometimes. So I’ve devised my own sort of 5-minute mum makeup routine that can get you from bare-faced to bright-eyed without too much effort.
Here’s how I do it:
Moisturise!
I confess, I’d love the time to be able to cleanse, tone and mosturise every single day, but it just isn’t feasible. That said, a good moisturiser or primer is key for makeup to sit well (on my face at least!). I use Astral Cream and have done since I was a teen and used to nick my mum’s, and genuinely can’t flaw it. I’ve spoken about the many benefits of this wonder product here before.
The face part
Foundation, blush and powder – no more, no less. A comfortable foundation base, followed by a sweep of blush, then set in place with some powder usually does the trick. The products I use for this are all Avon – True Cream to Powder Foundation, True blush and Mark Loose Powder Foundation – but obviously everybody has their own makeup preferences and budgets. This simple face brightening usually takes 2 minutes tops – and that’s if I have to add a bit of concealer in to cover any breakouts.
Eyes/brows
I find that to get on the go, a good brow and mascara product are all you need. I am a self-confessed mascara junkie, and have found loads of favourites over the years but for the moment I’m really digging Charlotte Tilbury Legendary Lashes Volume 2, which only needs a couple of strokes of the wand to create a dramatic, lengthy lash effect. For my brows I use Beautaniq fill & tame brow gel – it’s cheap and cheerful and came from my Birchbox – something which I shout about regularly. Again, a couple of sweeps of this sort out your brows by taming rogue hairs and filling in any gaps.
Lips
Last but not least, a good lip balm or sweep of favourite lippy does the trick to get you on the go – no need for any faffing around with lip liner or coats of gloss on top of colour. For me, I sometimes skip this step (ensuring I’m not sporting foundation lips!) as I find lipstick on my coffee cup annoying, but in the winter my dry lips normally demand it. Currently, my favourite lippy is Charlotte Tilbury Superstar Lips in signature shade Pillow Talk, but it could just as easily be a Rimmel lippy for under a fiver as I tend to go for shade and texture over anything else.
And that’s literally it. That whole routine takes 5 minutes tops. Granted, I could take longer contouring or adding more coats of mascara, eyeliner etc, but this routine is enough to give coverage and appear bright eyed and natural, without too much time or effort – because, as we know, toddler mums are rarely afforded such luxuries!
