My everyday face

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Okay, guys, prepare your eyes. I'm about to share with you all my everyday face routine as of right now from bare faced to finish. I do a variation of this on a daily basis depending on how much time I have, how lazy I am that day, and where I'm going. This is what I do when I have an average time to get ready for work or running errands, it typically takes me about 10 to 15 minutes, less if I omit eyeliner and contouring.

Alright, so here it goes, after I moisturize with my Olay Complete:

 

YIKES, let's even out that skin and get rid of the redness around my nose and eyes. I've used a ton of different foundations but lately I've been using CoverGirl NatureLuxe Silk Foundation in number 335, I like that it's SPF 10 and it goes on smooth and doesn't break me out. I forget how much I got this for because it was on sale but I think it runs between 10 and 13 dollars, but don't quote me. I dot it on my face (too much is no good, you can always add more for more coverage but you can't take it away and cakeface is not festive). I use this e.l.f. powder brush that that I got at Target for $3 (e.l.f. brushes are really nice brushes for very reasonable prices, I use them as often as I do my high end brushes) and just blend out the foundation in circular motions all the way down onto my neck.

 

 

Thanks to genetics and lack of sleep I have dark circles under my eyes, I use Glamoflauge by Hard Candy (they only sell this at Wal-Mart or online around my area) and it's about $6. I also Like CoverGirl cover stick in medium beige for under the eye but it can be a little thick so if dark circles aren't an issue for you, skip this all together, I wish I could.

 The Hard Candy concealer is very full coverage so you really need less than you even think you do, if I have redness around my nose I dot a tiny bit around there too.

 I like this dome shaped foundation brush to blend this concealer but using your ring finger is just as effective and if I'm in a real rush that's what I'll do.

 

 

I like to set my foundation with powder and it really helps if you have oily skin (which I don't but I still like to set my foundation for wearing power). I have been using Rimmel Stay Matte in 004 Sandstorm for about a year now, I've used so many of these but it's a good price for a nice, smooth product. They cost under 4 bucks and it sits nicely on my skin. I use another e.l.f. powder brush (a DIFFERENT one than I used for my foundation, I have a few of these brushes). I like to just use a little on my t-zone and under my eyes to set my concealer.

 

 If you were born with wonderful brows, then I'll take this moment to express my jealousy. I have blonde eyebrows that are nearly invisible. You'd be surprised the difference your eyebrows make, they are a true anchor of your face so I do take the time to fill mine in just about every day. The best eyebrow pencil that I have found is Maybelline Define-A-Brow, I use the color 647 Light Blonde. If I can't find this pencil (I go through them SO quickly, I'm not sure if it's because I use it every day or if there just isn't much product in the pencil to begin with, but I feel like I use them so fast) I like e.l.f. Studio Eyebrow Kit in light. This kit is a colored wax and a colored powder, I love the wax side to keep brows in place and add some color. It costs 3 bucks at Wal-Mart, Target or online at eyeslipsface.com. I just use short and light strokes following the natural shape of my eyebrow. 

 

After I pencil, I use a spoolie to comb the brows down into place and this also helps the pencil blend naturally.

 Yay, I have eyebrows!

 

I always prime my eyes but it's totally optional, I definitely recommend it if you will be wearing heavier shadow or a smokey eye for a night out, it really helps to prevent creasing and your shadow from wearing off. I like Urban Decay Primer Potion but a good drugstore dupe is e.l.f. Eyelid Primer, I use it constantly now because it's only $1 whereas the Urban Decay is about $20.

 

Just a little swipe on both eyelids and I pat it on to blend it out.

 

 

I really love NYX's Butt Naked Eyes palette, it's a total go-to for me. I got mine online for half price but it retails for 25 bucks, it's totally worth it for the 15 full sized versatile neutral shadows (it has a mix of matte and shimmer), four blushes, two highlighters and a bronzer. It's practically a whole face in one palette. It's available at Ulta. 

As you can see, I've hit pan on a few shades, these are the ones I use pretty much every day. You can find similarly colored shadows to these anywhere in the drugstore for reasonable prices but if I were to recommend a brand, it'd probably Revlon. They have great quads with complimentary colors and a good range of shades. I like that Revlon offers a mix or pearls, shimmer, and matte shades as well.

I use this Face Works shadow brush to apply this eggshell nude color (which is matte) to my entire lid all the way up to the browbone.

 

Next I like to add a little depth to the eye with a light brown shade in the crease, I am using another e.l.f. brush, this is the Deluxe Crease Brush.

 

I'll just pick a little up on the brush and tap off the excess then use a windshield wiper motion to follow the natural crease of my eye. I try not to go all the way in or too close to the inner corner of my eye because that can create weird shadows which makes me look tired.

Next, I add a highlight to my brow bone and the inner corners of my eyes, here I'm using the shimmery white because I've used all matte shadows on my eye so far and I need a little something to reflect light. If I am doing a dark smokey eye or a really shimmery look, though, I'll use the matte white that's on the other side of the palette so I'm not TOO shimmery, I'm not trying to look like a disco ball.

 

I like to use a matte black shadow and an angled brush to line my upper lashline on days that I'm in a rush or don't feel like getting into liquid liner. It still gives the effect of a thicker lashline without having to concentrate too hard.

I push the shadow into my lashline as close to the lashes as possible and I use whatever is left on the brush on the outer 1/3 of my lower lashline.

 

Mascara! This is the finishing touch and it makes so much of a difference for me because I have blonde lashes. If I wear no other makeup, I wear mascara. I've been into the CoverGirl Clump Crusher mascara since I got it, but for some other ideas on mascaras click here.





 One eye down.

 Two coats on top and bottom lashes.

Another optional step is to line your waterline. I don't do it everyday but it does make a difference. I have two options here, either black or white. Both of these are Rimmel, this is coincidence as I usually by the Revlon Color Stay black liner for my waterline but I couldn't find it last time I was looking for it. I like to use the black to really define my eyes but if I'm feeling particularly tired looking or red eyed I use the white in the waterline to brighten up the eye area.

 

Blush makes me look alive. If I just wear foundation, blush and mascara I feel like a new person. It makes me look more polished and bright. I have clearly used a lot of this mauvy rose color from the NYX palette. Any nice matte-ish blush looks good on most skin tones and is universally flattering. 

 

I put it right on my cheek focusing on the apple of my cheek, less is more with blush but don't be afraid to put color on your face.

I like to add a bit of contour to my face too, I like this Physician's Formula Healthy Wear bronzer, it is SPF 50 and totally matte. It doesn't look muddy on my fair skin, I have it in both light and medium.

I make a fish face and put it under the cheek bones and up to the temple. I take it under my chin, too, and up to hairline. Think of your brush making a number 3 on your face. I like to take a little down my nose and on my chin too, where sun would naturally hit my face.

If I have time, I like to highlight my cheekbones with this fan brush, I put it right on top of the cheekbone above where I put my blush and a bit down my nose.

 

Last, a little lip gloss, lipstick or balm, I've been using Blistex Moisture Melt a lot since the winter has left my lips dry. 

 Done!

 

So, all of these steps may seem like a lot, but let me tell you, I have my routine down to a science and I could do it with my eyes closed. Well, maybe not closed. You could absolutely omit just about any of these steps and still look put together. I always put on foundation, concealer and mascara, though.

Scrub a dub dub?

I admit it, I am a recovering face scrub addict. How easy is it to say, "I'll just try it once," when some of those face scrub commercials make washing your face look so wonderfully refreshing? I am convinced that Clean and Clear Morning Burst commercials could make even the most non-morning person want to get up at 5 am and have a blast washing their face. The girls have beautiful skin, there is water splashing everywhere, sun is shining through their windows and you can practically smell the rejuvenating orange scents.

I am not sure what it was that ever made me determine that my skin needed facial scrubs or exfoliation beads (it was probably the great commercials), but ever since I can remember having any sort of skin care routine, it included some sort of facial scrub. I honestly feel like I've tried every brand on the market from St. Ives apricot scrub to Clean and Clear to Neutrogena. I have not been bias toward any particular type of scrub, I've used harsher grainy scrubs to the gentle exfoliating beads.

The best thing I ever did for my skin, though? I STOPPED SCRUBBING! I've never had really problem skin, besides the occassional pimple my skin is typically clear. What I have come to realize about my skin is that it is a bit more sensitive than I thought and I noticed that scrubs and over exfoliating were actually making my skin look worse rather than more radiant. The first step away from scrubs I made was when I decided to try L'Oreal Go 360 Clean Deep Facial Cleanser, I got the one for sensitive skin. It comes with a little silicone scrubber that pops right in and out of the actual bottle itself. I liked that because I still felt like I was getting a "deeper" clean with the scrubber but the actual product was a cream cleanser. This was when I noticed my skin really responded to this type of cleanser rather than a scrubbing cleanser. I haven't used this product in over a year as I decided to go with what has become my holy grail cleanser, classic Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser.

cetaphil.com

Cetaphil is recommended by a lot of dermatologists because it is gentle, doesn't contain any fragrance and is non-comedogenic. The cleanser doesn't dry out my skin or strip it of it's natural oils. When my skin is over dried it produces more oils to compensate and my skin ends up breaking out more or looking more red than usual. I have learned that if I don't need to exfoliate every day and if I don't need to use a scrub with salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide in it then I shouldn't. Prevention isn't always best in my case. I don't think I will ever use another cleanser besides Cetaphil, I have gone through so many bottles of this. I have also used the generic brands of this from both Wal-Mart and CVS and they both were equally as good as the Cetaphil itself.

The next thing I did for my skin was learn to moisturize regularly. I was always afraid that moisturizing would cause me to break out. Well, I was wrong. I started using Olay Complete All Day Moisturizer with Sunscreen Broad Spectrum SPF 15 for sensitive skin every day after I wash my face at night and before I put on my make up in the morning. I like that it has SPF so I don't need to put on sunscreen (because I often forget to do that) and it hasn't made me break out ever.



olay.com

 

Lastly, as removing my make up every night is so important (and it isn't a secret that I love waterproof mascara and liquid liner), I use Almay Moisturizing Liquid Makeup Remover. I like this particular remover because it is hypoallergenic and it doesn't irritate my eyes. It comes in an oil free formula as well but I like the moisturizing one instead for waterproof makeup, it really breaks up the make up on my eyes and takes it off without me having to rub at my eyes (who wants premature crows feet?) and it doesn't leave traces of mascara flakes all over my eyes. I've tried quite a few eye make up removers and I've hated a lot of them. Some other ones I have liked, however, are the one from Neutrogena that is blue that you have to shake up and Maybelline Expert Eyes moisturizing remover. If you like to wear waterproof ANYTHING on your eyes, though, I'm telling you, give the Almay remover a try. It works wonders for me. Here is a trick, though, if you are in a pinch for some remover for your eyes try baby oil if you have it around. My aunt swears by it and it really does take off all waterproof make up.

I have come to realize that for my skin, less is more. I wear a lot of make up on a daily basis and I still don't need an aggressive or medicated face wash to cleanse my skin. I have also realized that moisturizer is my friend and I don't feel the need to exfoliate as much when my skin is not so dry from over scrubbing.

Make an impression

First impressions really are important and I guess that's a good thing for CoverGirl's Clump Crusher by LashBlast  mascara. I have been dying to try this since I first saw it and today I was at CVS and just couldn't resist, my mascara senses were tingling. Per usual, I'm not a fan of the packaging, I think that CoverGirl mascaras have some of the least attractive packaging of all drugstore mascaras. Well, don't always judge a book by it's cover I suppose, I have quite liked the ugly orange tubed original lash blast mascara, I need to remember to look past the packaging! So, I picked this up for $8.99, I'm sure it's a bit cheaper at Wal-Mart but I don't think 9 bucks is bad, especially for this particular product. As I've mentioned before, I am the biggest anti-spider lash lady ever and this always make it difficult for me to find mascaras that I really love because I am also the most pro-volume lady ever. Apparently, with most mascaras, spider lashes go hand in hand with volume. The name Clump Crusher sounds like everything that I would love, nothing worse than crazy clumpy lashes.

 

I tried this right when I got home from work, I removed the make up from one eye and tried my first coat of Clump Crusher. I bought the water resistent version (I didn't see a totally waterproof version) in 825 Very Black. The brush is curved which makes it easy to hit all lashes in one sweep and the plastic bristles (which I typically don't like as much as regular bristles) really separate the lashes. The bristles are fairly short, however, so they do allow the wand to deposit a good amount of product on the lashes without digging into your lash line risking a scrape of plastic bristle and resulting in the ever-terrible watery eye. The formula seems fairly thin but it's not actually super wet, which is what I think lets it coat the lashes well but helps them to not stick to each other as other more wet mascaras do. I usually like a drier formula but this one works for me so if that's something you typically like as well I think you'll like this mascara, too.

Here is my very bare eye (please excuse the tired eye) with one coat:

Here is my eye with two coats:

With two coats I really didn't see clumping! I think this mascara actually added quite a bit of length as well, which was nice. These are my lashes uncurled, as well, so I think with a nice curl they'd look even longer. I think the formula gives an average amount of volume, I like that my lashes don't look super thin but are still really defined. This brush does a really nice job separating but still adding a decent amount of volume. Perhaps I will try three coats next to see if it looks much more voluminous.

To compare to my typical mascara routine, here is my other eye with the mascara I wore today (my favorite combination of the moment, L'Oreal Million Lashes and L'Oreal Voluminous Original)keeping in mind that I had a bit of eyeliner on and it's a whole 10 hour day old:

Will this mascara make it to the list of my all time faves? Only time will tell. However, I really like this mascara upon first impression and I'm glad I picked it up. It is very difficult to compete with my L'Oreal Voluminous because I just always find myself going back to the tried and true that works for me and my lashes but I think the Clump Crusher may be in the running.

Another thing I picked up today at CVS was Goody's Simple Styles Bun Spiral. I'm not sure what posessed me to pick this up, I have been wearing buns semi-frequently lately but it's not like a bun is a difficult style to achieve. A hair elastic, some bobby pins and hairspray and I'm good to go, I wear a bun when I don't feel like doing anything to my hair, how could any spiral contraption make it any simpler than it already is? Well I decided this was worth a shot anyway, I bought the one for dark hair (there is one for light hair as well), for around 7 or 8 bucks.

Here is a shot of the instructions on the package, looks easy enough, right?

Well, in all reality, it really was that easy, the spiral was easy to put in and to take out and my bun felt like it was tight and secure. The problem for me is that I have pretty long and thick hair and when I twist my hair into a bun its circumference is bigger than the circumference of the spiral. If I twist it small enough to fit in the spiral my bun is really tall and thin and the thickness of my hair doesn't allow the spiral to reach the root of my head too well and my bun didn't feel as secure. I like my buns to be a bit flatter and wider, anyway. I found that this doesn't create a really super polished ballerina bun, as it allows bits of the ends to come out and it looks nice as a low side bun or nape of the neck bun. I think that if your hair is a bit thinner than mine this product would be ideal. If your hair is super thin, though, I don't think it would even hold your hair for an hour. I wish that I could figure out a way to make my bun fit into this better because I want to like this product! It really does securely hold all of my hair with no hair elastics, bobby pins or anything else. I will continue to experiment with this product and if I figure out how to make it work well on really thick hair I'll be sure to share. The beauty community raves about this lines smaller pins called their Spin Pins. The package comes with two little spin pins and you can use both on opposite sides of your bun to lock it into place and I believe there are other styles they work well with. I may be picking those up soon to give them a try.