The No Make Up Make Up

I've always been a pretty full on make up girl. I love nothing more than a smokey eye and a lot and I mean a lot of highlighter. However some days, when my plans consist of sitting in front of my laptop and walking Frank, the smokey eye seems a bit OTT. Also when you've got deadlines, the last thing you want to be doing is sitting for a good 20 minutes doing your make up. So recently, I've been trying out the whole 'no make up, make up look'. As I've said before, it's very very rare that I will go out without make up because I am so self conscious of my skin. So with this being said, I like to apply a little bit of make up to make myself look a bit more alive, and well fake that whole ' I woke up like this' vibe.

I start with base, I usually ditch foundation and will either head straight for concealer (on good skin days) or go for a lighter base. Recently I have been using Bare Minerals new Complexion Rescue Hydrating Gel Cream*; a tinted moisturiser/bb cream, this base has been perfect for no make up, make up days. With a low/medium coverage, I do need extra concealer, but this feels so light on the skin that I often forget I'm wearing make up. With moisturising properties to intensely hydrate your skin, I would say this would be perfect for dry-normal skin types. However even with my oily skin, as long as you prime and expect to powder throughout the day, you can still enjoy this base. Just be prepared to powder or things can get a little oily. The coverage is build able but usually I apply just one layer and then go in with a concealer such as Maybelline's Fit Me concealer to cover up spots, blemishes and dark circles. The finish of the gel cream is pretty flawless and gives you a natural almost airbrushed finish. It's great for faking perfect skin and I'm going to keep this for the warmer months as I think it will be a lovely summer base. The new Bare Minerals gel cream doesn't launch till April, so keep your eyes peeled for when it hits the shops.

Once I'm all concealed up, I'll use a bit of powder to just mattify everything, but not going too over the top as obviously, I'm trying to make my make up look as natural as possible. But for this I use Antipodes Skin Brightening Mineral Finishing Powder* which eradicates any oil, and leaves my face with a flawless but natural finish. I've been really enjoying using it as it doesn't make my face cakey at all. I usually skip bronzer, blusher and highlighter ( I know shocking) and I'll either apply a very light eyeshadow, think Virgin from Urban Decay's Naked Palette or just a medium matte brown to my crease, but sometimes, I don't even do this. I'll then add mascara, something I see as important as putting on pants in the morning. I have been rotating between Benefit's new Roller Lash mascara and Too Faced's Better Than Sex mascara. I won't say too much as I have a post planned to go into more detail about these. Finally a sweep of brow gel in the form of Benefit's Speed Brow to tame my unruly Charlie from Busted brows and I'm done. Most days, I don't bother with lipstick, or eye drops or anything else because I can't be arsed. In total it takes me 5 minutes, it makes me feel slightly more human and well seeing as I have to cross a busy main road to walk Frank it also means I also don't scare any fellow pedestrian's with my make up free face.

I hope that one day, my skin will be good enough for me to skip the make up. Nothing makes me hope that more, but for now whilst it's pretending it's 14, we will carry on with the no make up, make up. I definitely didn't wake up like this though, and well that's okay.