Tiny Series: Simple makeup routine for home

When I quit my job almost two years ago I partied the first weeks by not wearing an ounce of makeup or touching my hair.

It was my way of liberating myself.  Plus I had a newborn baby and I was breastfeeding her full time, so it’s not like I had tons of time to spend in the mirror.

Now that Baby J is older I do more for manfriend’s business, sometimes I even resemble a secretary of some sorts, and occasionally I perform tasks that require me to face other humans like visiting the mail office, so sometimes I need to look decent.  Or at least not crazy.

Besides preventing strangers from calling the police, a little makeup perks me up in the morning and helps me set my mind to my professional side.  Manfriend is also happier if I don’t look like I’m sick all day.  So, I’ve changed my makeup routine to better fit my busier days, I’ve simplified everything to better fit my new lifestyle.  I thought I’d share some of the things I’ve discovered work better with a day at home.

• The most dramatic change has been substituting a full foundation with a tinted moisturiser.  It affects the time it takes me to prep my skin, the cost of the product has been significantly reduced and it even covers the sunblock part, which is so important if I’m spending the day at home because there are a few things that I do outside.

I used to use the Superbalance makeup  and the Stay-Matte oil free makeup in the summer both from Clinique.  Those are wonderful products that gave me the exact coverage and care that I wanted for my days at work but now I use Aveeno’s tinted moisturiser “Positively Radiant” and I have everything I need in there.

Worth noting:  this tinted moisturiser gives reasonable coverage, not full.  It contains faint “sparkles”?  to give your skin a “dewey” look and it’s not the kind of moisturiser that should be used by people with acne prone skin – it will break you out.  If you have issues with those characteristics but would still like to simplify your foundation step I’d suggest to research a BB cream that does what you want.

• Following the same line of thought “I want the care part to marry the makeup part” I only use high pigmentation lipsticks on special occasions, now I do a tinted lip balm.  I’m into Maybelline’s Baby Lips and chose the Peach Kiss and the Mirrored Mauve shades.  They are very natural colors that moisturise the lips enough.

Worth noting:  these lip balms don’t give a full color coverage.  They will give you a hint of shade (they are very sheer) that will pretty much match your lips.  If you want the benefits of the Baby Lips line, but need a stronger color there are a couple of clear options that you can wear under your regular lipstick, but then I would highly recommend going straight for a stronger lip balm and my favorite is Carmex (any one of them) though I don’t use it regularly because I’m allergic (to most lip balms, I think it’s the wax.  Burt Bee’s gives me an Angelina Jolie look).

• I’ve ditched mascara and only wear eye shadow a couple of days a week, I now just do eyeliner and blush daily.  Blush is my “without it I’m naked” makeup.   I wear blush even when I don’t wear anything else.  I currently use blushing blush powder blush  from Clinique because I still have it from the days when I could afford it.  When it’s finished I’ll just buy a dollar one from any store (I’ve done it before, several times) because I’m not picky about the quality of the blush, as long as there’s a shade there it’s fine.

I’ll share a Simple Makeup for Special Occasions post later.  I hope this is al least a bit useful for someone.

Have a great day!