The Super Simple 5 Product Make Up Routine

I'm such a product junkie. The thing is I love to look at all the makeup in the store and play with it and buy it and bring it home and look at it some more but when it's 7:30am and I can either sleep an extra 15 minutes or be Barbie I choose sleep every time. Back when I was in high school I'd wake up early and actually do my hair and makeup and think about what I wanted to wear but in grown up land that's just not how I roll. Usually I braid a couple small braids in my hair, put the whole thing up in a messy bun, throw on something to wear, which only ends up being fabulous most of the time simply because I have a really fantastic collection of clothes, then I do my makeup in the car (calm down, it's at stop lights...most of the time). Which is why I am on the constant quest for the most simple makeup routine with the least number of products involved. And I think I've reached a new high.

So I guess if you include moisturizers this is actually a 7 product routine but that's skincare so it doesn't count right? Regardless I'm so in love with my moisturizers I would marry them so I wanted to share. I use Bobbi Brown's Hydrating Gel Cream for my whole face. I tend to get too oily if I use heavy moisturizers and even though I probably shouldn't admit this I don't wash my face with cleanser as often as I should. In the mornings I usually just use hot water. I'm no aesthetician but I am fairly certain this keeps my skin from being too dry which means that I don't need to use a lot of moisturizer. Gels are my friend when it comes to my face. Unfortunately I am totally old now so I have to use under eye cream. This is a bit heavier than my moisturizer but works for me. I can also notice a definite difference when I start slacking and not using this daily. Also by Bobbi this one is her hydrating eye cream. She's obviously super creative at naming her products.


Then the real fun begins. My super special five step patented (not really) beauty routine includes foundation, concealer, luminizer, mascara, and the lip application of your choice. For skin I use Bobbi Brown's Skin Foundation (I'm not kidding, that's it's actual name) and her creamy concealer. I like coverage without feeling like I'm wearing stage makeup so these two products work well for me.


Next up is luminizer which is like the unicorn of the makeup world. It's so incredibly magical. A unicorn is really just a horse with a horn and lumizer is really just sparkles with some color but somehow when their powers combine they become captain amazing.

I've mentioned this product before when I bought the lightest color but I loved it so much I came back for more and decided to try cutting out blush and using a luminizer in a tone similar to the blushes I like instead. Which was obviously genius of me. The thing about this product is it's fairly unique. Most highlighters or luminizers have very little to no color and are either very light or very brown depending on what skin tone you are shopping for. And blush is awesome but it's hard to find a really gorgeous blush with shimmer rather than glitter, and really, if you're older than twelve you're too old for glitter on your cheeks. But Nars has taken the best of both worlds and created a gel/liquid luminizer with enough shimmer and pretty to be a highlighter but enough color to work as blush as well. I bought the color "orgasm" which is a different take on their most popular blush color but as you can see it comes in a few other tones too. I hope they realize how great this product is and expand the spectrum.


After that is a quick pinch with an eyelash curler and some mascara. I started using Diorshow Blackout a few years ago and haven't looked back. It's pricey but if you pay attention to Nordstrom Sales a few times a year they do a buy two get one free mascara promo. It applies to all mascaras so you can pick up whatever you like as long as they're within the same brand. And mascara keeps forever as long as you don't open it and let air in (that's when it starts drying out). I tend to stock up a couple times a year and I'm good.

After that you can do whatever with your lips. My most favorite lip product in the entire world is Dior's Dior Addict Lipstick. I've written about it before so I won't bore you with my lipstick love but it's basically a lipstick that goes on like part chapstick/part gloss. You don't have to be careful about it bleeding or even look in a mirror to apply it but it has the color of a lipstick. Best of both worlds right here. Plus it comes in about 8 billion awesome colors.


UPDATE: About where to apply the luminizer, I apply it to my cheeks and up towards my temples because I am not super into the dewy look. I don't trust myself to not creep into shiny/Edward Cullen in the sun territory. Kind of the rule at least with powdered highlighters is to brush them on your cheeks, across your brow bone, down your nose, and on your chin...all the places the sun would most hit. Maybe it works but I don't feel the need to have a shimmery chin so I stick to my cheeks. One of my friends who came to the cabin with me though was super intrigued by this stuff and wanted to try it out. She used the lighter color on all those places on her face after I explained to her that's what you're "supposed" to do but I don't and she looked fine. She's also quite a bit darker than I am (as is everyone with the exception of albinos) though so that may have made a difference.

I just realized how uninformative that whole paragraph is but that's all I've got.