FOTD August 16/11 and saving time on your makeup routine!

This was me trying to REALLY streamline my makeup routine!! Right now I'm getting up at 5 a.m., and if that time of day doesn't make you reconsider the length of your makeup routine, nothing will!

The trick, for me at least, to streamlining my makeup routine is to wear less makeup and do my makeup more quickly, but not look like I'm wearing less makeup to the untrained eye... so to go from 4+ shades of eyeshadow carefully blended, with precisely drawn eyeliner down to one wash of eyeshadow and no liner isn't an option. Nor would going from skin flawlessly finished with foundation, concealer, powder and so on to moisturizer and a bit of cream blush. I want to find ways to make it look like I spent just as much time on my makeup as I usually do, even when I cut that time in half.

My tricks? I break them down into two categories - base and eyes.

For base:

• Start with a good tinted moisturizer! Right now I've been using the Origins VitaZing. For some this will be enough, but if like me you prefer a more full-coverage look and still want some foundation on, using tinted moisturizer first will give you some base coverage combined with the all-important step of moisturizing first...
• ...then, take your foundation of choice and apply it only to "problem areas". For me, that's areas of redness like on and around my nose, my chin, and a little on my forehead. I've been using Rimmel Lasting Finish 25 Hour foundation, and just applying it to these areas with my fingers. I make sure to get it on the undereye area as well, because this step can also save time on concealer!

Doing it this way saves me time because normally, I would moisturize with a regular moisturizer, then apply foundation all over my face with a sponge, taking a lot more time. This way gets me close to the same coverage, but in far less time, because by the time I'm done step one, I'm already half way there for the coverage I need by the end of step two!

For eyes:

• Find a good medium shade - one that's not too light that it could be a highlight or even your usual lid shade, but not so dark it would be a crease shade. And put it on your lid!! It's really simple actually... if you choose your colours and finishes carefully, you can even get a couple shades of the same colour on there for more depth, but still take hardly any time doing it. I find shimmery shades tend to blend more easily on their own and with other colours, so they can really cut down on blending time if you're in a hurry.

As an example, here's a breakdown of how I did the look below, using all these techniques!

• Apply NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Iced Mocha to the lid. I just rub the pencil on my finger and rub that on my lids.
• Apply shade 13 from the Sephora Color Play 5-in-1 palette (a medium-light shimmery silvery-taupe) to the inner half of the lid.
• Apply shade 12 from the same palette (a slightly darker version of the same colour) to the outer half, blend at the middle. Sweep a little bit of this shade along the outer third of the lower lashline.
• Take an angled brush, dip it in a pigmented, matte black eyeshadow (I like NYX's single eyeshadow in Black) and stamp that on the outer half of the upper lashline, creating a slight, soft wing if you so desire.
• Then just add water! Hehehe no I'm kidding.... then just add mascara and you're done!

This takes less than half the time of most of the eye looks I usually do when I have more time, but really doesn't look extremely simplistic. Play around with the shades you have to see how this can translate for yourself when you want to save time!