5 minutes makeup routine in 5 simple steps

Aramide Akinsanmi, a graduate of Psychology from the University of Ibadan, is the Creative Director for Makeup by Ara. In this write-up, she offers tips to career women on how they can apply their makeup in five minutes and still do it perfectly. 

Getting your makeup done can be such an issue to many non-professionals, and it gets even worse when you have to get it done in a hurry! Having to deal with all the smudged eye make-up, the wrongly filled and highlighted brows and terribly blended foundation can be very discouraging. There is no doubt about the fact that your makeup, if not done well, can affect your confidence. Especially on days when you have an important meeting with your boss or your top clients. Whatever the case may be, all these make-up hitches can get your day to a bad start. But you need not worry anymore, there is a way out.

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Just before we delve deeper, we need to understand that for everyday work make-up, the goal is to achieve a beautiful glowing skin with a face that is as close to your natural look; by just enhancing the way you look as a person without necessarily going overboard by trying to make you look like somebody else. If you are the type who is aiming for a totally transformational look on a daily basis, this write up is not for you – that is certainly not a 5 minutes affair.

5 simple steps to your makeup routine

Step one: Face prepping

Start by preparing your face with a primer or moisturiser. You are to apply the face primer or moisturiser evenly around your face with the tip of your index and middle finger. This would help you prepare your face for your foundation and any other product you would be applying to your skin. The primer provides a smooth skin base and good primers extend the longevity of makeup. A mattifying primer would do a better job on oily skin types.

Step Two: Foundation application

For this step to be flawlessly done, you are advised to have a proper colour and skin test with a professional who would take into consideration your undertones and recommend the best foundation match within your budget. With a good brush apply the foundation on your face. Do not forget to blend it below the jaw and chin area towards the neck to avoid seeing harsh lines. A good foundation brush would be highly recommended.

Step Three: Brows

For most people, this is the most tasking part of the whole make-up process. With the use of a good pencil, try drawing extremely faint strokes in the same direction as your brow hairs. Try and use light strokes. You can then darken as desired. You do not want your overly darkened brows making you look like you woke up angry. And for those with little or no brow hairs, it is advisable that you first outline the boundaries of your brows lightly and then fill with light strokes. We recommend the use of a pencil for this because most people have reported it to be much faster than pomade (brow gel) or powder. Once the light strokes have been added to the brows, you can, with your finger tip, swipe on a little concealer or highlighting bronzer just underneath the most curved part of the brows or you can use a brush. Just ensure the concealer is minimal and then blend the excess product from underneath the arch area of your brows to the other ends of your brows with your finger.

Step Four: Eyes

If you want your eyes brightened, you could use your fingertip to swipe a little bronze coloured eyeshadow on your eyelid and if you are very light skinned, gold would work too. Then, use a black waterproof eye pencil, draw a thin line just over the lash line of the upper eyelid. For the lower eyelid, with your eyes shut, swipe between your eyelids to achieve a darker eye area. Lining your eyes with black has a way of making your eyes look alert and vibrant, unlike bare eyes which could make you look sleepy and tired. Bear in mind that you might need to decide for yourself how dark you want your eyes to look. Very tiny eyes can get away easily with darker eyes without looking overly done unlike bigger, bolder eyes.

To make the eyes pop further, you can add a little concealer (your exact shade or just one shade brighter than your normal shade) under the eye area. This is particularly good for people with dark under eye area.

Step Five: Lips

For the lips to look neat and defined, it might help to use a pencil colour that is exactly the same as the lipstick you would be wearing or at most one or two tones darker. The lines you’ve drawn at the edges of your lips would serve as a boundary for your lipstick. Try as much as possible not to swipe lipstick beyond that line.

Note that for the office, it’s safe to work with less dramatic colours like nude with a little gloss if desired. Nude gives that natural “I woke up like this look.” You can jazz up the nude with a touch of soft pink. Red works as well for the office especially when it’s paired with a very smart corporate outfit.

In conclusion, it is important to bear in mind that for the first week you try these steps, it might take you 10 to 15 minutes to apply your makeup and you might even fail in properly applying some products, but do not feel discouraged. By the second or third week of consistently following these steps, you would have mastered it all in 5-minutes.

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