Minimalist Makeup: Quick and Easy!

Hi everyone! Today's blog post focuses on something I don't bring up very often, considering this is somewhat of a "go-to" style of mine: minimalist makeup. A lot of my tutorials on youtube don't focus on keeping makeup very light so I thought it would be good to touch up on this.

This is not necessarily an FOTD, but the actual thought dawned on me as I was getting ready to go to dinner tonight. I didn't feel like putting on a lot of stuff on my face and I surely wasn't going to pull out my eyeshadow brushes and start blending up a combo. Sometimes you just don't need to if you're going to be out for a few hours, ya know?
When I want to keep things minimal, I always focus on two things: skin and lips.

Let's start with skin (Here's a link to my skincare routine video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=typeD9hwtGI). Personally, when I look at other people's makeup I look at their skin. You can have some awesome eyeshadow on but if your foundation looks caked on or maybe a little too light/dark, it IS noticeable too. For my makeup tonight, I applied literally 3/4 of a pump of my Revlon Colorstay foundation and applied it to areas where I needed it, then blended it out. With a little bit of concealer under my eyes, it evened out my skintone. I also contoured and highlighted, with a little bit of a pink blush to my cheeks. I like just a hint of color on my cheeks since I usually go for a lip color that pops.

Now if you've seen my videos, you already know that I LOVE lipsticks and mainly lipsticks that have high pigmentation and are rather NSFW at times. It really took me a while to find what colors suited my skintone, but in the end it's worth experimenting. I lean towards a lot of plums, magentas, and even some corals. From time to time I like to wear a red lip too ;). Tonight I went for more of a magenta with MAC's "All's Fair" lipstick (on top of Magenta lipliner). Don't get me wrong, it's okay to wear something a little more natural (because we are going for minimal), but this is just my personal preference and I'd take a bold lipcolor over some dramatic eyeshadow any day.

I think by focusing on those two aspects you can have an easy, fresh look without the hassle of pulling out eyeshadows and loading up on eyeliner and mascara. But of course, this is just my opinion so here are some last tips on what I believe to be minimalist makeup:

Eyebrows: I personally need to fill in my brows because it really does frame your face! Don't wanna spend too much time on them? Tinted brow gels are the way to go (though I filled in mine here with purple e/s, something I've been doing for a while).

Lashes: I'm wearing false lashes in this one only because I chose not to wear mascara. It's either/or for me, but if you're not into both, at least curl your lashes; it will make a difference.

Eyeshadow: If you really MUST put on eyeshadow, I would go for a soft wash of color on the lid, blended out and a subtle highlight. I like to just use MAC's Sublime Nature paint on the lid if I want to brighten up my eyes a little.

Lastly, a lot of women forget that natural IS beautiful. I think minimalist makeup is bringing out your own natural beauty, without the extensive use of products. AND it gets you out the door a lot faster ;)