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Beauty: My current makeup regimen

So I’ve gone through what I do to my skin in this post (which has incidentally cured my acne), and I got a request to go through what makeup I use, and I’d like to tell you that I do this every day, but I do NOTHING every day, except take care of my skin.

Some days, I don’t wear any makeup at all and I slap on a hat and go outside.

In general, this is what I slap on my face after my skincare routine:

[OPTIONAL] GREEN BEAVER SUNSCREEN IN SPF 30

Now before we break out the pitchforks, I am a huge, 100% believer and fan in wearing SPF ALL THE TIME.

Year round, no matter the conditions.

…so.. why is my SPF routine optional!?!?!?

Because:

  1. Sometimes I wear a hat instead which take care of that part (a Canadian-made Tilley Hemp Hat, to be specific as shown above)
  2. I am generally always out before the sun is up, and back while the sun is shining, but in a car the entire time & indoors thereafter. I am literally outdoors and in the sun for 2 minutes a day. One minute to get to my car, another to get back home.

With that said, if I plan on standing outside or going outside for more than 5 minutes , then I slather on two layers of sunscreen, especially if I plan on walking out for lunch or spending the day outside.

The first, is Green Beaver’s SPF 30 sunscreen. It’s a mineral sunscreen, it’s very oily if you aren’t used to sunscreens.

You have to shake it up really well before patting on two spritzes of it on your face but I love it because it leaves zero white cast on my face.

[OPTIONAL] JANE IREDALE SPF SUN POWDER

..then to dry out the oily SPF 30 Green Beaver sunscreen, I swipe a serious amount of Jane Iredale’s Sun Powder all over my face.

Double protection, and it even gives me a little bit of a glow while mattifying my face.

I REALLY love that sun powder by Jane Iredale. Once I’m done my powdered foundation, I am seriously considering just wearing that instead, as it does give some coverage.

The only thing I hate about it is that stupid puff that doesn’t do jack squat.

I just unscrew the top and use a fluffy brush to brush it on my skin and pat it in.

[OPTIONAL] POWDERED FOUNDATION

I’m working through my powdered foundation and thinking about eliminating it.

Some days, I don’t even wear it.

I definitely don’t wear it all over my face either, I just use it like a concealer and pat it on my cheeks to lighten the dark, fading acne scars.

I used to wear Bare Minerals mineral foundation but then for some reason I got lazy with all that buffing I had to do into my skin and ended up switching to an old powdered foundation from Pure & Simple I had lying around.

I like it better because I just brush it on my cheeks to hide my (fading) acne spots and I’m actually starting to hit the pan itself!!

Once it’s done, I’m considering not replacing it and just using Jane Iredale’s sun powder as my foundation from now on.

UNDEREYE CONCEALER

I have yet to find my holy grail concealer.

I used to use Amazing Cosmetics Amazing Concealer but it has fallen out of favour with me lately, probably because the colour is far too orange and dark for my current skin tone.

Then I cottoned onto this great BB cream from Japan by the brand Kate as my foundation but realized that while it is AWESOME, the silicones in it make my skin break out, so I’ve been using it only as an undereye concealer.

It’s too light as an undereye concealer and I wish I wasn’t so sensitive to silicones because I’d use it as a foundation in a heartbeat.

Then I tried the drugstore brand Maybelline’s Age Rewind conceale Belle has been raving about for ages and I like it, but hate that stupid sponge puff applicator, and the colour is way too pink and light for my real skintone. I need something more yellow-toned and olive.

So.. under eye concealer? Still looking for it.

I want the tone and shade of the Kate BB cream at the price of the Maybelline Age Rewind eraser, but with the staying power and liquid consistency of the Amazing Cosmetics Amazing Concealer.

Yep.

Impossible.

Oh, and I use it on my eyelids too in lieu of eyeshadow sometimes.

[OPTIONAL] EYESHADOW

I am frankly too lazy for this step to learn how to do more than one.. at the most, TWO eyeshadows.

Sometimes I do it, other times I just put some concealer on my lids and leave it for the “natural” look.

I have no loyalty to any brand but so far here are my mini reviews:

  • Urban Decay makes a great, long lasting eyeshadow & I love their Naked Palettes
  • Annabelle is a killer cheapie drugstore brand for eyeshadow
  • Stay away from Josie Maran’s mineral eyeshadows, they have a ton of fallout and are too shiny

EYELINER

I am not loyal to any eyeliner brand.

I sort of like them all as long as they glide on easily and don’t smudge.

I don’t have oily eyelids and nothing seems to shift mid-day so I’m lucky in that regard.

I like these following eyeliners (I tend to reach for them the most):

(Midnight Cowboy is used as a highlighter not as an eyeliner for me, I use it on the inside of my eyes..)

  • Annabelle’s Smoothliner in Brownie – cheapie drugstore brand
  • Jane Iredale has an eyeliner too, but I find it drags on my lid, so I’d stay away from them
  • Urban Decay’s liquid eyeliner is also really nice but WAY too liquidy & not easy to use at all because you have to have a steady hand and nerves of steel.. and time just in case you screw up
  • Dolly Wink liquid eyeliner is from Japan and freakin’ AWESOME, very easy to wear and not liquidy or terrible, it’s drier and like a felt-tip marker rather than something wet like a paintbrush (Urban Decay)

[OPTIONAL] MASCARA

Sometimes I wear it, these days I don’t bother. I hear they eat away at your eyes and cause little gouges in your lid over time from the brush and mascara itself.

It ruins your eyes, or so an ophthalmologist once told me, so I am laying off it.

If I do wear it, it’s probably because I accidentally brushed concealer or powder on my eyelashes and they look beige so I need to bring them back to my face with a swipe of mascara.

I like Annabelle’s Le Big Show mascara. Nice and cheap.

Any mascara does it for me, I have no preference, they’re all the same in the end.

[OPTIONAL] BLUSH

If I wear blush (rarely), I almost always reach for Tarte’s Amazonian Clay in Exposed.

It is HANDS DOWN the best blush that has stayed on my cheeks all day while the shade Exposed is a perfect, natural, just-pinched pink that isn’t too pink, too red, too orange, or too brown.

Perfect, perfect, perfect.

No glitter in it either like NARS Orgasm, which everyone seems to rave about but I have never tried and don’t plan on trying as it has glitter in it.

I own other blushes of course but I don’t use them as often as this one.

[NEW] EYEBROW DARKENING / SHADING

I just jumped on the eyebrow defining / darkening / shading-in bandwagon and am learning how to do it.

So no Holy Grail yet.

So far, I only have one sad little eyeliner from Grade 10 that is surprisingly the perfect shade for my eyebrows without making them look too dark or too light.

I’m working through that, and I got this sample of eyebrow powder by Anastasia in the Sephora mail, so I’m giving that a whirl too.

Either or, they’re fine as far as I can tell because I go light on the shading. I just go a few shades darker than what normally appears on my face because I think dark eyebrows look very weird on me.

I want to look like myself, but polished / more natural not like some Kardashian on steroids.

HOURGLASS AMBIENT LIGHTING POWDER IN DIM

THIS IS A MUST HAVE.

This is a Holy Grail Item and I will forever buy it because it is literally like having your own lighting crew.

The first day I got it, I did half my face and took photos (on a bare, clean face).

I am a huge skeptic of this stuff because I hate spending money when it makes no difference but this one does.

In the photos I could very, VERY slightly make out which side looked better in natural light and it has such a fine shimmer of gold that it really looks like your skin is being lit from within.

In person however, I can immediately see the difference.. photos can never capture the full difference that the human eye can discern in real life because our eyes are far more complex & brilliant than any camera that has been made to date.

Elven skin, FTW.

Long story short, buy this powder and use it as a finishing powder. You will thank me later when you’re glowing like a Lord of the Rings elf.

I am considering buying the Hourglass Radiant Light and using it like a bronzer / blush but I can’t quite stomach the price yet enough to justify owning TWO Hourglass compacts.

MAKEUP FOREVER HD MICROFINISH POWDER

WARNING: If you are planning on having pictures taken, DO NOT WEAR THIS POWDER.

Your skin will look white. Really white, like optic white, not people-white. The flash combined with the silica, gives an unflattering white cast in photos.

Otherwise, by all means, brush it on your face if you have oily skin like I do.

I wear this EVERY DAY without fail, otherwise by about 11 a.m. my skin is an oil slick. I can actually see the oil dripping down my face, it is that gross.

I keep a spare travel pot at the office because some days in a rush to get out the door I forget to brush it on and my skin turns super oily and I’m embarrassed when I finally go to the bathroom and realize that everyone was staring at my oil slick.

Love this stuff. Just a light cover of it will do the trick. I wear it over the Dim Light but it doesn’t diminish my elven skin.

LIP PRODUCTS

Best-Favourite-Neutral-Lip-Balms-and-Lipsticks-on-the-Market-Drugstore-and-High-End-Products

I have no particular loyalty to any brand or lip product. I tend to avoid lipsticks in general and lip glosses because I’m lazy and I don’t want to care about stuff on my teeth.

That said, I do have a lot of neutral lip products and I’ll review all my favourite ones soon.

In the meantime, I sort of only slap on clear lip balm and that’s it.

14 Comments

  • Lila

    I know it’s bad but I hardly ever wear sunscreen and that’s because I hardly ever go out, I’m mostly an indoor girl. People tell me that I look younger than my age and I really think this has something to do with staying out of the sun for most of my life. I got sunburned very badly once at the beach and have stayed out of the sun ever since.

    I read somewhere that it’s okay to be without sunscreen for up to 15/20 minutes because you get Vitamin D from the sun and that sunscreen blocks this but I hardly ever go out for that long.

    • save. spend. splurge.

      Yes, 10 – 15 minutes is the max you should go without sunscreen.

      Also squinting at your photo, you have a rounder face which makes you look younger 🙂 Lucky!!!!

  • Tania

    Love Benetint and Lip Sugar too. I sometimes wear foundation but not always. Most days I just do skin care (wash/toner/lightener), highlighter (brow bone/cheekbones, under eyes and around nose), no color powder, brush brows with a brow wax and a mascara (I use ones that make lashes look curled and longer). Occasionally a little color on the cheek with a cream blush or with my lip color. I don’t do lipstick but do like pencils/creams/glosses/stains in a candy red or nude pink.

  • Renée

    If you like tinted lip balm with some punch try Clinique Almost Lipstick in Black Honey. It’s a clear browny plum, like plum jam. I love it.

  • The Asian Pear

    I’m surprised Burt’s Bees tinted lip balm is an item you use. I have it. I HATE it. It has a funky waxy smell. I don’t want to throw it out though as I did purchase it and I like the look, it’s just smelly to me.

  • Sara

    My holy grail for eyebrows is the BrowZings kit from Benefit. Check it out! I’ve been using it for several years now and wouldn’t go back to the pencil or powder I was using before.

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