Take 5!

Everyone needs a 5 Minute Face! This is my mantra as a makeup artist. If you can just give yourself the gift of 5 minutes, you can change your attitude, confidence level and take on the day with more conviction.

But first you need to do a little spring-cleaning…

Open your makeup bag and evaluate your products. Are you carrying around 10 different eye shadows? 14 lip glosses? A couple of powder compacts? Do you mix matte with sparkle? How many types of eyeliner are in your bag? How many lip liners? Are your brushes buried in the bottom of your bag getting all contaminated?

No wonder you are having time management issues during your morning routine!

If your bag is busting at the seams (and I mean you can’t even get the zipper closed) then you need to decide which products “make up” your 5 Minute Face and place those in your makeup bag. Then clean out a drawer in your bathroom or grab an extra makeup bag (one of those bags you got from a department store gift with purchase special) and put all the rest of your makeup in there for easy access.

Pro suggestions for an instant 5 Minute Face:

1. Prep your face using your skin care and primer.

2. Foundation/Tinted Moisturizer with SPF and great pigmentation. This is a dual- purpose product – meaning it can be used all over face or to spot concealer on the days when you don’t want to wear a full face of foundation. See archive post Laying the Foundation for my recommendations.

3. Concealer - if you are using a tinted moisturizer or a light coverage liquid or powder foundation you may find that you need a little extra coverage on certain days. I recommend using MAC concealers.

4. Powder (compact or loose is a personal preference, but a compact is easier and keeps the bag neat – no spillage). I recommend MAC Mineralize Powder or MAC Blot Powder. A great drug store find is L’Oreal’s True Match Powder compact.

5. Quad palette containing 4 shades of neutral matte powder shadow that can be used on the eyes, cheeks, brows, contour and highlight. I recommend Tricia Sawyer Beauty's Essential Palette. You only need to use one color of eye shadow for the 5 Minute Face from lid to brow in a vanilla shade.

6. Bronzer - I recommend Nars Bronzing Powder or Benefit's Hoola Bronzer.

7. Lip gloss in pink, peach or nude. I recommend Sally Hansen’s Lip Inflation or L’Oreal’s Infallible line – great colors with amazing staying power!

8. Mascara – blackest black. I recommend Dior Show or CoverGirl’s Lash Blast Luxe

Note: You can create the same look above using crème shadows, blushers, liners or lipsticks and feel free to throw in a great eyeliner pencil and/or lip liner if you prefer. For time crunch purposes, I remove my liners from my bag of tricks and use the darkest powder eye shadow from the quad palette to line my eyes. Lip liner is, as Heidi Klum would say, so “out” these days, but if you don’t follow trends then toss it in your bag.

Below is a photograph my 5 Minute Face and a picture of the products in my makeup bag I use to achieve this look!



Time for a little Q & A….

Amy S. wants to know:
I love using sparkle – can I use an iridescent eye shadow instead of a matte color when doing my 5 Minute Face?

Pro suggests:
Hi Amy! Of course you can use an eye shadow with more shimmer or frost if you prefer – just remember to make it a neutral color like MAC’s Ricepaper, Jest, Motiff or Naked Lunch. MAC can also make you a quad palette of shadows and their components/packaging are recyclable!

Alexis W. wants to know:
Is a quad palette necessary or can I use individual color?

Pro suggests:
Hi Alexis! A quad palette is simply a way to keep several colors in your makeup bag neatly in one container. The Tricia Sawyer Beauty’s Essential Palette is a mixture of matte colors that look great on all skin tones and the colors can be used as shadow, liner, blush and brow filler – eliminating the need to carry all of those individual products in your bag. Great for travel!