So, you wake up one morning, the soft warmth of the early sun is gently illuminating your room and the birds outside are chirping. It is one of those picture perfect mornings that you only seem to ever find in movies. You stretch your arms and think of what a great day it’s going to be. Then you look at your alarm clock and the time is flashing.
“HOLY *Bleep*! Mother Plucker I am LATE!!!” Words as colourful as the rainbow rush out of your mouth as you realize that you are dangerously close to being late for work; not good since you were late yesterday and the day before. You look and the mirror and the evidence of the night before are screaming back at you: red eyes, dull skin, and circles so dark someone just might mistaken you for vampire wannabe.
How to Deal
In order to achieve a flawless look in 5 minutes, just stick to the basics:
- Brows: Powder might take longer, so it’s good to have a brown liner handy to fill in your brows. What’s so great about having your eyebrows done is that it makes the rest of your face “done up.” What does this mean for you? It lets you get away with much less makeup.
- Eyes: As mentioned above, eye makeup is optional if your eyebrows are done. But if you simply must have them, then just use your good ‘ol pencil liner. You can smudge your eyeliner to add a bit more depth to your look.
- Lashes: Curl your lashes and swipe a couple of coats of your fave mascara (dark brown works best during the daytime).
- Cheeks: With your blush brush, swirl the bristles on your fave peach or pink blush and tap off the excess. Start at the apple of your cheeks and ending just below your temples.
- Lips: Lipstick application is trickier and requires more precision than lipgloss, so when you’re pressed for time, lipgloss is a great alternative. Not to mention, it just looks more “fresh.”
What should you avoid doing?
As a general rule of thumb, you should try not to take on time consuming techniques if you are running late. For one, you are running late and, besides, you wouldn’t want to walk out there with a botched makeup job, would you?
- Liquid liner: this is one of those makeup techniques that require steady hands and spare time (if you make a mistake). Try to take this on with shaking hands and you’ll have very uneven lines that are very obvious to everyone. Just. Don’t.
- Bronzer/Contour: Bronzer require light hands to prevent over kill and contouring definitely takes time — you need to blend, blend, blend, and blend some more in order to achieve a very natural look.
- Bright Red Lipstick: Bright red lipstick is quite difficult to achieve on any given day, much less one where you’re desperately out of time. It’s do it right or don’t do it at all. In order to achieve va-va-voom red lips you need, surprise, suprise, a steady set of hands and plenty of time to correct mistakes. Believe me when I say that red lipstick, especially the matte kind, is annoying to get off, so if you don’t want to look like Ronald MacDonald in heels, don’t try it.
- Dramatic Eyes: Looks involving tons of eye shadow and blending is never a good idea for someone on the run.
