My Makeup Drawer
Taken last fall.
The older I get, the more interested in I am in makeup. What’s up with that? I guess I’m looking for help for the washed out skin and dark circles. My mantra now is, it takes twice as long to look half as good.
Truth.
But you can’t blame a girl for trying. This post is about what’s currently in my makeup drawer and how it’s working… and how I use it. This is after watching 7,093,978 makeup tutorials on youtube. (If I had the ability to do a tutorial with selfies, or a video, I would. But I don’t…Not yet.) Click images for links.
I start out with an eyelid primer. This one works well. I put it on my lids and smooth with my ring finger and it brightens your eyes and evens it out.
I bought a nice set of Bobbi Brown makeup brushes probably 15 years ago and I still use them. It looks like you have to buy them one at a time now. I wash them every few months with Dawn.
After I prime my lids, I do my brows. I just switched to this product by Benefit and it’s great. It’s a neutral brown. My brows are not gray yet, but they can’t be dark brown either. TIP - to diffuse brows and make them look less painted/dark, swipe a bit of your lightest color eyeshadow back and forth over them afterward and them use a spooly brush to brush them back in place.
Now for eyeshadow. I’ve been using Ilia for about a year. They are a clean line, cruelty free, and have good intense color. I put the lightest shade on first, over the whole lid, with a larger brush. I put my medium shade on with same brush on the outer 1/3 of the lid. And lastly, I use the darker shade on the crease and down around the edge of the lid. Like an upside down, slanted 7. I have been using the palette above and am really liking it.
Now I use my eyelash curler. Any well made one will do - remember to replace the rubber pad every so often. I do it once close to the lid and once more further out, for a more natural curl.
After that, I use an eyeliner gel pencil. I use dark brown or slate gray usually, right now I’m using the Ilia in brown. I only use black when going out at night. I have tried a liquid liner, but I always look like a wrinkled Catwoman.
After all that shadow and pencil, I clean up under and around my eyes with a remover pad. (I do my mascara last.)
Next I use a makeup primer that I love. This is by DHC and it makes your face smooth and matte and ready for makeup. I put it on my lips too.
Now comes my attempt at covering some vicious dark circles that I have had my whole life.
I first use a corrector by Pixie that I just got. It’s an orange hue and it does help.
After that I use a new product to me, Jones’ Road Face Pencil. Their face pencil as concealer is great for spots on my face and around my nostrils that are always red. Jones’ Road is another clean beauty line, started by Bobbi Brown, after she sold her company. (Before this, I used Cle de Peau concealer for years. The jury is still out on this one.) I will typically swab some on the darkest part of my under eye for good measure. 🤪
Lastly I use Ever’s Daylight Treatment Concealer and make sure to spread it with my finger in the inner eye area, under my eyes, all the way out to cheeks and up onto nose.
I like to put all that stuff on before foundation. I feel like it blends better and I don’t have big white circles. I don’t use much foundation and what I do use, isn’t really foundation. But I absolutely love it. It’s Dermalogica Sheer Tint, in medium. It’s not cakey or chalky or shiny. It’s just right.
(I may have saved up and bought La Mer foundation, because it’s supposed to be the very best, and I may have been horrified to have spent all that money and found out that it’s sort of like chalk paint, and I may mix it into my favorite foundation in the winter to try to use it up. It’s possible that happened.)
After the “spackle” has been applied, I use several different things for blush. I like Glossier Cloud Paint for a nice flush of color that stays on longer than cream blush (lighter for day, darker for night) and I also like Milk’s Lip + Cheek stick on top by itself or on top of cloud paint to change the color sometimes. I will take the blush brush afterward and buff a little on the top of my forehead.
For highlights, I use Glossier Halosope on the top of my brow bone, and on my cheekbone, over the color. I use a lighter color in the winter and a bronzer in the summer. Then I use Trish McEvoy’s Instant Eyelift for highlighting in my inner eye and a faint dot on the middle of my lid, blending it in.
Lastly I put on mascara and these days I’m using Ilia’s Limitless Lash which I really like.
Believe it or not, all that is done in 10-12 minutes, 15-18 minutes if I’m trying really hard.
Easy makeup hack - When I need to look halfway alive and I do not have time to do the whole shabang, I do this….I just slap some foundation on and I grab my brushes and pop some color on - just from the brushes, put on mascara and grab whatever lip gloss is in my purse. Unless you have just washed your brushes, there is always eyeshadow, brow stuff and cheek color on those brushes, from your last application.
Have you found anything that is just the best? Tell us.
And for the love of God - does anyone know anything that really works for dark circles? Do tell.