“Elegance is a discipline of life” -Oscar de la Renta.
Be prepared and you’ll succeed. Mornings can be a hassle, and by experience I know I will fail if I am unprepared. I use to be unprepared for my mornings and as a result, my morning make-up routine used to be one of two things: 1. a frustrating task or 2. non-existent. On my mornings, I could go with a joyful heart to any other routine such as showering, getting dressed, doing my hair, and eating a great breakfast, but doing my makeup was like forecasting a heavy migraine for the day.
By preparation, I don’t mean playing a YouTube video with the title “Five minutes to everyday makeup,” start doing your makeup as you follow along, and expect you will look flawless. You know how those videos go:
Girl in video: “All you need is to apply a tinted moisturizer, then concealer in your problem areas!”
Me: I guess her problem areas apply to the whole face perhaps? She’s applying it all over her face!
Girl in video: “Set everything with powder, then with a matte bronzer, contour your face and nose.”
Girl in video: Make an effort girl! Make an effort… blah, blah, blah…
By this point, we might look like this:
…and all of this happens while I see a video was obviously sped up and edited to make it look like the person achieved that look in under five minutes.
Here are three things to always be prepare (and thereby be successful at doing a great job!) when applying your makeup in the morning:
1. During your free time, decide the ‘one look’ you wish to wear as your everyday makeup. Always taking in consideration the places you will be going. I love to break the rules of fashion, but not with my makeup! A glittery eyeshadow won’t look good in the board meeting while trying to negotiate a deal with future investors, or in meetings with nasty lawyers.
TIP: If you don’t have any idea of the look you would like to wear on a regular basis, take a few minutes to collect images of looks that are appealing to you. For me, the first look I chose was a classic simple look like this picture.
This is universal because it will look beautiful on any skin tone and any age. This look is achieved with basic colors like brown, white, gray, and black. I chose it because I can wear it to any occasion by changing the intensity of the colors. Choose a look that you love so much that you keep going back to wear it over and over again.
2. Practice makes perfect. When you practice the makeup look you will wear, you organize the colors you use, and you practice and learn how to work with them. You’ll become a master of your face, and know exactly where to apply your products to the greatest effect. Not only you will look flawless, with everything properly blended, but you will be organized, which means the more you practice, the faster you become.
If you don’t yet have any idea how to apply makeup, find some makeup books for beginners, or learn from YouTube videos (by people that know what they are doing!). Your mindset must be of learning the makeup techniques.
3. With practice, you may want a variation in your everyday look. To achieve this, find additional images of makeup looks that appeal to you. Then repeat step two to add them into you makeup wardrobe.
Remember – in the world, there are many things that could go wrong and many grumpy people. Prepare for those things that will start your day feeling happy, and have you leaving the house happy.