Sans Glasses

I’m not your average girly girl, although I’m quite the girly girl. I love fashion, the color pink, and high heels… but when it comes to maintaining girly-ness I’m like a do do bird. Grooming is just not something I’ve mastered like @ijustwannab and @urbansocial who have makeup and beauty tricks galore. Hair, makeup, nails… are just things I’m not good at taking the time to do or investing time to learn how to do! So I usually half ass it and learn how to do simple things that go a long way. I think that’s the tactic in all my beauty strategy: sticking to the basics. It’s not simple, and it’s not plain jane, it’s just playing up basic assets. So now a lesson in achieving my 5 minute everyday kind of fem-fATL beauty look.

The Staples.

the STAPLES

So before I get into any makeup I have a couple core requirements, all available at your neighborhood convenience store. My store of choice is obviously CVS! The basic idea here is lubrication! Before you put on any makeup you need to moisturize and freshen up your natural assets.

The first item on my list is LUBRICANT EYE DROPS. If you follow me on twitter at @jeniferv then you probably know that I am on my computer 24’7. What that does is that it makes my eyes incredibly dry and tired. I use eye drops to freshen up my eyes and work that sparkle back in and remove any redness. Removing redness in the eye is the primary reason for using any type of eye drop as a beauty tactic. Think about it… how how hot are blood shot eyes? or eyes with a yellowy tint? Not real hot! But beautiful clear eyes and white pupils are going to make your eyes pop more and look fresh. Eye drops -> your number one source for looking FRESH.

The second item on my list is CLASSIC CHERRY CHAP STICK. I don’t know about you, but my lips are always chapped! Damn it! And chapped lips/peeling lips just aren’t cute. It’s also not cute when you try to put lipstick over chapped lips and they start to look kind of clunky. So make sure to balm up those lips, keep them healthy, and get a chap stick with some sunscreen. I always put on a layer of chapstick before any type of lipstick to make a smooth base.

The third item on my list of basics is FACE CREAM. I always start the day by washing my face and putting a shit load of face cream on. It’s lotion for your face. I really don’t know what type of skin I have, but lately I’ve been using the dry skin cream pictured that I picked up from CVS and it’s been working like a charm. I also pile on the face cream at night before I go to sleep. You might have to find a lotion that suits your skin so that you don’t end up looking oily all the time because too much shine will draw unwanted attention to assets like your forehead or nose. Lotion is the key to having great skin and great skin is the best beauty trick of all. If you put foundation on top of dry or flaky skin, it’s like having chapped lips, its going to show and look clunky. So face cream for president!

The basics.

the BASICS

Okay now we can get into some actual makeup. For me my everyday look is pretty light even thought I wear almost every makeup item. The key to looking beautiful is again beautiful skin, and if you don’t have beautiful skin, then it’s faking it! So the basics is actually the base or your foundation. If you are taking care of your skin and using that face cream like I said, then you can go most days without any type of foundation. However, even using a light powder, like BARE ESSENTIALS loose mineral power (another basic item not featured) will help to make your skin look more even.

My basic foundation items consist of two elements REVLON COLORSTAY FOUNDATION in NATURAL TAN and SONIA KASHUK SHIMMERING LOOSE MINERAL BLUSH in FAIRY. Along the way I have picked up on some beauty secrets from the fem-fATL beauty experts and the key to makeup is BRUSHES. So ladies if you aren’t already using brushes to apply your makeup and you want to make an investment in yourself, go buy a pack of brushes. They don’t come cheap, especially if you into keeping it all M.A.C. but if you are like me and go for a less costly alternative… I’m a huge fan of the Sonia Kashuk line at Target. I like all her makeup and she has a great line of brushes. For my foundation I use Sonia Kashuk® Nylon Foundation Brush 15 pictured on the right. I’ve found a foundation brush to be a really amazing tool. I never knew to use a brush to paint on your foundation, but it helps to make everything even and smooth. I even use my brush to put on my face cream!

So my basic makeup routine is to use my foundation brush to put on a light layer of foundation. Then I use a blush brush and a pretty pink shimmery blush on my cheeks following my cheek bones. I also swoop a little bit of blush just under my eyebrow. Sine your brow is one of the highest points of your face, the light will hit your brow first. Putting some shimmery blush there will create a nice glow effect. Also as you will see, I don’t do any eye shadow, so this is just a light application working in effect like eye shadow.

The essentials.

the ESSENTIALS

Now for the essentials! As I mentioned, for my everyday look, I don’t do any eyeshadow. The main reason is that I suck at mixing eyeshadow and applying it. So instead I opp out and let eye liner stand alone. When you have a very neutral palette, black eyeliner pops out more. I work the classic fem-fATL catty eye, lining my top and bottom lids. For the top eyeliner the trick is to keep your line super thin. Everyone always thinks that you need to create a very thick line to get that frenchy look, but a super thin and precise line works and is lovely. I use COVERGIRL PERFECT POINT PLUS in BLACK ONYX. It has to be the best eyeliner ever. Sometimes if I’m going for a really careful line, I’ll use a liquid liner for the top, but I kind of suck at it! For the bottom line, I keep it really light for the day time. I do a thin line and then almost wipe away some of it to make the white lining of my eye still visible.

After eyeliner comes the lashes! Oh how important lashes are! I use COVERGIRL LASHBLAST in BLACK. If I remember, I make sure to use a lash curler and curl my lashes. Curled lashes look way better and really make a difference. If you don’t believe me, test it out yourself. They curl up the lashes revealing more of your beautiful white pupils and give you a flirty look. After curling I’ll put on a generous amount of mascara on the top lashes and then a very quick application to the lower lashes. Wa- la!

Now for my ultimate essential is fem-fATL PINK lipstick! Because my look is super simple, I go with a daring lipstick to mix things up. For my everyday look I like wearing a a super deep pink like MAYBELLINE COOL WATERMELON, which is the pink I wear to achieve my fem-fATL look. However, I’ll also go with other bold colors like red, oranges, purple tones, or even black (when that was in over the winter).

Glasses are a part of my everday beauty scheme.

Finally, my fem-fATL look includes a smart pair of black D&G FRAMES, which I have to include because I wear them everyday! I think the reason I go so light on the makeup is because my eyeglasses already draw attention and frame the rest of my features. Yay for sexy teacher glasses.

And that’s all folks!