90-Second Make-Up
It took 8 years of constantly running short on time (get up earlier? I don’t know WHAT you could be talking about) to refine a 90-second make-up routine that lets me wear it on any except the most desperate of days. This is assuming I WANT to wear make-up, which I do. For this routine you will need:
1) Face powder. I use Covergirl Clean Fragrance-Free Pressed Powder. One of these days, though, I want to try Bare Escentuals. My plan is to wait until everyone else in the world has tried it, then I’ll try it.
2) Eyelining pencil. The important thing is to find a color that matches as closely as possible the color of your eyelashes, so that the eyeliner accentuates your eyes without looking all EYELINERY and drawing attention to your lack of eye shadow. This isn’t as simple as it seems: I had to go for a “brown” shade, because I couldn’t find any shade called “Not Really Brown, Not Really Blond…More of a MOUSE Color, Really.”
3) Lipstick. I look for something sheer because it’s easier to apply fast, and it wears off gracefully instead of leaving a ring of color. But I also look for something with a lot of color (that is, not a sheer nude or a sheer pale pink) because lipstick is excellent at tricking the beholder into seeing an entire face of make-up when there is in fact only 90 seconds’ worth of it. I use either Maybelline Wet Shine in Cola Slushie, a color so hard to find I had to buy my most recent tube on eBay (serious) (it was new and sealed, though, don’t be gross); or Avon Ultra Color Rich in Sheer Sangria, which might only be available in spring and in any case isn’t there now. Fat lot of help I am.
4) A weensy little eyebrow brush. I have a Maybelline one I bought a million years ago; it has a lash separator on the other side.
Start the clock:
1) Powder face. Work rapidly: you don’t have all day here, sister.
2) Remove cap from eye pencil. Pinch the tip of the pencil, to warm it. While it’s warming, use the eyebrow brush to tidy your eyebrows.
3) Use eyelining pencil along lower lashline.
4) Put on lipstick.
DONE. You are GORGEOUS, sweetheart. Not that you weren’t before, because you totally were. But now you are gorgeous and made-up. —Swistle
Ballpark price: Varies wildly, depending on the products you choose. Mine cost $15-20 all together, but could probably stand an upgrade/update.
Posted: January 9th, 2008 under Makeup, How-to, Personally recommended by Swistle.
Comments: 18
Comments
Comment from Kim
Time: January 9, 2008, 7:51 am
I swear to you, I did something very similar to this today after I got to work. I don’t have it down to 90 seconds yet, but I’m working on it. You’ve now intrigued me with that Cola Slushie color and I must have it. Which means I’ll never be able to find it. I’m always in search of the perfect “no color” lipstick.
Comment from Someone Being Me
Time: January 9, 2008, 8:00 am
That is pretty close to my routine except the mascara. I cannot leave the house without mascara. I’m fairly certain I will be buried with a tube of it and it tops the list of my 3 things I would need on a deserted island.
Comment from Mommy Daisy
Time: January 9, 2008, 8:35 am
This is great. Just my kind of beauty routine. 
I also wanted to recommend to you a mineral powder I found. I think it’s cheaper than the BareMinerals brand. It’s the same thing. It’s Joppa Minerals. They have a whole line of natural make-up, but the foundation is my favorite. It’s amazing. I got some for Christmas. My mom, sister, and aunt also wear this stuff. Give it a try. http://www.joppaminerals.com/page/page/3579489.htm
Comment from jonna
Time: January 9, 2008, 8:54 am
I line the top of my lashes (top lid, that is), rather than the bottom, as I look like droopy dog if I only line the bottom.
As for recs for mineral make-up, I use Aromaleigh (www.aromaleigh.com), which I adore, because it doesn’t have any of that shiny bismuth in it, which reacts terribly with my rosacea (mmm … SHINY PUSTULES). Added bonus: it’s cheaper than Bare Escentuals.
Comment from Liz
Time: January 9, 2008, 12:03 pm
All I do is foundation, mascara and a colored lipgloss. It’s amazing how much better I look with just that.
Comment from laughing mommy
Time: January 9, 2008, 12:38 pm
“I use either Maybelline Wet Shine in Cola Slushie, a color so hard to find I had to buy my most recent tube on eBay (serious) (it was new and sealed, though, don’t be gross)”
That made me almost choke on my coffee from laughing.
Comment from Syd
Time: January 9, 2008, 2:08 pm
So you don’t do mascara?
On the lips, I use Sally Hansen, they have a moisturizing, sheer lipstick, not as colorful as lipstick but enough to give you color.
And I love bare minerals, but I need a spot concealer that works under my eyes and on my rosacea. I’m still experiement for just the right one.
Comment from Swistle
Time: January 9, 2008, 2:31 pm
Comment from angelo’s mom
Time: January 9, 2008, 7:25 pm
I got tired of looking, well, tired all the time, so I have recently started doing a 90 sec routine also, but mine’s a little different. I do foundation (my skin is really dry so I don’t use powder), mascara (instead of eyeliner), and blush. If I have time, I swipe something on my lips. It’s amazing what a little blush can do… even if I only wear foundation and blush people think I have an entirely made up face!
Comment from angela
Time: January 10, 2008, 12:23 am
For some reason, Bare Escentuals takes me eighty billion years to apply. I pretty much do the same routine on the days I get wild hair up my ass and decide to wear make-up (thankfully, make-up is a no-no in the majority of my workplace for sanitary reasons - we manufacture medical devices that are implanted into the body), except I swap eyelash curling for the eyeliner and I use MAC blot powder, or studio fix if I’m feeling extra fancy.
Comment from amber
Time: January 10, 2008, 1:02 am
I wish life were so simple! I have pale skin, pale blonde eyebrows that only travel halfway across, blonde eyelashes and broken capillaries that must be covered or I look like a tired albino with alopecia. My make up routine involves foundation, concealer, eyebrow pencil, powder, eyeliner, mascara, blush and tinted chapstick. Eyeshadow is the only thing that’s optional, but since I’m already there I usually just go for it.
Comment from Amy
Time: January 10, 2008, 5:45 am
Pur Minerals are the bomb. They’re pressed, and I would totally make a mess with the loose stuff. Cheaper and foolproof, yay!
Comment from chris
Time: January 10, 2008, 6:26 am
I’m a mascara - blush - lipgloss/tint/stick kinda gal. And gobs of mosturizer so I don’t look like a haggard old bag. I’m thinking maybe of trying a tinted moisturizer now that I read so many of you do the powder/foundation thingy. I could use the help all round!
Comment from Jenny
Time: January 10, 2008, 7:07 am
Tinted moisturizer, mascara (wiggling it in at the base of the upper lashes for a bit of a “liner” effect), blush (including sweeping the *lightest* bit across the forehead and nose for a hint of “not deathly pale”) and sheerish lipstick as I’m walking out the door. DONE!
Of course, that’s in winter when the air is dry — in summer’s humidity I have to use some kind of powder or something or it’s HELLO, SHINY.
Comment from GoingLoopy
Time: January 10, 2008, 10:15 am
I have a similar routine, only I skip the powder in favor of a concealer where needed and use some mascara, because otherwise I look dead.
As for sheer lipsticks - I feel your pain. My favorite of all time was an Estee Lauder color called “Sheer Blackberry” that they DISCONTINUED. Clinique in Black Honey is close: http://www.clinique.com/templates/products/sp_shaded.tmpl?CATEGORY_ID=CATEGORY4903&PRODUCT_ID=PROD536
It looks, well, black, in the picture, but it’s not when you put it on. At all.
I also like the stay-on power of Covergirl Outlast and Revlon Colorstay Overtime - if you apply lightly, it has a matte, natural finish that stays on through lunch.
Comment from angelo’s mom
Time: January 10, 2008, 8:01 pm
I love the Clinique Black Honey lipstick. It is AWESOME, and definitely doesn’t go on the way it looks. My best friend shared it with me 10 yrs ago, and I’ve never forgotten it. I also found a similar Avon color a couple years ago called Black Cherry.
Comment from Livinia
Time: January 15, 2008, 3:18 pm
I heart the Clinique Black Honey too - In fact I’m wearing it now…
And the cheap-0 cover girl mascara with the weird rubbery wand (Best. Mascara. Ever).
Add a swipe of Dallas by Benefit (sort of blush/bronzer) and I’m set.
(I thought I looked weird in the Bare Essen. stuff - though it looks really good on my mom - we both got the $60 starter kit from Sephora)
Comment from superblondgirl
Time: January 16, 2008, 7:44 am
I do my makeup in the car. While driving. Because I am a bad-ass rebel like that! Mascara at the first stoplight, then swipe on some brown eyeshadow, then dot concealer, then Burt’s Bees and maybe a lip pencil. I try to do it at stoplights, mostly, but once I got onto the highway while curling my eyelashes and realized that part of the routine had to be tossed, because, seriously? That’s just not safe, people.
The eyeliner idea intrigues me, though. I have to try that instead of shadow sometime soon.
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