A question for all the ladies out there: what is your relationship with makeup? Mine is a love-hate thing. There are times when I love it, and there are times when I hate it. I love putting on makeup and enjoying the entire process, but at the same time, I hate that it is too much work. I like to think of myself as low maintenance. Putting makeup on for me is usually more out of necessity than anything else. I will skip if I can get away with not having any on. But I will wear makeup if I have to. Because of that, getting ready can be either very simple or very complicated. Let me know if my makeup routine is similar (or poles apart) from yours!
Makeup is not easy for me. In all my years of wearing makeup, I still don’t know the right way to do things. I watch a lot of beauty vloggers to learn their tips and tricks but doing them myself is not as easy as it looks. I try, but it does not always work out the way I see it online. The process is something that you get good at with practice. Being that I don’t wear makeup all the time, I don’t get the necessary practice I need to be good at it. Then the pandemic happened and with people wearing masks, there was less and less need for me to put makeup on. Now that masks are off again, makeup is something that I need to do as well. I’m not sure if I remember how to do it right anymore. I've been without practice for so long that it seems like I'm starting over again.
 |
| Photo Credit: Karolina Grabowska |
These days, Get Ready with Me videos have become popular online. An episode of the Fandesals Podcast is one of those videos that features this concept. The step-by-step process of what to do inspired me to write it down here on the blog. In this post, I share what kinds of products I use as well as the brands I favor. If anyone has any tips on how to improve my process, please let me know in the comments!
Anyway, here’s what I do to get ready (makeup-wise):
My "Get Ready With Me" Makeup Process
Skin Care + Lip Balm – Since this is a post about makeup, let me share what I do for skincare. I can’t put on makeup without first washing my face and putting on my skincare products. These vary from time to time depending on how much of a rush I’m in. The important thing is to have clean skin and moisturize before anything else. I also put on tinted lip balm, which doubles as my lip color when I’m too lazy to put on makeup. On lazy days I use a moisturizer with hyaluronic acid, and that's it. But when I have time, I use the Ponds Age Miracle set to prep my face and a Nivea lip balm.
Tinted Sunscreen – These days I can’t go anywhere without sunscreen. Since I am often too lazy to put on makeup, I opt for tinted sunscreen. That way I don’t need to put on anything else on days when makeup is not needed. For this, I often use Belo Tinted Sunscreen.
Foundation – I don’t use foundation often, but when I do it’s usually a light layer only. I would dab dots of it on my skin and spread it out all over my face. Sometimes I use my fingers but sometimes I also use a beauty blender. My go-to foundation these days is L’Oréal (the True Match foundation).
Concealer – I only use this to cover up the dark circles under my eyes so I place a little there. I blend it with a bit of lip tint that I use as a color corrector. I let it set for a bit before blending either with my fingers or a beauty blender. I am currently using Maybelline for this one, but I’m not too happy with it, so I will change brands (or shades) soon.
Highlighter – This is something I only learned to use recently. I use it to highlight my cheekbones and a little for my browbones and the bridge of my nose. It does give my face a bit of a lift and it’s also a way to wake up my eyes when I put a little in the inner corners. I usually use Maybelline for this, but lately, I have used Ever Bilena. Support local brands!
Blush – I used to apply powder blush often but lately, I’ve been using a lip tint as a blush. This was borne out of laziness, to be honest. I do it so that I don’t have to bring that much makeup with me when I’m out. By using the same products on my face (lip, blush, color, and eyeshadow), I don't have to bring much when I'm out. I only have to dab a bit of color on the apples of my cheeks and blend them with a beauty blender. If I want to lift my face, I dab it at an angle to emphasize my cheekbones. The lip tint brand I currently use for this is Colourette. Yes, still a local brand!
Eyebrows – As they say here in the Philippines, kilay (eyebrows) is life. You can go out without makeup but always be sure that your brows are on point. I don’t have many brows since I had my thyroid issues so I can't go without putting some on. What little I have I try to fill out with either a brow pencil or brow mascara. For the pencil, I use one from Maybelline and I use Etude House for the brow mascara.
Lips – As I mentioned earlier, I use a lip tint that also doubles as my blush and eyeshadow color. I don’t do eyeshadow that often but I usually use my lip tint when I am in the mood for it. Sometimes if I’m not too lazy I also use a lip liner to fill in my lips before the lip tint to make my lips look bigger.
Setting Powder – When I was in college, I only used facepowder as my makeup. This time, powder is the last step in my routine that helps me set the whole thing in place. I tap the powder on my face with a brush and I’m all set! The brand I use for this is Perfect Diary. I discovered it online. It’s the only setting powder that has given me this smoothness to my face after application. It doesn’t feel like you have anything on, and it sets the makeup so well! No need to retouch for the whole day!
That’s the whole “get-ready-with-me” process that I go through when I need to put on makeup during the day. I prefer doing less than more, but I can't go without, unfortunately. For some reason, I have always been pale, so having a little color is often needed to avoid the constant, "Are you OK?" questions that come with not having a rosier complexion. People tend to assume I am sick (or sad) when I don't have makeup on, so putting it on (no matter how little) is a must during the day.
Usually, I go for the bare minimum of lip balm, tinted sunscreen, and eyebrow pencil. If I need to, the process I shared here way I go. I prefer to not put on eyeliner and mascara since I wear glasses and tend to rub my eyes a lot. I'm not keen on getting raccoon eyes during the day! I do love the look when I have some on, but that only happens when I get my makeup done by a professional!
I’m also not very particular about the brands. They don't have to be high-end, branded makeup. As long as it does the job, I'm all for it. I’m the type who is open to experimenting with new brands, particularly local ones. If I find something that works, I will stick to it until I discover another. It’s more about how it works on my face than the name on the packaging. What's a name and an expensive product if it does not suit me right? I'd rather go local and more affordable as long as it gets me the results I want!
How do you get ready and put on makeup? Are there any tips and tricks you’d like to share? Are any other pale girls like me reading this? What's your secret? Leave a comment and help a girl out!
Here is the Fandesals episode I mentioned earlier. If you understand Tagalog and have an eye for makeup, this might be an episode you'd want to watch. Let me know if you have any tips to share for the Fandesals to improve on!
Happy viewing!
No comments
Post a Comment