Quick beauty hacks for the busy bee

As much as we’d all love to be part of the 5am club, not all of us can be.

Maybe your little one sleepwalks. Or your partner has insomnia, so you can never bank on the TV going quiet before midnight (no matter how hard you try to pretend it’s not keeping you up). Perhaps your career demands you to pull late-night shifts and night-owl antics constantly. Or worst of all—you’re the insomniac, sleepwalker and overachiever keeping yourself up.

Whether you’re the drama or the victim of ungodly hours, your mornings are likely a beauty battle. If only there were a way to get the look you want effortlessly and in minimal time…

From one night owl to another, I’m here to give you the low-down on my best no-fuss makeup tips that’ll have you ready to go in less than 15 minutes, while looking like you put in an hour’s work.

1. Feed your skin or get cycling

Although you’re (hopefully) getting rest when you finally call it a day, it’s the perfect window for your skin to get to work.

Whether you want a knockout punch of nutrients for extra dry skin, or need a simple skincare routine that won’t take hours, your skin prep needs to fall on your nightly roster.

• Skin food products are packed with nutrients that your skin would beg you for if it could verbalise its needs. Especially if you want to stomp on the memories of dry skin and glow like a pregnant woman beaming down the street, you need to hydrate and nourish your canvas if it’s the last thing you do the night before.
• Skin cycling on the other hand is a four-day rotational cycle that focuses on a different element or combination of skincare rituals each night so that you aren’t stuck with layers upon layers of skincare products that might not always agree with each other. More on this here. 

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2. Start with the power features

We all know that no amount of products can trump godly eyebrows or lashes.

The secret for your brows is not in the lining—or the aggressive tweezing, my 90s survivors— but in the brushing.

• Grab your eyebrow gel and brush those tiny caterpillars until they become butterflies. You can use gel with colour or ‘make your own’ by rubbing a spoolie against some soap (yes, really). Add your touch-ups ( a little lining can go a long way), and always finish off with a smudge of concealer under the brow lines to make them stand out.
• For your eyes, the niftiest secret to better volume is a humble friend called  ‘the tightline.’ Take brown eyeliner and trail your upper waterline. Emphasis on ‘upper.’ This is a makeup artist-approved hack that gives you definition when you need it the most.
• For your actual lashes, things can get sticky (literally). However, if you don’t see your schedule changing any time soon, invest in a set of power lashes, a lash lift, or whatever you feel will suit your face. Then, every day you get to wake up knowing you’ve got the perfect set of flutters to fly with you without having to do anything.

 

ALSO SEE: Where to get gorgeous lashes, Cape Town edition

3. Avoid full coverage foundations, unless you have a time machine

More makeup equals more problems (read, more add-ons) for the time-crunching beauty bee.

When you opt for full-coverage foundations and powders, you’re inviting a world of other makeup extras necessary to complete the heavier look. Instead:

• Keep your coverage as light as a calm day in peak spring. If 2022’s minimalist makeup and dewy-skin adoring movement taught us anything, it’s that we don’t need a plethora of products to recreate some of our favourite looks.
• Use a lightweight foundation combined with 1part moisturizer, and apply with your hands onto focal-areas after a little morning moisturizing.
• If you don’t add primer before putting on foundation, you just placed a tall order for reapplications. Take a damp beauty blender (not soaked) or your favourite foundation brush and dab the product into your skin before blending. Remember, sometimes it is all about the tool you use to apply!

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4. Multi-purpose products are going to be your heroes

Don’t give yourself a 5-course menu of makeup options for your daily go-to looks. Instead, save time by cutting down your choices with multi-purpose products or products that can be multi-purpose!

Your bronzer can make a beautiful eyeshadow and a spot of lipstick the perfect blush. Why is this the no-brainer hack of them all?

• You’ll already have the same shades complimenting different areas of your face.
• You won’t have to scratch around for different products.
• You force yourself to use what you’ve got on the go.

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5. The secret’s in the glow of a time-pressed goddess

Highlighting is the one must from the contoruing era that we will carry with us at any and all costs. If you do it right, it can elevate your look with the power of a gentle dancefloor. If you do it wrong, you might look like disco the clown-diva (and not in a cute way).

• Use vaseline to lock the highlighter in.
• Apply to the bridge and tip of your nose
• Under no circumstances should you forget your cupid’s bow or cheekbones.

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5. The oval lipline method will have you kissing other methods goodbye

The cherry on top of the cake, or the cherry that ruined the cake. It’s not a god-sent shade that will change your lip game for good (though this helps), but where you decide to draw the literal lines.

The oval lipline method is your one-way ticket to plumper lips as told by Woman&Home’s Savanna Douglas:

• Step 1: Make a small mark above the middle of your top lip, where your cupid bow rests. Make the line as high or low as you like, depending on how much pout you’re going for.
• Step 2: Repeat, this time just below your bottom lip, as high or as low as you want your natural pouty look to be.
• Step 3: Draw lines from each side of the mark from top to bottom, connecting the marks in an oval shape. Make sure not to fill in the outside of your marks. It can get messy, so it’s best to go in and neaten up with an earbud afterward.
• Step 4: Once you’ve got the pouty oval lining drawn across your lips, you’ll already notice a visible difference. Pop on a bit of lipgloss across the natural, plump oval look you’ve just achieved, and then you’re all set!

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Feature Image: Pexels