If you take one thing from Electra Lane…

…understand this:

NO AMOUNT OF MAKEUP CAN MASK AN UGLY HEART

-Kevyn Aucoin (one of the best, brightest makeup artists ever)

Nor can it mask insecurities, a broken heart, or a host of other negative things. Makeup is meant to trick the eye, be fun, and help us feel beautiful and confident. It is so important to keep this in mind because there is no magic cream or eye liner that will make everything better.

It is also important to remember that those with whom we most often compare ourselves, aka celebrities, have an army of stylists, makeup artists, nutritionists, personal trainers, assistants, and, let us not forget, photo shop technicians, creating an image that is far from “normal.”

Wayne Goss, a British makeup artist who I follow religiously and will reference often, expresses my sentiments far more eloquently in this video. My goal is to make you comfortable enough to be your own makeup artist, but that will never happen if you chose to ignore the beauty that is already there.

Moisture. This One’s a Doozy.

If you do one thing for your skin, moisturize. There’s no substitute for great skin, and you can’t have great skin without moisturizing! Because I feel this topic is so important, please let me apologize in advance for this long-winded post. There is a difference between dry skin and dehydrated skin. If your skin type is dry (versus normal or oily), that’s different than your skin not retaining its typical moisture levels for whatever reason and being categorized as dehydrated. Either way, moisturizer will help.

If your skin, which is made up of layers, is dry, it can have microscopic cracks which can fill with bacteria or dead skin which can subsequently cause breakouts. Think of typical behavior: skin breaks out, we put something on the skin to “dry out” the breakout, and it gets worse. (This was the story of my life until I was 25 years old.) If your skin is too dry, it can also cause lines wrinkles to look more prominent.

It’s optimal to moisturize the face, neck, and chest morning and night after washing your face. Many skincare companies want you to believe you need separate products for day and night, but that’s simply not true. Where that comes from is needing sunscreen during the day, and your skin’s ability to repair itself during sleep. If you do not need or want a special treatment for day and for night, don’t waste your money on it.

A quick note on sunscreen in your moisturizer: I always separate the two. Think of a plate of delicious, warm cookies. They’re just begging for a glass of milk, right? So do you get a glass of milk to enjoy along with your cookie, or do you dump milk all over the plate because, hey, they’ll be mixing in your tummy anyway? I hope not. Similarly, your moisturizer should moisturize and maybe have some healing and/or treatment properties. If you cloud that with sunscreen, you won’t be getting the full benefit of the moisturizer. In my opinion, if you absolutely do not want to use two products during the day, it’s better to pick sunscreen because it usually has moisturizing properties (but then you might want to invest in a night cream). Or, better yet, use moisturizer (to use day and night) while including a makeup product with built-in sunscreen into your routine.

5 Minute Makeup

  Most people tell me they want to look natural, to do their everyday makeup in five minutes, and then show me a picture of Kim Kardashian as inspiration. I hate to break it to them, but that isn’t going to happen.

So I challenged myself – a thirty-minute makeup girl – to a look with some oomph that only took five minutes. Miracle of all miracles, I finished in less than two minutes. With the last three minutes, I’d add bronzer to the eye crease and sides of the nose with a thin brush, and around the perimeter of the face, under the cheek bones, and down the center of the neck with a medium-sized fluffy brush to give the features a little more definition (M.A.C. 286 and 116 shown).

16 seconds: smooth on tinted moisturizer with fingers

23 seconds: dot cream blush on cheeks and lips with finger tips

19 seconds: fill in brows

38 seconds: curl lashes and apply mascara

22 seconds: with finger tips, blend concealer under eyes and down the center of the nose

I always keep lip products in my bag, so I added some pink gloss on the way out the door.