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The clean-girl face I can do in five minutes

10 items

Betty

I've never been able to do a full face and still look like myself, so at some point I stopped trying. This is the five-minute version I actually wear, in the order I put it on: one step for skin, one for coverage, concealer only where it's needed, on...

Sections

Step one: skin prep

Step two: pick your coverage

Step three: only where you need it

Step four: colour, in two places

Step five: eyes, but barely

Final: The way it should smell

Step one: skin prep

Everything else in this list sits on top of this step, and it's the one people skip. The whole job here is skin that's hydrated and settled enough to take makeup a minute later. Get this right and you need noticeably less of everything that follows.

Everything above this list only works if the skin underneath is actually hydrated — that's the part people skip and then wonder why their base looks patchy. This is a gel rather than a cream, so it sinks in fast enough that I can put makeup on straig...

Moisture Surge - Hydrator Gel Moisturizer with Hyaluronic Acid

Step two: pick your coverage

Three levels of the same decision, from barely-there to properly covered: a tinted SPF, a BB cream and a foundation. I don't wear the same one two days running — it depends entirely on what the day is. Read this section as a scale and pick the point ...

Tired of juggling foundation and sunscreen? This one does both, with SPF50 protection built in. It melts into the skin beautifully — it doesn't sit on top, and it leaves you with one even, radiant tone. It never feels heavy on the skin, and it smells...

Lancôme - Uv Expert Youth Shield Bb Complete

This is what I put on when I want to look properly put-together — photos, a long day, somewhere I know I'll be looked at. It's expensive and I held out for ages, but it does the thing nothing cheaper does: it still looks like skin from every angle in...

Luminous Silk Natural Glow Blurring Liquid Foundation

The lightest option here, and on days I'm not really doing makeup it's the only thing I put on over moisturiser. It's a tinted, oil-free SPF30 that evens out colour rather than covering anything, so the finish is fresh instead of shiny and you can st...

Shiseido Waso Shikulime Color Control Oil- Moisturizer SPF 30

Step three: only where you need it

One product, and the section exists to make a point: concealer is for the two or three places that actually need it, not for the whole face. Under the eyes, around the nose, and stop. The moment concealer becomes a layer instead of a patch, the whole...

Concealer that doesn't announce itself. The serum texture sinks in instead of settling into the creases under my eyes by lunchtime, which is exactly the thing that ruins a no-makeup look. I only use it where I actually need it — under the eyes and ar...

Bare With Me Hydrating Face & Body Concealer Serum - NYX Professional Makeup

Step four: colour, in two places

Everything before this evens the face out, which also flattens it — this is where the colour goes back in. Cheeks and lips, nothing else, and both warm rather than bright. If you're going to skip a step in this list, don't make it this one: a face wi...

The one step I won't skip. Fingers, high on the cheek, blended up towards the temple, and stop before you think you're done.

630 Glowy True Rose Lumi Le Liquid Blush - L'Oréal

This is the one people mean when they say "cheap Pillow Talk". Same muted rosy-brown that somehow works on everyone, but creamier and glossier than a matte formula, so it doesn't catch on dry patches — which matters a lot when the rest of your face i...

Max Factor Colour Elixir Lipstick - Burnt Caramel

Step five: eyes, but barely

One mascara. No liner, no shadow. The point of this section is what isn't in it — on a five-minute face the eyes get the least work, because anything more turns it into a different kind of makeup altogether. One coat on a normal day, two if the day t...

The only thing I do to my eyes. The wand is thin and curved, so it lifts and separates instead of gluing everything together — I get length and enough curl that I never pick up an eyelash curler, which is the entire reason it fits into five minutes. ...

L'Oréal Extensionist Lengthening and Curling Washable Mascara

Final: The way it should smell

Because looking put-together and smelling put-together are the same project, and this is the half nobody includes in a routine post. Both of these read as skin rather than as perfume — one soft and everyday, one expensive and saved for evenings. They...

Not a perfume that walks into the room before you do. It's soft and a little powdery — peony and white musk over something warm underneath — and on skin it mostly reads as "she smells nice" rather than as a fragrance anyone can name. It's been around...

Cacharel Noa Eau De Toilette 100ml

The expensive one, and I won't pretend otherwise. It's a solar amber — coconut, ylang ylang, a little cardamom — and it smells like being somewhere warm rather than like a perfume counter. It lasts all day on skin, which is the honest argument for th...

Soleil Blanc - TOM FORD