Heading for town during the day, looking like rubbish and not much time to sort it out!  This is pretty much what I use whenever I don’t have much time but need to cover the redness and tiredness staring back at me in the mirror!

After my skincare routine, finishing with Moisturiser, I apply a primer to prep my skin for foundation.

The primer used today was Bobbi Brown Skin Smoothing Pore Perfecting primer.  In honesty, I am just using this up!  It has quite a potent lavender scent to it which although my skin doesn’t react to it, it may be an issue for anyone with sensitive skin.  Personally I am not sure that this primer made enough difference to my make up for me to buy it, but when applied does feel smooth on the skin.

Bare Minerals Original SPF 15 foundation is quick and easy to use, but it must be built up gradually to achieve a nice look.  I was rather eager to try it when I first bought it and went in quite heavy handed with a dense blusher brush and it looked awful!  It does have a slightly luminous finish to it, which is why I tend to brush a very small amount of finishing powder over the top.  Bare Minerals claim that this foundation is clinically proven to improve your skin over time – this I cannot comment on as I do not use it regularly enough.  When you see the photo at the end of this blog, you can see it reduces the redness of my skin!

DiorSkin Nude Air Powder is one of my absolute favourite finishing powders.  As a pressed powder, it is great for throwing in your handbag for touch-ups during the day.  After using a powder foundation, I would never normally apply another all over face powder!  That said, Bare Minerals does work well with a finishing powder over the top, which I prefer to reduce the luminosity of the foundation on my skin.

When I apply full makeup I do also like to create a light contour.  With quick makeup I don’t tend to fully contour as such, but I do use Mac Bronzer with a big fluffy brush (when contouring I would normally use a smaller, narrower brush), and I apply really quickly to just under my cheeks, temples and across the top of my forehead.
Bobbi Brown Shimmer Bricks are devine!

I have the colour ‘Rose’ and I love it!  The shimmer isn’t too intense as with some highlighters.  I am not a fan of shimmery highlighters but this is very subtle and gives a really warm tone to the skin.  I use a fluffy brush and sweep this over the apples of my cheeks and in an upwards motion towards my temples.  This is definitely one of my top 10 products!

My new favourite eyeshadow palette is the Urban Decay                                                                 Naked Ultimate Basics which was released in the UK at the end of September.  I was really looking forward to this palette hitting the shelves as it contains brand new matte shades.  I have other Naked palettes but these contain a lot of shimmery shades and I was looking for more Matte shades for day to day makeup and for simply non-shimmer looks!  It is so versatile that I use it for day to day or evening make up, and is likely to form the base of my dance competition make up.

Today’s look was created with the lighter shades to try and make me look a bit more awake!  Starting from the left I used ‘Blow’ over my entire eyelid and up towards my eyebrow.  This is a good highlighting shade.  I followed this with the 2nd shade in, ‘Nudie’ on just my eyelid and upto the crease.  The 3rd shade in , ‘Commando’ I used in my crease to create a bit of a contour on the eye but this was a little too light so I followed this up on the top with the 4th shade in ‘Tempted’.  The colours blend effortlessly with a good colour payoff.

Urban Decay’s eyeliners ’24/7’glide on eye pencils are amazing!  I have used so many pencils that are scratchy or irritate my eyelids – these pencils live up to their name and literally glide on and are easily blendable if going for more of a smoky eye look.

Mascara……I have bizarrely not bought a full size mascara for a long time!  I have so many samples of mascara, sent with other product purchases or through a beauty subscription so I am trialling all brands!  Today’s mascara was by Laura Mercier and it is great!  No panda eyes by early evening like I have found with some mascaras!  Adding length to my lashes without clumping too is a big score on brownie points with me!

Eyebrows, I have 2 favourite products.  Benefit ‘Gimme Brow’                                                        and Mac’s automatic eyebrow pencil in Brunette.  The pencil gives you more control over the shape of the eyebrows and then I set it in place with a cheap clear mascara.  I’m using Miss Sporty from Boots.

Lastly, I applied my favourite nude lip colour from Clinique.    Pop Liquid Matte Lip Colour & Primer in the shade ‘Cake Pop’. I find it difficult using Matte lipsticks as they always make my lips so dry.  I do tend to apply lip balm in the morning with my skin care routine, but these lip colours from Clinique are a god send.  Very moisturising and the colour lasts!   I also have this in a brighter shade which I will blog about after I wear it for a night out tomorrow night!

So there you have it, a detailed lowdown on the products I used to create today’s daytime look.  Please excuse the following photo!  It was necessary to show the improvement!  🙂

Thanks for reading and please let me know what you think in the comments on here or on my Facebook page 🙂

Daytime makeup 🙂