Cruelty Free Every Day “No Make Up” Look

For days like today, where I’m sitting in a corner seat in Starbucks enjoying their funky jazz with an iced tea just trying to get something productive done, I’m not going to spend an hour carving out my cheek bones and drawing on individual eye brow hairs before I leave the house. But I want a little something on to make me feel human. Ya feel me?

This is my go-to look on those days I want my face but better. I like a fresh looking base where my skin still looks like a skin, a healthy rosy glow, “un-groomed” brows, and bright eyes. It really shouldn’t take longer than five minutes and with minimal products. Sound good to you? Lets go.

Base

Cake is great but not on your skin – so obviously for a natural looking base, moisturising is of the essence. I’m a fan of the Vitamin C range from The Body Shop (£11-17) at the moment, it smells divine and makes my skin feel beautiful.

Then another offering from The Body Shop comes in the form of foundation. Their Fresh Nude Foundation (£15) to be exact I don’t always wear a foundation on a “no make up day” but sometimes my skin just hates me and wants to ruin my life. It’s a light to medium coverage foundation that it is beautiful on the skin. Especially when applied with a Real Techniques Blending Sponge (£5.99). It gives a pretty, fresh looking base, which it claims to do. I would disagree, though, that it is semi-matte. It’s pretty dewy on my skin if you ask me.

 I try to stay away from concealer on lighter make up days. To me, it’s what gives the game away and clearly looks like make up. I do, however, pop a couple of dots of the Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer (£4.19) on any spots, a little on my chin and in the lower center of my forehead where I have more discolouration. I find this concealer just too drying on my  dry-ass under eyes these days but it does a good job where more heavy duty concealing on my face is needed.

Cheeks

Once my base is complete, I apply some Barry M Strobe Cream  (£4.49) in Frosty Pink. I only wear this on minimal make up days as it doesn’t apply well over powder at all and if you apply many powder products after it can lose its glow. Rubbing it onto my finger tips and patting it onto my cheek bones, chin and nose gives me a lovely, very natural “glow”.

Despite recently spending a week in Africa, you’d never bloody guess. I am PALE. Seriously pale. Finding a bronzer that gives a glow without looking too horribly warm is quite a challenge for us snow-skinned gals. I’m really loving The Body Shop Baked-to-LastBronzer in Warm Glow (£16). It’s a light, warm, shimmery bronzer that really does just warm the skin up.

Lastly for the cheeks – a pop of blusher. I know some people don’t like blusher, but I just think it makes a look complete! I love Sleek’s Rose Gold blusher so much. It's available as a single blush for £4.99 or as part of the Face Form Palette in light (pictured) for £10. Bargain! I have a fair collection of blushers but I just can’t stop reaching for this. On a minimal make up day, it just gives you a healthy flush of colour and looks warm, highlighted and beautiful.

Not strictly “cheeks” but generally after finishing everything that goes on my face, I’ll spray some Vitamin E Face Mist (£9.50) from The Body Shop. I didn’t realise how TBS heavy this post would be, my bad). I don’t always do this but if I don’t look sufficiently dewy or if I’m having a particularly dry/dull skin day it’s a nice way to squirt some life back into it.

L-R Barry M Strobe Cream, Baked-To-Last Bronzer, Sleek Blusher

Brows

I don’t go for a brow pencil or anything heavy on days like this. Just a powder to fill in the sparse areas and make them appear a bit fuller, then I brush the hairs upward and set it with the GOSH Defining Brow Gel (£4.99). I’m not a lover of the big applicator, it’s just too big for brows. I’m lucky because I have fuller brows so it’s not so messy but for sparser brows it could be a nightmare. I just really love the colour and formula – I wear shade 002 which is a slightly warmer toned brown a bit lighter than the powder I use. It just makes it all look so much more natural and doesn’t leave your brows feeling crispy. Yuck.

Eyes

No wings or shadow today. Ain’t nobody got time for dat. I have particularly veiny eyelids - lucky me – so I make sure to take a really small amount of concealer left over on my sponge onto my eyelids to even it all out when I’m doing my base. I then set it with any old light eyeshadow. I just find this makes my eyes look so much brighter and more awake.

I then curl my lashes and apply a couple of coats of Soap and Glory’s Thick and Fast HD mascara (£10.50). Firstly, I love the packaging of this. I think the gold looks so classy and beautiful on my dressing table. This gives the voluminous but fluttery lashes that I absolutely love.

Can anyone resist packing on the highlight in their inner corners? Even on no makeup days I love to pop a bit of the Mary Lou Manizer by TheBalm (£16) in my inner corners, just to open them up and make me looked bright eyed and bushy tailed.

Lips

Lips is my ALL TIME FAVOURITE part of makeup.  Without a doubt. So on no makeup days it takes all my power to not reach for a bold matte or a liquid lipstick. I’ve actually rediscovered an old favourite recently – Soap and Glory’s Sexy Mother Pucker Gloss Stick (£3.50). I talked about it in an old favourites post and soon after that I put them away only to fall into the abyss of forgotten make up. There are nudes and brighter colours but because they are a sheer, glossy finish even the “brights” are very wearable on no make up days.

And voila! You look damn fine. Fresh and pretty make up is one of my favourite things about Summer, so I love this. Less time in front of the mirror and more time out enjoying summer!

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