Beauty for Busy Moms: School Run Chic

Nothing screams “tired mommy” more than dark circles under your eyes. However, when you head off to those school gates, you sure don’t have much time before hand to start carefully concealing. Never mind even thinking about foundation and finishing off with powder. Invest in a full strength concealer to cover those bags and fake your way to a rested look. Opt for one which doesn’t enhance wrinkles by sitting in the crease, like the Coverblend Concealing Treatment, or the Dermablend Quick Fix Concealer. The Quick Fix Concealer provides build-able coverage conceals the darkest of under eye circles and small imperfections, such as age spots, acne and scars. Blends quickly and easily, giving the impression of a fresh face.

 

2. Quickly lengthen lashes

You don’t need to go to the extent of giving yourself dramatic, volumized eyelashes, but just a little bit of lengthening can create that bright-eyed look. Give your lashes a quick coat of a lengthening mascara, such as bareMinerals Flawless Definition Mascara in Black. It lengthens, darkens and lifts in one sweep, for all-around, beautiful lashes. We also love the sleek packaged Jane Iredale PureLash Lengthening Mascara, containing triple-length cellulose fibers (no synthetics) to give you the lashes you’ve dreamed of. The Wheat Proteins in this thicken and strengthen them too, so you reap the conditioning benefits as well!

3.  Fake the flush

Nothing creates that fresh faced glow like a touch of rosy blusher, swept across the apples of your cheeks. Believe it or not, all skin tones and skin types can pull off that super girly rose blush – even if you think it won’t suit you. Look in the mirror, smile as wide as you can, and swirl a small amount over the fleshy bits of your cheeks to give that rosy cheeked look. Remember to go easy – it’s that fresh glow you want to achieve- and not an over-the-top look.

An apricot pink is a nice one to try first, such as True Isaac’s Mizrahi Powder Blush. This brilliant shade is designed to capture the natural blush of youthful, healthy skin, and is formulated with triple-milled powder to enhance the skin’s natural hues. Darker skins may benefit more from a brighter pink, such as Butter London’s Piccadilly Circus Cream Blush, which has bolder hues.

4. Use tinted moisturizer

Don’t worry about foundation – when time is precious, this is a phase that you can skip, as long as follow tip number one, and also use a tinted moisturizer. Apply a tinted moisturizer with SPF for light coverage and protection, and if you can find one with radiance boosting properties, then that’s a bonus too! DermaQuests Stem Cell 3D Tinted Moisturizer captures vitality in a gentle, sheer-tinted moisturizer coupled with UVA/UVB protection for airy, immediate coverage. It’s botanical stem cell technology, peptides and juicy antioxidants enrich the skin, helping to radiate health.

If you are really short on time, use a product which literally diffuses any redness, marks left from breakouts and uneven skin tone with a correcting moisturizer. Murads Correcting Moisturizer gently neutralizes and protects dry, irritated skin, minimizing redness with color correcting tint and shielding against sun irritation too.

5. Line and define

Save time messing around with various liners and shadows by investing in a multi use brown pencil. A brown kohl pencil can be applied the the lower lash line to make blue/green eyes pop, or to create the illusion of defined eyes. It can also be brushed into eyebrows in fine strokes to fill brow gaps, shaping the face. A third use is to dab the brown pencil across your upper lash line, giving the illusion of darker lashes. A huge time saver when it comes to creating a 5 minute face!

A popular choice is the Anastasia Brow Definer in Medium Brown, which has a thick, triangular tip that outlines brows and fills sparse areas in one fluid motion. The angled tip is also great for eye-lining precision. Jane Iredale also have a metallic effect range of liners called Mystikol, which come with a highlighter pencil at the other end. If you can manage a little 30 second highlighting effort under your brow bone and corners of the eyes, you’re onto a winner!