Simplify Your Makeup Routine

If you’re like a lot of women I know, you have a ton of products cluttering your makeup drawer.

That fancy department store cream you bought as a splurge, the drugstore serums you picked up because they were cheap and made big promises, the four shades of blush, eight half-used lipsticks, and the two dozen product samples whose labels may or may not even be legible.

If you’re like a lot of women, that stuff has been sitting there forever, used once in a blue moon, waiting for the moment you might need it again.

But what if you could toss all that stuff, pare down your routine, and use just a few products you knew you could rely on to make you glowing and radiant in every situation?

Simplifying leaves us so much bandwidth and energy to spend on the things that really matter---and it also makes our drawers look a whole lot more organized!

1. First, chuck the foundation.

All foundation does is collect in your pores and fine lines, cover up your natural radiance and dull your glow—especially if you’re over 40.

Plus, once you cover your skin with foundation, you need to use a whole bunch of other products to mimic the natural variations in your skin that you’ve just covered up---undereye concealer, blush, highlighter--the list goes on.

Replace that foundation with a good, transparent product—maybe with just a hint of color—and you even out irregularities while still allowing your skin’s natural radiance to shine through.

2. Try products that do double duty.

Once upon a time, blush was blush, moisturizer was moisturizer. . . you get the idea.

What a great way to get you to buy tons and tons of products! But today, companies have gotten wise to the fact that a lot of women are just too busy and adventurous to lug around a bunch of products—and have figured out how to combine two or three products into one.

Now you can get a single product that brings fresh color to your cheeks or a moisturizer that highlights and adds shimmer to your cheekbones—lightening your makeup bag, and simplifying your routine!

3. Learn that less is more—especially as we age.

As we get older, our skin develops beautiful texture and character.

When we put a bunch of stuff on our over-40 skin, it messes with that texture, collects in fine lines, and covers up the natural glow that’s actually what keeps us looking vibrant.

Advertisers might tell us we need more products as we age, but makeup artists know the opposite is really true.

As we age, we look better with less gunk on our skin---as long as the few simple products we use are the right ones.