Add Glow If You Skipped Your Beauty Rest
Life happens, and sometimes it happens too fast. It is hard being a woman in the DMV, where at times presentation is just as important on your PowerPoint as it is on your face. That’s right, looks matter. I hate to say this, but the way we present ourselves will often give people a perception of what we might be like, so it is wise to create and maintain a beauty routine as minimal or as grand as you would like it to be and make it habit.
Sometimes you don’t feel like applying any makeup and sometimes you have a big pitch to give that same day. Whether it is breakup related or a child who didn’t let you sleep the night before, the night is not going to be forgiving when it comes to how you look the next morning. That was me last week. I had too much going, and it started to affect my appearance. Not even my regular routine worked, so I had to go searching for something new.
When life’s stress get in the way, your face will usually look bland without a glow. You know how they say pregnant women give off a radiant glow? Well, there is an everyday glow too and when you aren’t sleeping or keeping hydrated, your glow will be replaced with dark circles and paler skin than it already is first thing in the morning.
The key to combat this zombie-like looks lies in covering your dark circles correctly and in adding some highlights to your face to bring some life back into it. The products below will make you look as if you have it together on a big meeting day. Sometimes when you fake it, it can lift you out of the doldrums, so beauty products give you that boost of confidence you might need as a woman in a world where appearances matter.
Below you will find the routine I use to help get me through some big meeting days:
Place two spoons in the freezer for about 10 minutes. Once they are cold, place each on a closed eye. The cold of the spoon will help constrict blood vessels, which will de-puff your eyes and make the black circles slowly dissipate. Leave the spoons on for about five minutes.
After, you will want to apply a brightening eye serum, which will stay on to the skin around your eye better after using the spoons. I found Clinque’s Superdefense Age Defense Eye Cream Broad Spetrum SPF 20 to be the best eye cream because not only does it adds an instant glow, but it also has SPF 20 that doesn’t irritate your eyes. And we all know how valuable SPF is for the skin.
Now that your eyes have life to them, you will want to add life to rest of your face with a brightening cream. I use Mac’s Strobe Cream. It has green tea in it that stimulates your face to add some glow and also enhances the way your face looks when light hits it, basically ensuring you are getting a glow and appearing to others that you got eight hours of sleep the night before.
Then you need to go back to your eyes and conceal your more forgiving dark circles with a heavy duty concealer that will cover thick and last. MAC Cosmetics will do that for you. I use MAC’s Studio Finish SPF Concealer. It covers extremely well without looking caked on and it is waterproof, so even some mid-afternoon tears won’t leave you having to reapply.
For the last part of this regimen, all you need to do is put on your daily makeup and top it off with something that will leave your skin illuminated after you have applied your powder, foundations, etc. For that I use Laura Mercier Face Illuminator Powder, which is a buildable powder that goes on smoothly on top of your make up and lasts for up to eight hours. It’s ingredients include light reflecting pigments that will add that subtle glow you need on days like these.
Try out this regimen and you will feel a lot better than if you had not done anything to your makeup routine, which would perpetuate those bad feelings. We all know we cannot change what is around us, but we can change ourselves, so life’s stressors will pass.
Born and raised in the DMV, Emma Blancovich has a big appreciation for discovering things to do around town, such as new restaurants to try and supporting the local music scene by attending live shows. During the week she is an editor for trade associations, but on the weekends you can find her hiking up trails with the latest fitness gadgets then getting ready for a night out using the latest beauty and health products.