I’m super minimal when it comes to everyday makeup. Meaning, I don’t usually wear any at all. I think most of it comes from growing up back east in NY where makeup was not a thing, which I really appreciated back then. Made getting ready for school every day that much easier. No one was into it and it wasn’t until college that I started wearing even minimal makeup. Fast forward to adulthood, I still shy away from makeup generally.  I probably wear mascara once or twice a week for an evening event or a work meeting.

I’ve been thinking though, it would be great to feel like I’m a tad more put together when my assistant shows up to my home in the morning to work (maybe a casual dress too?). I teamed up with bareMinerals and their head stylist here in San Francisco to come up with a minimal, everyday makeup routine and learned some great tips along the way to share with you (and you do want to see an after picture don’t you?)…

Photography by Sara Albers, makeup by Alexandra Sklavos for bareMinerals

First up, do you wear foundation? I sometimes wear a little concealer on blemishes or under my eyes but I’ve never worn foundation. I have these images burnt in my brain of girls from college coated with thick foundation in mini skirts and dark eye shadow that I just can’t erase so I’ve stayed far away from it. bareMinerals sent me their brand new bareskin brightening serum foundation with SPF for me to try and I was a little skeptical. Knowing that their brand is all about natural ingredients from minerals, no chemicals, I gave it a shot. It’s got a coconut derived base and lilac plant cells,  but no oil or water (amazing, right?). I’ve been kind of flipping out about how amazing it feels on. It doesn’t coat, just evens things out a bit.

So. Everyday Makeup Step 1: Add a bit of liquid foundation in gentle circles all over and under eye concealer if needed (as a mom with a newborn in her mid 30s, yes it’s needed).

Step 2: A light eye shower in a natural shade, all over up to the brown (this just kind of evens out the skin tone). Then a light brown shade just on the crease where you eyelid folds. Easy. I have all those colors at home (since I have light eyes and skin, she recommends shades of brown). A couple tips: she said to focus on darkening the outer eye and if you have large circles she even recommends putting light shadow on the inside of your eye.

Step 3: Light coat of mascara (she added some to the bottom lashes too but in hindsight I think that might be too much for everyday makeup for me)

Step 4: Eyebrow pencil. Let’s talk about this for a minute. My eyebrows are so light, it looks like they aren’t there at all. Even the before pictures are a bit deceiving because that is the one bit of makeup I showed up to the salon with so imagine them even lighter than that (if you can). I started adding a bit of pencil to them a few months ago (thanks to my sister who helped me at Alt Summit in January) and have been doing it ever since on a pretty regular basis. I don’t know, what do you think of using an eyebrow pencil? Curious if you think it looks natural enough for ‘everyday’ makeup (see the final photo below).

Step 5: Lipcolor. I love a bright lipstick when I’m going out. Sometimes I wear just a bright lipstick and nothing else. I’ve never been a huge fan of the shiny lipgloss but I like how she did it here. My new everyday routine will be either a gloss or a light lipstick that isn’t too overwhelming like this one. What about a pencil, do you use a pencil? She recommended a pencil outline even when you’re just wearing lip gloss. How do you think it looks?

Of course, for anything exciting happening I’ll be putting on my fancy red lips.

Tell me though, what’s your everyday makeup routine?

The bareMinerals products I’m wearing here (to the best of my knowledge): bareskin pure brightening liquid serum, eye shadow in The Truth color set, Lasting Line Eyeliner in black, Marvelous Moxie Lipgloss in show off, Brow Styler in light, Lash Domination Volumizing Mascara, Bronzer The Deep End, The Secrets Out blush

Thank you to bareMinerals for sponsoring this post and helping me come out with an everyday makeup routine