My Everyday Work Makeup Routine

Hours
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I’ll be real with you all, I had absolutely no intention of doing a post like this, but J was taking photos of me to go up on the Teesside Uni website (you can see my finished profile here – if you’re interested). The picture you see above was just a silly one that we took but I thought “my eye makeup looks hella good here…” and so, I thought I’d do a post on the makeup I wear to work pretty much everyday!
Now, I know that a full face of makeup isn’t everyone’s cup of tea for a day at work, but personally, I do. It doesn’t have anything to do with confidence or trying to impress people – I just enjoy doing my makeup and like the way I look with it all over my face. I do try to keep it fairly natural and not too crazy though!

After I’ve washed my face and applied my favourite moisturiser, I go in with my Nyx Angel Veil Primer. I used to skip this step because I just didn’t believe in primers, but this guy has totally changed my opinion. It’s creamy in consistency, which I love, and it leaves my face mattified and feeling like velvet. Oil control is something that’s important to me, as I have combination skin that can get heavily oily around the nose area. While this does matte my skin, it doesn’t prevent me from getting oily, but it manages to keep my makeup in place.
Next up, I take the blogger fave, Collection’s Lasting Perfection Concealer in fair, and apply it to my undereyes, my nose creases, my chin and my forehead. I tend to use one of my Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge to blend it all in, but if I fancy being a bit different or they need a clean, I’ll use a brush. It’s not hard to see why this is such a firm fave with pretty much everyone – it’s just so darn pigmented and so easy to blend!
My foundation of choice at the minute is No.7’s Beautifully Matte Light in cool vanilla, and I really love the colour and finish of it, but I just need something that is better at controlling oil. It’s a little bittersweet because both the primer and foundation have pros that I absolutely love, but I just wish they helped with my oil a little better – although I’m fully aware that nothing can just prevent my natural oils from happening. Nonetheless, I love that this foundation keeps my skin matte for a while with a slight glow, but I’m hoping to try the Beautifully Matte version once I’m out!
And finally, I set my face with my favourite Rimmel Stay Matte Pressed Powder in transparent. As you can see, I’ve hit pan on this and it’s no surprise because I just love it! It doesn’t make me look cakey, especially with the No.7 foundation, and is great for keeping places like my forehead, cheeks and chin mattified.
I usually leave any bronzing or contouring until the end, but you know, it’s a face product, so it went in the face product photo. This is the Nyx Highlight & Contour Pro Palette and it’s just an absolute gem. Seriously, if you’re in the market for a contour palette, please try this out! I’ve even heard that it’s a dupe for the Anastasia Beverly Hills contour palette, which just speaks volumes. I always use the second shade in from the right on the bottom row to contour my cheeks, nose and temples (which is why it look so battered), and sometimes the shade to the right if I want to deepen it a little – but most of the time, I just need the one! It’s matte, so it looks totally natural and it’s buildable. I don’t highlight for work, but if I was going to, I’d use the first shade on the top row. It looks super natural and is buildable, much like the contour shade.

Moving on to my favourite bit of all – the eye area! I always start out by doing my brows. I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with my brows, because they were the reason for a lot of teasing when I was younger (naturally big brows just weren’t cool when I was younger), and now, they get a lot of compliments, but they require so much work. I use the spooly on the Nyx Micro Brow Pencil in espresso to comb them out and then the pencil end to fill them in. Because the pencil is so fine – hence, the “micro” bit – you can create super fine lines to give the illusions of hairs. What I tend to do is fill in my arch quite heavily, as those areas are a bit sparse, then use a lighter hand towards the front to fade it out a little. I then go in with the Natural Collection Lash Care Mascara in clear to hold all my hairs in place. I realise that this isn’t a proper brow gel, but it just works so well and helps to make my eyebrows look super natural!
Everyone has their preferences on what they want the focal point of their face to be, and to me, my eyes are the thing I want people to notice first, even if I’m going for a bit more of a natural look. When I say natural, I mean a smokey eye with natural shades – I just don’t feel right if I don’t smoke out my eyes a bit. I’ve been digging the Urban Decay Naked Ultimate Basics Palette (which I wrote a whole post about here), and I’ve used it practically every day. I tend to cover my whole lid in Nudie, then run a little bit of Commando through the crease. I deepen my outer-corner with Lockout and then give it a little extra oomph with either Blackjack or Lethal, before running the same shade just below my lower lashes. I am OBSESSED with this look, and I don’t see it dying for me any time soon.
Then of course, I have to do my signature cat flick using my holy grail eyeliner, Soap & Glory’s Supercat in carbon black. I feel like I need to do a whole post on how much I love this eyeliner because seriously, it’s just amazing. I actually think it’s better than the Kat Von D Tattoo Liner – I’m sorry, I just couldn’t get it to work for me! But yes, if I don’t have my cat flicks, I just don’t feel complete, so I always make time to perfect my eyeliner.
And last, but certainly not least, I use another Soap & Glory product for my lashes. When I first tried the original Thick And Fast, I was just head over heels, so when I found out that they’d released a Thick And Fast HD Masara with Collagen, I just had to give it a go. And whaddaya know – it was brilliant! It lengthens my lashes to the extreme and makes them super black without clumping them together, and that’s exactly what we all want in a mascara, right? Plus, the collagen in it helps to keep the lashes flexible and strong, so they still look fairly natural.

And that’s my full routine! I don’t put anything on my lips, apart from maybe a swipe of lip balm, because I just hate the feeling of products on my lips, but I think keeping them natural helps with softening the whole look. I know that I wear a lot just to go to work, but as I said, I love the process of doing my makeup and it makes me feel pretty fierce.


Have you tried any of the products I mentioned? What did you think of them?


4 Comments

    1. Ahh thanks, Emily! If you have a Debenhams near you, go and give it a swatch to see what you think first. Some of the colours aren't too pigmented, so it's best to check how you feel about it! x

      Reply

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