Facial skincare routine and basic make-up!

[aPixieMomma]

Can you tell me what yours is?

Since ds2 is getting closer to 6months, I have a little bit of time in the mornings now to make a bit of an effort with myself.

I went out to buy a few things and starting from the bare skin down I managed to get:

Nivea Visage Pure and Natural Cleansing Lotion
The same in Toner
The same in Soothing Day Cream for sensitive skin.

(3 for 2 offer in boots, and so far hasn't brought my face out in bright red blotches like other stuff I've tried)

A Tinted Moistoriser

A good (not great) mascara.

What am I missing? I need a bit more on the make up front, what with all the night feeds making me into a zombie but apart from mascara what else?

Also can you recommend a good mascara?

I think you are missing a bronzer or something like this

I have the bronze shimmer brick and it gives me a nice glow, its nice stuff so you can use the minimum to get a dewy sheen or you can build it up.
Also if you have the slightest inclination you can use the strips separately as eye shadows, the lightest colour is a nice high light for the eye brow arch

If you want something a bit more pearly rather than powdery then the elf shimmering facial whips (doesnt that roll gorgeously off the tongue!) It gives a nice sheen to your eyes too.

my current 3 favourite mascaras are: body shop,
lancome hypnose and elf studio

I think the absolute minimum is:

• good skin care (as in your face is worse without it)
• tinted moisturizer (not everyone needs it though)
• cheek colour
• lip tint/ tinted lipbalm
• mascara

The products I use are:

Dermalogica skin care products
a cosmetics a la carte foundation
benefit posytint on cheeks, wait to dry then a swirl of a powder blusher/bronzer duo over cheeks and lightly on my tzone
benefit benetint on lips
Lancome hypnose for mascara

ps it really depends what you want from your colour. I also love all of twoboots suggestions but on me they are too shimmery for the day time (I use them at night though). My suggestions work for me as I don't need to worry about brushes to put them on, it takes two seconds to do it and, most importantly, the colours work on me!

I really, really suggest a visit to Bobby Brown if it's within your budget as she does fantastic quick and easy stuff. I would happily get everything from her.

Thank-you for all the suggestions, I'll have a look at those once I'm a bit more awake and the babies are sorted.

On the skincare front, do you cleanse, tone and moistourise every morning and night, or just in the morning then just cleanse at night and leave your skin bare to breath or something?

I got a really good set of Nars Brushes for Christmas a couple of years ago that have been sitting unused so I'm looking forward to actually being able to use them.

Also, do yo fill in your eyebrows? I was looking at a few tutorials on YouTube last night to get my eyebrows into shape, and although I managed to do a fairly good job, most of the video's I watched talked about filling in eyebrows! I've never done it but is it something you would do as basic make up?

I am always changing what I use but I tend to use Nivea,Lóreal or sometimes Clarins. At the moment I cleanse and tone at night with the Marks and Spencers range for sensitive skin and sometimes I put on Clinique eye cream. If I am really tired I occasionally just use one of those cleansing wipes. In the morning I shower and use a face wash usually one of the brands above.

I then apply moisturiser. In the winter I use Estee Lauder Double wear light and in the summer Avene sun protection with a built in tint. I use a chanel pink blush which lasts me about eighteen months so worth the investment, mascara and lipgloss or a Lóreal lipstick which is very close to my natural lip colour.

Morning I do no cleansing etc other than water in shower. then olay 7signs with spf15 and their eye cream.
I then use bourjois 10h sleep effect foundation and a swoosh of max factor masterpiece mascara. If I'm doing anything nice I'll add more make up as necessary.

At night I use olay cream cleanser (basic one) to remove make up and any eye make up remover. I don't moisturise at night unless skin is dry but do use eye cream. Or if I'm pooped just a baby wipe!

This seems to be the right balance of cleansing/ moisturising fr my combination skin. I have done the cleanser tone moisturise twice daily and tbh my skin was more oily then.