Please help me get ready faster

[DukeOfEarlGrey]

I take far too long to get ready and need to speed it up! I’ve been the same since I was a teenager - it takes me the best part of an hour to do my makeup. It’s not elaborate - no false eyelashes or anything! - but I am very pale, with blonde eyebrows/lashes and incredibly dark circles under my eyes (can’t be shifted) and without full make up I look ill, to the extent that people comment. On top of that my hair is really thick and takes ages to dry.

I’ve tried all sorts - brow and lash tint, just bought a Dyson hairdryer - but still can’t get out of the door in the morning in under 2hrs. It’s never been great but I recently got a new job with a longer commute and the lack of sleep is killing me.

Can anyone help with new ideas to speed up my makeup and hair drying??

How about, just for fun, going out without have done anything. Ok wash teeth, deodorant and brush hair.

The sun will not stop rising in the east, the world will not end.

The. Work back from there about what preparation you want to do and how much time you are prepared to spend.

Good luck.

Oh, I should clarify - it’s not a vanity or anxiety thing. I rarely wear makeup outside of work and at the weekends I go out barefaced with dry shampoo in - tops. But I work in a very corporate environment and genuinely look quite ill without makeup on - I need to wear it to look presentable. Lots of posters on here talk about getting ready in minutes and I’m hoping for some tips on how to speed up. That’s why I posted in Style & Beauty.

What is in your routine at the moment? That might help with suggestions. E.g. do you wash your hair every morning or could you do it at night and use dry shampoo in the morning? What sort of skincare routine do you have and what make up are you wearing? E.g. no point me saying 'Gimme brow is amazing!' if you don't bother with brows at all :) (it is, by the way).

I think I'm the opposite to you... I like my sleep so much that my work-day morning routine is minimal. My weekends, however, are much more detailed because I enjoy getting to take my time over it.

There was s brilliant Bobbi Brown 5 min makeup YouTube video. I'll try and find it. I wear rose vaseline and sun cream, that's it, I never wear makeup and was ready to sneer but actually it looked great.

Wash your hair at night. As long as it's clean,smells nice and put together it doesn't matter if it's freshly washed. If I'm entirely honest I'd try to work towards washing your hair less.

Makeup wise, what do you absolutely need? Either keep doing it as you'd have extra time anyways due to washing your hair at night, or slowly try to remove things from your routine that aren't necessary. Can you do a foundation,mascara,lip gloss experiment?

I would really look at what is causing you to spend an hour doing your makeup.
Are you doing all sorts of other stuff while getting ready - like using your phone?

Maybe force yourself to do your makeup in 20 mins? Consider what is strictly necessary and what you can leave the house without doing.

If your hair is taking so long to deal with every day, maybe you should look at using dry shampoo some days, instead of washing and drying every day. Air drying your hair may also be an option?
Or, worst case, maybe consider getting a haircut that will make your life easier?

What would you do if you didn't hear your alarm and you only had 30 minutes to get ready?

Have you tried a cushion foundation? It speeds me up hugely and is what I always reach for when I’m in a hurry. I don’t use the little sponge that comes with it but instead use a Real Techniques Face & Body Blender brush. I promise that my foundation is evenly applied in under a minute.

Thank you both!

At the moment I wash hair every other day and dry shampoo I’m between. Washing the night before would help but I’m just so tired when I get in.

It’s the makeup that’s the real faff though - @DaisyRenton18 brows and eyeliner take the longest! That and covering the dark circles. The rest of my face I can do quite quickly, but covering dark circles and making up my eyes can take forever. I haven’t tried the gimme brow but I will, thank you!

@PermanentTemporary I Will search for the Bobbi Brown video - I like her a lot.

I am extremely pale and as a redhead I have very fair brows and lashes, practically white. I tint my brows at home every 6 weeks or so and I have recently started to get novalash lash extensions. This means I only have to apply primer, foundation, a bit of setting powder and blush. I will not leave the house without it, yes it’s an anxiety thing. I look extremely unwell with a bare face, honestly horrendously unwell

Could you consider a new styling tool?
I blast my thick, longish hair with a Dyson supersonic and then finish with the Revlon One Step brush/dryer thing. Neat and sleek pretty quickly.

Do you put your hair up or would you consider a short cut? Liberating but I say this knowing I look crap with long hair

It Cosmetics Bye Bye Under Eye is so pigmented that the biggest challenge is applying only a pin prick. Dark circles covered very fast.

There are some good ideas here - I like the idea of cutting out what I don’t need and don’t know why it hadn’t occurred to me but half my makeup really doesn’t make much difference, it’s the dark circles/eye makeup that changes my face so I don’t look ill!

Any more ideas I can trial are really welcome, and products too - I haven’t heard of cushion foundation or gimme brows before.

Cut the eyeliner just use eyeshadow and do minimal brows- just a little shading.

You can’t tell me someone looks ill because they aren’t wearing eye liner!

I used to be the same but the older I get the less time I want to spend getting ready. My routine is shower in the morning, wash hair and rough blow dry, no styling or anything.

Makeup wise I invested a tinted moisturiser with spf to skip a few steps. I use the nars soft matte concealer for under eyes and it's great coverage. Brows I don't do much as I have had them micro bladed which saves 10 mins. Bronzer, blush and a bit of brown liner with mascara and I'm done.

If you are very fair why don't you get your brows and lashes tinted and get a lash lift? Honestly saves you so much time and you look polished with minimal effort.

Why do your brows take so long? Just a bit of eyebrow pencil and job done.

I am very short sighted yet can manage to put eyeliner on in about a minute. I don't understand how it can take so long. I use pencil BTW, not liquid eyeliner. I'm too old for that. I don't want to look like Barbara Cartland

@Prisonbreak you’re the same as me - I’m a redhead too. I think the ‘unwell’ thing is hard to understand unless you have the same colouring but I swear it’s true! I’ve never heard of the nova lashes but will have a look.

Ok just do foundation shadow concealer, foundation, mascara and lippie. Hair behind ears chic-esque and earrings. Good to go.
Always have clean shoes and finger nails

I wear make up every day, and I can generally be ready in 20 minutes or so if I have to be.

I have long hair-I always wash and dry at night, and use my straighteners to neaten to fuzzy bits at the front each morning.

I moisturise then apply double wear lightly with a brush, smudge in with hands gently.

Quick concealer stick applied under eyes.

Do eyebrows with a pencil, mine aren't too thin, just need a bit of evening up.

I have an excellent Charlotte Tilbury palette (pillow talk) which has a shimmer but is light and easy to apply.

Mascara, and blush, and that's it-done! You need to practice and you will get it down faster.

Brows and eyeliner... OK. I mean the extreme time-saver is to get them tattooed/microbladed etc.! Even just tinting can help. Gimme brow is basically mascara for brows, so has the advantage of letting you shape them at the same time as adding more colour and making them look thicker.

Eyeliner - ignoring the tattooed option (!), practice makes quicker! Are you doing a proper winged liner? If you are... is it necessary? Can you neaten up with a Qtip rather than redoing if you smudge it or the line isn't quite right?
I always find a really sharp pencil much quicker (and much more accurate) than gel liners.

Dark circles... Bobbi Brown concealer is my absolute holy grail for this. It's really quick and fool-proof. There are two parts to it - a cream and a powder. Cream on first - brush is quicker I find although when I had my wedding trial the MUA used her fingers and it looked fine. Then pat the powder over the top to set. Much faster than liquid concealer and because of the consistency it's quite difficult to overdo it, so it doesn't settle into fine lines and look obvious/a different colour to the rest of your face.

@ginfordinner I don’t know why it takes so long to do brows - they seem to easily go wrong, look overdone and need toning down. Same with eyeliner - I can accidentally do too much and spend ages correcting.

This thread is proving that I really am wasting too much of my life on make up. I am going to work through these ideas and change it - any more suggestions welcome!

A decent brow shape and tint every month or so would save you loads of time. You could cut out the brow section completely then.

Crikey two hours!
OK I'll go.
I shower and blowdry hair when I get home and change. Put tomorrow's work cluthes out.
Up at 6am - tea and toast.
Wash face and do teeth
Hair gets the curling brush and spray.
Make-up takes 5 mins:
Combined foundation/powder applied with fingers
Under eye concealer
Eye-liner pencil thing inside lower lashes
Mascara
Highlighter
Powder blusher
Lippy
Just get yr brows dyed.

Leave house by 6.55am. Or 7.15/20 if I potter about tidying.

I am nearly 60 and just do wwhat I must without the flush of youth to carry me through.

Just thinking about it, to be honest, I don't think it's my routine that makes me quick. I wear a reasonable amount of makeup ... but can do it in around 5 minutes - more because I don't faff (not saying you do, but I used to browse my phone at the same time and then wonder where the morning went), and I do the same thing every day (not the colours necessarily, but the applications) so I don't think about it so I've streamlined the steps over time and weeded out pointless or overly time-consuming ones. I don't have a huge dressing table so my 'essential' brushes, favourite lipsticks, favourite eye palettes etc. are all kept out and together so I can just grab them and use them; the not-every-day ones are kept in the drawer. Don't underestimate how much time you can loose to rummaging around!

If it makes no difference, cut it!