On your marks . . . you CAN put your face on in five minutes
LAST week , the wonderful Inge van Lotringen gave us her five- piece, budget make- up edit. Her power package comprised a 2-in-1 concealer/foundation, powder, balm blush, an eye - shadow quad and a mascaracum-brow booster.
This begged the question: what about a five -minute — or even sub-five-minute — application?
It’s no coincidence that the experts who excel at fast faces — Bobbi Brown, T rinny W oodall, r uby Hammer and Lisa Eldridge — are midlife women. I’ve sat next to Bobbi as she created a 30- second guise. Trinny prides herself on her 60-second face, ruby three-minute, Lisa just under five (all of these demos can be found on YouTube).
Let Millennials and Gen Zs devote an hour and a half to elaborate
contouring. For over-40s, what we need is a hit and run.
First, take ten seconds to actually look at your face. You’d be surprised by how many people don ’t, merely going into cosmetic autopilot mode. There will always be slight day-to -
day alterations: a spot here, a weird red mark there. Every morning you’ll be confronted by different material.
The only rule of journalism I was ever taught also applies to slap: start with the most essential element and finish with the least, so that if you
get cut off mid- flow , at least you’ve prioritised.
Forthe 40- plus, this means kicking off with under- eye concealercum-base to eliminate the most punishing signs of exhaustion.
There’s a school that says apply concealer only to the inner corners of the under - eye; others argue that you
need to create a weird, massive, downward-pointing triangle. Ignore all this and dab in a semi- circle — just make sure it’s beautifully brushblended, heading up rather than down at the end. Boots’ Concealer Brush (£4, boots.com) looks ideal for this.
For more pinprick-style pimple and age -spot application, you ’ll need something finer: Charlotte Tilbury’s narrow , stumpy Eye Liner Brush, say (£ 20, charlottetilbury.com). Stroke concealer into the space between your eyelid and eyebrow , too, as this often becomes a tad discoloured with age.
Then set about the coverage for the rest of your complexion. Work from the centre out, as people usually require most concealing around the nose and mouth. Y ou will want some sort of base on your forehead and cheeks to pre -
vent a shiny T -zone and blusher unevenness, but this can fan out
to nothingness towards the perimeter. The aim should be a veil rather than a mask. Two minutes in, and you now have a polished and perfected complexion — if forced to down tools, your face would work. Next, add colour to the apples of your cheeks via your blush balm (fake a smile to locate said features). It took me until the age of 50 to be able to use cream rouge without it imme - diately vanishing. The game- changer here was Jones road’s outstanding Blush Brush (£34, jonesroadbeauty.com).
I’ll daub the same product onto my lips, fanning it out with a nice, plump (not sharp and spiky) lip brush. I love the one in r uby Hammer’s 01 Magnetic Brush Set (£28, rubyhammer.com). It’s now been three minutes. I address my brows before my eyes as they’re such a face framer. A couple of upward swoops with a tinted eyebrow enhancer for youthful thickening and uplift and I’m done.
Wielding the eyeshadow quad, I’ll either swipe one shade straight across the socket — an off-white or mid-brown — applied with H&M’s slanted Eye Shadow Brush (£6.99, hm.com).
or I’ll take the darkest shade of the four (typically an off -black) and smudge it into my lashes as a kohl, using Charlotte Tilbury’s Eye Liner Brush (£ 20, charlottetilbury. com) for its intended purpose. Finish with quick flicks of mascara.
In the final 60 seconds, set your face with an extremely light dusting of powder.
Then cast an eye over proceedings to see what you ’ ve missed, what requires toning down, or
amping fabulously up. And there we have it.
Another upside beyond time and money saving? restricting yourself to five products in under five minutes keeps things youthenhancingly fresh.