Beauty Minimalist: How to Simplify Your Beauty Routine

Time is a small, but a very real thing. As small as it is, it still manages to rule most of our routines, even our beauty routine.

If it hasn’t happened yet, there will come a morning where you realize all too late you’re short on time. Perhaps you woke up late and need a magic way to transform yourself into a presentable enough appearance to sprint out the door.

Something simple, but not too bold—though honestly, what girl walks out the door without their bright, red lipstick?

Now is the time to embrace the minimalist’s practice of simplifying your beauty routine in the inevitable event you find yourself in a pinch.

First things first, before you start eliminating steps from your morning ritual, you need to know where to cut from.

It wouldn't make sense to toss out that first hairbrush of the day, or heaven forbid, your teeth-brushing minute at the bathroom sink. Let's be realistic here. Even when you're short on time, personal hygiene is still an absolute priority. If the dreaded moment ever comes where you need to choose between applying your favorite lip color or brushing your teeth, BRUSH YOUR TEETH! Always.

By simplifying I mean less is more in this scenario. After you've prepped your canvas—I'm suggesting that you always wash your face—don’t let your beauty routine overwhelm you. Just because you own fifty billion different beauty products, does not mean that you have to wear them all every day. Mind-blowing, right?

Save yourself the mess and the time, and just skip the foundation. If you must, apply concealer where needed, and set with a translucent powder.

Let’s start at the top of the face and work our way down.

Eyebrows are essential for framing the face. They set the foundation for the rest of the face, and bring all of the features together.

If you don’t have time, or are just feeling a tad bit lazy to fill them in, comb the hairs up and out with a spoolie and set with brow gel.

 Stop and think about this for a quick minute: Do you really need to apply a smoky cat-eye every morning? You may be surprised to learn that your eyes can look a lot bigger and brighter when you skip the heavy eye makeup all together, and just go for a natural shadow hue and mascara.

Seriously, just sweep on a single shadow that enhances your eye-color, a couple coats of mascara and you’re done!

If pulling back that much sounds like asking for an arm and a leg, go ahead and curl your lashes with that medieval torture device, and sweep a little shadow as a liner on your lower lashes.

But really, when the minutes are low, we all need to exercise some self-control and simplify.

This really isn’t rocket science here. Ditch the contour for the day and sweep on your favorite powder or cream blush.

This one of the easiest ways to bring color to your face in a pinch. Speaking of pinch, don’t have any blush on hand? Give your cheeks a friendly squeeze to bring a little natural color to your face. Simplest blush ever!

Okay, this is the part where if you haven’t already, you can really use to play up the rest of your face. If you’re not a bold kind of girl, a nice pink that really accentuates the natural color of your lips is totally your go-to here!

If you're feeling extra confident, don't be shy about trying new colors! A classic red, metallic bronze, or electric blue maybe? Almost literally, the rainbow's your dance floor here. Enjoy it!

Once you get the hang of it, you may come to like or even prefer your simplified beauty routine! It can be very liberating! Get creative, simple doesn’t have to mean boring! Your face is your canvas. So discover how you like to paint it!