Mel’s 5 Min Glow and Go Clean Makeup Routine

Clean Makeup Routine

Our skin, the largest organ on our bodies, gets the tough job of detoxing all the things we expose it to. How we treat our skin can impact things like inflammation, stress, GI issues, dehydration, hormonal imbalances. So simply put, in my opinion, it matters what we put on our bodies.

This is the first post of my beauty series. Next post will focus on skin care, since all things bare face and sunshine are in the near future with spring quickly approaching.

What the heck is “clean” makeup anyways?

I’ll be honest sometimes I get so FED UP with how many new MARKETING words we have to navigate each week just to try and make the best choices for ourselves and our families to try and live a healthier lifestyle. I mean does your makeup really have to be green, clean, organic, free from everything, made from fresh rocks with the most PH neutralized water that ever existed?! And if it’s not, you are basically “killing yourself softly”?!? (insert sarcasm) You may have realized by now, I like to cut through all the fluff and present you with facts.

So here are my facts

There are more than 85,000 chemicals registered for use, with thousands more hitting the market every year. Less than one-third of these chemicals have safety data that is publicly available, and many more remain untested, but are included in products that we use in our daily lives. In Europe, more than 1,400 ingredients have been banned or restricted from use in products. Even Canada has banned or restricted nearly 600 ingredients from personal care products. Drum roll please, here in the US a grand total of 30 are restricted! (say, what?!?). I wish I was telling a lie.

So how do I navigate this when choosing what to put on my skin?

First, I read my ingredients list. Beauty Counter has a great resource called the NEVER LIST you can check out here, for ingredients you want to avoid. If reading the list seems overwhelming (or you are like me and are just trying to keep your kid from skydiving out of your shopping cart) these two apps can be helpful. My favorite is the EWG’s (Environmental Working Group) Healthy Living App that contains Ratings for more than 120,000 food and personal care products. Simply download the app and use it to scan your products.

You can also use the Think Dirty App which functions similar to EWG’s, but their information is still a little convoluted and contradicting at times for me. This is a newer app, so I expect it to get better and more refined with time. When using both apps. if my product gets a “green” mark from either app, I go with it. For products that fall in the middle, I minimize use. For products that fall in the red, I throw out and avoid.

My biggest tip when going “clean” in your skin care products would be start small, and replace one thing at at a time. This is a cost effective way to do so without the overwhelm.

Interview with Kate from Kate Davis Makeup

What is the key to creating a simple glowing clean makeup look in 5 mins or less?

The key to a simple quick and easy 5 minute makeup look is just that, making it simple quick and easy. Using minimal products to give the illusion of hours worth of work.

What steps did you used to create Mel’s look with clean makeup?

Here’s how we created today’s 5 minute makeup look using all clean products.

Step 1

We first went in with the RMS Beauty Oil. Oils are so important for our skin. Facial oils provide our skin with the extra hydration we need. (Oily skinned girls, I’m talking to you too!) The lipids in facial oils help keep our skin balanced. They also protect our skin from from the nasties of the world which can lead to acne and premature aging.

Step 2

If you want to look polished on days when you only have those 5 minutes, use a tinted moisturizer! On Mel we used Beauty Counter’s Tint Skin. Tint skin gives you a slight polished look with a little tint. They aren’t heavy and don’t sink into our precious fine lines like foundations. Unlike foundations, with skin tints (or tinted moisturizers) you apply them like any other moisturizer and cream. Simply apply evenly over face and blend with fingers in an upward motion until fully absorbed. (I’m talking more even skin in under 30 seconds)

Step 3 to looking polished on rushed days.

Concealer! We used the RMS Uncover Up. This product is a creamy buildable concealer that is perfect for those under-eye dark circles and the few other imperfections the tinted moisturizer didn’t cover up. Quick tip, these products work great with just your (clean) fingers. Your fingers will warm the product and will make it easier to work with the product.

Step 4

Clean products are multi-functional. We used our lipstick as our cheek color (think lip-2-cheek). Then, we hit the cheeks and lips with the Beauty Counter sheer lipstick in the shade rose. We added the product to the apples of her cheeks and blended back. Less is more. Start with a small amount of product and add more if needed. Cutting these two steps down to one product will save you so much time. Also- if you end up just having one of “those days” whip your lipstick out, touch those lips up add a little more color to your cheeks and kick “that day” in the butt.

Step 5

A key in these quick looks is making sure you look fresh and glowy. Applying an illuminator like the RMS Magic Luminizer to the high points of your face will have you looking glowy for hours.

Step 6

On the eyes we made it simple, a little Beauty Counter’s new Brilliant Brow Gel on the brows. A few swipes through and you’re good to go. We need to make sure we will have this look done in 5 minutes, but we don’t want to look like we took five minutes.

The Rest of it!

So, adding a bit of the RMS Eye Polish in Solar and the Burt’s Bees Nourishing Mascara (who feels me on a budget friendly drug store option?) is going to bring our 5 minute makeup look all together.