When I was still in high school, I would wake up forty-five minutes early just to put on makeup and get cute. I naively assumed that I would be able to keep this same morning routine as I moved on to college. Oh, how wrong I was. In college, having an 8:30 class means waking up at 8:15, putting on whatever you can find, and eating a granola bar en route. With late nights leading to miserable mornings, getting up to go through a whole makeup ritual just isn't realistic. Here's a list of 15 things I swear by to cope with the conflict between looking cute and catching Z's. Maybe they'll help you not look like a zombie, too.
1. Put spoons in your freezer. Seriously. Staying up all night studying (and gossiping), salty foods, and tons of caffeine can lead to puffy, swollen eyes. Pop two spoons in your freezer, and pull them out on mornings when you look like you've had an allergic reaction to life. Put the cold spoons on your eyes for a few minutes, and the swelling will have lessened significantly. Yay, you look like a human again!
2. Stick mascara in your bra. Okay but really, mascara is the one product that makes you look awake and alert. To get the most out of it, stick it in your bra for like two minutes while you finish the rest of your look. This will heat up the tube and make application much easier. Bye, weirdly clumpy spider lashes.
3. Choose eyes or lips. When you're short on time, it's really best to only focus on one feature to play up. If you want to create a dramatic smoky eye, skip the lipstick and instead opt for chapstick. Similarly, if you decide to rock a bright red lip, go neutral on the eyes. This will save you a ton of time, and also keep you from looking like you're about to hit up the club after class. Nobody wants that.
4. Put baby powder in your hair for emergency dry shampoo. In a perfect world, you would shower every day and thoroughly clean your hair. That's not life, though, is it? Most mornings you wake up with barely enough time to get dressed, let alone fight your way into the communal bathroom for shower time. If your hair looks greasy and you don't have dry shampoo on your hands, sprinkle some baby powder all over your roots and ruffle your hair until it's evenly distributed. It will hold you over until you can shower - just make sure you don't have any noticeably white patches.
5. Use a credit card to make your cat eye. Want winged eyeliner, but have no time? Are your hands shaking from all the coffee you just inhaled? It's okay, just use your credit card. Hold the card diagonally across the end of your lower lash line, with the card highlighting where you want the cat eye to end. Using the card as a guide, draw your winged eyeliner.
6. Use an index card for perfect mascara application. Do you always get mascara on your eyelids? Does this make you want to cry for at least ten minutes? Hold half an index card up against your eyelid when you apply your mascara. Any excess that would wind up on your eyelid instead goes on the card. Yay!
7. White eyeliner is your best friend. If you were up until 3 am, you're gonna look tired. That's just a fact. Putting white eyeliner in your waterline can make you look a little bit more awake in no time - and it makes your eyes look bigger! Bonus!
8. Please at least hit your face with a wipe before you pass out. I get it. You don't have the time or energy to wash your face every single night (I know I don't). Some nights, it's totally okay to skip the full wash - just make sure to wipe off with a makeup wipe before you go to sleep.
9. If it works for babies, it'll work for you. If you can't be bothered to wash your face but have on mascara that will weld your lashes shut overnight, a cotton ball soaked in baby oil will fix you up. Baby oil also helps with cracked heels, and bumps after shaving!
10. If your eyebrows are far from 'on fleek', hairspray can help. If you don't have the time to wax, pluck, or thread your eyebrows, you can employ hairspray to keep everything under control. Just apply some to an eyebrow brush or your finger, and quickly run it over your brows. This will help tame them until you can actually do something productive to them.
11. Use a Bandaid for cute nail art. Paint your nails a solid color. Then, cut a Bandaid in half and stick it on your skin 2-3 times to remove some of the adhesive. Stick the half over your nail, and paint the color of your choice over it. Boom, easy polka dots!
12. Out of blush? It's totally fine, use lipstick. Don't have any more blush? Can't find it? Too lazy to look for it? Too lazy to use a blush brush? That's all totally acceptable. Just use your fingers to put a little bit of lipstick on your cheeks, and then blend it out.
13. Red. lipstick. If you've really overslept and think you've blown it, you really can get away with a bare face if you reach for the red lipstick. People will be so focused on your rockin' lips, they won't even notice the rest of your look.
14. Is your manicure growing out? Put glitter on it! I've done this an embarrassingly high number of times. If your nail polish is starting to chip or is looking overgrown, just take a chunky glitter polish and place it anywhere you see imperfections. It looks adorable and gives your manicure at least another week.
15. Wake up with last night's makeup still on? Make it work. It's 7:45, you have an 8:00, and you fell asleep last night with a full face of makeup on. Reapply foundation, or just spot conceal depending on how much product you slept off. Smudge your eyeliner with a Q-tip for a smoky look, throw on powder, and put on lipstick. You're done! YGG.
I of all people understand that sometimes, sleep is more important than looking like a regulation hottie. However, I firmly believe that we can indeed have the best of both worlds. I hope these lazy girl beauty tips have brought you one step closer to figuring it all out.
