DAILY ESSENTIALS

Every morning, I have a routine after cleansing my face; I put on my moisturizer & sunscreen-in-one (Olay: review here), my lip balm (The Body Shop Aloe Lip Treatment), and my primer (Quo Total Perfection Face Primer).

Primer helps smooth skin surface so that concealers are better applied. Sometimes when you put on too much of moisturizer & sunscreen, you end up with rolls of moisturizer/sunscreen, so beware.

When the skin care is done, I go on to my face makeup: Revlon Age Defying concealer (light) for under-eye area; MAC Studio Finish (NC 20) for pigmentations around my mouth + redness around my nose + any blemishes; and Chanel Natural Finish Loose Powder (20 Clair) to set the makeup. No foundation on regular basis. Foundation is for a night out or an important event for me.

I always curl my eyelashes (Shiseido: review here) and fill my eyebrows (near the end with Maybelline Define-A-Brow Eyebrow Pencil in Dark Brown). For a fab tutorial on eyebrows, have a look at Lisa Eldridge's brow routine. Filling in your brows really help having a definition in face, trust me. You almost don't need an eye liner.

Application-wise, I use my foundation brush (Piccasso Brush FB15) for concealer. On the picture, I have the mini version of FB15 from Piccasso Brush travel brush set (review here). FB15's fantastic for concealer as well. Because I cover large areas most of the time, I don't need a separate concealer brush. To set with the powder, I use multiple powder brushes in a rotation. Here I have Giorgio Armani brush, but I also use MAC 138 and Piccasso Brush 101. For the brows, I also rotate 2 spoolie brushes I have: MAC 204 and Piccasso Brush (in the picture above is 402 mini from the travel set).

It's really quick and easy, which is what we all need in busy, lazy mornings.