How to look awake AF with little sleep

The struggle is real. Your veins are pumping on caffeine and you didn’t sleep much, surprise surprise. If I get 7 hours it’s a damn miracle, but I don’t want to look asleep. That’s why I turned to my talented friend and incredible make-up artist Shirin Ratner of Makeup by Shirin to share with you {and me} how we can look awake AF with few products that won’t break the bank. Let’s break it down.

Step 1:

Lay on your base. Your face is your base. How many times have we talked about this? Shirin stressed that the more you invest in your skin, the less foundation. She used Mac’s Studio Fix Fluid NC 25 Concealer on me, but I also use IT Cosmetics CC cream because I love the SPF in it.

Step 2:

Wake The F Up Maybe you’ve heard about baking, maybe you haven’t, but I promise this is not a hard technique and you don’t have to be proficient at ALL. Promise. Take concealer and apply it under the eye in a triangle shape with a damp blender. The golden standard of baking concealer is Tarte Shape Tape and I’m wearing it in Light Medium Sand.

Step 3:

Bake It On High Take a damp blender and set the concealer with translucent powder. Sharin used Laura Mercier Translucent Powder on me and I love this stuff. Pro tip – you can further bake if you gentle set with a generous amount of powder under the eyes using the sponge once again. Now here’s what you need to do – allow it to sit for a few moments then sweep away to leave a flawless and bright awake AF look.

Ladies, step 2 and 3 are what makes us look like we have had vacation-type sleep. You could stop right here, but if you have a little more time, keep it going!

Step 4:

Make Me Look Sunkissed Okay so if you decided to stop right here, that totally works. Add a lip and go, but if you have 2 more seconds, lightly set the rest of your face with the same powder. Shirin used a bronze powder – specifically Lorac Tantalizer Bronzer – on the perimeter of my face and popped the apples of my cheeks with Mac Melba blush.

Step 5:

Glow Baby Glow Personally I like to have so much damn highlighter on that you can see me beaming from across the room. Don’t ask for much right? Shirin got me LIT me {okay I’m done with the puns for now} with highlighter from the Morphe 8L Lo-fi Sculpt and Shimmer Palette above my cheekbone, tip of my nose and above the cupids bow on my lip.

Step 6:

Contour Me If I have extra time, I love to do some contouring to my face. My non-professional advice is to keep practicing until you get comfortable with it. Shirin contoured my face with the bronzer in the pallette right where the hollow of your cheekbone is closest to your ear. Make sense? Another pro tip – don’t bring the contour too far into your face – I’m so guilty of doing this, so #themoreyouknow.

Step 7:

Give Me Lips I like an overdrawn Kylie look to my lips, so Shirin used Mac “Soar” to line them and then finished me off with Too Faced “Pure Peach”.

Step 8:

Top Me Off I only wear eyeshadow for veryyyy special occasions or when I’m shooting for the blog, but if you are going somewhere special, you should use this. Shirin took the same pallete that she used for highlighter, contour, etc – Morphe 8L Lo-fi Sculpt and Shimmer Palette – and used the bronzer and highlighter on my lids. Lastly, she sprayed me to set with Mario Badescu Facial Spray.

It’s actually only a few products that you can use in multiple ways and you know I LOVE efficiencies so that works well for me. Would you like for Shirin and I to do more video tutorial next for you? PS Follow her on the ‘gram – you’ll become obsessed with her transformations.

Till next time,

P

xo