The owners of Glow Recipe were recently on a podcast where I heard them mention something that perked my ears up. They frequently travel to Asia to research new skincare ingredients and get inspiration for their line. When asked what trends they see coming up in skincare, they predicted “skincare as makeup” to be the next big thing.
While I absolutely adore makeup of course, I prefer to only wear skincare during the week instead of makeup unless I’m doing a look after work. The main benefit to skincare is obviously to protect my skin during the day and treat/ prevent acne. However, there are some products I like to use that do double duty and actually make me look a little more presentable at work without having to wear actual makeup. These are some of my favorite kind of products so “skincare as makeup” being a trend is exciting to me. Hopefully we will be seeing more product releases that function in this way.
For me “skincare as makeup” starts at night. I swear I can tell a difference in my skin the next day when I have applied Egyptian Magic before bed. It feels more supple and bouncy without being greasy. After I wash my face I like to apply Bio Oil and gently massage it to promote lymphatic drainage. Along with regular use of face masks (faves here), having hydrated skin helps me be more confident without makeup.
Every morning before work I wash my face in the shower, moisturize, then go in with Jergens Natural Glow Face moisturizer. It’s a sunscreen with a gradual tanning agent in there. It won’t turn you orange and just helps my face match my neck and chest when I have a fake tan. On days where my tan is gone I put on a mattifying sunscreen by Etude House that keeps my face matte all day long at work. It is kind of magical because I’m SUPER oily. If this brand did a mattifying primer that did the same thing as the SPF I’d scoop it up since this works so well.
If I have an important meeting at work or want to look a little better than my typical bare face, I curl my lashes, put on mascara, and apply Cicapair Tiger Grass cream. It has SPF 30 and neutralizes redness. It’s mint green in the tub but doesn’t stay that way on my face. It looks really natural and a small dab goes a long way.
I probably look like a weirdo but I do all this skincare (starting with moisturizer) while sitting in my car in the parking lot just before walking into work. It takes two minutes tops and I make it work by keeping a makeup bag of all these things in my car. There are times when it comes in handy when I randomly need to run out and add a touch of powder or whatever. I also like to keep an aloe vera face spray in my car to refresh my face on warm days and get a little more moisture.
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- no makeup!
There are a couple things I keep at my desk as well that I qualify as skincare. Besides having a few lip balms and hand cream that I apply constantly, I also have an Origins Ginzing eye cream that has a light peach tint. It feels soothing and brightens up my under eyes on early mornings. I haven’t found a dupe that has a nice tint like this one even though I don’t really believe that this does anything for my eyes in terms of anti- aging.
Something that comes in super handy is having triple antibiotic cream if I have a psycho zit that is bothering me. Dabbing on a layer makes me feel like I’m fighting it and it’s transparent so no one knows that I’m doing a spot treatment while I work. Lastly in my desk face arsenal, I love having a vitamin E oil roller ball to run over areas that are prone to wrinkle while I have RBF sitting at my desk. I also like to dab it on my lashes and brows when I’m not wearing mascara to encourage hair growth.
Besides having a good skincare routine, one more step that goes a really long way to making my face look better with no makeup is dermaplaning. It makes my skin smooth and pretty much gives me a new face when that layer of dead skin comes off. It is so satisfying to see and feel the fresh skin underneath. To do it I start with clean wet skin and run a razor pretty much everywhere other than my brows and eyes.
Other than tinting my brows, whitening my teeth, and applying fake tan on a kabuki brush to my face every once in awhile, all these steps make me feel semi confident going out bare faced in public on the regular. It can be hard to do when you rely on makeup to cover active acne. Supplements like spearmint, vitamin a, collagen peptides, l-lysine, and fish oil have helped my skin SO much. Check out my current skincare routine here.
I’m also kind of dying to try out ice rolling to depuff and energize my skin. It basically sounds so refreshing as a pick me up! I haven’t bought one yet because I don’t think it’s something I want to leave in the work freezer then run to a bathroom stall to use. I’m trying to not reveal to my coworkers how high maintenance I am so I keep all this underwraps even though I do most of it on the daily at work lol. I hope this post helps anyone out there that is wanting to try out going makeup-less on a regular basis. If you have any sneaky skincare as makeup tips that you do, please share!
-Kim