Spring beauty outs: skimping on SPF. Arduously long, Ashton-Hall style morning routines. Spring beauty ins: streamlined skincare. A quick make-up routine. Getting outdoors and into the (fleeting) British sunshine. At least, those are the resolutions I like to believe I will manage every time clement weather rolls around. The truth is, when I’ve not made myself a prisoner indoors via winter peels that induce a near vampiric fear of the sun on my skin, I am turning to my other vice: an indulgently long make-up routine.
I’m not ashamed to admit that make-up is my Achilles heel. I am the kind of person for whom a no make-up make-up routine is a slippery slope that lands at soft glam (and on a bad day, keeps sliding on into clown blush territory). Testing beauty for a living has only exacerbated the issue – I’ll confess that I have risen at Ashton Hall hours on occasion not to dunk my face in Saragota ice water, but to allow 20-minute intervals for serums, primer and then assiduously layered concealers to marinate on my skin. Rolling out of bed and out the door? A foreign concept for me. And so, I consulted greater women than I – women who seem to have a quick make-up routine down pat – to share their secrets to a speedy regimen.
- Lisa Eldridge is an esteemed make-up artist and the founder of Lisa Eldridge Beauty.
- Jess Hunt is a model and the co-founder of Refy.
Vogue’s quick picks for an effortless make-up routine:
Lisa Eldridge
Seamless Skin Enhancing Tint
The main thing to note, according to Eldridge, is that five-minute make-up routines aren’t a one-size-fits-all. “Everyone’s five-minute focus should look different!” Her advice? “Adapt your priorities to perfecting the areas where you think need most attention. If you were concerned about having some blemishes you wish to cover, spend the time you have concentrating on complexion and making sure you’re happy with that.”
For Hunt, who is a self-professed make-up novice, simplicity is key. “The whole mission of Refy came about from us being consumers first,” she says of the hugely popular, minimalist beauty brand she’s built with co-founder Jenna Meek. “We really didn’t have any skills when it came to make-up. So we were craving simple-to-use products that do the hard work for you! We’re really focused on solving annoyances for our community and simplifying their make-up routines.”
Step one: Simplify your skincare
Streamline your skincare stash, and in turn, it will make your make-up routine easier. There’s a wealth of multitasking products you can do that with in 2025, including priming serums and moisturisers like the Refy Face Sculpt. “If I was stranded on a desert island and could only take one product, this would be it.” Hunt says.“With ingredients like niacinamide, it gives your skin that healthy glow and the roller end instantly depuffs the face. It holds your make-up in place all day too!” However you choose to pare things back – whether with a depuffing primer or, skincare formulas with SPF built in – considering texture is paramount. Choose light hydratants that won’t grease the face or sabotage your following make-up steps.
Summer Fridays
Shadedrops Mineral Milk Sunscreen SPF 30
Step two: Build a base with blendable products
“I think people have become generally fatigued with the idea of reconstructing your features and entire face to achieve conventional ‘prettiness’ using heavy contouring, skin-masking foundation and highlighting techniques,” Eldridge observes. A surge in consumer appetite for skin serums, tints, and sticks only proves her point. Effortless is the mood du jour, and there are plenty of easy formulas out that will get your make-up there. For example, the makeup artist’s own pencil-like concealer that precisely covers blemishes without camouflaging the surrounding skin.
Lisa Eldridge
Pinpoint Concealer Micro Correcting Pencil
Danessa Myricks
Yummy Skin Blurring Balm Powder
Other easy coverage options range from Merit’s sheer complexion sticks and Danessa Myricks’ hit blurring balm, which balances oiliness, neutralises redness, and offers a seamless skin-like finish. In her everyday makeup routine, Eldridge advises using base products like these to even out and correct the complexion. “If blemishes remain, you don’t need to go back in with another thick layer of make-up. You can address them individually with foundation or a liquid concealer.” As she puts it, “patchworking” your base to build up coverage will get you the most natural results.
Merit
The Minimalist Perfecting Complexion Stick
The Best Concealers For Dark Circles, Eye Bags & Blemishes, Tested By Vogue
By Mya Bungar and Tracy Achonwa
Step three: Flush the face and lips
If you’re in a hurry and want to look alive fast, don’t underestimate the power of blush.“I love our cream blush in Cherry, I can use the smallest amount and it quickly adds a natural flush of colour to the face,” says Hunt, whose make-up routine posts appeal to clean-girl aesthetic acolytes in the thousands online.
Violette_FR
Bisou Balm Marbled Blush + Brush
Caring hybrid blushes, like the Glow Recipe Niacinamide Dewy Flush, will get you quick colour and a covetable, juicy glow. Trinny London’s stick makes easy work of dressing the cheeks, eyes and lips, with a bronze and blush duo that’s hard to mess up. And while all of the below can serve double duty to give your lips a vibrant flush, consider a lip stain for an effortless lip that applies once and lasts all day.
Glow Recipe
Watermelon Glow Niacinamide Dewy Flush
Haus Labs
Pure Glass Bio Radiant Highlighter Balm
Trinny London
Trinity Lip Cheek & Eye Stick
Read more: 13 Best Lip Stains For Transfer-Proof Colour
Step four: Invest in eye openers
“I always go in with an eyelash curler,” says Hunt, whose curler of choice is from Kevyn Aucoin. “It instantly opens my eyes and makes me look refreshed and awake.” A hack is to heat them with gentle heat from a hairdryer and squeeze from root to tip for a long-lasting lifted effect. Hunt often completes her easy eye looks with brighteners she loves, like Rare Beauty’s Positive Light, and achieves her signature fluffy brow by applying her own flexible hold brow gel.
Rare Beauty
Positive Light Under Eye Brightener
Meanwhile, Eldridge is a fan of framing eyelashes in brown mascara. “It gives an almost ethereal look to the eye and looks more natural. It’s still defining, but in a much softer way.” Curling, clump-free and smudge-proof, her Kitten Lash mascara in Burnt Umber is an excellent route into the trend.
Lisa Eldridge
Kitten Lash Mascara – Burnt Umber
Step five: Loop back and lock everything in
Once you’ve whizzed through your routine, don’t forget to set it all in place. For ease, setting spray is the most convenient choice – just a few sprays of a fixer like Charlotte Tilbury’s is solid insurance against a make-up breakdown during the day. But if you’ve got any especially oily areas, follow Eldridge’s patchwork method to apply setting powder where it’s needed most. Pro tip: press and roll light dustings of powder into the skin with a small and fluffy make-up brush for the most flattering coverage and control.
Charlotte Tilbury
Airbrush Flawless Setting Spray
Morphe
Cloudlight Pressed Setting Powder
The finishing touches are a great time to revisit your lips and check if they could use more enlivening colour, definition or shine. New launches from Merit and M.A.C cosmetics take care of all three, with nourishing formulas that deploy subtle colour and care.
MAC
Lipglass Air Non Sticky Gloss
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