Imagine being so swamped with obligations that you just could not find the time to look after yourself! Sadly, this is the reality most women face, and the added pressure of being expected to look good in public could require more than a simple fix of the face.
But some of us also want to look lively and fresh, and not like we’re struggling day-to-day and thriving on little sleep and on our fourth cup of coffee. So how do we make sure we look fresh quickly? Here are some tips we gathered for you!
♡ Highlight only the key areas on your face.
Remember when matte skin was in? Shiny skin used to be antagonized by the media earlier in the decade, and there was more effort to conceal the naturally occurring oils on a person’s skin—blotting paper and mattifying powder are good examples of products that thrived during the rise of the sheen-free trend.
But sometime in 2017, Korean beauty (or K-beauty) made its way to Western media after efforts from big names in the industry such as Soko Glam founder Charlotte Cho and makeup artist Kowonhye piqued global interest, an unsurprising parallel to BTS’ rise in the same year when they began to attract a huge following in the United States. And with the rise of K-beauty came the now-ubiquitous trend of the dewy skin.
Dewy skin is better done quick and light to get that balance between sheen and freshness. You can achieve this look with the simple tool that is the highlighter. Here are the three key areas of your face that you must highlight:
- Your nose bridge
- Your Cupid’s bow, and
- Your cheekbones, which can be found when you feel the bony area above your cheeks.
When applying the highlighter, use only a small amount of the product so that your skin will not look too shiny. Aim for a few light strokes on the areas mentioned to achieve a dewy, youthful appearance. One tip by a M.A.C Singapore Senior Event Artist is to avoid foundation that will mattify your face too much, or else the highlight will look a bit cakey. The sheen should be absorbed by your skin to get the nice, natural effect!
Additional tip: Apply highlighter on the inner corner of your eyes as well to make your eyes look brighter!
♡ Get dry shampoo.
It is always important to wash your hair, but should one do it every day?
Many reasons for or against the daily washing of hair crop up when it is placed in the context of doing it daily, and the real, short answer to the question is it depends. But one thing we can all agree on is that there are benefits to skipping the liquid shampoo at least one day—that is, if your skin does not overproduce oil on your scalp.
The soap in shampoo works by aiding water in cleaning out the dirt, oil, and debris accumulated on a person’s scalp and hair throughout the day; however, completely stripping your hair of its natural oils can also do some damage. This is because the oils your follicles produce contribute greatly to protect your hair from damage.
Dry shampoo, on the other hand, removes excess oil and sweat on your scalp with the starch and alcohol in its ingredients, giving your hair a quick solution to the damp appearance that not washing your hair for a full day produces. When applying dry shampoo, use it as even before the grease appears, UK-based hairstylist George Northwood told British Vogue.
Additionally, dry shampoo adds volume and texture to your hair, making your beautiful strands more compliant when they’re being styled. Northwood also suggested in the same British Vogue article that one should use dry shampoo as they would volumizing sprays, “spritzing hair in sections about two inches apart, working down from the parting to the nape”.
♡ Lightly apply blush on your cheeks.
Aside from the dewy appearance you get from the highlighter, looking natural can be subtly amplified by adding a little flush to your appearance.
The trick is to apply the blush correctly, according to an article by E! Online. This means that you should start from the cheekbones—and we suggest to apply it atop the highlight—and then spread the blush across to your temples and then brush of the excess, the article advises.
This method is one of the many evolutions that the cosmetic trend of the blush has undergone, and one of its first iterations was adopted by the Greeks who used crushed mulberries to stain their face and by the Romans who used Cinnabar to add color to their cheeks, which fortunately, is not being practiced today. An article by The New York Times even calls the experience universal, treading “across cultures, ethnicities, [and] skin tones”. The article further states that the centuries-old obsession might have something to do with what blushing reminds people of.
This proves the point that blush has been a long-standing trend, and the fact that it still exists today says something about what attracts people and what standard of beauty could be considered natural.
♡ Do a quick exercise.
This ties in neatly with the previous tip as it produces a similar effect externally yet does something more internally. Looking fresh can be artificially constructed with the advice already mentioned, but coupling it with feeling fresh holistically betters your well-being.
We all know the benefits of exercise, but they are usually reserved for the long-term routines. Nonetheless, you can still derive some of its benefits with a workout that ranges between 10 and 30 minutes, an important one being a spike in your endorphin levels, which relieves your body from pain and stress.
And if you find yourself already looking reddish after a short burst of exercise, you may even skip the blush and go au naturel.
♡ Tone it down.
A simple and clean look is all you need to look fresh—and attractive! Turns out, there is an alluring quality to a bare face, according to a study conducted by Julien P. Renoult, Jeanne Bovet and Michel Raymond entitled “Beauty is in the efficient coding of the beholder”. While the study is extremely limited and inconclusive because of its sample audience, which were Caucasian males, who assumedly are attracted to Caucasian women as they were the sample subjects, some of its learnings can be helpful in the appreciation of a more natural look.
A simple technique to achieve an effortlessly clean appearance is to apply makeup sparsely. This is perfect for everyday wear, especially when the sun is out bright and hot. You could even do away with the foundation and go straight to the blush, highlighter, and lipstick if you’re already comfortable with your skin, or do this in reverse where you only apply foundation and a bit of color on your lips. Throw in some dry shampoo on your hair for a neat-messy style, and you’re on the way to a perfect fresh look.