The start of the college semester fast approaches inducing panic and a haze of sleep deprived memories of early rises, cold wintery mornings and copious amounts of tea on the brew. 9 o’clock lectures can be a struggle at the best of times, not to mind dealing with the mother of all eye bags and strange imprints of pillow on a sleep befuddled fiseog.
Quick and easy pop in your handbag and go type products are definitely the safest bet when battling the clock and sleep deprivation in the mornings. Enter Clinique’s Cheek Pop Blushes. There’s nothing like a bit of colour on the face to warm up a ghostly complexion and make us pale folk look a little less dead. The Clinique Cheek Pops are pigmented but not overly so ensuring you can apply the product fairly slapdash and not be too concerned about looking...well, ahem.
There’s something very distinct about the finish of these blushes. Their quiet luminosity gives just enough of a sheen to look fresh and natural on the skin but not enough to emphasis pores. My current fav for the fairest of the fair skinned is Melon pop, a beautiful warm light coral - something on to that quintessential Nars Orgasm colour but without the chunky texture.
The Clinique Cheek Pop blushes come in a plethora of shades and can be found at Boots, Debenhams and Brown Thomas for a reasonably priced €21.
Another trick to reviving your early morning complexion is to up your brow game. Nothing makes a bigger difference to a look makeup wise, in my opinion at least, than groomed, well maintained eyebrows. A couple of my favourite face framing, eyebrow taming products hail from the high street, the first being the Soap and Glory 2-in-1 Brow Pencil & Brush (€9.36). This thing is legit a brilliant dupe for the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Whiz and it’s, like, half the price - winning!
The formula is creamy enough that it’s comfortable to apply but not so much that it will move around during the day. It comes with a spoolie on one end to brush the product through the brow and boasts a fairly impressive wear time of eight hours plus.
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S&G did drop the ball a little however, by only releasing the pencil in two shades, Blondshell and Hot Chocolate, which of course aren’t going to suit everyone. Still though I’m glad to see companies moving away from warmer, red toned brow products which can tend to look fairly unnatural at the best of times.
A great alternative to a brow pencil is to use a powder and stay in place wax. My current favourite is the Brow Artiste Genius duo from L’Oreal Paris. The powder feels soft and luxurious to the touch whilst the wax holds brow hairs securely in place. This little kit is on the pricier side of pharmacy makeup, retailing for €15.29, but it does come with some surprisingly decent grooming tools.
Of the two products I definitely think the powder looks most natural, but on days when I want to achieve that sculpted look, Soap and Glory have got me covered.
Finally, nothing perks up a fresh faced no-makeup makeup day than adding a bold lip colour. Throwing on a vivid lipstick can instantly pull a look together making it seem like you put actual effort into your appearance that day, not rolled out of bed 45 minutes after the alarm went off!
Some of my favourite easy to apply lip products are the Clinique Chubby Stick Intense pencils in Grandest Grape (Berry) and Mightiest Maraschino (a classic cherry red) (€20). Both impart near opaque colour and have very strong cool undertones in them, which In turn will have the added benefit of making your teeth look whiter.
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Grandest Grape is the slightly more moisturising of the two but both have great staying power, lasting for a solid 4 hours on the lips. The two shades I have wear off evenly, leave a soft stain behind and are most importantly - comfortable to wear.
So what are your favourite back to college beauty buys? And are you (like me) dreading the return of the colder weather and early morning school traffic? To the comments!
