My Basic Morning Routine

WARNING: this post contains pictures of me from first thing in the morning-once seen, they cannot be unseen! 

I'm going to start off by saying that I'm just going to break this down into what I actually do, rather than what I specifically use product-wise. I'm always changing around what I actually use in terms of skincare and make up that by tomorrow it would already be completely out of date. 

So here we go...

Tbh I don't look THAT bad for first thing in a morning in this picture, you must have caught me on a good day. So I pop on my glasses and grab some breakfast first of all. Gotta love a good bowl of Special K (no milk, god no) and a glass of chocolate almond milk. Yummy. And then I get on to trying to make myself looking half decent.

Step 1: Cleanse- I do a hot cloth cleanse most mornings. I simply tie all of my hair back, massage cleanser into my face and gently around the eye area and remove all of it with a warm flannel. If I'm feeling especially in need of it, I sometimes give my face a gentle scrub with my flannel. I find this leaves my skin lovely and soft and makeup free. 

Step 2: Exfoliate- So I've mentioned that I sometimes use my flannel to scrub away any leftover make up, however i always lightly exfoliate after cleansing anyway. Using a cotton pad (I like the big oval shaped ones) I sweep a 'clarifying lotion' or liquid exfoliant, containing AHAs, around my face to lightly remove any dead skin cells. Since I've started to include this step my skin has improved SO MUCH, I can't even tell you. And my large over-sized pores are slowly becoming smaller and less noticeable.

Step 3: Moisturise- As a teenager with oily skin I ALWAYS used to skip this step, little did I know that I was actually making my skin an absolute mess by not giving it the moisture that it needs! No matter how oily you think your skin may be, you need to replace the moisture you've removed. Funny as it sounds I actually learned that I had really dry skin whilst having my makeup done for a newspaper feature. The makeup artist just kept applying moisturiser to my face, and I was just sat there thinking 'just stop, you have no idea' and to my surprise my skin was actually normal for the rest of the day and not oily at all. That was the day I learned that I actually had dry skin! I know right?! My skin had actually been overcompensating for the lack of moisture I was giving it. Boom! Lesson: ALWAYS MOISTURISE YOUR FACE! 

I simply apply a generous helping of day cream to my face (possibly following a serum, if I've actually got any). 

Step 4: Prime- Back to the whole oily skin fandango, walking round as greasy as a frying pan taught me the importance of priming your face for make up. To do this I just gently pat a little primer into my T-zone, focusing on the really annoying wrinkle that I get straight across my forehead, and into the large pores on my cheeks. This 1) helps to make my makeup last so much longer, and 2) reduces the visibility of my fine lines and large pores. 

Step 5- Base- For my base I've been using a BB cream recently for a light coverage but sometimes, if I'm looking for something a bit heavier, I use a mixture of a few different foundations (as I can't for the life of me find the right colour to match my face). To do this I simply buff over the whole of my face using a buffing brush to achieve a smooth finish. (As I've been using AHAs on my face, I ensure that either my moisturiser or BB Cream- or both- contain an SPF, as AHAs reveal fresh skin cells that are incredibly vulnerable to UV rays). I then also buff in a little bit of a creamy concealer under my eyes to conceal any dark circles.

Step 6- Eyebrows- Using a slanted brow brush, I merely fill in my natural brows with a brow powder and lightly brush out with a spoolie to ensure that they don't look like caterpillars. 

Step 7- Bronze- I don't bother trying to contour because let's face it, my efforts would be laughable. However I do sweep a bit of bronzer under my cheek bones to at least give my face some shape! 

Step 8- Eyes- I try to keep my eye makeup really natural using 3 or 4 neutral coloured eyeshadows, a base colour, two darker shades to define the crease of my eye and a lighter (maybe slightly shimmery) shadow on my brow bone. Then, using an eyeliner pen with a felt tip end I create a straight line above my lashes, maybe with a cat flick if I've got the time. And then finish off with two coats of lengthening mascara, giving the wand a wiggle at the base of my lashes before sweeping it along the length of them. 

(I also brushed my hair at this point, as you may have noticed) 

Step 9- Do something with your god damn hair- today I used my curling tongs to create some loose curls which I then sprayed with a light covering of hairspray to help keep them intact for the rest of the day. At this point I also used a dry shampoo to firstly disguise the fact I didn't was my hair that morning and secondly to give the roots some volume.

And there we are. Ignoring the ridiculous facial expression in the last phot, there we have my basic morning routine broken down bit by bit. I don't know if this is useful to know, a bit TMI or just plain uninteresting but there it is. Enjoy. 

How to do you make yourself ready to face the world in the morning? Pop it down in the comments!