Hi Amiga, are you struggling in the morning to get your foundation on in time to make it to your breakfast and, more importantly, your first coffee of the day?
Don’t you hate it when you are stressed out, juggling around foundation brushes, sponges, and products?
Your day hasn’t even started yet, isn’t there a better way, than to risk being late for work? YES, girl, there is. Today is the day you are going to find out!
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please read full disclosure for more information.
This post is all about having your face on in 5 min or less. Watch the included video of Lisa Eldridge demonstrating Sheer Foundation Application, my favorite, preferred, and recommended application method.
Jump ahead to:
Is a 5 min Foundation application realistic, and is it really preferable?
Hell YES it is, you can rock this method super quickly, and I can guarantee you, you will never want to use a different method ever again.
I use this application for my own foundation and I know MUA colleagues who do too. I am 100% sure it’s better than the way you apply your makeup foundation right now.
Yep, Mamitas, I know, that’s a big statement, and that is why we should dive right into the benefits it will bring you.
Pretty soon you will tell all your BFFs how you rock your foundation in the morning within 5 min or less!!! This method is:
- Fast, meaning your partner doesn’t have to wait for you to finish your makeup anymore causing irritation and rolling eyes before you’ve even left your front door going to his mother’s birthday! Or maybe you just want to stay in bed a little bit longer before going to work. Just stop and think how much time you are saving in your life.
- Saves you half the amount of your product – all of your precious good-quality foundation ends up where it belongs: on your face instead of in your sponges and brushes. Because we all know good foundation is not cheap!
- Brings you less effort, never wash your foundation brushes and sponges again! Who likes doing that anyway?
- Gives you all the benefits of foundation in a fraction of time, we all know glowing skin gives us confidence and a overall good feeling about ourselves with a little sass. Imagine having that comfortable feeling you’ve gotten used to in less then half of the time and effort! Who doesn’t want that? Let’s get cracking!
The 5 min Foundation Method
1. Distribute your product. Take a pump of your foundation in the tip of your fingers, apply like you would a moisturizer.
Dab little dots on the spots of your face that needs foundation.
You don’t need to put it all over your face, this is a misconception. Only on the spots that needs a bit a of coverage.
2. Spread over face. With dabbing motions and small little strokes, spread the makeup on your face, or on specific spots on the face.
3. Buffing. Like Lisa Eldridge in the video down below, you can use a clean brush or sponge to buff the foundation into the skin.
I like to use my hands for this. Tips of the fingers, fingers and soft part of your hands.
Again make dabbing, little stoking movements. Dabbing works really well for buffing out your makeup.
4. Stop and have a look. This step often gets skipped, but it’s important because this is where you decide if you need to build up the coverage. 99 out of a 100 times, this is NOT necessary.
Make sure you have good lighting and really have a look turning your face in different directions.
Does your skin look naturally flawless? Then you can stop there. If you still see uneven areas, repeat the process.
5. Give the foundation a chance to settle. Do something else for just a minute, your brows, blush or brush your hair.
6. Conceal. If blemishes and/or dark spots appear after settling the foundation, pinpoint them with a little concealer on fingertips.
7. Set your makeup. Powder is not always necessary at this stage, you will touch up later on in the day anyway making that the perfect timing to powder. If you do need a little powder right now, dust lightly.
Remember, skin is not matte naturally!
In minutes you applied the perfect foundation, now you can swipe on your powder products, eyeshadow, blush, highlighter, or brows (if you use a powder brow product as I do). There it is: the 5 min Method!
What product do I need to have my Foundation on in 5 min or less?
The big question is, what product should I be using for my foundation?
There are so many products out there, I can imagine it could get overwhelming. It will help if you know the difference between cheap and expensive makeup. Or find out my favorite and the best value for money.
First, you should decide how much you can or are willing to spend.
When you are able to, I’d say if you are going to spend more on any makeup item it would be the foundation. Yes, it’s that important.
However, if that really is not possible for you and if you are not going to be in a studio presenting the 8 o’clock news, or modeling in a photoshoot, you can definitely use the cheaper brands.
With that being said, all the brands – low, mid, high, luxury – have foundations with different levels of coverage.
I would always recommend a sheer to medium coverage because you can always build up the coverage with these products anyway, and I am just not a full coverage kind of girl/artist, I really dislike it!
Whenever you can, treat yourself with a good foundation.
You will need more product from an affordable foundation, whereas a good pigmented foundation goes a long way, making it not that more expensive on the long run.
Save money on lipliners, glosses, lipsticks, and even eyeshadows as affordable brands can be pretty darn good.
A sheer to medium coverage makeup foundation is always liquid. Avoid creme or thick foundations.
I use Waterweight from Mac Cosmetics. As it says in the name, it is very fluid, I absolutely love it. Of all the foundations I tried, I keep going back to this, it is my go-to foundation, for TV and also for photography.
It will work amazing for your daily makeup, going to work or going out altogether.
Even more fluid is Face and Body from Mac. It is wonderful too.
Works very well for photography, would work perfectly if your skin is already in good condition. Face and Body from Dior is in the luxury segment, a beautiful sheer foundation.
Works well for tv and photo too, therefore amazing for daily and or party looks. Sheer foundations are buildable, if you need more coverage you can build over your first application, building up your coverage.
The all-time best recommendation for Foundation is this:
I do not recommend baking. I repeat I do NOT recommend baking to anyone.
If you bake your skin, you can never ever finish within 5 min or less, that is impossible.
You really just need to still see your pores. I even recommend not using powder at all, for dry or normal skin.
Maybe during the day, you can touch up with a little blot powder on the T-zone. In all other cases, don’t powder, because it is not natural, the skin is not matte naturally
Baking is a makeup technique, applying a heavy amount of translucent powder under the eyes and on the high points of the face, including the T-zone, to set the base makeup, the base also being heavily applied as well.
Here is a great YouTube video of the wonderful Lisa Eldridge where she is applying sheer foundation the way that I talk about it here in my blog post. She is applying a whole Makeup Look, which is pretty lovely but I am especially referring to the way she is applying her makeup foundation.
Now you can also have your face on in 5 min or less. Cheers Mamacitas!
Leave a Reply