Rut or Trend?

So lately things have been so busy with moving and work that I have been finding myself in a total makeup rut. During the week I wear neutrals, while on weekends I generally experiment with fun colors. Lately, however, the neutrals have become even more neutral/no-makeup looking (since I do the bare minimum, no pun intended!), while on weekends I have just been wearing tinted moisturizer and some lip gloss.

I am going to use this as an opportunity to tell you about some great neutral looks, which clearly are easy and fool proof to fall back on since I have been doing that for weeks now. Most of them center around a wash and liner and a liner.

But first a word on the no makeup look. I can’t seem to turn around without seeing an article extolling French skincare and how women there prefer a very natural no makeup look. Here is my take on it: this is a look that can work, but really does look better if you add a touch of tinted moisturizer, some beige shadow and define your eyes with liner dotted between the upper lashes and a little mascara.

So essentially, the re-emerging no makeup look merges with my super-easy neutral looks when things are just too busy. That’s good because I can tell myself that instead of being in a rut, I am just trendily applying the rules of le no makeup like the French.

Riiiiigggghhht….

Ok, all kidding aside, I do need to get myself out of this rut. But before I do that, I have listed below some of my favorite neutral combinations below. I start all these looks with Bobbi Brown Tinted Moisturizer in Light, Stila Illuminating Concealer in Medium and Shu’s Transluscent powder. I like this particular combination of products as it gives me even tone and color, but I don’t feel any heaviness from too many products. With all the combinations below, I have been using Lancome’s Miel Glace or Bobbi Brown’s Sandstone Shimmer Brick. They are both nudes with a glow.

Then I do one of the following combinations of shadow and liner:

1. Shu P 800 looks: This eyeshadow is genius for opening up your eye without too much shimmer. Plus you can combine it with just about any liner because P 800 is a lovely neutral shimmery (but not too shimmery) beige. If you want more shimmery, IR 800 is a better choice,but I prefer P 800 as it is literally a no effort shadow and always looks good. Because I can apply Clinique’s pencil liners faster than any gel liner, I have been relying on those, particularly Black Diamond and Chocolate Lustre.

2. Stila Wheat and Eden shadows: Wheat is a richer more shimmery beige shadow than Shu P 800. I like to combine it with Eden, a taupe with just a touch of mauve which makes a great contour shadow just above the crease. Bobbi’s Chocolate Shimmer Gel looks lovely with this combination.

3. Stila Starlight: This is a lovely champagne color that I usually pair with Clinique’s Black Diamond.

You would think my visit with Diron last week would help me get out of my rut, but I need to play with color more. Time to break out my Nars stuff.