Back to School No Coverage Makeup.

Since Back to School season is in full swing I wanted to do my own back to school inspired post,

where I share some products that I enjoy to make me feel more put together that doesn’t include
foundation or concealer to show off your natural skin. I don’t always enjoy wearing foundation or
concealer, instead usually preferring to use blush, bronzer and highlight to give my face natural
looking color, while still letting my imperfections show. I realize it’s probably not what everyone is
looking for, but I actually like the way it makes me look for everyday school makeup. In this post
I’ve included every step I could think of to allow you to mix and match makeup steps to end up
with your perfect no coverage look.

The first step to this all steps included break down of every possibility for this look would
be the priming. For primer I usually start with aloe vera gel, and if I’m looking for something to give me
an extra hydration boost,, I'll use the Tarte Base Tape, which is one of the only primers I enjoy
using. Tarte’s Base Tape has the consistency of a thin lotion and smells like coconuts. It doesn't
feel too silicone-y on the skin and is hydrating and slightly glowy. I use Aloe Vera Gel pretty much
everyday, it's a nice wake me up for my skin, and feels cooling and water-like even when you don’t
have a sunburn, The Fruit of the Earth Aloe also has a slightly tacky dry down, which helps product
stay put on top of it. 

Next, I like to use blush. For my skin tone I find two colors of blush that really pop in a
good way, and hide the natural redness in my face, giving my a wind-swept healthy flush. Those two colors,
for my pale as a ghost, freckled self, are light peachy pinks, and peachy orange blushes. My
favorite blush formula is the Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-hour Blushes, and my favorite shades are
Captivating, from Tarte’s permanent Blush collection, a light pink, every so slightly peachy. And
the shade Rah-Rah from the Tarte Blush Book 4 which came out last summer. Rah-Rah is a
stunning matte peachy orange that really pops on my neutral skin tone. My advice about picking
a blush shade that suits you is to find the shade you naturally turn after being outside in the wind,
that shade will most likely look the most natural and suite your complexion best, and if you turn red
easily test out several shades until you find one that balances out your redness well.

Then, bronzer to add color to the outer portions of my face, my cheekbones, and just below the
back of my jawbone, right under my ears. I’m not really sure why, but I’ve found that to be a good way to
bring the bronze into my neck without having to use up half the pan to bring the color all over my neck.
I’ll also add a bit of bronzer right under my bottom lip, this really helps with the fact that the skin under
my lip is starkly white because it basically never sees sunlight. My bronzer of choice at the moment is
the Pacifica Bronzed Rose Duo. The blush is not an ideal color for me but the bronzer is absolutely
stunning on my skin.

Sometimes, I just feel like my skin is a bit dull, and I’m looking for a little bit of life, some sheen to

my skin. For these times my go to highlight for this natural no coverage look is the Covergirl Eye
Enhancers in the shade French Vanilla, the perfect light sheen on my ghostly skin tone. It looks
natural, and can really pull most looks together if I feel like I’m missing something.

I don’t really ever do anything to my eyebrows, but I know that’s usually one of those one and done steps for people who don’t really like makeup, so I’m including it because I did say this was going to be and all steps included run through of a non-foundation/concealer makeup look, so here we are. If I’m going to be doing my brows with makeup like this I will use a brow powder, or eyeshadow. The powder I use is from Obsession, in the shade Carmel Brown, which is the ideal color for my hair, but the great thing about this particular product is the shade range, and the split shade pans which give you the option to customize the color. The powder is smooth, and not too pigmented, so it’s easy to use lightly, and not overdo. I know a lot of people like to use brow gel, but I literally have none, so I guess that will be something to experiment with if you find it agreeable.

Before I do anything with my eyes I like to put on clear lip gloss. I don't feel like clear lip gloss needs much explaining, so all I’m going to say about this one is that my favorite (And only.) clear lip gloss is Too Faced Melted Latex in the shade Girl on Top. Which is shiny, and nourishing, the perfect balance (In my opinion) of sticky and thick.

My favorite part of this whole look would have to be the eyeshadow, because it’s basically my favorite part of any makeup related thing. For eyeshadow for this type of look I like to use three matte shades to sublely shape the eyes, a pale shade to set the eye primer, a light shade in the crease, and a medium shade on the outer corner and lower lashline. But, I’m getting ahead of myself. If you really want your eyeshadow to stay put the secret is eyeshadow primer, and my holy grail eyeshadow primer would definitely be the Covergirl Lid Lock-Up, a tacky, sheer  base that keeps the eyeshadow in place, basically forever. 

A lot of people wear mascara on the daily, so here I am adding it to this no coverage makeup guide, even though I hardly ever wear mascara. Even though I almost never wear mascara now, I used to wear it a lot, and I’ve tried a fair few mascaras, several of which I talked about in another post, if you’re interested in hearing my thoughts on them. The mascara I’m going to put into this post I haven’t owned in a while, but it is literally sooooooo good. Which mascara you ask? The Essence Lash Princess Volume. I’ve tried a lot of mascaras like I said before, and I feel like it’s pretty hard to beat this five dollar wonder. It’s available at Ulta, and is frankly incredible.

Wow, A page and a half of writing later we get to this point. The last step. The ‘setting spray’. I put setting spray in quotes because the one I’m including here is not really a setting spray, but a facial mist. When I’m wearing this type of makeup I normally don’t care if my makeup fades, since it is very light and natural, and isn’t going to do that whole weird ooze off your face thing that can tend to happen when you’re wearing a lot of makeup, so I like to spray the Mario Badescu Facial Spray with Aloe, Cucumber, and Green Tea onto my face rather than a traditional setting spray. I like to do this for several reasons, it feels really refreshing on your face. It also helps meld the makeup with your skin, taking down any powderiness, and in my opinion, making it look nicer overall. (I did like to do that, until I found out that the horrible allergic reaction that was all over my face was because this has peppermint in it. I don't use facial sprays any more.)

There you go, guys! That’s my back to school post for the week. I hope you enjoyed it, if you did feel free to leave a comment, and follow this blog to hear more from me. Curious to know more random tidbits about me, or to see other looks I’ve created? Follow me on Instagram @not_molly_19. 

Until next time, Bye! (Waves from behind screen!)

x