I am currently running on a skeleton staff when it comes to makeup - essential workers only - and I thought you might like to know what makes the cut when I’m short on space and need a tight edit of products that will always perform to perfection.
I’m down to the essentials because my makeup bag is so teeny, and my makeup bag is so teeny because when I was packing for Greece (did I mention we went on a family holiday?) I suddenly realised that we had a laughably small luggage allowance. We had to fit absolutely everything we needed for the week into hand luggage.
Which would be fine if it was normal person packing: flip flops, sun cream, a few changes of clothes, but no. This was family holiday packing. Pool inflatables. Beach tennis sets. Granted my voluminous kaftan had to come too, which even when rolled up tightly takes up an entire half of a carry-on suitcase, but it was the rest of the paraphernalia. Baby Yoda. Dolly. Whole selections of oversized hoodies that would never be worn but absolutely must be taken.
So I really had to do a stern edit on my beauty stuff, especially the skincare. Usually I like to pack for every eventuality - what if I suddenly develop severe acne? dermatitis? what if it feels like exactly the right moment to try out the glass skin trend? - but I realised, this year, that it’s the one time in twelve months when I can absolutely guarantee I’ll be doing exactly the same thing every single day. Sleeping in the sun, like a cat, and then reading in the shade. Out for something to eat in the evening, which is when I spend precisely four and a half minutes putting on a face (does anyone else think that their bare face actually looks worse when they’re on holiday? I always feel it should look glowing and bronzed and the like, when in reality I look like a pallid, sweaty potato!) and then wash it all off before bed.
Seven days, seven nights, repeat to fade. Or repeat until departure, anyway.
So anyway, I packed light, without any alternatives for anything, and it all sufficed an absolute treat. Especially the makeup items, which are all so good they’re in Hall of Fame kind of realm.
You might be wondering why the hell I’m still using this teeny weeny makeup bag with only the essentials in it when I’ve been back from holiday for weeks. Well, I can’t remember whether I filled you in on this, but the day we got home we decided to do a bit of a Changing Rooms and knock a big hole in the wall of my in-house beauty room/office so that we could join it to the spare room, thus making a larger and far more exciting bedroom for my son, who is nine, and likes things like secret doors that are hidden behind pictures (which is exactly what will be inside the big hole once we finish renovating a cottage that’s one and a half hours away and all the other essential stuff that is on the to-do list) and pull-down steps and all that sort of stuff.
So his room, which is wallpapered in a very cool retro dinosaur paper (tempted to keep it) will be my new in-house beauty room/office, but not until Sir’s new duplex executive suite is ready and everything has been moved across, which could be quite some time. Meanwhile, most of my skincare products and makeup items are stacked up in cardboard boxes and I simply do not have the emotional energy to start looking through them. The room that was my room (affectionately known as the “dumping ground”) now has ladders in it and is covered in dust and I cannot be arsed to clean it and unpack everything only to have to pack it all up again, it feels like a fruitless task.
So the compact makeup bag and the capsule edit within are here to stay. Here’s what I grabbed to go on holiday with and ended up keeping as my everyday look:
Ad-info: no paid or sponsored content. Contains press samples with no obligation to feature and links are affiliate links, which means I get a small percentage of a sale if someone buys a product. I have worked with L’Oreal in the past six months.
Foundation
Bare Minerals Skin Tint Stick in shade “Suede” (online here). This seriously hydrating tint stick is too sheer to label as a foundation, really, but if you love a very barely-there look (I do) and like to spend no more than about thirty seconds doing your face base (also yes) then you will probably love this.
It’s the scribbly-on toddler crayon application that I actually like so much - no dispensing liquid onto the back of your hand and then blending blending blending, you just draw on your face like you’re slightly demented and then bosh over with a brush to lightly buff it all in.
It has to be the quickest type of face base, a foundation stick, and they do come in various types and coverage levels (people rate the Dior, I still need to try it!) but I find a lot of them to be a bit cakey and stodgy if the formula isn’t dewy and moisturising enough. So personally, I feel as though the sheerer versions work a little better than anything high coverage or matte.
Bronzer
Clarins Ever Bronze bronzing powder in shade 02 medium, here.
I feel as though a cream bronzer would slide a bit on the Bare Minerals Tint Stick base, so usually go for a powder bronzer. This one from Clarins isn’t too dark on me, so I can be enthusiastic and completely slapdash with my application, which is just the way I like it…
This brush from Jones Road is one of the best bronzer brushes I’ve had.
Blusher
NARS Multiple in Bad Habit, here. NARS Multiples are phenomenal. I don’t think another brand has quite nailed cream blushes the way they have - I think it’s because it so quickly works and feels like a powder. But it never settles or looks dry. All of the staying power and diffused colour, but with that beautiful, comfortable glide that a cream product gives you. Supreme! There are a few really excellent shades, including a frosty pale pink that feels distinctly retro…
Again, the Jones Road smaller blush brush does a great job here. I think they’re well worth the investment, these brushes.
Eyeshadow
Vieve Eye Wand in Mahogany, here, and ByTerry Ombre Blackstar in shade 4, here. Who needs to cart a huge palette around when you have these easy on-the-go shadow sticks?
The thing about them is, you can scribble onto the lids and under the lower lashline and blend with fingertips if you forget your brushes or don’t want to lug them about, something you absolutely cannot do with powders in a palette, much as I love powders in a palette.
The Vieve eye wand is a matte finish, great for adding a quick bit of shape to the eye and lifting the corners (WATCH THE VIDEO!) and the ByTerry stick has the most beautiful, slidey texture that’s so easy to blend. Shade 4 is a pale, shimmery bronze. I chose it because I thought it would make me look like a sexy bronzed bombshell in Greece, and then mostly forgot to use it.
Mascara
L’Oreal Telescopic Mascara, online here. My most-purchased beauty product of all time, in my whole life. I don’t really know who will manage to make a mascara to top it, really, because it ticks all of my requirements boxes: separates, lengthens, adds a bit of volume to my rubbish flat lashes, but more importantly it stays on all day and is easy to get back off!
I know it’ll sound like I’m biased because I just did a huge campaign for this very product, and my face was all over Boots, humble brag, but the campaign came about because I had been so vocal about my love for this mascara, over so many years.
It has a very fine, flexible rubbery wand (lol) that gets right to the base of the lashes without leaving loads of product on the lids. I find that a lot of large mascara brushes actually hurt my eyes, do you? Or is that just a weird quirk of mine? (One of many.)
I usually pick mine up at Amazon when they’re six or seven quid, which happens regularly.
Brow Gel
Rare Beauty Brow Gel, here. You might think brow gel isn’t a necessity, but it’s the sort of product you don’t get until you use it. When I comb my brows slightly upwards, like little feathers, and set them in place with a gel, they increase the space between my eye and my eyebrow by at least 25% and I instantly look more awake and sprightly.
Takes seconds, foolproof (I nearly always use a clear one, though have had great results with the slightly tinted ones, they make me look Parisian and angry) and an instant freshen-up that lasts all day. I have tried a lot. This is my current trial. It’s very good, nothing to moan about, but I would say that if you have a lot of base on and it gets mixed with the brow gel when you comb upwards, you will get weird fleshy-coloured bobbles in your brows, so be careful.
Lipliner
KOSAS Hotliner in Mega, here. Another product you don’t realise is totally brilliant until you use it properly: lipliner. Lipline pigmentation fades a bit as you get older, so there’s less definition at the edges and lips look thinner. Trace the line back in using a natural colour close to your own - no need to go batshit crazy drawing in dark lines two centimetres outside your actual mouth - and you will see an instant plumping effect before you’ve even put your lip gloss on.
I don’t really use lip gloss much, I’m a balm or tinted balm kind of guy, but if you like that ultra sheeny shiny look then go ahead. I tend to use a dab of long-lasting lip balm - the three best I’ve found for serious longevity and a comfortable, non-sticky sheen are Glossier’s Balm-dot-com here, Lanolips Coconutter here (random! But so good!) or Elizabeth Arden 8 Hour Cream here.
All of them give low-key shine that, most importantly, lasts for ages with no reapplication and doesn’t lock you into that terrible circle of lip balm addiction where it actually dries your lips out horribly so you have to keep faffing with your tube every half an hour, making you look like a twelve year old who has just discovered makeup.
I’m going to tell you another thing: Elizabeth Arden’s original 8 Hour Cream orange gloop in the tube, now called “Skin Protectant”, is the best lip balm in their whole range, better than the sticks and the pots.
(This is only my humble opinion, obviously, but I did model for twelve years and that is all that makeup artists used ever in those days and so I have some experience, but OK listen to everyone else, that’s fine.)
The other thing is, you get enough of the gloop in there to last you half a lifetime. Seriously, it’s difficult to use it up. But use it up you will, my friends, if you also have it as an emergency rough heel cream and knee softener and emergency nostril barrier cream for when you’re flying and don’t want to catch everyone else’s diseases. Thank me later. Big tube, £14 here.
It’s almost time for you to watch the video and see it all in action (honestly, it’s a great way to spend quarter of an hour whilst you file your expenses or peel potatoes or just drink a cup of tea with your feet up).
I have to first very quickly tell you about two additions I’ve made to the holiday makeup bag, additions that were only necessary because I had to get back to filming and needed more oomph to my face base. The BareMinerals stick doesn’t quite cut it on camera, for me, there’s just not enough coverage. I like to look more flawless and juicy and polished when I’m committing myself for eternity to the pages of the internet. And so I use:
Glow Primer
Charlotte Tilbury Flawless Filter shade 4, here. My God this stuff is actual luminising dynamite. If you don’t put foundation on top of it you look like an android. Comes in lots of shades, because it does have a tint to it, despite the tint being very subtle. You wodge it on weirdly with a spongey applicator that always feels slightly too small for the job and then blend before applying face base on top. Prepare to glow like a bloody beacon, it’s ridiculous stuff. Never fails to make me feel tip-top and glam.
And then:
Foundation
Lancome Teint Idole Care & Glow - I use shade 220 - here. Another “if I could only buy one product in X category for the rest of my life” winner: this foundation has been my favourite, through thick and thin, since launch. (A re-post of my original review is here.)
I’m sure I was still living in London when it launched so I’ve loved this for a long time and, considering how many bases I test almost continuously, it speaks volumes that it’s still my number one. It’s a longwear foundation so stays in place really well, but this is Lancome’s Care & Glow version, so it’s fresher and lighter-looking than the original Teint Idole. I find the coverage to be just right for my needs: covers everything, makes me look like I have bionic skin, but never too heavy or claggy.
Often it’s in the sale (at time of writing the link above is for a discount event) but I will repurchase it full price (£41) without flinching because for me, it’s irreplaceable.
See it in action in the video - any questions, drop them into the comments and please make sure you press the heart button on your way out…