#Ask Ellie: What Quick Beauty Tips Take Me From Desk to Disco?

With ?Christmas party time in full swing you need to master some quick beauty tips to change up your beauty regime without having to cart around a giant kit full of products. Here’s how to ramp up that glam and get out the office door in five minutes max.

Step One: Touch up your base.

If you’re the kind of person whose foundation tends to fall off throughout the day (and that’s most of us), this is a vital step. Decant a little of whatever you applied that morning into a plastic bottle that you can leave at your desk.

Then blot the surface of your face with some tissue to absorb excess oil that has been released during the day.
Add a light layer of foundation over your face – not too much, you want to look glowy and dewy, not caked. Match Perfection by Rimmel is great for a soft finish with longevity.
Add an illuminating under eye product to lighten and brighten under tired eyes. The Airbrush Concealer by Clinique is fab for mopping up dark circles and adding a luminescence to the area.
Lastly, dust a light layer of sheer pressed powder over the oiler areas of the face – forehead, nose, cheeks and chin.

Step Two: Choose Eyes or Lips

When in a rush to get out of the office loo and to the cocktail bar, it’s easier to choose either feature to amplify and get going. Yes, you can play up both your eyes and lips to the max, but time is precious, right!

If you’re going for the eyes, they easiest thing to do is to add a slick of black kohl pencil all along the waterline for sexy definition that is instantly glam and evening appropriate. If you wish, you could add a little shimmer shadow in a cream texture that can be easily applied with your finger, so no need to master brushes. Choose either a glowy, sheeny oyster shade or go smoky with a charcoal cream. The Max Factor Excess Shimmer shadows are amazing for this – easy to use and long lasting in all their shiny gorgeousness.

Add another layer of deep, black volumising mascara on top of what you have there already and you’re good to go.

If you’re choosing to go for strong lip, then that’s pretty much all you need to do. Keep the eyes as they were all day (with maybe some brightening eye drops), add another layer of mascara and then a deep burgundy or classic red such as Russian Red by MAC. ?Hey presto! Instant glam.

Step Three: Highlight

Night-time beauty looks need a highlight. Matte may be your finish of choice for corporate, office-based you, but when you’re out you want a softer candlelit glow. Dab a cream based highlight product such as the?Clinique Chubby Stick Sculpting Highlight stick?along the tops of cheekbones, directly under the brow bone, along the bridge of the nose and a touch on the centre of the cupids bow. Voil?!

Step Four: Blush

Apply either a cream or powder blush in a soft peach or tawny pink tone to the apples of the cheeks – a little colour there adds a liveliness to the skin that counteracts any tiredness. Go lightly on the bronzer at night-time as often, it shows up as an unattractive muddy shade in dim bar or club lighting rather than the bronzed goddess effect you were after. Think pink for pretty skin – The Convertible Colour Cream Blush by Stila is ideal.

And that’s it, these touch-up’s should take five minutes max, and while not entirely recommended that they are made in the back of a cab or on a train, they can be! Go forth and claim the night, you foxy vixen of glam.

Credits:
Makeup: Ellie Balfe
Photos: Ailbhe O’Donnell
Hair: Michelle O’Halloran.