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What goes best with your favorite jeans & tee-shirt?
Well, we love full-on glam just as much as the next card-carrying Beauty Girl, but let’s switch gears and chat natural. As vampy lips and neon nails are ushered in and out, and back in again, the number one request at our makeup counter remains a “clean, natural look”. In fact, if we were the betting type, we would say that “natural” is the most requested makeup look of all times…it’s right up there with smoky, smoldering eyes.

The goal of “natural” is to appear as if very little makeup, and even less effort went into achieving the look. Today we offer a bit of advice on nailing “natural” and share a few of our makeup favorites for mastering the no-makeup look:

COMPLEXION:
Start by regularly exfoliating. The exact type of exfoliant will depend on the specific needs of your skin. For sensitive skin, we like Bulgari Radiance Facial Exfoliator. The gentle exfoliant starts as a soothing gel, then turns into a light oil, and finishes as a creamy, cushiony lotion. Trust us, Bulgari Radiance Facial Exfoliator is the most comfortable exfoliant we’ve experienced in a while!

Next, moisturize and follow up with a pre-makeup primer to help camouflage the appearance of visible pores and tiny lines. Primer also helps foundation to adhere to skin and last throughout the day.

FACE:
The next step is crucial. To create a natural look, many women reach for tinted moisturizer instead of traditional foundation because it seems like the best choice for a natural, makeup-free look. HALT! Before reaching for a tinted moisturizer, consider this: If your goal is to achieve a naturally flawless look, tinted moisturizer, which generally offers sheer coverage, may not be the most effective base for your face. While we love the idea of a lightweight tinted moisturizer, if skin is not free of blemishes, dark spot, and blotchiness, a tinted moisturizer will do very little to help achieve a natural look.

When selecting your foundation, choose the product that will give the best coverage to achieve the most natural end result. If you have blotchy, uneven complexion, and maybe a couple of post acne spots (raising hand!), opt for a foundation that provides medium to full coverage — and here’s the trick — Apply mainly in the areas where skin needs coverage. For all other areas, apply less foundation coverage. The beauty of medium to full coverage foundation is that you can adjust the coverage up or down to suit your skin. Tinted moisturizers, on the other hand, are generally sheer and do not build to offer enough coverage to conceal pronounced imperfections. These foundations really deliver:

What’s not to love about this chic little travel-friendly compact? Bobbi Brown Oil Free Finish offers long wear, full coverage and is perfect for on-the-run touch ups!

Lancome Teint Idole Fresh Wear offers the lightweight texture of tinted moisturizer but with the coverage of an 18-hour wear foundation. Yes, 18 hours of shine free, matte wear. True story…we’ve tried it!

EYES + CHEEKS + LIPS
After foundation is applied, here’s how we suggest completing the face for an au naturale look

EYES:
Enhance and groom brows without the obvious presence of brow pencil.
We like Trish McEvoy Clear Brow Gel.
And here’s a little tip for you: Apply the gel to eyelashes as well to give the illusion of long, defined lashes sans mascara.

CHEEKS:
A natural flush of blush should appear as if the rosiness of your cheeks is beaming through skin, and not simply sitting on top. Here’s our best tip for beautifully, sheer, natural cheeks. After applying foundation and blush, pat and blend the tiniest amount of foundation over your blush. This step mimics skin’s natural blushing process. By applying the foundation over the blush, you create the illusion that the blush is beaming through your complexion, as opposed to just sitting on top. Which blush type should you use? We recommend a cream blush for dry skin and powder blush for oiler skin.

LIPS:
Punctuate lips by increasing the warmth of your natural lip tone with a subtle flush of color. These lip balms and stains do the trick.

1.) Le Metier Beaute Colour Core Moisture Stain Lipstick, 212 872 8612

2.) Laura Mercier Lip Stain, 212 872 2780

3.) Kiehls Tinted Lip Balm SPF 15, 212 872 2764

POWDER:
While pressed powder is incredibly convenient, and we certainly love a cute little clamshell compact, we absolutely adore the delicate, ethereal veil that loose powder imparts. YSL Poudre Sur Mesure Semi-Loose Powder offers the best of both worlds (pressed and loose) with a mechanism built into the compact that grinds and dispenses just the right amount of powder as needed.

Sisley Paris Transparent Loose Powder is finely milled and glides onto skin like silk, leaving skin incredibly soft.

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HAIR:
It must be natural. And it must be mussed. Think messy pony tail or a very loose fishtail.  And if you choose to wear it down, flip your head over and give it a good shake-through. Now our weapon of choice for these natural ‘dos is Oribe’s Dry Texturing Spray (212 872 2621) — we absolutely, positively love it.

This look is best reserved for your non-shampoo days.  Holding the aerosol can approximately 12-inches from your roots, lift pieces of your hair and mist; then scrunch your roots with your fingertips.  Right then you’ll notice that it delivers messy volume and texture — plus it doubles-up as a fantastic dry shampoo.

Here’s a bit of inspiration from the runways to get you in the mussed-up mood:

(oh, and for a truly messy braid? sleep on it)

Want more natural beauty tips?
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