If you're rushing from one activity to another on a regular basis and you like wearing makeup most days then you'll probably relate to this post. I'd like to say that when I'm going out after a long, busy day I take off all my makeup before I head out and start again - I'd
like to say that but the reality is more often than not I don't have the time so I've mastered my own method of adding a few elements to my daytime makeup to change it up and transform from natural to glam.
For this post I'm using products from luxury Australian Mineral Makeup brand INIKA. To give you the briefest of brand intros all INIKA products are 100% Certified Vegan, Halal and Cruelty Free and many are also Certified Organic. This is my first experience with INIKA makeup so it's going to be a bit of a first impressions post too.
Daytime face
I'm a big, HUGE fan of the '5-product face' for everyday so this natural makeup look was every bit as easy to create as it appears. This soft eye and lip combo is more a weekend-appropriate look for me but the same rules very much apply for the working week too - simply by choosing a brighter lipstick to make me feel more put together in that harsh fluoro lit office I "choose" to work in. Best of all for me a pared down look like this just takes a few minutes which is the
point really because I never have the time in the morning to do elaborate multi-tonal makeup. Yes, I wish I could but this is my reality. Read on to see how it's done...
Products used:
I started by applying
Liquid Mineral Foundation in
Beige and quickly blended it out with my fingers out to and below the jawline. Most of the time I do my eyes next (sometimes I like to do them first) so I applied loose
Mineral Eye Shadow in the soft golden flecked caramel
Whisper with a medium fluffy brush all over the lid and blended just slightly above the crease to create the softest accent - a standalone shade like this does all the work of accenting and brightening the eyes during the day. Finally I applied two coats of
Mineral Mascara (Black) to my upper lashes for length and definition. This mascara has an unusual z-shaped brush to give you options of thickness or length depending on the way you wield the brush - I prefer length over fat lashes so I figured out using the flattened side of the brush does the job of dressing my lashes the way I like them.
I like a natural peachy pink on my cheeks day or night so I applied the super cute and fun little powder puff style Mineral Blush in Pink Pinch - sorry I had to say that because this blush packaging tops my cute list now! This blush is so easy to use (and would take extreme effort to overuse) because you simply pat the puff over your cheeks and gradually build up the colour to the desired depth.
To finish off the entire look I applied Mineral Lipstick in natural pink/mauve Warm Dusk straight from the tube and that's about as simple as it gets.
Colour swatches from left to right:
Warm Dusk, Pink Pinch, Whisper
Date-ready face
This evening look uses my daytime makeup as a base and builds on it with the addition of just two extra eye shadow shades and a change of lipstick! After seven hours of wearing my daytime face I just embellished a little to end up with a much more colourful and dramatic look...
Products used:
I checked my
Liquid Mineral Foundation for wear and it really didn't need any touching up so I moved straight on making up my eyes. Working with
Whisper Mineral Eye Shadow already on my lids as my base shade I applied
Autumn Plum, a deep warm plum shade with a crease/blending brush into the outer-v of my eyes, then applied the light and shimmery
Gold Dust with a smaller shadow brush into my inner corners and tear-duct area for a brightening effect. As INIKA Mineral Eye Shadows can be used wet or dry, for a bit of fun and a change from my usual pencil liner I used a wet angled brush to apply
Autumn Plum to line my upper and outer lower lash lines. I then used a pencil brush to apply
Whisper along the middle section of my lower lash line to soften and blend in from the dramatic metallic plum on the outer lash line. To finish my eyes I added another coat of
Mineral Mascara, this time for a bit of extra thickness.
To freshen up my cheeks I applied a little more
Pink Pinch Mineral Blush and then - although it doesn't show up in the pictures - I added a little touch of
Gold Dust Mineral Eye Shadow as a cheekbone highlight.
The final touch was a coat of
Mineral Lipstick, this time in the plum/red
Bordeaux Bliss to give my lips some more emphasis without being too over the top.
Date-ready colour swatches from left to right:
Bordeaux Bliss, Pink Pinch, Whisper, Gold Dust, Autumn Plum
While I appreciated the luxury quality of all of the products I tried my favourites were the versatile, superbly pigmented loose mineral eye shadows and the easy to use mineral blush - I will definitely be collecting more!
INIKA products are available online from
Facial Co.
(Products were provided for my consideration. All comments and opinions are my own.)
