Speed up your morning beauty routine with these 3 Beauty Panel tips

speed up your morning beauty routine
speed up your morning beauty routine

We’ve all been there: You ignored your alarm and now have basically ten minutes to get dressed and out the door on time. Oh, and somehow you have to squeeze some beauty time in there (#storyofourlives, right?). For the beauty junkies out there, this can be your worst nightmare. There’s no question that achieving flawless beauty on a regular day takes some time, so you can imagine how hard it can be in time crunching situations. So what do you sacrifice from your beauty regimen? Do you skip out on that perfect unblemished coverage or just go au naturel? Before you panic and run out the door sans makeup, this week we asked our Beauty Panel members to let us in on their secrets to help you speed up your morning beauty routine.

Challenge 63: How do you speed up your morning beauty routine? See the answers now! »

For Tess Lopez of Makeup By Tess, the secret to looking presentable and feeling amazing when running short on time is the use of a multi-purpose product. Her two-in-one chubby stick is the ultimate beauty time-saver. And while Marilou Moles of Twenty York Street shows us her go-to trick to getting voluminous hair, A Lovely Allure’s Michelle Louie gives us a play-by-play on what makeup and skincare products to ditch and replace to save time when getting ready to go in a flash.

Have a beauty question you want to see the panel answer? Send it our way at [email protected]. Read on for the answers to this week’s challenge and for more goodness, get to know all contributors on our Beauty Panel hub page.

Jump to: MARILOU MOLES | MICHELLE LOUIE | TESS LOPEZ


speed up your morning beauty routine tess

Tess Lopez
Toronto | Makeup By Tess

You set your alarm three times for the morning wake-up call and snooze it twice trying to get the last bit of sleep in before you rush into work. Story of my life and I’m sure for most of you, it’s yours too! So how can you still make it on time for work, yet look presentable? I do it by using multi-use and easy-to-use products.

In the morning I quickly apply part of my make-up routine (foundation, powder, eye liner, mascara) and rush out the door. To add a pop of colour and brighten-up my face, I take one of my favourite chubby lipstick pencils from my purse, Revlon Colorburst Matte Balm in “Showy Flamboyante” and quickly apply it on my lips (while going down my condo elevator to the parking lot). These chubby lipstick sticks are absolutely amazing. It allows for a quick & easy lipstick application with a more precise application than a regular lipstick tube. Plus, the staying power … is magnificent!

If I have a few more seconds, I dab a bit of the lipstick on my cheeks and gently blend with my fingers. Bright lips and flushed cheeks add vibrancy to my natural-looking face and makes me look lively and awake. No one will ever know you rushed out the door. Shhh…it’s our little secret! ;)

Products used: Revlon Colorburst Matte Balm in “Showy Flamboyante.”


speed up your morning beauty routine michelle

Michelle Louie
Toronto | A Lovely Allure

Every day is a time cruncher for me, as I have a tendency to think that I have so much time, when in reality, I need to be out of the door in 20 minutes! How do I condense my makeup routine to make up for lost time? There are a ton of steps that can be skipped to achieve a flawless face without looking like you were in a huge rush.

I start off by applying my moisturizer and eye cream, which both absorb so quickly, I don’t have to wait to apply my foundation. They both double as primers, so I can skip priming the face. Then I apply my foundation with a sponge applicator, also skipping concealer and concealing my dark circles and blemishes with the foundation only. I use a multi-purpose brush to apply a light pigmented bronzer all over the face, and also apply it a little heavier in the hollows of my cheeks, to give it a quick contoured look. You can skip the blush, or use a sparse brush to brush it over very lightly. For my brows, I use a light shade for the inner part of my brows and to lightly fill in the colour, and a medium shade for the arch and end of my brows. For the eyes, I am able to quickly apply a light and darker brown eyeshadow in the crease. In place of eyeliner, I use a black eyeshadow along the outer corners of my eyes and up into the crease. This gives the illusion that you have a black liner on but can be done much quicker than liner would take. I curl my lashes and apply waterproof mascara on the top and bottom of my lashes. For lips, I use a tinted lip balm that is close to my natural lip colour and isn’t super staining, so that if I have to apply it on the go, I won’t accidentally go over my natural lip line or make any unfixable mistakes. The key to my look is to skip steps that aren’t necessary in an every day makeup routine, like blush, contouring, eyeliner, and concealer, to save valuable time!

Products used: Vichy ProEven Daily Dark Spot Corrector, Vichy ProEven Daily Eye Corrector, Revlon Colorstay Normal/Dry Skin in “Buff,” Covergirl Bronzer in “Spices,” Revlon Cream Blush in “Charmed,” Annabelle Skinny Brow Liner in “Universal Light” and “Universal Medium,” Urban Decay Naked Palette, Maybelline Rocket Volum Express Waterproof Mascara, Soap & Glory Sexy Mother Pucker Lip Crayon in “Nudist.”


speed up your morning beauty routine marilou

Marilou Moles
Ottawa | Twenty York Street

Time crunch beauty applies to me almost every day! Since I am a night owl but with an early start office job, I usually try to sneak in a few more minutes of sleep, which means skipping out on some beauty routine. My hair is quite long that the whole process of shampooing and drying takes a while, it is not feasible to do every day. So, with the help of dry shampoo and flipping of my hair back and forth several times, I can replicate the look of freshly washed and blow dried hair in a flash!

Products used: Klorane Dry Shampoo, Stila Long Lasting Lipstick in “#07 Fiore,” Body Shop BB Cream.

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