When it comes to an effective morning skin and beauty routine, one that you’re likely to stick to, speed is up there as a crucial factor. If you’re a mum, arguably even more so: looking after a load of little people’s needs, as well as your own, means if your beauty routine isn’t quick, you won’t end up doing it.
An effective speedy morning requires products that will cut your skincare regime in half and beauty hacks that will buy you extra time. Which is why we’ve come up with these three super-easy ways to speed up your morning beauty regime.
These are the skincare hacks and multi-use products that will shave minutes off your routine, so no matter how manic your mornings are pre-school run/nursery drop off/commute, you can still achieve the same glowy skin, flawless face and pulled-together appearance as someone who definitely didn't hit the snooze button.
1. Use your evening to prep
The ultimate time-saving hack is to prep your skin, hair and body the night before: get the foundations right and you can get away with very little make-up on a morning, shaving a good ten minutes from your morning routine. If your skin is clear, plumped up and naturally glowing you won’t need a base in the morning- or at least, very little of it. Try Kora Organic’s dreamy Noni Glow Sleeping Mask, £43 - a lightweight, gel-like, pillow-proof mask that pumps your skin with much-needed hydration when used overnight leaving your complexion appearing smoother, plumper and far brighter.
2. Switch to ‘hybrid’ beauty products
Multi-use products are key to trimming minutes off your morning beauty routine, but not all do-it-all skincare and make-up products deliver as well as using separate products, so choose yours wisely, opting for ‘hybrid’ products that perform their multiple actions equally effectively. A good place to start is ditching a separate cleanser and acid toner/exfoliator/serum, and trying something like Murad’s Exfoliating Cleansing Gel, which combines chemical exfoliants (both AHAs and BHAs) with physical exfoliants and a cleansing formula. It deeply cleanses but also exfoliates, stripping skin of dull skin cells, brightening the complexion and actively hydrating it too. Follow up with your usual moisturiser, and then reach for a product that combines skincare, make-up and SPF. Ilia’s Super Serum Skin Tint SPF 30 £43 mixes a skin-nourishing hydrating serum, with a glow-boosting light foundation and a high SPF in one easy to use light cream. Your skin is left treated and protected, with light coverage of blemishes and an incredible dewy finish. If your complexion lacks warmth try adding a few drops of Pai Skincare The Impossible Glow Bronzing Drops £29 to your moisturiser. It subtly plumps up thirsty skin (skin is notoriously more dry and dehydrated on a morning) and warms up pretty much any skin colour and tone with its glow-bestowing speedy-to-use formula that is ideal for awakening sun-hungry lacklustre skin.
3. Share your children’s products
If you're a mum trying to get out of the door on a morning, you'll know the struggle. You can speed up your routine by considering which products you can use on your baby, or your little-ones, that you can use on yourself too. Coconut oil's antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, and antimicrobial properties make it a perfect natural replacement for chemical-laden nappy rash creams/ eczema cream/ dry skin lotion that you can also use on yourself. When using on your kids first thing, rub any excess into your own cracked cuticles and dry hands, or rub onto dry shins, limbs, shoulders and elbows, for an instant hydration hit. You can even brush a tiny bit through brows for glossy brushed-up brows, that mimic the look of 'laminated brows' at a fraction of the cost and effort.
