The Five Product Face: What Would You Choose?

If you were in a huge hurry (maybe running late for work?) and had to grab five products to do your face that day, what would you reach for? Maybe you’re traveling and have a limited amount of space in your bag. Are there some items you’d think of before others? On days that I wear makeup, it’s usually many more than five products so I tried to pick items that are not only awesome products, but are multifunctional as well. Here are the results!!

OK…every product was already in my stash and two are old favorites (the others I will be reviewing soon). Before getting into the specifics, here are the “jobs” that I wanted to solve for:

Moisturizer

SPF

Primer

Foundation

Mascara

Brow Gel

Concealer

Contour

Eyeshadow

Eyeliner

Blush

Lipcolor

Setting Powder

Sounds impossible, right? I thought so too but it quickly came together. Here’s what I chose:

CoverGirl Lash Blash Fusion Waterproof Mascara in Brown/Black

Normally, I wear black mascara but I wanted to use one product for both my lashes and brows. The brown/black color was enough to add a bit of drama to my upper lashes while at the same time covering the white hair in my eyebrows. It did an excellent job and didn’t flake or smudge. Mission accomplished!

IT Cosmetics CC Cream

This is a new product for me (I’ll post a review next week) and it looks promising. CC Cream handles the moisturizer/spf/primer/foundation requirements and this one does it quite well! I like a dewy look so this one is perfect. If you have oily skin or are looking for a more matte finish, the Garnier BB Cream for oily skin may work well for you. I’m wearing the shade Light, which is a great match for my complexion.

IT Cosmetics Bye Bye Under Eye

I’ve written many times about how this is my Holy Grail concealer and one of the reasons for that is that it doesn’t require setting with a powder (I normally do anyway). Setting powder was the biggest challenge to sticking to the “5 products” rule so this concealer worked well, as usual.

Sonia Kashuk Eye Couture Palette Eye on Neutrals

Believe it or not, this awesome collection handles four of the jobs on the list and could go to five if I needed to fill in my brows. The great thing about this matte palette is that it is so darn versatile! I used the neutral medium brown on the second row as a contour color for my face (hollows of cheeks, jawline and all around the perimeter of the face) and as a crease color on my eyes to add depth. The lightest shade served as a highlighter under the arch of my eyebrows and the darkest color worked as a great liner along the upper lashes and at the outer third of the lower lashes. Because these shades are so neutral and matte, the possibilities are almost endless. Now here’s where it got a little bit fun---I found that I could mix a few of the lightest colors and use that as a “setting powder” of sorts on areas where I needed a little bit of coverage (my nose, along the nostrils, and under my eyes). THAT was a surprise! Because of the wide range of shades in this palette, this little trick will work for many skintones! Crazy, huh?