Why I love a Simple Beauty Routine + A Look Inside my Minimalist Makeup Bag

Today we’re talking all about minimalist makeup and simple beauty routines! It’s easy to end up with too many makeup products. They seem small and innocent enough, but before you know it you have drawers and baskets overflowing with makeup and other personal care items. A lot of which you might not even use or like! Today I’m sharing why I love a simple beauty routine, along with a look inside my own minimalist makeup bag. I hope it gives you some inspiration and encouragement if you’re ready to create your own simple beauty routine.

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Why simplify your beauty routine?

When you have too many makeup products, it makes getting ready for the day more difficult. It’s not fun to have to sort and sift through piles of products looking for the one you want. Having a cluttered countertop, cupboards and drawers in your bathroom doesn’t let you start the day in a great way.

But beyond the hassle and stress too many products can cause, these products also don’t last forever. Most makeup products have a limited shelf life after opening them. Not only do they go bad – you’ll notice a change in consistency, smell or effectiveness. But makeup can also harbour a lot of bacteria. Which can cause irritation, breakouts and even infections. Yuck!

Read more about the guidelines for how long to keep makeup here.

A simple beauty routine will not only simplify your bathroom and your life. But it will also protect you from using products that have gone bad or are full of bacteria.

A simple beauty routine can even end up saving you money as you buy fewer products. Or buying fewer products might mean you can afford to buy better products instead. And using fewer products on your face is usually better for your skin anyways. It a win all around!

Embrace yourself – imperfections and all – with a simple beauty routine

When it comes to make-up, I’m learning that like most things, less is more. Beauty industry marketers are experts at making us feel like we need every product on the market. But the truth is, we really don’t need as much as we’re made to believe. Instead of worrying about what you think you “should” wear thanks to all the marketing we’re faced with, make the choice to only use the products you like and enjoy wearing.

The biggest game changer is learning to embrace your own beauty – imperfections and all. No makeup product is going to make you feel good about yourself if you don’t already feel that way. Learning to love yourself and embracing the beauty that is uniquely you is such an important part of simplifying your beauty routine.

You are beautiful – with or without makeup

I’m not against wearing makeup. In fact, I enjoy wearing makeup and think it’s a fun way to enhance our own beauty, make ourselves feel good and add something extra to our “look”. But we should only use makeup because it makes us happy and because we like the way we look and feel while wearing it. Rather than using makeup to hide or cover up the parts of ourselves we think are “flaws” or not good enough.

You are beautiful just the way you are! Remind yourself of this often. You can even put a note on your mirror to remind yourself of this. It’s so important and we don’t hear it enough!

It’s not always easy to remember this when we live in a society of photoshopped models and endless advertising messages telling us we need all kinds of products to be beautiful. I’m still a work in progress remembering this, but I’m learning. And simplifying my beauty routine has been so helpful in remembering to love myself, the way I am – imperfections and all.

A minimalist beauty routine to simplify your life

Today I’m sharing how I’m embracing a simple beauty routine. Including what types of products I use, and how having fewer products works better for my life.

Full disclosure – I’m not a makeup expert by any means. But I have found ways to declutter my makeup products and beauty routine to help simplify my life and keep my bathroom clutter-free.

Read more here if you want to learn how to easily simplify your own makeup collection and beauty routine!

An example of simplifying my beauty routine

I used to wear concealer, tinted moisturizer and/or powder on my face almost every day. I have struggled with acne since I was a teenager and have always felt self-conscious about it.

Recently, I decided I wasn’t enjoying wearing so much makeup every day, and suspected it was actually making my skin break out more. I completely stopped wearing any kind of concealer, tinted moisturizer or powder on my face.

My skin feels better, I have fewer blemishes and it takes less time to get ready in the morning. And even though I felt self-conscious at first, it quickly passed as I realized no one really cares if I have concealer on or not!

When I stopped using makeup to hide my flaws, and instead focused on using makeup to enhance my own beauty, I realized I don’t need much makeup to feel great.

After my experiment of keeping my face make-up free, I am now much more intentional about what products I use. I only use makeup products that I enjoy wearing. Not products that I feel like I should wear, or “need” to wear to cover up my imperfections. It’s very liberating to learn to accept myself just as I am. And simplifying my beauty routine is playing a big part in that!

Inside my minimalist make-up bag

My everyday makeup

moisturizer / lip gloss / concealer
eyeshadow primer / eyeshadow / mascara

These are the makeup products I use on a daily basis. Because of my sensitive, acne prone skin, I find fewer products better for my skin. And an added bonus is fewer products make it quick and easy to get ready!

With dry skin and living in a dry climate, a moisturizer that doesn’t irritate my skin is important. I use this moisturizer in the winter and switch to this one with SPF in the summer. I know you should wear SPF all year, but I dislike the cold and snow so much that I rarely go outside during the winter!

Although I no longer use concealer on my face, I still use it under my eyes. My kids have never been awesome sleepers (I like to joke that they’re allergic to sleep!), so under eye concealer is my friend!

I have been using this lip gloss since I was a kid and it’s still my favourite. It’s such a nice, smooth gloss that doesn’t irritate my lips. Once you know what you love – stick with it!

My favourite kind of makeup is eye makeup. I still keep it pretty neutral most days, but I like the way a made-up eye looks! This eyeshadow primer is the best! I have fairly oily eyelids and this keeps my eyeshadow crease free and the color true all day. I highly recommend it! This mascara is another favourite. It gives great volume and length to my lashes and doesn’t smudge. My sister gave me this eyeshadow palette as a gift and I really like it. Although I wear the same 2 colors most days, it’s fun to have a few options to play with without needing a bunch of compacts.

Special occasion makeup

1. loose mineral powder / 2. blush / 3. Lip Sense / 4. lip gloss / 5. lip gloss
6. lip gloss / 7. primer / 8. tinted moisturizer / 9. eyeshadow / 10. eyeshadow

One of my favourite ways of keeping my beauty routine simple is separating my everyday and special occasion makeup. I keep my everyday makeup in one basket and everything else in another. It makes it easy to grab the basket I need and quickly access my makeup. And I’m not digging through makeup I only wear occasionally to find my everyday go-to items.

My special occasion makeup is also fairly minimal, but still gives me more than enough to choose from when I want to get a bit fancier. Here’s a quick rundown of what I have:

I have a primer, tinted moisturizer, loose mineral powder, and blush. I also have a couple more eyeshadow colors. And my favourite way to feel a little fancier is with lip color – primarily with colored gloss. But I also love the Lip Sense line – it really does last all day!

Keeping my minimalist makeup collection organized

Once you have narrowed your makeup collection down to the products you use, love and are still fresh, using some simple organizational tools can help further simplify and streamline your beauty routine. The great thing is when you own fewer makeup products, getting and staying organized is easy.

The most important thing to remember is to ruthlessly declutter your makeup first, before trying to get organized. Then after you’ve decluttered, find an organizing solution that works for your space to keep the products neat and accessible.

Are you a makeup minimalist or maximalist?

Now that you’ve seen inside my minimalist beauty routine, what do you think? Do you think having a minimalist beauty routine is crazy or awesome? I’d love to hear more about your beauty routine too! What does your makeup and beauty routine look like? Do you like wearing a lot of makeup or hardly any at all? Leave a comment and tell me more!

Be sure to check out this post to learn how to simplify your own makeup collection & beauty routine. I share my simple 5-step system to declutter and simplify your makeup and beauty routine to make getting ready for the day stress-free and easy!