Cleaning up, making one pretty after the gym

A question was asked by a local magazine:

> After my gym session i have a dinner appointment but the stupid gym
> bathroom is so crowded, people are waiting to use the mirror, hairdryer,
> etc.
> If I only have 5-10 minutes to put on makeup before
> leaving the gym, could you recommend the essential steps to dress my face up?
> (Also, after a run on the treadmill, even after showering, our
> faces would be warm and slightly flushed. Should we take this into
> consideration when putting on makeup? If so, how?)

I thought why only send the reply to the magazine when the information can also be shared on my blog. Answer is as below.
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Cleaning up, making one pretty after the gym.

No time? No space?
The gym too crowded when you're tyring to rush for your next hot date?
No worries!
these are the recoomanded steps!

1) Skip the gym when you have a hot date or important appointment to go to right after the gym, coz in the moment of rush, there will also be no taxi!

2) After the gym, use a gentle facial wash to rinse your face clean using the room temperature tap water. Warm water strips too much moisture from the skin.
Gentle facial wash recommanded is Olay Moisture Balancing Facial Wash, one of my favourite and the one i have been using for two years (and also swears by...).
Costing about Sing$3.6 to Sing$6 depending on where you buy, normally i would have recommand buying from the parallel imports coz the normal stores are ripping us of our hard earn money by rising prices too fast.
Click here to see how does the product look like.

(Note: During ANY exercising you shouldn't have makeup on, not because that your pores are more open, it is because it is disgusting to see sweat mixing into foundation and dripping off your face while you're running on the treadmill. Don't worry about having no makeup in the gym, most of the men there are gay and the rest are too sweaty by themsleves to be bothered about how you look.)

3) Use a tinted moisturiser. This will skip the step of toner, moisturiser and foundation used.
My favourite so far is from Glominerals which sets into a nice slightly matte finish. Various tinted moisturisers (in Singapore market) are too greasy for our tropical weather or they contain alcohol.
Do use a touch of concealer under the eyes if you had a long day and when the dark circles are looking darker than the behind of Darth Vader.

4) For the taoist gods' sake, fill in your eyebrows, this will define ya face better, especially for us Asians.
If you don't, it will definately make an impression when you meet your apppointment without brows (the reaciton of take aback or looking confuse coz they are looking at a focusless face...)

5) Use a skintone eyeshadow or eye shadow base to colour over the eyelids. Why? This is to even out the skin colour on the eyelids, so it looked cleaned out.

6) Draw in the eyeliner. Be it in pencil, liquid or gel, draw it in to give defination to the eyes. You can skip the mascara if your fingers is trembling from the 2kg freeweights ya lifted 10mins ago.
Shu Uemura does wonderful waterproof eyeliners, so does Clarins.

7) A touch of blush on your apples of your cheek. A TOUCH of blush.
Because your facial MIGHT STILL BE flushed from the 5km job on the treadmill (don't know why would you waste time running 5km on the treadmill when the nature is definately much better to run in...), make sure you don't over compensate.
IF you need more blusher later you can add more when you visit the little girl's room.
Great user friendly blushers are from Clinique and Pixi (http://www.pixibeauty.com/ see sheer cheek COLOUR)

8) Lip can always be given a good wash of colour with a tinted lipblam. MAC has a huge range of lip balm / conditioners in tub or stick form.
Laneige does wonderful sheer gloooosssyyyyy lipsticks call Snow Crystal Melting Glossy Lipstick that moisturise and also gives the lips more colour and yet not overweighing it with too much lip colour.

LAST NOTE: if you're still sweating after the shower, do the eyemakeup first before the tinited moisturiser, thsi will allwo the body to cool down before it sweats everything off the face.

This should all be done in less than 5mins, if you understand your own face shape.
10 to 20mins if you are not so familair.
30mins to forever if it's your first time applying makeup on yourself without guidance. *grin*

Last makeup tip....
if you want something easy to carry around which has the tinted moisturiser, the cheek and lip colour all rolllllleeeddd up in ONE. Try Pixi Hydrotint Duo avaliable from Apothecary+Co in Singapore (see link for image of product).