What You Need to Be a Makeup Minimalist. 5 Minimalist Makeup Bags.

This minimalist make-up bag is stripped right back to the bare essentials; we’re talking barely even there beauty. The tinted lip balm was thrown in as an afterthought and aside from that, only the absolute necessities (for daily wear) are included.

For me, that’s a little something most days, but not all. These minimalist tendencies made it very easy to prepare for life on the road, and my routine is virtually the same as it was at home (minus some special eye creams — bring on the wrinkles, baby).

In order to keep your make-up bag minimal, you firstly need to know what your ‘everyday’ make-up look is going to be. It will mainly be neutral colours and shades. So think about the essential key items and what you wear most.

Things like an everyday nude or light coloured lipstick would be a good start. For the party animals that often go for a mid-week drink after work, a bright red lipstick can also be essential. This one simple additional lipstick can change up your whole look.

The basics
The next four items depend on how you wear your make-up for your usual day look. If like me, you prefer neutral tones and shades, you just need to keep it to a few basics such as:
Skin – powder foundation or pressing powder, highlighter
Eyes – eyebrow pencil or definer
Lips – Nude lipstick or lipgloss

So even though I own pretty much every shade of makeup on the planet it’s nice to be able to bring it back to the basics. I keep a bag of makeup up on the top of my desk that’s my “minimalist makeup bag”: it has the absolute bare essentials I need to do my makeup in under five minutes. I love sharing small parts of my makeup routine like this because not everyone likes to do all the contour/highlight/winged eyeliner/five eyeshadows type of look all the time. I definitely prefer more of a fresh, low key look in my everyday life and I though I would share what products I use!

To make this easy for you, I have 11 basic makeup essentials that you should have with product suggestions that are perfect for beginners. These cosmetics are must haves that I know and love based off of my 15 years as a makeup artist and I think you will love them just as well. Putting together your personal makeup bag doesn’t have to be overwhelming; just use this checklist as a guide and you will have everything you need to get started.

Basic Makeup Essentials Checklist

1 Foundation
1 Concealer
1 Blush/Bronzer Duo
1 Highlighter
1 Eyeliner
1 Mascara
1 Brow pencil
1 Neutral Eyeshadow palette
2 Lipsticks 1 Gloss
1 Makeup Brush Set