The Five-Minute Face

So you're a busy woman. I know. I am too, believe me!

These days everyone's running around on the go. It always amazes me, though, when I go out to run errands and there are so many women who look like they don't have a mirror at home. I remember when I was in college just over a decade ago, and so many of my classmates would come to class in their pajamas! PAJAMAS! With ratty, unbrushed hair swooped back in a scrunchie and last night's mascara raccooned under their eyes.

"But I don't have TIME to get fixed up before I go out," I'd hear.

Bullpockey. Of course you do.

It only takes five minutes to make yourself presentable, and you may be amazed at how much better you feel. Even if you're just running out to the grocery store or the post office, it's worth taking five minutes to look in a mirror and give yourself a little once-over. And before you accuse me of sexism - guys, this wouldn't hurt you either. It takes you even less time to splash a little water on your face and comb your hair. (And to the twentysomething boys I see strolling around so often these days: For the love of G-d, please change into a clean shirt! You might not complain about not getting women if the women could stand to be within five feet of your clothing!)

Anyway, ladies, this is a little routine I call the Five-Minute Face. Start with whatever you just rolled out of bed with, and splash it clean with only water. Dry with a towel. If you have old makeup under your eyes (I almost always do!), apply a little baby oil gel with your fingertip and wipe it off with a cotton ball or a clean rag. Follow this up with moisturizer - a really good one. I swear by Lush's Dream Cream. It's pricey, but the tub lasts forever.

The five-minute clock pauses here while you brush your teeth and hair and get dressed. Go on, I'll wait.

Hi! Welcome back. Now dab on just a little bit of a good foundation - I'm a big fan of Almay Smart Shade, which adjusts itself to your skin tone and goes on smoothly without a caked-on makeup look. Top that off with a light dusting of powder. Then smile and suck in your cheekbones at the same time, dab on a little bit of blush in the shade your skin turns when you're drunk or embarrassed, and then use a soft fluffy brush to dab a bit of bronzer in the hollows of your sucked-in cheeks. Hello! Did you even know you had those lovely high cheekbones, glamour-lady?

Now give your eyes a quick line with a soft pencil - shade can vary, but brown looks good on almost everyone, especially the blue-eyed, and it's subtle - and a coat of mascara on the top lashes only. A quick coat of a tinted lip gloss, and you're done - unless, like me, you have blonde scraggy eyebrows. In this case you need to take an extra thirty seconds and go over those brows with a soft, light pencil. I know, nobody pencils their eyebrows anymore. But just try it once and see what a difference it makes to your whole face.

There! All pretty and in only five minutes. I doubt you had to wake up earlier to do this, but if you did, isn't it worth it? I always find myself so much more productive and in a much better mood when I feel like I look nice. Pretty does as pretty is - isn't that how it goes? (Oh well, close enough.)