Most women apply their makeup in the morning, and then freshen up their lipstick periodically. But taking two minutes to do a quick makeup touch-up a few times throughout the day can make all of the difference: You’ll appear just as polished at 5 p.m. as you did first thing in the morning. Follow my five simple steps to look gorgeous around the clock!

Makeup Touchup Step No. 1: Pack smart.
To look your best all day long, toss a touch-up kit in your purse. I recommend tools that have a variety of uses, such as:

• Dual-tipped eyeliner or eye shadow pencil and mascara

• Pack of tissues

• Lip/cheek stain and lip balm

• Makeup wedge and two-sided brush

• Travel bottles of hairspray and dry shampoo

Makeup Touchup Step No. 2: Blot, dab, blend.
At the end of the day, your face gets shiny and your eyelids turn greasy. Your foundation also settles into lines and creases. To smooth everything out, use a tissue as a makeshift blotting paper: Tap (don’t drag) the tissue on your face.

Once you’ve removed the excess oil, fold it until it becomes a wedge. Use one point to clean any shadow or mascara that has fallen beneath your eyes. Dab another corner to blend any concealer that has settled into lines, and use the third point to smooth any eye shadow in the crease of your lid. Then dust a thin layer of powder across your eyelids and beneath the lower lash line.

Makeup Touchup Step No. 3: Groom your brows.
If you often touch your face or have long bangs, your brows may resemble the Mad Hatter’s by midday. To remedy the problem, brush your brows upwards and outwards. Then spritz a little non-flaking hairspray onto the brush and lightly comb the hairs in place.

Makeup Touchup Step No. 4: Lash out.
To freshen your lashes without crossing into Tammy Faye territory, try this tip: Rip off an inch-wide strip of a tissue and roll it into a tight tube. Rub the end of your mascara wand onto the tip of the tube, then whisk it on the roots of your lashes. This paints on a small amount of mascara. As it dries, push your lashes upwards with the tube to help them curl.

Makeup Touchup Step No. 5: Pump up the volume.
Do you locks get oily and limp throughout the day? Try dry shampoo, which soaks up grease and gives your mane more body.

Hold the dry shampoo several inches from your head and dust the roots of your hair with a fine layer. Wait a few minutes, and then rake your fingers through your hair to work the shampoo out. (If there’s any white residue, wrap your index finger with a tissue and flick the powder out.) Finish with one pump of hairspray. The water in the spray cuts the powdery look and sets the shampoo, so you’ll have voluminous locks for the rest of the day.

Photo by Victoria Priessnitz on Unsplash

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Stroll into any drugstore and you’ll come across aisles full of potions, powders and pencils. Although variety is key, squeezing your entire collection into a makeup bag isn’t possible. So whether you’re trying to pare down your collection, pack for a trip or save a few dollars, consider picking up beauty products that have more than one use.

The following five items are prime examples of multi-purpose makeup. Pick them up (you may even already own most of them!) and use my smart tips for multitasking makeup application.

1. Cream Blush
If there’s one item to stash in your evening bag, it’s cream blush. This little pot covers nearly all of your bases. Besides adding a natural flush to your cheeks, it also works as an eye shadow and lipstick. For a shadow, opt for a dusky or bronze shade. Use your fingers or a small eye shadow brush to swipe it across your lids. Then dab it on your lips with your fingers. Finish with a slick of gloss or lip balm for a creamy, non-clumpy finish.

2. Tissues
Surprise! Your trusty tissue has multiple makeup uses. Stash a to-go pack in your purse to use as blotting papers: Gently pat away excess oil to fend off a shiny complexion. You can also set your lipstick with a tissue.

I also recommend keeping a box in the bathroom or on your vanity to grab as you apply eye makeup. Wrap your index finger in a tissue, and gently dab the lines of your eyeliner for a softer look. Then, at the end of the evening, wet a balled-up tissue with makeup remover. It gently cleans your face without irritating your skin.

3. Mascara
Out of eyeliner? Be a mascara MacGuyver! Dab your eyeliner brush in a tube and use it as liquid eyeliner. You can also use that liner brush to dig out a little of the formula and apply it to a larger shadow brush. Sweep onto the entire lid, below the crease, for a long-lasting smoky eye. Just remember to wash your brush immediately afterwards, since the mascara can dry and cake up.

4. Foundation
Your foundation doubles as a concealer. To mask a blemish or under-eye circle, dip a Q-tip in the cap, where the product’s consistency is thicker. Dab it on and allow it to dry before applying a thin layer of foundation all over your face.

5. Eyeliner
If your eyebrows are a little sparse, use your eyeliner as a brow pencil. Gently flick the pencil to mimic individual hairs of your brows. Then use a spoolie or eyebrow brush to blend the product into your brows.

Photo by Jazmin Quaynor on Unsplash

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The path to a perfect complexion is far from one-size-fits-all: what you need to do depends on the type of skin you have. If you’re unsure what category you fall in, do this test suggested by Julie Lindh, a New York-based aesthetician and skin care consultant: “Wash your face and wait a minute before putting on any moisturizer,” she says. If it feels tight all over, you have dry skin. Only tight in a few areas, like your cheeks? You have combination skin. And if it doesn’t feel tight anywhere, you have oily skin.

Once you’ve identified complexion, use the following personalized skin care tips to get glowing.

If your face is oily…

• Use a powdered sunscreen. “You have to protect your face from the sun, but moisturizing sunscreens can make you look shiny and clog pores,” says Dr. Rebecca Kazin, the medical director of Johns Hopkins Dermatology and Cosmetic Center. A powder sunscreen, which you apply like foundation, provides coverage without adding greasiness -- and you can reapply without messing up your makeup.
• Blot, blot, blot. “You don’t want to constantly be putting on face powder to conquer shine,” says Kazin. Stash blotting paper or tissues in your purse, and dab your nose, forehead and chin throughout the day.
• Embrace acid. “Products made with acids can decrease oil production while helping with fine lines, wrinkles, brown spots and acne,” says Kazin. “Use a cleanser that includes salicylic or glycolic acid. And at night, apply a lotion with retinoic acid.”
• Exfoliate! “Dead skin and extra oil clog pores, bringing on blackheads,” says Lindh. “That’s why you need to exfoliate twice a week in the winter, and three times when it’s hot and humid out.” (But avoid scrubbing more often, which can generate more oil production.) Don’t want to invest in another product? Try this skin care tip: Dip wet fingers in baking soda and use that to scrub off the dead skin.

If your face is dry…

• Opt for creams, not lotions. “Moisturizers that come in a pump bottle have to be thinned out,” says Kazin. Instead, buy the ones that come in tubs, which are thicker and creamier.
• Get a super-moisturizing sunscreen. “Using [a moisturizing sunscreen] on top of a moisturizer in the morning will do a lot for dry skin,” says Kazin. Or try a moisturizing foundation with sunscreen.
• Go for a low dose of acid. Using a serum or lotion with retinoic acid can improve the appearance of your skin, but too much of the ingredient can irritate dry skin. Kazin recommends looking for products with 0.05 retinoid, and rubbing it on in the evening. Try exfoliating once or twice per week in the winter and up to three times in the summer.
• Pile on the products at night. “While you’re sleeping, your skin is hard at work repairing itself,” says Lindh. “So before you go to bed, put on a thick, creamy moisturizer and a moisturizing serum. And one night a week, try sleeping with a moisturizing mask on.”

If you have combination skin…

• Have a split personality. “When you have some areas that are dry, and others that are oily, you need to have two different skin regimens depending on what area you’re treating,” says Kazin. “For example, usually the T-zone is oily and the cheeks are dry, so use extra moisturizer on your cheeks and a lighter product on the oily parts.” You may need to try out a mix of the skin care tips above.

Photo by Kimia Zarifi on Unsplash

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Take a cue from nature: As the leaves start to change color, so should your makeup palette. And this season, fresh faces, strong brows and autumn shades, like jewel-toned eye shadows and wine-colored lips, are having a moment. So consider updating your regular daytime look with one of the following fun fall makeup trends. With my tips, you’ll look fresh and gorgeous in no time.

Fall Makeup Trend No. 1: Peacock-shade eye shadow

This summer has been about bright pastels, so I’m excited to transition to the jewel tones of fall. And this season, the shades of a peacock’s plume -- emerald green, sapphire blue and amethyst purple -- are popular. Some high-fashion looks have featured a mix of all three!

My favorite way to wear this trend: A new twist on the classic cat-eye. Dip an angled liner brush in water and then into a sapphire-hue shadow. Use as a makeshift eyeliner to get a pop of color without going overboard.

Fall Makeup Trend No. 2: Merlot mouths

The runways for fall featured dark merlot lips. While the colors on the catwalk were uber-bold, you can make the trend wearable for daytime by opting for a rich lip or cheek stain. Instead of swiping on the shade, use a lip brush to paint on a violet-maroon lipstick. Then apply a tissue to your open mouth and lightly peel it away. This takes off a layer of pigment without smudging, creating a much more subtle look.

Fall Makeup Trend No. 3: Understated skin

Forget bronzer and caked-on faces. This autumn’s skin regime is all about being fresh-faced and understated. For lighter coverage, skip the concealer and choose the right foundation for your skin type: If your skin is starved for moisture, an oil-based foundation will keep you from cracking. Does your face tend to get shiny? Opt for a water-based product. All skin types will look silky smooth with a silicone-based foundation, but be prepared to blot off shine with a tissue as the day goes on and the silicone resurfaces.

If you’re like me and only have uneven skin tone in a few spots, you don’t need to slather foundation all over your face. Mix equal parts foundation and a light lotion with the same base ingredient as your foundation (oil for oil-based foundations, water for water-based ones, etc.). Apply this blend to the under-eye area and any red or splotchy patches.

Fall Makeup Trend No. 4: Metallic nails

Metal hues, like gold, silver and bronze, are popular this fall, including shimmery, metallic nail polishes. For a playful daytime look, paint your nails a muted base color. Then accent it with an ore-hue French manicure crescent.

Fall Makeup Trend No. 5: Bold brows

I consider brows the punctuation marks of our faces: They give life to facial expressions and communicate how we’re feeling. As someone born with a uni-brow, I was bummed about my luck until Brooke Shields became an icon.

Fortunately, bold brows have come full circle again. It really doesn’t take much to follow this fall makeup trend. If you have full brows, keep them defined and groomed; fill in any sparse spots with dark shadow. But if you have pale or slim brows, consider shading them in: Using a folded tissue, follow the edge with a brow marker and draw the shape of the brow you’d like to achieve. Lightly fill in the shape. For even more definition, take a small eyeliner brush and flick in strokes of eyebrow shadow to mimic the shape and direction of your individual brow hairs.

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