Though the exhaustion of the first month of school, the idea of waking up at 5 am to put on a full face of makeup is immediately thrown out the window. Despite this, there are few students that want to go to school looking tired and angry. I am very familiar with the internal conflict between sleeping 10 more minutes and looking good. Through dealing with this conflict I’ve developed several methods to get the best of both worlds. Quick morning makeup routines can help with beauty sleep and beauty in general.

To start off, find a good mascara. My personal recommendation is Monsieur Big from Lancome. The full size runs at a pricey 25 dollars at Sephora and Ulta, but both stores sell miniature sizes for a fair 12 dollars, and it lasts a very long time. If you have PE in the morning, go with a waterproof version of your favorite mascara. I have very short eyelashes, so a good mascara that adds both length and volume instantly makes me feel better in the morning. False eyelashes are a step too far, especially if you have a very active day. You don’t want people to think a spider fell on your cheek after an intense gym class. Falsies also take way more time to apply and will bother you throughout a long school day. A good mascara is definitely enough to brighten your eyes.

Eyeliner is a must for many people, but a wing application -if you aren’t good at it- can take a very very long time. I suggest just going with a simple line on the bottom of your eyelid, it’ll darken and add drama to your eye look, and it’s very difficult to mess up. No wing is far superior to a messy or chubby attempt at a wing. If you’re a regular makeup user and a master at winging your eyeliner, go for it, but a tired early morning when you’re on a time crunch is not a good time to practice your makeup skills. An important thing to note is that you want to put on your mascara after you’ve applied your eyeliner.

Brow application with a pencil or a pot and brush also adds a lot of time to your makeup routine. At the same time, you can’t skip brows for fear of looking like they’ve disappeared altogether when compared to your dark eye makeup. A solution I’ve found is a brow mascara. Wet’n’Wild’s Ultimate Brow Mascara is my brow product of choice. It runs at a cheap 5 dollars and is available at most drug stores. It takes less than 2 minutes to apply and helps darken and set your eyebrows for the whole day.

Foundation is a critical step in a full face of makeup that probably takes the most amount of time to apply and blend. My advice is to skip foundation altogether, and just go with a concealer to cover up trouble areas. Under eyes, zits and red spots are all you need to cover, for the most part, however, if you do this step you must cover with a powder. When foundation or concealer isn’t set with powder it will make your face look very shiny and greasy and will end up smearing and moving all around your face throughout the day. Not everyone knows this, but make sure your concealer is brighter than your foundation shade as well.

If you’re incredibly pale, like me, it’s good to invest in a nice powder bronzer to add some color to your face so you don’t look like a ghost. Contour is a little intense for the early morning, but adding some soft bronzer to the hollows of your cheeks and your hairline significantly helps give some color to your face. To assist in adding color to your face and making it more 3 dimensional, a quick application of blush and a highlighter will do you good. These powders shouldn’t take more then 5 minutes to apply; if it does take more than 5 minutes, you’re putting on too much.

Hopefully, these tips will make you feel like your morning walk to the bus stop or the car is your personal runway. In no way do you have to wear makeup to school, or at all, but if you’re planning to wear makeup no matter what, this advice can help you shorten your morning routine and gain back a few minutes of sleep.