You know when you sleep in your makeup, nobody has any wipes, and you have to rock it the next day thinking you look like Alexa when, in fact, you look more like a woman with last night's makeup on? I took one for the team and slept in mine to figure out how you can work it if you're going to a festival and want to look OK by the last day. And nobody has any wipes.
The most annoying thing about this is that we (me and Fran, our excellent intern) tried doing it outside and it looked INCREDIBLE but then we couldn't get it to work properly so had to do it indoors. Which doesn't look festival-y at all. I'm very grumpy about it, but the tips still stand and, as someone who regularly sleeps in their makeup can attest to, they do work.
Products I used are at the bottom but, to be frank, you can use whatever versions you have (there's a beauty cupboard at work, hence me using a lip balm that costs £15) - although I would recommend getting the Topshop Glow highlighter because it's the best one I've ever tried and I've tried shitloads when prepping for a 'best highlighters' vine that didn't go anywhere due to highlighters not showing up on phone cameras. Bummer. If you don't have pale skin, then Smashbox do a great golden-toned one and No 7 skin illuminator is brilliant for dark skin. I have that on the authority of a number of friends whose opinions I trust.
Anyway, back to how to sort out your makeup when your morning-after face is crusty and gross.
SKIN
If you've got bits of foundation still clinging to yourself, and no means to get it off, then mix some BB cream with a moisturiser and a highlighter (like Topshop Glow and no, I'm not sponsored by them, I'm being an honest woman here) and get it all over yer fizzog. It'll feel lovely, the moisturiser will mix the crusty foundation into cream and the BB cream will give you sun protection as well as making your face look better. Foundation on top of foundation doesn't work. This potion does, because I am a wizard and you are my apprentice. Lightning flash.
Products I used: Smashbox BB Cream in 'light'; Topshop Glow highlighter(obvs); Clinique Dramatically Different moisturiser
CHEEKS
Ain't nobody got time for contouring, and have you tried contouring over the crusty attempts at last nights contouring? Now your skin is all moisturised and sort of wet-but-in-a-good-way (give me a Pulitzer, for god's sake), use that red lipstick you wore last night and mix it with either highlighter or moisturiser - both will work. Also, put on more than you think, because it'll take you from pale, gaunt skull-person straight through to glowy faced human who looks a bit hungover. No, I'm not going to tell you it'll make you look fresh as a daisy because you smell like jagerbomb and haven't showered, have you?
Products I used: Topshop Glow highlighter (as ever); Topshop matte lipstick in Hazard (can you tell I own both of these things? They're battered and much-loved)
LIPS
It's best to go easy on the lipstick when you've got a hungover, slightly gross face otherwise you look like one of those creepy dead things in horror films. But that might just be me, because I'm pale and a bit dead anyway. If you're REALLY dry, then a great tip I discovered at Latitude one year when my face almost fully fell off, is putting tinted lip balm on your cheeks. Or clear lip balm literally anywhere that needs it. Yeah, it's not something you should make a habit of, but it'll certainly fix flaky areas better than just layering makeup over the top.
Products I used: thisworks tinted lip balm
EYES
Very tricky, because mascara clumps like a bitch and while you think your sleep-smudged eyeliner looks sexy and smokey, it doesn't. It looks like you've slept face down on some grass, which you probably have. Firstly, attack those under-eye bags with some concealer - hopefully the moisturised base you smeared everywhere will have smoothed down the old stuff from last night, and if it hasn't, get some more moisturiser on those bastards - then put shitloads of white eyeshadow in the inner corners. Start to draw a line of it under your eye rim, but blend it out so you don't like a 14 year old in 1996. Don't put white eyeliner on the inner rim of your eye, this is a hilarious lie concocted by beauty people to give them something to write about - it just looks like you've put white eyeliner on your eye. It doesn't 'freshen'. Anyway, next, don't try and remove the smudged eyeliner from last night - simply turn it into a smokey sexy eye by layering a really sharp line of black liner over the top. Just put it on your eyelid and flick out. Then go easy on the mascara, otherwise your eyelashes might fall out, and concentrate on the bottom lashes because it'll make you look more awake (the way that white eyeliner on the inner rim of your eye doesn't).
Products I used: bareMinerals correcting concealer in 'light'; Guerlain Cils D'enfer mascara; NARS eyeshadow in 'opal coast'; Benefit They're Real! push-up liner.
Got all that?! Can't stress how much you can
And don't forget...
IF ALL ELSE FAILS
Products I used: pair of sunglasses I bought on ebay for 99p
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Follow Stevie on Twitter: @5tevieM
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.