Do you ever scroll through Instagram and see a feed FULL of girls – and guys – wearing such perfectly put together make-up? You’ve got to appreciate those mad make-up skills. 
 
So I decided to challenge myself to get in on the action.
 
On a day-to-day basis, my make-up routine consists of swiping on some tinted moisturiser, combing through my brows with a tinted gel, adding a couple of layers of mascara and a good dusting on bronzer (when your natural skintone resembles that of the Addams’ family, bronzer is a must, unless I want to go the whole day with people asking me if i’m sick #PalePersonProblem.)
 
So I scoured the ‘gram and looked for five faces that I thought my moderately-good make-up skills could recreate. 
 
Here’s what happened…

Day One: Monday

Monday mornings aren’t typically my strong suit, but today was different, I was actually pretty excited to get this underway. I wanted to start off with a challenge, so I hit up the internet’s QWEEN of make-up, NikkieTutorials, for inspo. Of course, I found an awesome red-toned, golden eye and a dreamy metallic burgundy lip in a matter of seconds. So, here we go…

Sadly, getting up an hour early to apply my makeup, didn’t quite cut it. An hour in, and I was still on my base. I know what you’re thinking, ‘HOW can you spend an hour on foundation, Victoria?!’ But let me tell you, it’s not just foundation. No, no, you have to prime the skin, apply foundation, bake (yes, that’s bake your make-up, not stop for a cookie break), apply concealer, blur it out with a beautyblender, bake your concealer, buff away the bake, apply powder, set with a face mist. Safe to say, I was ex-haus-ted, and it was only 8:30am. So I decided to go to work and finish my make-up in the office. 
 
Never have I concentrated so much on blending a smokey eye quite like I did that morning. My colleagues were baffled watching me blend seven different tones of red into my socket line and attempt to apply falsies with a pair of tweezers I found under my desk. It was all a bit much, especially for a Monday. 

Once I’d finished, I was pretty proud of myself, plus I had a new found respect for Nikkie – because she makes it look SO EASY in every video tutorial. That girl is magic, I swear. 
 
The day went by as usual, most of my colleagues got over their initial shock of my heavily made up complexion after a couple of hours. By 4pm I’d totally forgot I was wearing more make-up than I had in years. 
 
Then it came to my commute home. I don’t now if I was just being paranoid but I felt like everyone was looking at me, and tbh, I couldn’t blame them. My false eyelashes were so long they tickled my eyebrows. As soon as I made it home I grabbed a rich cleansing oil and washed my face at least four times. Clean skin has never felt SO good.  

Day Two: Tuesday

Well, I learnt from yesterday’s mistakes and decided to pick a slightly easier make-up look today. After all I couldn’t really justify spending another three hours sat at my desk applying make-up instead of writing articles, my boss is cool, but that’d probs be pushing it. So when I spotted this sultry smoky eye and berry lip combo on @Makeupshayla’s feed I knew I could recreate it without all the dramz. 

To give my lids a smoke I blended out The Estée Edit’s edgiest kohl shadowstick in grounded along the crease of my eyes and then went HAM with a black kohl eyeliner. Next, I contoured, highlighted, swept on some blush and then threw on a pair of false lashes for good measure – incase you were wondering I opted for the Kiss Natural Lashes in flirty. Finally I finished with a swiping of lipstick, using The Estée Edit’s mattified lipstick in marooned. DONE.

After seeing my major make-up yesterday, my work pals weren’t fazed by today’s smoky eye and berry lip, if anything they thought I was playing things a bit cool. But personally, I loved today’s look. 
 
After work I met my friend for a drink, and unlike my work mates she barely recognised me. But once she’d got over the initial shock, she couldn’t stop with the compliments and promptly made me promise to do her face next time we went out. Interestingly, this look seemed to be a favourite with the guys as well. Our lovely bartender, Dan, told me he loved my lipstick, which seemed to disprove my theory that most men are scared of a bold lip, probs should have got his number…

Day Three: Wednesday

Now, I felt a little like I’d gotten off too easy yesterday, so decided to commit to a slightly more extreme make-up look today. Enter, @iLuvsarahii, not only is the girl oh-so STUNNING, but her make-up skills are on point, so I decided to attempt her fierce monochrome cat-eye and black lip combo. Wish me luck, I’m going to need it.

Well, it’s pretty safe to say, I didn’t larvvve this look. The black lipstick and heavy eye teamed with my pasty complexion left me looking seriously washed out. A perfect look for halloween, but maybe not one for the office, I think I gave our post delivery guy a mini heart attack. 

After failing on the first attempt to perfect that eye, I found the trick to perfecting this look is to start with the white eyeliner (I used The Estée Edit’s edgiest kohl shadowstick in iced). Then, I went in with a black liquid liner to carve out the bold flick. I didn’t have a black lipstick on hand, so I used black eye pencil and a touch of lip balm – a hack I learnt from the one and only, Kylie Jenner. 
 
Although not a favourite of mine, this makeup look certainly drew attention. My morning coffee run ended in a 10 minute chat with my local barista at Pret A Manger over the perils of smudgy eyeliner, and my commute was full of a whole load of questionable stares from my fellow tube passengers. 

Day Four: Thursday

After getting on the crazy lip bandwagon, I decided to continue with the theme, so after spotting@KathleenLights blue lipstick and grey smoky eyes, my Thursday look was decided. Kathleen has an Instagram account and Youtube channel FILLED with dreamy make-up looks, so I couldn’t help but feel a little pressure when it came to recreating her face. Here’s what happened…

After yesterday’s black lipstick the teal-blue didn’t worry me, in fact, I thought it looked kinda cool. Whilst I didn’t have a matte navy lipstick à la Kathleen, The Estée Edit’s mattifed lipstick in the storm, seemed to be the perfect substitute.  

Sitting in an office full of women – bar about four guys – made this whole crazy make-up experiment way less intimidating, four days in, and most people knew what I was up to, but it was when I left the office that things got weird. So an afternoon filled with beauty industry events that I had to attend, was filling me with dread. Come 2pm though, I grabbed my bag and headed out to meet with some of the beauty industry’s finest. Unsurprisingly, my blue lipstick got some attention, but most of the comments were compliments, with a lot of my friends  saying they wished they were brave enough to try a quirky lip colour every now and then.

Day Five: Friday (aka THE LAST DAY)

Ahh, Friday, you’ve never felt so SWEET. Yup, my end-of-the-week happiness took on a whole new level, why? Because today was the last day I’d have to get up a whole hour earlier to work on my face. Now, it may not sound like a big deal, but I’m NOT a morning person, and this experiment was taking it’s toll on my caffeine addiction. So to celebrate my final day, I picked an easy look. A pastel ombre eyeliner by @pilstertrends caught my attention on Instagram, so I screen-shotted it, and got to work. I know you’re probably thinking, that eyeliner looks complicated AF, but at least the rest of my face could be basic today. YAY.

To create the ombre eye I used a mixture of four liquid liners and then blended them together with cotton bud to create a rainbow effect. Finally, I applied some false lashes – partly because I wanted to hide my somewhat sloppy eyeliner skills. I teamed the candy-like flick with a glossy pink lip, because, why not? It’s Friday. 

Out of all the make-up looks, this was probably the most low-key, as you couldn’t quite notice the liner from afar, so the general public remained somewhat unaware. 
 
My evening consisted of a two-hour drive from Central London to Oxfordshire as I was headed to Wilderness festival for the weekend. When I arrived my pastel eyeliner was definitely not the most out-there make-up look, with most people rocking holographic glitter and David Bowie-esque face paint, I finally felt underdressed, in the make-up department, anyway. 

THE VERDICT

After five days, I’d spent countless hours staring at my face in the mirror, gotten through almost an entire tube of concealer, four pairs of false eyelashes, and used at least a kg of highlighter. I was done. Thank god. 
 
Now, I’m not saying this experiment was a fail, I have a new level of appreciation for the incredible make-up looks that are plastered all over my Instagram feed. These men and women are talented artists, and they have my upmost respect for such skills. However, I can’t quite wait to get back to my boringly-basic 5 minute make-up routine. I like being able to see my skin, and don’t want to worry about touching my eye if it itches, plus the 45minutes of cleansing each night was starting to get on my nerves. 
 
That being said, this week I got out of my comfort zone and tried something new, yes, at times I felt ridiculous, but there were also moments when I felt so FLAWLESS even Beyonce would be proud. So, on my next night out, I’ll be hitting up instagram for all my make-up inspo. 
 
Now, PEACE OUT, people. I’m off to wash my face 700 times. 

 

Originally appeared on Cosmopolitan.co.uk