Beauty routines that help you look alert, even if you’re not!

With school starting up this month, get ready for that alarm to go off a little earlier than you’d like most mornings. With less time and earlier mornings, is it even possible to look wide-eyed and awake? It is, with just a few adjustments to your makeup routine.

Give your face some extra moisture and a more even appearance by using a tinted moisturizer. If you have a foundation but you don’t like the heavier coverage all day, every day, try mixing it with your favorite facial moisturizer to make your own. Then apply a peach or pink blush with a golden sheen to the apples of your cheeks and blend up toward the temples. Tired skin is often dry and dehydrated, so the goal is to make your skin look dewy and lit from within, not matte.

Another big giveaway that you’d rather be sleeping is the eye area. Dark circles, puffiness, redness, and sometimes the eye shape itself can give the impression that you’re not quite awake and ready for the day. Prep the eye area with a cream like MAC’s Prep and Prime Eye ($16.00, MACCosmetics.com) designed to smooth out the skin on the lids and undereye area. Apply a peach-toned concealer for blue circles or a yellow-toned concealer for purple ones. Colored concealers neutralize the shadows below your eyes. If needed, apply a concealer that matches your skin tone on top.

To apply concealer with the lightest touch possible (tugging at your eyes is a no-no because that skin is so delicate!), use your ring finger or a flat synthetic brush like the Essence of Beauty Concealer Brush ($4.49, CVS).

Apply a light, shimmery shadow shade all over the lid, from the lashes to the brow. Then sweep a medium shade slightly darker than your skin tone lightly into your crease, blending in windshield wiper motions with a fluffy shadow brush.  Be careful not to blend this color down into the lighter shade on your lid. Finally, on the very outer edge, create a “V” shape with an even darker shadow, blending into the outer crease and the upper lash line. You may need to feather it into the light shade slightly to prevent harsh edges, but don’t go more than one-third of the way in. Apply the medium shade below your lower lashes.

Liner is optional, but a thin line of a dark liner can make your lashes appear fuller and give your eye more definition without interfering with the “awake” look you’re after. Line the bottom waterline (the strip of skin above your lower lashes) with a white or flesh-toned kohl liner. For white, try Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajal Eye Pencil in Pure White ($2.27, Walgreens). If white looks unnatural on your skin, Stila’s Eye Kajal in Topaz ($18.00, Ulta) is a great nude-toned option.

Don’t forget to curl your lashes! Start at the base of the lashes, squeeze, hold for five seconds. Move to the middle of the lashes and repeat. Then go to the tips and hold for another five seconds. This will give your eyes a lift and ensure a smooth curl. Apply your favorite mascara.

Add your choice of pink, peach, or berry-toned lip gloss and you’re ready!

Crystal Schwanke is the site editor of LoveToKnow.com’s lingerie, sunglasses, buy and movies sites and a writer for several other LoveToKnow channels. She also runs a beauty blog for moms and other women pressed for time, http://mommybeauty.blogspot.com. She lives in Atlanta with her husband, daughter and two dogs.