One of the most beautiful features on the human body is the eyes. It’s more than a color, shape, or size–eyes let you see the beauty within. The first time I notice someone, it may be because they’re wearing something interesting, saying something interesting, or any other reason. The first time I really see someone, I look to their eyes. There’s just something so mesmerizing about eyes.

It’s not surprising that I consider my eyes to be my best feature. If I want to feel beautiful, I may not put on full face makeup but I will almost always play up the eyes. For a quick job–a little liner and mascara and I’m out the door. For a more formal occasion (or when I want to feel my best), I’ll get out the whole kit. That generally involves paying someone to yank the unruly forest out from above my eyes–but sometimes I just groom them a bit and let it go.

The tools used are really the most important part of the job–I just can’t get my shadow to look right with those little sponge tipped applicators. No, if I want to look my best, I bring out the brushes. I have a variety of brushes, depending on the look I want. There’s a big, soft brush for sweeping color all over the lid, a more rounded brush for blending in the crease, angled brushes for more precision, and my favorite–a flat liner brush that I can use to create the definition I want right at the lash line.

You’ll rarely find me with a kit of colors, I’ve found that I rarely use more than one-two colors. I also tend to blend colors and textures in a different way. What can I say? I’m not your traditional girl. My current favorite is a soft silvery-purple cream by BeneFit. I use my fingertip to blend a little into my lid, highlight my browbone with a either a cream or pale purple and add a liner. Liner colors vary based on my mood–I range from soft brown pencil, to varying shades of purple or dark brown, to my current favorite–teal. Top it all off with a swipe of mascara and I feel like I can take on the world!

Most days, there’s nothing elaborate about my routine. I swipe on some liner, add mascara and walk out the door. Even without putting on anything else, I feel more finished and ready to face the day. With my limited time, I can’t aways afford the time to put a lot of effort into my looks. By sticking to my best feature, I can look great in 5 minutes or less.