Life, especially at Cambridge, can be chaotic and tumultuous, but a solid makeup routine can carry you through it all. When your supervisor’s essay feedback borders on verbal abuse, your makeup routine will be there. When your situationship ghosts you, your makeup routine will stick by you. When the Wednesday revs dance floor contains more sweat than oxygen – you guessed it – your makeup routine will pull through.

However, despite being someone who has always loved makeup, I can’t say it came naturally to me. Seeing pictures of poor, 14 year-old Minnie with smudged mascara and blotchy blush always makes me cringe, but I have finally mastered the perfect everyday makeup routine. As a firm believer that makeup shouldn’t cover you up, but enhance your features instead, I have curated a foolproof routine somewhere in between a full face of makeup and ‘I just woke up like this! ’ Nothing quite beats the glow of a freshly applied face of makeup lasting all day through lectures, sports, and torrential UK rain.

“This specific eyeliner is brown, with slightly red undertones, working perfectly to make green, hazel, or blue eyes pop”

I prefer to start with my eyes, so that if the products smudge slightly during application, it doesn’t affect my base. To me, the eyes are the single most crucial step in any makeup routine, and mastering how to enhance these ‘windows to your soul’ will ensure you feel like the best version of yourself every time you leave the house.

My holy grail is eyeliner. No, I’m not talking about midnight black, smudged, dramatic eyeliner (unless that’s your thing). For everyday use, I prefer a more subtle pencil eyeliner, in a natural colour, subtly enhancing your lash line instead of swallowing it whole. The MAC Eye Kohl in the shade ‘Costa Riche’ has had a permanent spot in my routine since I was 15 – and for good reason. This specific eyeliner is brown, with slightly red undertones, working perfectly to make green, hazel, or blue eyes pop, but also adds a divine sultriness to brown eyes. My top tip is only using the eyeliner on the outside three-quarters of your lash lines, to make your eyes look bigger and more intense. This tip also works for black eyeliner, which I tend to switch to for a night out, sometimes adding a wing and tightlining for those extra-special occasions (like Junction – Cambridge life is just thrilling!)

“If I was stranded on a desert island, the first three things I would ask for are food, water, and Maybelline’s Lash Sensational”

However, my favourite step by far has got to be the mascara. If I was stranded on a desert island, the first three things I would ask for are food, water, and Maybelline’s Lash Sensational. Not only is it the best mascara on the market, but it’s also budget friendly, and widely available in pharmacies across the country, making your inevitable repurchase of this product easy. For this particular mascara, give it a week or two of use to dry out a bit, after which it will reach its perfect consistency to hold a curl and stay in place all day long.

For the base, hydration is key to ensure that the makeup sits well on top of your skin, so always grab your favourite moisturiser before starting your routine. I like to keep my complexion routine simple, and don’t tend to reach for foundation (largely because I have no clue how to use it). However, when I want to add a little something extra to my skin, I take Charlotte Tilbury’s Flawless Filter to give me a glow-from-within kind of look, perfect for a formal or a ball. Similarly, if (like mine) your skin also looks like it hasn’t seen the sun in years, a cream bronzer can make a world of difference to your complexion: my favourite is the NARS Laguna Bronzing Cream for that natural, sun-kissed look. Who needs Barbados when you’ve got Boots! This, combined with my absolute favourite MAC Glow play Blush in the shade ‘Plush Pepper’, will ensure you can fake that ‘just been relaxing at a spa resort for two weeks’ kind of glow.

“A spritz of this before Wednesday revs will ensure your flawless base lasts through all the sweat and drinks”

Concealer is a must in any everyday routine, particularly for those horrific 9am lectures following a night out, or a night spent locked in the library. For me, concealer is one of my last steps, blurring the edges of my blush to make it look more natural and effortless. My biggest tip is to pick a fuller coverage concealer, and therefore use less, to avoid excess product settling into your fine lines and creasing throughout the day. My favourite is the Haus Labs Triclone Skin Tech concealer for a serum-like consistency that still looks like skin when it dries. Set this with a light dusting of setting power (my favourite being a translucent pressed powder to brighten my under eyes even more) to lock it in for the whole day.

The final step, and my most recent yet favourite makeup discovery, is setting spray. The Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless setting spray adds a natural looking luminosity back to the complexion while keeping your makeup sealed in place all day and all night. A spritz of this before Wednesday revs will ensure your flawless base lasts through all the sweat and drinks you’ll inevitably get soaked in.

Whether you’re a Natsci warrior, an English student buried under Shakespeare, or everything in between, we all need a little confidence boost sometimes. Give these tips a go, and you’ll soon have your dream, everyday makeup routine down to a science.