Alicia Keys No-Fuss 10-Minute Beauty Routine

My first thing is definitely washing the face so it is clean. And then I love Reviving Aura Mist. I love a mist. For me, a mist is about how it smells and it makes me have a glow on my skin. It starts the day off really well. One of the things I love about Keys Soulcare is that there is a mantra on every one. So this Aura Mist mantra says “I'm free as the air”. It feels good. It smells good. It has this rose of Jericho scent and you just feel open. After I wash my face, I spray as many times as I want. All throughout the day whatever.

My first skincare makeup routine, I know for a fact, it only had to do with lip liner and lipstick. The lip liner had to be one shade darker than the lipstick and honestly my hair was always pulled back into a super tight ponytail. That was it. It was all about the lip liner and the lips. That was New York all day, you know, born and raised in New York, on the bus, on the train. All my friends, all my homegirls. I had a lot of homegirls from LES, a lot of homegirls from Harlem, a lot of homies in Hell Kitchen, that was just the look. And I wanted it.

The next step is this beautiful Skin Transformation Cream. My skin is super sensitive and I'm always nervous about what I'm putting on my skin, but this one is so beautiful, it's really light, and super thin. I just take a little bit and put it on my hands and rub it in. I really like hitting my face. There's something about the way that just brings everything to the surface and you start to have a little bit of a glow. You start to see a little bit of your own color on your face and your cheeks and it just makes me feel so good. This has bakuchiol in it. It’s like a plant-based version of retinol. So it's really cool. I love the natural-ness. I love the organic-ness and the way that it's really good for your skin, but also doing good things for your skin. It also has a stone in it called malachite. I'm huge on crystals. This mantra says “I welcome all circumstances as a catalyst for change”. Think about that. Feel that.

Then I love this Nars cheek thing, Turks and Caicos. Who doesn’t want to be in Turks and Caicos right now? I do! I love this. It is my go to. Any minute, any day, I use it with a brush. I use it with my fingers. I basically just pop it up there a little bit. Again, I kind of hit my face. I like it. I put it on both sides. Give it a little bit of a nice little brightness depending on how much I need. “Am I feeling extra tired? Do I need extra more?". I also put it in the corners right here. It gives the illusion that we've been in the sun all weekend, even when we haven’t. And my favorite little trick with this is to put it under the eye. I put it under there and I just find that the brightness helps with that underneath.

My next step, I really like this Dior pencil, 269 matt blue. I like a secret eyeliner. Sometimes I love a good, beautiful, dramatic one. But when I’m doing this kind of quicknesses, I will just put it a little bit underneath. Right in that crease of the upper lid and I just find that it still looks super natural, but it just gives a little bit of oomph. I love it in blue or brown, and even green. These kinds of colors I find do a little trick to your eye. Boom!

I love this Chanel mascara and I will basically just do what mascara does.I like to kinda go pretty dramatic with mascara, but you know what time is it? Is it 9:00 am? Is it 9:00pm?It all depends. Whatever time it is and however my mood feels, that to me is what beauty is. Beauty is complimenting your mood. It is an accessory for you to express and be an artist in the sense that we are all the artists of our lives. We get to express however we want. It’s however you want to do it is right.

I think that taking care of yourself gives you a really beautiful boost of self-confidence because I think you have to actually get into the habit of taking a little time for yourself. Trust me I know. A lot of the time, we schedule ourselves out of our own lives. You know what I mean? Like everybody else at the time, the kids have their time, the honey has their time and the work has its time and everybody else has their time, but often we’re not on the schedule. So to me, when you kind of get in the habit of taking care of yourself, taking care of your skin and setting that time that is just yours and it doesn’t have to take forever. Like, that’s what I said, this is supposed to be quick, but it does give you more confidence. And it does. I think it does help you practice your own self love, your own self care.

So I do love it. I love the practice of getting used to loving on myself. There are definitely times I looked back and my face has just been covered in like heavy, heavy, heavy, heavy makeup. I honestly feel like I looked 60 years older than I was. I’m like, “What, what was I thinking? Why did I think that worked?”. You think it’s good at the time. It looks good until you see it back. I don’t know. It’s part of life. It’s okay. Give yourself a break.