This trend has been happening for quite some time now: the “I really don’t want to look like I’m wearing a lot of makeup, but I want to look awesome – and I don’t want my hair to look too stiff and structured, but I want it too photograph really well. To be honest with you – I want my hair and makeup to look like I did it myself – but, like one thousand times better. You know? ”

Yes, we do know.

Welcome to what I call THE POLISHED UNDONE LOOK. Where you look like you were ripped from the pages of VOGUE magazine but you still look so effortless and fresh that people might muse that you were blessed by the genes gods and you just woke up that way. le sigh

This look maximizes minimal makeup that packs a punch and the illusion of unstructured structured hair. Confused yet? Don’t worry – I’ll break it down for you.

MINIMAL MAKEUP WITH A PUNCH

This makeup look is all about still seeing the texture of the skin and using little layers in the right spots so it almost looks like the illusion of perfect skin – not that she has an amazing foundation on. By gently manipulating the contours of the face you maximize what it already there and then relying heavily on smartly placed highlighting to give the illusion of clean glowing skin.

Using light touches of color on the eyes, lips, and cheeks like bronzes, golds, pinks are perfect additions to the neutral base.

UNSTRUCTURED STRUCTURED HAIR

This look also relies heavily on smartly placed texture. The hair needs to appear to be fluid and have a softness to it. Each curl and pin is strategically placed, but it needs to look like it was effortlessly put there. The almost like I did it myself, but better. When the hair is down, the curls appear to wave on their own as if the sea air created it – and when the hair is up, the hair still has an effortless movement as if your own fingers raked your hair back and pinned it yourself.

Using braids, curls and loosely structured updos create a chic, modern ‘do that is the perfect compliment to your dress.

Soft colors on a neutral canvas – mixed with subtle texture creates that perfect mix of effortlessly chic: be polished undone.

HUGE thanks to the amazing photographers who provided the images for this: Anastasiia Photography, Hunter Ryan Photography, Jamie Lee Photography, Set Free Photography, Luminaire foto, and Haring Photography. All makeup by David Frohmberg – hair by Sir Daniel and the team at Salon Tease.

Get more awesome sent directly to your inbox – go to the upper right hand corner and click “awesome me”. Iv’e been told that all the cool kids are doing that these days.