As Seen in Who What Wear: The Ritual Behind 'No Makeup' Makeup

As Featured In

Who What Wear

When Who What Wear asked six experts how to master the look that's quietly taking over Instagram and TikTok - that hushed, lit-from-within beauty that reads as skin, not makeup - I was honored to be one of them.

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There is a certain kind of face I've come to love.

It is not the face of a full beat. It is not the face of "nothing". It is the face somewhere in between, it's skin that looks rested rather than retouched, a mouth that has been softly kissed by berries, eyes that ask nothing of the world but a single coat of mascara. It is the face you arrive at when you stop painting over yourself and start showing what is already there.

This is the look Who What Wear was writing about when they reached out. In their feature, "There's a Specific Equation Behind Natural-Looking Makeup," beauty editor Maya Thomas gathered a small circle of celebrity makeup artists and estheticians to decode it. I was grateful to be included, and to share what I've come to believe is the whole secret, that this look begins long before the makeup bag ever opens.

"When your skin is genuinely nourished, you'll wake up halfway there without having to touch a single product."

— Omayma for Who What Wear

The Philosophy: Skin First, Always

The mistake most of us make is treating makeup as the event and skincare as the warm-up. It is the other way around. Makeup is the last gesture, the softest punctuation, and it can only ever be as beautiful as the skin beneath it.

Nourished skin does what concealer cannot. It reflects light honestly. It holds pigment without grabbing. It looks like itself, only more so. Everything underneath - the pressing, the layering, the architecture - is built on this one simple truth.

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The Ritual

Wake the Face

Before a single product touches my skin, I take thirty seconds, with my gua sha or the flats of my fingers. Upward, outward, and slow enough to feel my skin tissue move. This step isn't about sculpting for the camera, but rather, drainage, circulation, and a gentle loosening of whatever the night held onto. You will see the difference before you apply anything else.

The Warm-Oil Press

Here is the single trick I'd pass down if I could only pass down one: warm your facial oil between your palms before it touches your face.

Cold oil sits on the surface, whereas warm oil is drawn in. The press — palms cupped lightly over cheeks, forehead, jaw — is a kind of agreement between your hands and your skin. A few seconds, and the ritual is doing what no serum can do on its own.

The Two That Do Everything

My skincare, on the mornings I want to go barely-there, is astonishingly simple. After cleansing, I reach for the Active Rejuvenation Oasis Serum to bring the luminosity up from underneath — not a shimmer, a glow. Then I lock it in with The Bedouin Elixir Facial Oil, pressed in warm, until the skin feels sealed and soft to its own touch.

By the time I'm finished, there's a lit-from-within quality that's almost impossible to manufacture with makeup alone. That glow is not vanity. It is the quiet announcement that the skin is fed.

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Active Rejuvenation Oasis Serum

$124

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The Bedouin Elixir Facial Oil

$112

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Architectural, Minimal, Barely There

When the skin is properly prepped, the makeup almost resents being asked to show up. I keep it architectural. The Fara Homidi Essential Face Compact, layered thinly (I use the Shine Baume under, and the Smooth Veil over), gives me skin that looks raw and real in the best possible way.

For the places that ask for a little more — the shadow beneath the eye, or any tone around the mouth — I reach for the Hourglass Airbrush Concealer. Buildable without ever looking cake-y, and on properly prepped skin, it disappears into nothing.

A Just-Bitten Mouth

Never underestimate what the right lip can do for a minimalist face. It is the punctuation that tells the whole story — without it, the look reads as unfinished; with the wrong one, it reads as trying.

My choice is Finding Ferdinand's Delicious Balm. It looks almost intimidatingly pigmented in the tube, but the moment it touches your lips, it melts into a sheer, bitten-berry wash that makes you look alive and healthy without looking done. It is the kind of product that makes people ask if you're wearing anything at all — and that, to me, is the highest compliment a no-makeup look could ever receive.

One Coat. That's It.

A single, unhurried coat of mascara. Not two. The face is already saying what it needs to say.

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The Final Equation

If you take nothing else from this, take this: the look everyone is chasing right now is not a makeup look. It is a skin look, softly finished. The ritual above is not long. It is not expensive. It is not complicated. It is just in the right order.

Begin with a well-fed face. End with a kissed mouth. Let the in-between be barely there.

You will be asked, more than once, what you did differently. You will be tempted to list the products. Instead, smile, and say: nothing, really.

With love and radiance,

Omayma

Begin Your Ritual

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