Lauren Conrad is the queen of Pinterest.
She's been upheld as a style and beauty icon since her debut in "Laguna Beach" more than a decade ago, thanks mostly to her fail-safe beauty look. Cat eye, beachy waves, lip gloss — you know the one.
That's why it's no surprise to me that she's the author of one of the highest-selling beauty books ever. She's gorgeous and people want to look like her — I get it.
But Conrad's signature look is also… safe. The most makeup experimentation she's ever done is a slightly darker shade of red lipstick. I, on the other hand, am the complete opposite. I like black lipstick, crazy-long eyelashes, and strong contour.
So I decided to see what life is like on the blonder side of the street: I followed her makeup routine, step by step, to see what it really takes to be ~beautiful~ like Lauren Conrad.
I thought it would be easy. Turns out… maybe not so much.
Conrad's staple look is simple and timeless, so it's no wonder that six years after its release, her beauty book is still one of the most popular makeup guides on Amazon.
"Lauren Conrad Beauty," published in 2012, is Conrad's complete guide to hair, skin, and nail care, plus advice on healthy beauty habits to cultivate.
In her book, Conrad breaks down two primary beauty looks: one for every day and one for parties. I decided to recreate both.
The everyday look from Conrad's book was fairly simple — a light base, a slight flush, and a little emphasis on the eyes.
Conrad has always preferred light coverage complexion products for everyday wear — we have that in common. "Let's put it this way: You would most definitely recognize me if you saw me first thing in the morning," she wrote.
This is very different from *my* every day look, which is the Morticia Addams special.
If I'm going to bother putting *anything* on my face, it's got to make a statement. Sometimes that means black lipstick, sometimes heavy eyeliner, and always, always, always bold brows.
But I gave Conrad's look a try. I started with clean, moisturized skin as she recommended. Primer was *not* allowed.
In her book, she wrote that "the jury is still out on whether primer is truly necessary (save the money and skip it)."
I'd argue she's been proven wrong since then, but for the purposes of this experiment, I ditched it, too.
Conrad's first step was to warm up a light foundation or tinted moisturizer in the palm of your hand; I wanted to throw a fit already.
I understand the benefit of warming up cream and liquid products, but the palms are not the best place to do so. Hands — especially hands that commute daily on the New York City subway — are so dirty, and they freak me out a little to be honest.
I usually let products sit on the backside of my (clean) hands, then pick them up with a brush. That way, I'm not left prancing around trying not to touch things until I can wipe or wash my hands, like I had to while trying this look.
The palm-warming technique made no difference to my tinted moisturizer. After blending out with a brush per her tip sheet, things were shaping up decently.
Conrad wrote that under-eye concealer should be "slightly lighter" than your skin tone — I agreed with her there.
I didn't agree, however, with her belief that fingers are the best applicators. She wrote that a small blending brush is acceptable, so I opted for that instead.
Again, back to my fear of dirty hands.
Conrad's next step was to dust translucent powder on the forehead, nose, and chin. That step presented a major problem for me.
No setting powder under or around the eyes? I HAD ALREADY CREASED. Big time, too.
Lauren, I need to discuss baking with you RIGHT THIS SECOND.
But on to the next: bronzer and blush. I wanted to look like a contoured porcelain doll from the depths of hell, but if it was a natural flush Conrad wanted, it was a natural flush she was going to get.
Much to my dismay, I resisted the urge to GO FOR IT.
Conrad was awfully specific in her book about using only peachy blush shades because they're more natural.
NARS Orgasm ($30, Sephora) was the closest thing I had to "peach."
Conrad's only everyday step for eyebrows was to comb them upwards with a spoolie — no gel, no pencil, no pomade.
To someone whose entire look revolves around her eyebrows, this was SADDENING.
That might've worked for someone like me, who has naturally full brows AND faded microblading, but she definitely failed people with sparser, lighter brows on this one.
In her defense, her book was written at a time eyebrows weren't that important.
I consider myself a cat-eye pro, but following Conrad's diagram for a perfect wing had me sweating from the pressure.
Winged eyeliner is a staple of both Conrad AND my looks, but we have two very different approaches to it.
Mine is to go as sharp, as long, and as bold as I can go without scaring passersby — hers is to remain as minimal as possible.
She wrote about starting with a very tight, thin line on the lash line, to be followed by a small flick "about the length of an eyelash."
I had to fight my desire to keep going so, so hard.
Once I connected the flick to the lid, I was done. Her wing might've been too petite for my taste, but liner newbies could certainly learn the ropes from Conrad.
Going minimal until you master a cat eye is a foolproof way to get the hang of this liner style, while avoiding any major mishaps. But if you've already got this look down pat, you can skip Conrad's tutorial.
The icing on the cake of the L.C. "every day" look was nothing but a little lip gloss.
I went for Fenty Beauty Gloss Bomb ($18, Sephora) because, duh.
I won't lie, I thought I looked pretty damn good. But Conrad's tips are not ones I found good for longterm wear.
Advising someone use setting powder everywhere *but* under the eyes is something I morally disagree with — especially as an irritation-prone person with perpetually puffy eyes.
That being said, all this makeup took about 10 minutes, and I could wear it just about anywhere.
With a few modifications, I could see myself following this routine most days of the week. Nice, Conrad.
Conrad's party look was a little too similar to her everyday look for my taste. It definitely did not scream "party" to me.
My "party" look usually consists of a lot of black eye shadow and falsies that hit the ceiling, but I have given this kind of look a whirl for special occasions.
It's a classic! I can't blame her. My version is just way more Extra, that's all.
Onward with Conrad's version, though. I began with the same bare, moisturized base.
For her party look diagram, she collapsed foundation, concealer, and bronzer into one step.
I got the feeling complexion was not nearly as important for nighttime as it was for daytime. I was right — and again, I was morally compromised.
She directed readers to follow the same eyeliner process as in her everyday look — but I took a smidge more dramatic liberty this time around.
Making those lines so small and so thin put too much pressure on me to make them perfect, so I let myself go a little bolder than Conrad's wing to ease that.
And, it is a *party* look, after all. A little eyeliner won't kill anyone.
In a surprising move for Conrad, she next instructed me to put on some mascara and false eyelashes.
She recommended a few individual lashes the fluff out the outer lashes in a way that looked natural. I had a pair of wispy strip falsies that I felt she'd approve of, so I went with those.
For some reason, she instructed putting on blush *after* the eye makeup this time. I didn't question it — but I did question this look's lack of eyebrow maintenance.
Yeah — Conrad apparently grooms her eyebrows for day time, but not night time. I think her goal was to create a quick look that put most of the emphasis on the eyes, but I could never, ever agree with that.
Nevertheless, I was completely on board for this look until I read Conrad's very strict no-overdrawing lipstick rule, which made me feel completely naked.
Conrad's beauty book advised to NEVER overdraw your lip line "or else you'll risk looking like you've escaped from the circus." This stance felt a little shame-y to me, if I'm being honest, and I fought the urge to give myself massive lips just out of spite.
But I stayed within my lines as best I could. My mouth felt unnaturally small.
By the time I was finished, Conrad's party look felt more like my everyday mode than my party mode.
And, once again, it made no sense to me that there were zero steps to ensure longterm wear in this look's step-by-step.
That being said, it was still real damn pretty, and appropriate for most every occasion.
Again, with a few modifications, I suppose I would rock this look pretty much anywhere.
Did I look great in both of these looks? Sure! Did I feel like myself? To an extent. Did I have fun doing them? Not really.
Beauty books written my makeup professionals can be a great place to learn techniques if you prefer to learn by reading instead of watching a YouTube tutorial.
But if you feel like you've mastered what works for you, the process of following along with Lauren Conrad can be both daunting and time-consuming.
Lesson learned: Proper makeup techniques are a crucial thing to learn, but beauty means different things to different people. It doesn't have a rule book.
Conrad's looks, even those designed for parties, are perfect for makeup newbies who don't want to spend too much time in front of the mirror. I've come to accept that my makeup routine is a therapy of sorts — when I spend hours doing my makeup before a Saturday night on the town, that's my time to zone out and get out of my cluttered brain for a bit.
Playing by someone else's makeup rules will make you realize immediately what your reason for doing makeup is. Because it just won't be all that fun when you don't make the calls.
