In 1990, the makeup artist Bobbi Brown worked with a chemist to come up with ten natural lipstick shades. Allure later summed up the idea simply: creamy, comfortable lipsticks that were more or less the color of lips. She mailed them out from her kitchen table in Montclair, New Jersey, and in 1991 the line launched in New York as Bobbi Brown Essentials. As the story is usually told, she expected to sell 100 in a month and sold 100 in a day. The following year she released yellow-toned foundation sticks.

Thirty-five years on, that is still the brief for an everyday makeup look: skin that looks like skin, color that looks like your own and nothing that needs a touch-up by noon. It is less about technique than about choosing formulas that melt in with your fingers.

In our beauty dreams, she is leaning toward the bathroom mirror in a white ribbed tank and light jeans, braids piled into a high bun, dotting color onto her cheekbones straight from a stick. That stick is the Westman Atelier Vital Skin Foundation Stick, foundation and concealer in one, and a close modern cousin of those early foundation sticks. For something sheerer, the ILIA Super Serum Skin Tint has SPF 40 and niacinamide, the Hourglass Veil Hydrating Skin Tint is semi-sheer and buildable, and the COUNTER Dew Skin Tinted Moisturizer adds SPF 20 in one light layer. The Tower 28 SunnyDays comes from a founder who built her line after conventional makeup aggravated her eczema, and it carries the National Eczema Association's seal. Carte Blanche's Multi-Hyphenate is part tint, part mineral sunscreen.

Match a tint on your jawline in daylight, not on the back of your hand. The right shade disappears; the wrong one sits on top.

Concealer is where most everyday makeup goes wrong, usually because there is too much of it. The woman I picture on a sunny weekday morning is perched on the edge of an unmade bed in an oversized blue shirt, glossy bob and blunt bangs, holding a little round mirror and tapping concealer under one eye with a doe-foot wand.

That wand belongs to the Kosas Revealer, a creamy medium-coverage concealer with caffeine and the benefits of an eye cream, which is why it behaves so well under the eyes. The Tower 28 Swipe Serum Concealer is thinner, with hyaluronic acid and green tea, and is meant to be dotted on and patted in with a finger. The Victoria Beckham Beauty Concealer Pen, developed with Augustinus Bader, has a precise tip for the sides of the nose and the corners of the mouth. The Westman Atelier Vital Skincare Concealer is a cream-serum from the makeup artist Gucci Westman, the RMS UnCover-Up comes in a pot and needs only the tiniest amount, and the Sarah Creal Face Flex is designed to move with your expressions without creasing. For a single blemish, the Jillian Dempsey Spot Stick packs dense pigment into a small stick.

Apply concealer after your skin tint, only where you can still see something, and pat with your ring finger until the edges vanish.

What I would skip: a concealer much lighter than your skin under the eyes. It reads as a pale halo in daylight, so go one shade lighter at most.

Cream blush is the step that makes a face look awake. Picture her on a park bench in October, camel coat open over a cream turtleneck, golden leaves coming down, tapping pink cream onto her cheek with two fingers while a coffee cools beside her bag. That is the appeal of cream: it works without a brush, a big mirror or much thought.

The COUNTER Cheeky Clean Cream Blush comes in a compact, works on lips too and leaves a soft, dewy finish. The Kosas Impressionist Multistick is a stick for lips and cheeks that blends to a blurred finish, which makes it the easiest to use on the go. For warmth, the Sarah Creal Just Like Paradise is a cream bronzer with no shimmer, and the Westman Atelier Sun Tone Bronzing Crème pairs a lighter and a deeper shade in one compact. If you prefer liquid, the Hourglass Unreal Liquid Blush needs only a few drops, the Chanel Les Beiges Water-Fresh Blush is mostly water and very sheer, and the Saie Dew Blush is a buildable gel.

Smile, tap the color onto the highest point of each cheek and blend up toward the temple. Use bronzer only where the sun would hit: forehead, cheekbones and the bridge of the nose.

What I would skip: powder blush over a cream skin tint. It can go patchy, so keep the whole face in creams and gels.

Mascara and brows are the last thirty seconds before you leave, and they frame everything else. In this daydream she is at the round mirror by the front door in a chocolate brown coat, curls loose, keys in the dish and a tan tote at her feet, sweeping mascara through her upper lashes before she heads out.

The Kosas Soulgazer is lightweight and buildable with a curved brush, which suits a natural look. The Westman Atelier Eye Want You is transfer-proof and flake-free with an hourglass brush, and it is the one I would pick for sensitive eyes. The ILIA Limitless has a dual-sided brush, the short side for curling and the long side for length. For more drama, the Victoria Beckham Beauty Future Lash gives fanned-out, extension-like length, and the Sarah Creal Back Of The Cab is a tubing formula that stays glossy and soft.

For brows, the ILIA In Frame Brow Gel is clear with a tiny spoolie, the BOB BEAUTE Brow Gel is clear and flake-free, and the Kosas Air Brow is tinted in ten shades if your brows need a little more color.

Wiggle the wand at the root of the lashes, then pull it straight out to the tips. One coat is enough for an everyday makeup look.

What I would skip: brushing every brow hair straight up. Brush the front hairs up and the rest along their natural line.

Brown's whole idea began with lipstick that looked like lips, and the lip products here follow it. They are sheer, comfortable and easy to reapply without a mirror.

The ILIA Balmy Tint is a buttery tinted balm that leaves a sheer wash of color and doubles as a cheek flush in a pinch. The Augustinus Bader Tinted Lip Balm was designed with Sofia Coppola, who wanted the brand's clear balm with a wash of color. The Westman Atelier Hydrobalm Tinted Lipstick sits between a balm and a lipstick and feels cooling on, and Chanel's Rouge Coco Flash in Moment is a hydrating shine lipstick for days you want a little more. For gloss without stickiness, the Kosas Wet Lip Oil Gloss comes in three nudes, the Fara Homidi Soft Glass Lip Oil uses a peptide that plumps without the usual sting, and the Saie Glossybounce is a jojoba and coconut oil gloss with a flush of color. The Macrene Chria Tinted Lip Filler adds a plumping treatment to a sheer pink.

Hold a shade up to your bare lips in natural light. The easiest everyday shade is usually one step deeper than your own lip color, never lighter.

What I would skip: a long-wear liquid lipstick for every day. Without a mirror, a sheer balm is far easier to keep looking right.

An everyday makeup look should take ten minutes and last through a long day. Mine would be a skin tint or foundation stick warmed in with fingers, concealer only where it is needed, a cream blush tapped high on the cheeks, one coat of mascara, clear brow gel and a tinted balm. Keep the balm and the blush stick in your bag for the afternoon. Bobbi Brown built a company on lipstick that looked like lips, and the same idea still makes the most flattering face: your own, only a little fresher. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together Dior Forever Skin Correct Concealer and the Best Dior Makeup Around It and ICONIC London Makeup.