When I lived in London during my junior year of college, there was a bar that my girlfriends and I used to go to called - I think - Peppermint Park. Or something like that.

This place was not even a tiny bit cool: it served neon, flaming drinks that created hangovers practically before they were drunk (and served them with zero sense of irony), had low ceilings and balloons and streamers tossed around, was populated solely by us and a handful of creepy businessmen-types clustered around the bar, and played all-'80s, all-the-time. "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", "Walk Like An Egyptian", "Should I Stay Or Should I Go"…you get the idea.

It was - and might still be, a decade or so later - my favorite bar on the planet. Because when I'm going out for a night of dancing, I'm not interested in being cool; I'm interested in doing my best Kevin-Bacon-in-Footloose impression while wearing, like, knee socks or something.

This makeup is sort of like that bar.

I do not especially love cleaning…but I love Spring Cleaning. Mostly because you can apply the idea way beyond the reaches of your rugs: Spring is a great time to chop off a few inches of hair, brighten up your color, streamline your wardrobe to highlight those pieces you really do wear, and whittle down your beauty products to the bare necessities. I’m not saying to throw your teal liquid liner and bold red lipstick in the trash – not at all – but rather to take a look at your everyday morning routine and see if anything can be taken away…because one thing the past couple of years have taught me is that when it comes to IRL makeup (as opposed to the kind of makeup you’d wear for, say, a major event, for a big night out, or for photographs), less can sometimes be more.

Take my skincare routine, for example: since I write about beauty and try to take lots of different products for a test-run for comparison’s sake I have a pretty cluttered vanity…but lately I’m trying to be extra-careful about the ingredients in the things I’m putting on my face, so I’ve cut my routine down to the basics: face wash (right now it’s Simple Skincare Moisturizing Facial Wash, because I’m feeling dry in the wake of a cold), moisturizer with SPF in the morning (the Protecting Light Moisturizer), and a slightly richer moisturizer in the evening (Nourishing 24 Hour Day/Night Cream). That’s it. (Incidentally, for those of you who are expecting and want to make sure your skincare products don’t include anything that’s potentially unsafe for pregnant women, Simple is a great choice – no additives, fragrances, or anything that might cause an adverse reaction in sensitive skin.)

For this post, I went for a super-fresh look with soft color: an almost-bare face (just a little blush and concealer where I need it) with lengthening mascara (I curled my eyelashes first) and berry gloss to brighten things up. Simple, sweet, springy.