Forget an entourage of hairstylists and makeup artists to help her get ready in the morning, actress Gabrielle Union prefers to keep her day-to-day beauty routine minimal—to prioritize her beauty sleep! "I'm minimalist out of necessity," the star of BET's Being Mary Jane tells Us Weekly. "If it's between sleep and doing a full face of makeup, sleep is going to win. The way I schedule my life, I have about five minutes [to get ready]."
Despite her jam-packed schedule, Union makes the most of her precious morning minutes before heading off to set in Atlanta, where she's filming season 2 of Mary Jane, by focusing on the essentials. "Going from spring into summer, because our winter was sort of extended, I'm trying to even out my skin tone," the actress tells Us, adding that her beauty closet is stocked with Neutrogena products, including their Rapid Tone Repair line. "On my own time, I don't wear much—just mascara so I look awake, and lip gloss."
To enhance her natural beauty in the warm weather months, Union adopts a "done-undone" look for daytime, sticking to a muted palette of neutrals, along with false lashes—one of Union's staple products. "I'm kind of moving away from my go-to in the past—a cat-eye rim—and now it's just neutrals." To punch up her style for after-hours dining out with NBA fiance Dwayne Wade or attending red carpet events, Union swipes on a bright red lipstick and reaches for a liquid eye liner or pencil. "Whatever's not going to melt the fastest," she explains.
Looking ahead to her wedding later this year, Union tells Us she has crossed one major to-do off her big day checklist when it comes to her dress. "I definitely won't be rocking a veil, because I want everyone to see the pearly whites," Union—who swears by Philips Zoom's Teeth Whitening treatments and Sonicare's DiamondClean electric toothbrush—tells Us. "I'm lucky, because my dentist in Miami is getting married, too, so she's been giving me tips and making my smile is on-point—in case that last-ditch diet doesn't work!"
