Makeup To Look Your Best During Holidays
The holiday season is here, and with it come all the parties of the season, from office holiday parties to New Year's Eve bashes. And just as important as your outfit for each soiree you're hitting is your makeup!
On The Early Show Monday, celebrity makeup artist Sonia Kashuk showed three festive, seasonal makeup "looks" for this holiday season.
She says the holidays are the perfect time to experiment and try out new looks, whether it's a different color on your lips or a new look on your eyes.
The key, Kashkuk says, no matter what look you're going for, is balance.
"Your face basically has three areas to emphasize," she explains, "eyes, lips, and cheeks. You never want to be full-tilt in all three areas at once. In general, when you wear a strong lip color, it's best to keep the rest of the face soft. Strong mouth, soft eye. Strong eye, soft mouth.
Remember, though, no matter what you do, have fun with your makeup!"
LOOK No. 1: POWER OF THE POUT
One of the hottest looks this season is a strong mouth in a deep, rich Bordeaux. The key, if you're going for this look, is to keep the rest of the face played down to really play up the lip. Eyes are swept with an aborigine powder to give an all-over monochromatic look and really let the lips stand out. Cheeks are splashed with a similar tone to blend in, too.
To achieve a sexy mouth that lasts through an entire evening, line and fill the entire lip with lip pencil. Filling in with pencil gives you an even layer of color across the lips and offers much longer wear. After filling in, take your lip brush and go over the entire lip to make sure color is evenly placed. Then add a dusting of powder directly over the pencil (or put a tissue over the lips and dust over that) to really set the color. Experiment with lip colors such as brick red, bordeaux, or other bold reds. Try sheer gloss for a subdued shimmer; for the more adventurous, try a lip color that offers fuller cover.
LOOK No. 2: "SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES"
This look is all about the evergreen smoldering, sexy look: the smokey eye. When doing a smokey eye, Kashuk suggests that you make your lips very pale, so the eyes really pop. To create the look, get a "quad" of eye shadows designed specifically for smokey eyes (there are typically three or four colors in the same family group that work and layer well together). On the model on The Early Show, Kashuk used rich metallic shades of bronze, steel, navy and aborigine. (You can use whatever colors you like or work best on your skin tone.)
To start, take a soft eye shadow brush and fill the entire area with the lightest color in the quad. Line your bottom eyelid with an eye pencil, and blend liner with a Q-tip, creating a smudge instead of a harsh line. Next, brush the middle shade right along your brow bone, blending down into your eyelid. Blend the darker color into the crease and onto the top of your eyelid. Line upper lid with the darkest shadow in the quad, or with eye pencil or liquid liner, and apply mascara (or if you want a really bold look, go all out and put on a set of false lashes).
LOOK No. 3: "GOLDEN GODDESS"
A soft, golden glow is the perfect look to complement the festive lights of the season. Warm hues such as gingerbread, champagne, pumpkin and copper spice up any look and offer a "just-back-from-the-tropics" flush — not bad for those of us who haven't seen the sun since Labor Day.
Kashuk's favorite way to achieve this look is to play up the eyes and leave cheeks and lips radiant with natural-looking shimmer. A dark shade of brown pencil goes along the lash line, blended with a smudge brush. Then the eyelid gets a coppery brown or bronze shadow. Finish with a bit of light golden shimmer shadow where the inner corners of the eyes meet the nose to brighten and open up the entire face, and apply false lashes for the extra pop for that holiday face. Keep lips soft with sheer colors in the same family — sienna, champagne, even a sheer red — to add healthy color that won't compete with the eyes for attention. Finish with a bronzer or a warm peachy blush on the apples of the cheeks for that skin-kissed look. If you want more color, add a light dusting of bronzer or blush at the temples and on the chin.
Be careful not to overdo it — you want people to notice you and not your makeup!