Christmas and New Years are both right around the corner, meaning it is officially party season. Whether it be for a work Christmas party or for your big New Years Eve celebration, Celebrity Makeup Artist Michael Brown has got two simple and classy five-step makeup looks for any event this festive season.
Sheer Class
Let’s start with a basic dressy look, one suitable for all types of evening events and even an early afternoon function that could go onto the evening. This look is especially good if you are a more simple office makeup gal, but just want to enhance your features, without going over the top.
Image via Pinterest
1. This look doesn’t require a heavy foundation; it is fresh and non-mask like. I would use a BB cream and apply with my fingertips, almost in a massaging application to really bond the BB with the skin.
2. A slight contour is great for any look, it will help lift the face.
Using an angled brush if possible, apply a little bronzer under your cheekbones – starting from hairline and sweeping downwards, hugging the cheekbone to a lift around the apple of the cheek, this will give a little sculpting to the face.
I am a big believer of a little contour shade (being the bronzer) applied across the eyelid, especially in the eye socket – which for some of us can be a little weak in the skin department. This gives shape and re-focuses your attention to other needs in the eye area with makeup.
3. If dark eyes are not your thing, this look is great as it is only concentrating on the outer areas, not an entire socket. I would use a soft kohl eyeliner and line ¾ quarters of the top eye line – more pigment at the outer than inner – and then only ¼ of the outer lower lash line.
Grab a little brush and smudge/smooth out the liner, making it into a smokey look, keeping that shape of outer depth, not inner.
The depth is then up to you as you can add more liner to create stronger pigment, but the kohl pencil smudges, act like shadow.
4. Add a highlight shade on the eyes – champagne or a creamy sheen works best with more skin tones than going to silver – keeping the pigment concentrated into the tear duct area and then fading across the eyelid, meeting the deeper pencil that has been smudged. Yes, applying the dark tones first then light usually works best for a more blended approach.
Add some mascara, brush up your brows and your eyes are done!
5. Your lip shade can vary in colour, but red is just so festive. Don’t forget that a blue based, blood red works best on olive, yellow and skin tones with less pink present (check out my guide to finding the perfect lip colour here). If you have a lot of redness, or in general are just a pale pink-based skin, or are sporting blonde locks, try a summery red; an orange-based red will work best.
MB PRO TIP: To keep the Sheer Class theme, try dabbing the lip colour with your fingertip, this will create a stain for lasting power, but also a lighter effect than ‘painting’ the colour on with a brush, which gives a more solid pigment.
Top of The Class
Now it’s time to step it up for those that are more comfortable wearing a little more makeup, but still safe enough to be in the company of work colleagues! This does not mean we grab the most sparkly, shimmery eye shadow we have and pass it off as a party makeup. In fact, for most of us with a heavy, or a puffy lid through our eye socket, that’s the last thing you should be doing.
Top of the Class is for the gal that loves a dark eye. But lets get a little festive with a metallic pop on the eyelid as going all dark can be the ‘too much’ comment you don’t want from colleagues.
Image via Pinterest
1. Foundation or BB cream is applied, depending on the coverage you desire. Don’t think though that because you are wearing heavier eye makeup, that you need to then apply a heavier foundation base, this can just make the skin look cake-y, or aged in some cases. Skin should always be the freshest it can be at all times, regardless of the eye makeup you are sporting.
MB PRO TIP: Start application in the centre of the face, sweeping outwards for a sheer foundation finish every time.
2. Contouring under the cheekbone and eye socket for me is standard for every makeup I do! See application in Sheer Class step 2.
3. These eyes require a little more shading with your kohl pencil as your base, and even adding a darker tone shadow on top to lock in pigment. Rather than just a ¾ top lash line, apply all the way and smudge up with a brush and try taking the smudged pigment up and into the eye socket.
Apply a deeper shadow tone to match – greys, granite and charcoal are the most popular party tones to use at this time of year – and press into the smudged liner pigment to create an all over smokey eye.
Add a winged shadow, but only if your brow naturally lifts in that shape also, otherwise it won’t look balanced and be too placed – no one wants to look like they have tried too hard.
4. Once your smokey eye base has been created or even the winged eye shadow look, (nothing to high past the socket line though), place a colour of choice, ‘pop colour’, in a metallic finish on the mobile lid, so this lifts the depth, but also adds a little festive fun to your look.
MB PRO TIP: Choose a shade that is opposite to your eye colour and one that compliments your outfit, or the party theme – this will give a new focus as this look is all about the sultry eyes, rather than look 1 was about the lips!
5. Last bit not least, go fresh with the lips nothing to deep or bright so your look has class, not the street corner alternatives. Keep one focus, so your look is balanced and fresh.
When choosing a nude tone, add warmth to pale skins and then a little more colour when you have darker features – just like the lovely ladies above.
With either of these two party makeup looks, either one suiting your personality and makeup style, you will rock and not be mocked this festive season!
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