7 Quick & Easy Holiday Looks
P&G Beauty challenged me to come up with seven different holiday looks/combinations, and here are the seven I came up with! I really went from a quick, easy, and on-the-go perspective. These are looks that can start off work appropriate and then changed up in the evening by adding drama in select ways.
A Few Tips & Tricks
- FIND A WAY TO SPARKLE! Whether it’s your hair, lips, eyes, or skin, shimmer, sparkle, glitter, and the like are often on hand for holiday parties.
- QUICK STEPS FOR DRAMATIC CHANGE include swapping out eyeliner, adding liquid eyeliner, going for a darker/bolder lip color, putting hair up (or letting it down), and changing clothes/accessories. You can easily wear something casual, and then put on a dressier top and red lip, and you’ll look polished and elegant in minutes.
- RE-HYDRATE: After all the blow drying, styling, and products, I followed up with Aussie Moist 3 Minute Miracle Deeeeep Conditioner (which I’ve given two Editor’s Choice Awards for best conditioner before here, because it’s such a great hydrator for hair).
- COLORED HAIR? Temporary hair color is best used the day before an event, while semi-permanent hair color, such as Clairol Natural Instincts, can be used a few days prior to your big holiday party. Permanent hair color can be done a couple of weeks prior. Remember, if you’re trying a brand new hair color, you may want to test-drive it a few days to a week before any big events!
Makeup & Beauty Tips on How to Choose the Perfect Red Lipstick
Share your best tips and tricks for choosing the right red lipstick! Feel free to share your first experiences, how you’ve grown, what you’ve learned, and what, ultimately, you found most helpful in learning how to choose the right red. (And if you haven’t conquered it, hopefully some of these tips will help you get there!)
Temptalia’s Tips
- Deeper, darker reds are always more universally wearable than brighter reds.
- Naturally, warm-toned reds (those that are orange-based) tend to be more flattering against warmer complexions, while cool-toned reds (those are that are blue-based, and often, those that look pink when sheered out) tend to be more flattering against cooler complexions. Cooler-toned reds are more universally wearable than warm-toned reds.
- Look for a formula that isn’t too creamy, thick, or “feels” like a balm or gloss, as these formulas are more prone to bleeding. (They can, of course, be nice and wearable, but they might take more work to apply/prep for.)
Makeup & Beauty Tips on How to Apply Blush
Share your best tips and tricks for getting the perfect blush application! Feel free to share your first experiences, how you’ve grown, what you’ve learned, and what, ultimately, you found most helpful in learning how to apply your blush. (And if you haven’t conquered it, hopefully some of these tips will help you get there!)
Temptalia’s Tips
- A good tool goes a long way, because it helps you place the color right and then blend it out so it isn’t a giant blotch of color on your face! I like dome-shaped blush brushes with soft, not too densely-packed but not too fluffy, bristles.
- Apply less than you think you’ll need; it is always easier to amp up blush color than it is to diffuse it.
- If you’ve over-applied your color or it doesn’t want to blend/soften, take a loose powder (similar to your skin tone, if possible) with another brush and apply it over the areas you want it to look more diffused. Sometimes I’ll take the brush I used for my foundation (which is usually liquid) to soften the edges.
By Renee Rouleau, Skincare Expert & Esthetician
Renée Rouleau has been helping men, women, & teens attain healthy, glowing, beautiful skin for more than 20 years. Her philosophy is simple: With the proper tools, effective products, & a disciplined approach, anyone can have great skin. You can find more advice on her blog!
Your best accessory during the holiday is glowing skin – it can make you look ethereal, radiant and simply ravishing. Unfortunately, with the holidays in full swing, sometimes our glow gets a little less glowy. Here are my tips on how to keep skin looking its best, even as you may jet from party to party, city to city or country to country celebrating the season and ringing in the New Year!
Exfoliate. Exfoliation is considered one of the most important techniques that you can perform on your skin to resolve certain skin problems as well as to achieve healthy and glowing skin.
- Take the exfoliating test. Start off with a simple test to determine if you have surface dry skin cells on your skin that need to be exfoliated. A quick and easy test is to take a piece of clear tape and apply it to the forehead. Rub it gently and remove. Look at the tape, and if there are little pieces of flaky skin, then you need to exfoliate!
- Use a gentle face scrub or mild acid serum. I recommend using products that feature round beads or an acid exfoliator using lactic, glycolic or salicylic acid. Just keep in mind that the goal with your skin is to exfoliate as much as possible, with minimal irritation. The skin likes little boosts but not on an everyday basis!
Rev up your circulation. When the skin ages, less oxygen and nutrients are being delivered to the skin. For example, by the time you are 75 years old, you have about 50% less blood vessels in your face, so with less vessels, it means less blood is flowing to the skin leading to skin fading, lacking the glow and looking fairly washed out. It’s so important to focus on keeping good circulation in the skin so nutrient-rich blood can deliver what it needs to the skin to keep it glowing.
- Massage in your moisturizer. When applying your moisturizer, massage into the skin using firm circular motions to help increase blood flow. Another trick is immediately after applying moisturizer at night, close your hand to make a fist and use your knuckles to massage the skin in small circular motions for two minutes. This helps to gently stimulate blood flow to the skin to bring new nutrients to the skin cells—and a glow!
- Try incorporating products containing vasodilators. This includes ingredients such as peppermint and ginseng which work to give the skin a pick-me-up! When applied topically to the skin, these ingredients work to dilate the blood vessels, therefore, allowing the skin to accommodate more nutrient-rich blood. With continued use, you can get skin that glows!
Additional tips! Continue reading →
Makeup & Beauty Tips on How to Apply Matte Eyeshadow
Share your best tips and tricks for applying matte eyeshadow! Feel free to share your first experiences, how you’ve grown, what you’ve learned, and what, ultimately, you found most helpful in learning how to apply matte eyeshadow. (And if you haven’t conquered it, hopefully some of these tips will help you get there!)
Temptalia’s Tips
- Softer mattes can often be powdery and easily blended out – but sometimes they will blend to nothing all too soon! After you grab the color with your brush, lightly tap the brush handle against your forearm; this will help loosen any excess powder before you apply it to your lid. Then, pat, rather than sweep, the eyeshadow onto the lid, exactly where you want it.
- When using multiple matte shades together, I prefer to apply them first, then blend after I’ve determined where each shade is going.
- For firmer, stiffer matte textures, use a fluffy brush and lightly stab at the eyeshadow to loosen the color, and then grab the color and apply. Use very fluffy brushes to blend out these stiffer textures, too.
Makeup & Beauty Tips on How to Apply Gel Eyeliner
Share your best tips and tricks for applying gel eyeliner! Feel free to share your first experiences, how you’ve grown, what you’ve learned, and what, ultimately, you found most helpful in learning how to apply gel eyeliner. (And if you haven’t conquered it, hopefully some of these tips will help you get there!)
Temptalia’s Tips
- The applicator is important! My preference is for a very thin, angled brush (I like MAC’s 208) The thinner brush allows me to do both thin and thicker lines.
- Look up to see how close the eyeliner is to your lash line, because ultimately, you want to the eyeliner to get between the lashes, too, for a very solid, crisp line.
- If your hands are unsteady, try stabilizing yourself by resting your elbow on a flat surface.
