Beauty + Health

5 Ways to get your Holiday Makeup to Stay + Tutorial

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As the holidays grow closer and my Christmas music plays all day (seriously, I have not stopped playing it and I think Dustin is already annoyed, but who cares?!) I have been started thinking about Holiday Party looks. Last year was the first year Dustin and I went to a huge black tie holiday party for his old work and as we were getting ready in our hotel room, I realized I had no idea how to apply my makeup for a long evening of dinner, talking and dancing. It was clearly evident by the time we got back 5 hours later; my eyeliner was smudged all along my eyes, I had glitter EVERYWHERE and my the false eyelashes on my left eye were falling off. Talk about embarrassing! Since that night, I vowed to find ways to make my makeup last during events like those because I never want to deal with that again!

That night was literally the turning point for me and my relationship with makeup. I have always loved it, but I never really knew much about the application process besides patting some eyeshadow on my eyes. I loved how putting on makeup helped me take the time to appreciate my body and how creative I could be when applying it, but that’s as far as I had gotten. I knew I needed to learn how to apply it better so I wouldn’t have any makeup meltdowns at big work holiday parties because #thatsembaressing.

So, I’m sharing some of the tips I’ve learned since that fateful party last year to help make your makeup last throughout the day or night with a holiday party look to get your creative juices going. A lot of my friends tell me that they are intimidated by makeup, so I tried to keep this look simple and classy so that even those who are new to makeup can try it. I also used products from one of my favorite drugstore brands, so this look is easy on the wallet as well!

Here’s the thing about makeup: There are no rules to it at all; you can rock whatever shade of lipstick you want. You can wear fake lashes or you can wear bright pink blush or you can wear green eyeshadow. As long as you feel confident and awesome, rock the heck out of it. Makeup is an extension of your ability to express yourself, so don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. But, there are some rules to follow when it comes to how to set your makeup to make sure whatever look you create lasts all night. Here are mine:

Here’s how to get this holiday look and my tips to make sure you get your makeup to stay all night long:

1. I first primed my face and then followed with an eye primer from Milani.

Party Makeup Tip One : Use an eyeshadow primer to prevent creasing and to help your eyeshadow stick. I know that eyeshadow primer tends to be a high-end makeup product, but Milani makes a great and affordable one that works just as well! It provides 8 hours of crease-free eyeshadow and helps the eyeshadow stick to your skin, so it won’t go fading or creasing away by the end of the night.

2. I buffed in a cool tone brown into the crease of my eye and then patted a metallic silver shadow all over my lid. I then deepened the outer crease with a darker cool tone brown to smoke it out.

Party Makeup Tip Two: Apply your eyeshadows before you apply your face makeup. By applying your shimmery holiday eyeshadows first, you won’t have to worry about fall out on your face makeup and trying to wipe it off.

3. I applied my foundation and buffed it out. Then, I went in with my concealer and created triangles under my eyes and buffed that out. Finally, I set it all with translucent powder.

Party Makeup Tip Three: Set your foundation with a translucent powder. After applying your foundation (and for events, I would recommend using a liquid foundation that has medium to full coverage), lightly brush a translucent powder all over your face. Do this BEFORE you put on your bronzer or blush. Using a translucent powder will prevent your face from looking cakey, but it will help make sure your foundation doesn’t crease or come off during your party. And, using the powder before the rest of your face products will help your bronzer and blush apply more even and smooth to your skin.

4. BROW time! I first drew out my brows and filled them in with Milani’s gel pomade and then set those suckers with a gel to make sure they would stay put!

Party Makeup Tip Four: Use a pomade over a pencil for your eyebrows. Using a more gel-like product for your eyebrows will ensure that your brows will stay bold and full during the night. Once again, Milani comes through with an affordable brow product with their Stay Put Brow. Top it off with some of their brow gel (my favorite brow gel of ALL time) and your brows will not move all night long. I have even taken naps with this combination of brow products and wake up a couple hours later with my brows still perfectly in place!

5. After my brows were on, I went back in with my Milani Kohl Kajal  liner and lined my upper water line and tight-lined my lashes. This basically means that I smuged my liner all into my lashes, not above them. This darkens up the lash line for the falsies I want to wear. If you want to add more drama to your look, you can line the top of your lid with a gel liner, lik the Milani Fierce Foil Liner. I was really excited about the Milani Kohl Kajal liner because I feel like I finally found a drugstore kohl that went on super smooth on my water line, and didn’t fade or smuge off. I’m seriously impressed and highly recommend it.

6. I smoked out my bottom lash line by blending some of the dark brown shadow under my lashes.

7. I warmed my face up with one of my favorite drugstore bronzers (which happens to be from Milani) and then I put Milani’s blush in Tea Rose on my cheeks. I picked up Tea Rose in Vegas last week because the CVS we stopped at was having a 40% sale off Milani and I literally have not stopped wearing it since. It’s such a beautiful color on the skin that gives a great glow to the cheeks. It’s important to pick a more natural blush for holiday parties because you don’t want your cheeks to get too red if you are dancing the night away.

8. I added a little bit of Milani’s Luminoso (basically the blush sent from the makeup gods) on the very tops of my cheek bones to give a little bit of a highlight and called it a day with the face!

9. I added some mascara to my lashes and popped on my favorite pair of falsies because why the heck not?! It’s party time!

9. Lip time! I feel like the go-to for a holiday party is a bold red lip, but I wanted to do something a little different. I picked out Milani’s Blushing Beauty because it’s just as bright as a red without it being as bold. And, I think the color is still perfect for a holiday party! Also, this was my first time trying out Milani’s lipstick and I promptly bought 3 more colors when I was in Vegas because I love them that much. They are so moisturizing and have great color payoff!

Party Makeup Tip Five–Line and fill your lips with a lip liner before topping with a lipstick color. By lining your lips with a lip liner, you are creating a barrier for your lipstick to stay in and creating a smooth surface for the lipstick to be applied on top of. This will not only prolong your lipstick, but help it fade more beautifully and natural throughout the night because you will have a color base underneath it.

Ta-da! A holiday party look that will stay all night!

You’ve seen several Milani products appear in my In & Out/Favs & Fails posts before, so it was really fun to feature so many of their products in this tutorial. I really and truly love the Milani brand because they are really high quality and affordable! I find myself reaching for my Milani blushes and lipsticks over my high-end stuff all of the time. If you want to recreate this look, you can snag all of Milani’s products at your local CVS. Milani products are usually in an end cap or it’s own display and not on the main cosmetics wall; so you may have to look a little harder to find them, but it will be worth the search!

I hope this helps you prepare for your holiday parties in the coming month! Have you tried any Milani Products? (If not, you have to get your hands on Luminoso) What’s your favorite from them?

 

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