New Year’s Makeup Inspiration

Hey guys! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas with all of your favorite people, traditions, and food. 🙂

Now that Christmas has come and gone, next up is New Year’s! I love the promise of new beginnings that a new year brings, and I love me some holiday makeup! I’m especially excited to celebrate New Year’s Eve this year, as Ryan and I will ring in our 1st new year married (and we will be in New Orleans in preparation for the next day’s Sugar Bowl, Go Bucks!) I like to pump up my holiday makeup beyond my everyday routine, but oh, the choices! Here are a few ideas I’m deciding between, and some good holiday makeup inspiration for you ladies heading out for New Year’s Eve (or if you just feel like glamming up to watch the ball drop at home, I like your style!), along with product suggestions to nail these looks! For many more ideas, be sure to check out my Pinterest page, it’s chock full of makeup!

BOLD LIP

If you enjoy makeup as a hobby, then you undoubtedly know that right now it’s all about the lip. Lipstick that is. New Year’s is a great time to key in to this trend and rock that red lip! If you decide to go with a bold lip, you want to balance the rest of the makeup so that it isn’t competing for your pout’s attention. My favorite way to wear a red lip is with a natural eye and perfected skin. Since we’re talking holiday makeup, I pump up the shimmer a little more than I would everyday.

Products to achieve this look (clockwise):

Whenever I have decided on a feature I’m going to focus on, I always complete that part of the makeup first. I know, unconventional, but when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. If you start with your focus feature, it helps you to build around that feature instead of building the feature around the secondary features. With that said I would start with Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tar in Black Dahlia to get the berry lip look  in the picture above left.

If you prefer the red lip on the right worn so beautifully by Leighton Meester, start with NYX Cosmetics Simply Red Lip Cream in Russian Roulette, a classic red lip hue.

M.A.C. Nightmoth lip pencil  is a great pairing with the lip tar, or use it to deepen the red lip cream.

L’oréal Studio Secrets Professional Magic Perfecting Base is a MUST for faking perfect skin. Even without foundation, your skin looks like you’re adding an Instagram filter as you smooth it on. I would use this, along with the next 3 products in all of the looks I show here.

Anastasia Brow Powder Duo is a great way to fill in over tweezed brows, as well as give a polished shape to full brows. I’m a big advocate of filling in the brows, it gives the face a perfect frame and finished look.

M.A.C. Mineralize Moisture SPF 15 Foundation is a beautiful foundation for a dewy finish on the skin. Beautiful glow with medium coverage, and moisture providing for a cold New Year’s evening (let’s cross our fingers for NOT on that!)

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette gives you contour, highlight and a little color in one palette. Obsessed with this! It looks as if you’re carrying around a candle above your head to provide the perfect warm glow and shadow for your contour.

Stila Kitten eye shadow is the perfect sweep of champagne across the lid to bring glisten to the eye without competing with the lip.

L’oréal Voluminous Million Lashes Mascara gives a lovely lush fringe to the lashes.

Benefit They’re Real Push-Up Liner is amazing! It’s like liquid liner made for the over-caffeinated, meaning it’s hard to mess up even if you’re a makeup novice. Keep it close to the lash line to fake the look of a super plush lash base.

SMOKY EYE

The smoky eye is always a no-fail to glamify your holiday makeup. Like we did with the bold lip, when you go for a bold statement with your eye makeup, it’s best to balance it with a softer nude lip to keep your eyes as the focus.

Start with the eyes for this gorgeous smoky eye look. Starting with the eyes will also aid in clean up so you don’t ruin your face makeup if you get any shadow fall out from the deep colors. First

Products to achieve this look:

Blend M.A.C. Painterly Prolongwear Paint Pot from lash to brow with your finger. This a perfect eye shadow for everyday, but doubles as a great primer. It’s a skin-tone shade for lighter skin tones like me so it keeps the color of anything layered on top of it true, and it will wear through the night. For deeper skin tones, try the paint pot in Groundwork or Layin’ Low.

M.A.C. Embark eye shadow is a beautiful deep warm clay brown, blend this all over the lid with a fluffy blending brush, concentrating the most color on the lash line to blend in with the eyeliner.

M.A.C. Saddle eye shadow is a great “transition” color, blend this in to the crease with your fluffy brush to soften the sharp line of the lid color and ease in to the Painterly which will act as your brow highlight. You’re looking for a sunset blend of colors, ombré if you will.

Lightly dab M.A.C. All That Glitters eye shadow in the inner corners of your eyes with a pencil brush.

L’oréal Nude Ballet Liquid Lipstick is a great nude lip color to keep the focus on your smoky eye.

Benefit They’re Real Mascara is an amazing mascara for major drama. A couple of coats will leave you with lashes that people will not even believe are real when you tell them (they WILL ask!).

Urban Decay Perversion 24/7 eye pencil will bring the smoke to the smoky. Line your upper and lower lash line with this BEFORE applying eye shadow. Lining before will help blend the liner into the lid color. The gradual blend of color intensity is what makes the eye smoky, not the actual eye shadow colors.

“NATURAL” LOOK

This “natural” look gives a balance of a softer eye and lip, along with perfected, glowing skin.

Products to achieve this look:

M.A.C. Jest eye shadow is a perfect mid-tone peach to sweep over the lid for shimmer and a hint of color.

To elongate the eye like the picture, try small pieces of Sephora Fringe Benefits false lashes to only the outer corners of the lash line.

M.A.C. Black Brilliance Fluidline pencil glides flawlessly (no skipping!) across the lash line and will hide the seam of the false lashes (or any excess lash glue). To continue with the elongation thicken the line a little more on the outer corner of your eyes.

Buxom Katie lip polish is a perfect shimmery pink/peachy nude lip gloss.

M.A.C. Petal Powder blush gives a beautiful glow without being too sparkly. I wore this blush for my wedding and it is my all time favorite!

What do you think of these looks? What style of makeup do you like to do for New Year’s?  I’d love for you guys to send me pics, I love getting inspiration from other beautiful makeup looks!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! 🙂