Whether we’ll be attending special events over the holidays or getting together with friends or family, knowing that we look our best can give us a wonderful boost of self-confidence. And the holidays are a perfect time to update or tweak our makeup routine and get tons of “you look great” compliments to boot.
So today I’ll share with you six pro makeup artist tips for mature skin that can help us upgrade our look to an even more beautiful version of ourselves.
Brows
If I want a quick and easy holiday makeup brow look, I’ll often use a product which contains built-in fibers like Elf’s Wow Brow, Benefit’s Gimme Brow or Merit Beauty’s Brow 1980 Volumizing Pomade. But to give a quick and easy Holiday upgrade to my brows, I always reach for my brow stencil which provides a handy guide that enables me to fill in my brows perfectly. This can be especially important for those of us whose brows resemble distant cousins rather than sisters.
Since my brows are quite scraggly, I first use my NYX Brow pencil to create an outline shape along the top and bottom and then use my ABH Brow Powder Duo to fill it in. You can certainly use whatever brow products work best for you. By the way, this ABH powder also comes in a dark gray shade, but if you’d like to see a wider option of grey eyeshadow colors and products, be sure to check out the beautiful grey eyebrow powders and pencils from Eye Embrace (use code Elise for 5% off).
After filling in my brows with pencil or powder, I’ll reach for my Maybelline Brow Fast Sculpt gel which I lightly apply over my white and grey brow hairs to transform them to their original brown color. If your brows have a mind of their own, it can help to apply a coat of Rare Beauty’s Brow Harmony Flexible Lifting Gel to lift the brow hairs and hold them in place. But it’s very important to let the Maybelline Brow Gel completely dry before applying the Rare Beauty product. If you’d like more help with your brows, be sure to check out the video below.
Eyes
Now, I know that since many of us have seen many changes in our eye area, it’s easy to go the route of just applying a quick coat of mascara. I certainly get that. But the quick and easy eye holiday makeup I’ll share with you today can absolutely transform our eyes – even if we have hooded, textured eyes as I do. And these are the only products we need: eye primer, a touch of powder, a very inexpensive $3.00 four pan eye shadow palette and mascara.
Most of us have redness, discoloration and sometimes veins that show through on our thinner eyelids. This is why I recommend a matte eye primer to cover that discoloration and make our eyes look bigger and brighter. It also prevents our eyeshadow from creasing or smudging. In today’s video I’m using Sigma’s matte eye primer in the shade “Ignite” since it comes in an easy to apply stick applicator.
My four-pan eyeshadow palette cost $3.00 and is by Elf. It’s their Bite Size Eyeshadow palette called “I Love You a Latte” which contains universally flattering neutral shades. To make your eyes look bigger, first apply the lightest shade on the eyelid and under the arch of your brows. Then combine the two midtone shades in the center of the palette and apply them in the crease and slightly above.
Apply it high enough so that when you look straight ahead in a mirror – with your eyes at rest – you can see the color. This is especially important if you have hooded eyes like I do. Applying these combined shadows above the crease enlarges the contour of your eyes so they look bigger.
If you’d like a little more emphasis on the eyes, lightly pat the darkest shade on the outer part of the lid and the crease. And the darkest shade in this great little palette works beautifully as eyeliner as well. Or, another option is to use a wonderfully easy eyeliner which glides across the eyelid and is specifically made for mature eyes like the ones from Revant (use code ELISE10 for 10% off) and Prime Prometics.
If you want just a touch more glamour, apply an eyeshadow with a bit of shimmer across the lids. A good one is from Elf’s Bite Size Eyeshadow palette called “Cream and Sugar.” Then finish the eyes with two coats of mascara.
Skin
Nothing says “gorgeous holiday look” more than beautiful glowing skin. I’ve tried many different highlighters over the years, but I’ve recently tried two products which I feel are real standouts for creating the most beautiful glowing skin. They’re both from Merit Beauty’s Great Skin line: their Great Skin Instant Glow Serum and their Great Skin Priming Moisturizer.
Shake up the glow serum so it mixes up well in the bottle. Then apply two pumps of it. This glow serum does take a bit of time to dry, but it’s important to let it thoroughly dry before applying the moisturizer. If you have oily skin, you’ll probably want to skip this product, but it’s fantastic for dry and combo skin. Then apply the Merit moisturizer.
Since I want a little more coverage than usual – but coverage that doesn’t look cakey or heavy – I’ll use KVD’s Good Apple Foundation. This foundation melts into the skin and it’s so lightweight that it almost feels like a serum rather than foundation. To help cover dark circles, I’ll first apply my Becca Under Eye Brightening Cream and then a touch of Kosas Concealer over it.
Blush
Although it may take weeks to see a real change with face cream, the power of blush is instantaneous. A subtle flush of color really makes our mature skin come alive – especially since our skin gets paler as we get older. But creating a lovely holiday makeup blush can be tricky because we certainly want to avoid the dreaded clown-like look of too much blush, but we also don’t want it to disappear quickly.
The two blushes which will stay in place beautifully are Patrick Ta’s Major Headlines Double Take Crème and Powder Blush Duo and Rare Beauty’s Liquid Pinch Blush. The Rare Beauty Liquid Blushes are highly pigmented, so to ensure that you don’t end up with blush that’s too strong, it’s best to put a dot on the back of the hand, then dip a brush in and swirl the brush around in the color to evenly distribute the blush onto the brush – and then apply. Then take the brush you used for foundation and tap it around the edges of the blush so there are no harsh lines.
Patrick Ta recommends applying his powder blush first and then the crème blush over it. Applying both a powder and a cream helps the blush last longer and applying the cream after the powder helps melt the powder into the skin so it looks like it’s coming from within the skin and also creates a little extra luminosity.
Lips
While neutral lip colors can look good, upgrading to a pinker, rosier or peachier color – depending on the undertone of our skin – can instantly bring energy, vibrancy and glam to our holiday makeup look. Because some of us also develop those pesky vertical lines around our lips, it’s helpful to apply a pore minimizing primer – like Benefit’s Porefessional Hydrating Primer – all around our lips with our lips spread open.
Then if you want to make your lips look slightly larger, use a light-colored brow pencil to outline just under the bottom lip. This creates a slight shadow which makes the lips look fuller. You could also use a powder bronzer with a small eyeshadow brush if you don’t have a light brow pencil.
The L’Oreal Age Perfect Lip Liner also has an ingredient to keep lipstick from feathering or migrating. I’ll combine several lipstick colors to create the color I want.
A beautiful finishing touch to our holiday makeup routine is to apply a light dusting of Hourglass’s beautiful Ambient Light Finishing Powder over the entire face. This makes an amazing, but subtle difference in the finished look of our makeup by melding all the colors and finishes together. And to keep everything in place longer, simply spray some setting spray onto a dampened makeup sponge and pat it over the entire face.
Also read, Secrets for Going from a Day to Evening Look Using Drugstore Makeup (VIDEO)
Let’s Have a Conversation:
Where are you planning to celebrate the holidays? What skincare or makeup products are your “go-tos” for creating a lovely Holiday look?
