I am SO excited for this week’s article!  To help demonstrate some fun and easy makeup ideas for the holiday season, I have enlisted my friend Nichole Malko to help out!  In addition to working for a leading cosmetic company, Nichole is a fantastic freelance makeup artist, and I knew her experience in the fashion industry would provide her with some great tips and tricks for us to apply in our daily lives.

Makeup is a necessary fashion accessory, requiring as much thought as your earrings or shoes when putting together your outfit.  For this post, Nichole is going to focus on four key points when creating your makeup: skin, eye liner, the bright lip, and eyebrows.

Skin:

 

Your skin is the foundation of your makeup.  Begin by using a concealer first on the areas of your skin you’d like to cover, blending it with a small concealer brush. Next, add a sheer tinted moisturizer over the skin in order to allow your healthy skin to show through and avoid a heavy look. To set the skin, Nichole suggests setting with a mineralized powder.

“Keep it hydrated!  Whether the finish is matte or dewy, make sure the skin is well prepped. Don’t go overboard with the moisturizer – over-hydrating does not look good - but prep the skin first, then apply foundations after you're done with your eye make up.“

“Allow the products to set only slightly before applying the next one.  If you don't, you're just going to be smearing stuff all over the place. By applying your concealers or foundations after your eye make up, you don't have to worry about your eye make up falling onto your perfected skin.”

Eyes:

 

Nicole explained to me that makeup artists (especially pros with a busy workload) like to use as little product as possible, and that you can get away with only using a few key tools and look fantastic.  A major trend right now is only using one color on your lids as opposed to multiple eye shadows. Since it’s the holidays, I suggest finishing with a slightly daring cat-eye with the eye liner!

“Keep it simple! The right tools and a two quality eye products are all someone needs to look amazing.  A good starting point is two shadows, or a shadow and a liner.  A great blending brush can make these staple products look multi-dimensional”

Lips:

 

I was eager to try a bold red lip (if you can’t wear a red lip during the holidays, when can you?), and Nichole gave me some great tips for making the color last for hours. This season’s hottest trend is a twist on the classic red lip, created by applying a orange lip liner under the red lipstick.

“With all the events around the holidays, longevity is key.  Color the whole lip in with a lip pencil so of that if the lipstick starts to slowly disappear throughout the day, the change won’t be nearly as noticeable. For a glossy lip, look for honey-like textures of lip gloss, as they wear longer. “

Brows:

 

While we were prepping to take the photos for this article, Nichole told me that without a doubt, the biggest trend this season is the thick defined eyebrow.  This may make you nervous, but the brow pencil isn’t permanent, so don’t be afraid to experiment a bit! The eyebrow is important for framing the face (and is often overlooked when we do our daily makeup) so try a heavier, thicker brow in the next few weeks.

“A defined brow is an absolute hit! And best of all, you really only need a nice brow pencil to pull it off, as applying with different pressures will give different effects. With your chin slightly raised, look down your nose at yourself in your mirror (this way you can see your full brow arch), and play around with different brow shapes until you land on something you love.  Sometimes what starts as a mistake turns out to look amazing!”

 

“Finally, remember that makeup is completely reversible.  If it doesn’t work in the end?  Wash it off and start again!”

 

 

Nichole’s Five Essential Tools for Makeup (and suggestions):