‘Tis the season to be bedecked and bedazzled. ‘Tis the time for glitter and glam.
‘Tis the holiday for shimmer and shine. That doesn’t just describe your favorite cocktail attire or LBD. It includes your holiday makeup too.
Just as women finally mastered the art of contouring–makeup hacks that visually “sculpt” your face with products two shades lighter and darker than your skin tone to make your features either pop or recede as desired–it’s out with the old and in with the new.
The au courant makeup craze that’s rocking the red carpet just in time for the holidays is “strobing,” which refers to makeup that highlights areas of your face that light would naturally hit: your cheekbones, brow bones, center forehead, the center of your nose and chin.
The result is a dewy, radiant, fresh and healthy look that appears to glow. And that’s just what you want for your best holiday party look: a natural, youthful glow. Think moonlight magic. Think candlelight. Think young but not restless.
Strobing
First, as if creating a youthful glow isn’t enough, why is strobing popular with the likes of Motives Cosmetics spokespersons the Kardashians, La La Anthony and JLo? It definitely brightens your skin by adding luminosity. Well-placed shimmer catches light, casting a flattering glow onto even the dullest complexions. It’s the makeup equivalent of drinking one-a-day kale smoothies.
Secondly, it visually changes your bone structure without having to undergo drastic medical measures. Playing with light is easier than playing with shadows, which is what the passé “contouring” is all about.
Thirdly, it’s less expensive than injecting artificial fillers such as Restylane or Juvederm.
Highlighting How-Tos
Just how do you go about getting the right shimmer-and-shine look to make your season brighter?
1. Exfoliate
The secret to beautiful skin isn’t your makeup; it’s a clean, fresh face. To ensure that your complexion is winterized, remove dry flaky skin with an exfoliator.
I love my Motives Timeless Prescriptions Exfoliating Cleanser. Or you can make a simple scrub in your kitchen using olive oil and brown sugar or simply adding 1/2 teaspoon of sugar to your facial cleanser. After gentle scrubbing your face, rinse it with a wet washcloth, which also acts as a natural exfoliator.
2. Prep your skin
Use a hydrating moisturizer. Like most women, I have combination oily/dry skin so I use Cellular Laboratories De-Aging Moisturizing Day Cream. It’s like putting a lightly whipped cream on your face that feels fabulous.
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3. Find the right highlighter shade
To avoid that frosted ’90s look, make sure you use the right shade illuminator for your skin tone. In general, it should be several shades lighter than your skin tone. For fair skin, use champagne or peachy tones. For light to medium skin, choose pink champagne hues. To gild medium or olive skin, opt for golden colors. Darker skin tones call for coppery hues.
4. Highlight only spots that catch light
This includes your cheekbones, temples, the bridge of your nose, below the brow bone, in the corners of your eyes, above your Cupid’s bow and on your chin.
Make sure you don’t apply highlighter all over your face or you will literally look like a hot mess. If you have oily skin, skip areas like your forehead or chin, which may have their own natural shine. Instead, use a matte bronzer and blush for your makeup base so that the only shimmer you sport is in your highlighter.
The Eyes Have It
With the basics taken care of, are you ready to rock that red-carpet strobed look? How to go about it?
Let’s start with your eyes. With a small brush, place a neutral-tone eye base on your lids to smooth out the creases and provide a good foundation for your eye shadow. I love my Motives Eye Base. I swear it makes me look 10 years younger, and my clients tell me they get so many compliments when they use it under their eye shadow.
With your eye base in place, use a tiny makeup brush to paint a shimmery shadow highlighter in a sideways V-shape (> and <) at the inner corners of your eyes to open them up. You also want to highlight just under your brows. (If you were to divide your brows into thirds, place the highlighter at the farthest third from your nose.)
Don’t forget to add highlighter to the area between your brows to give you that “in the spotlight” look.
Perfect Pout
Highlight your luscious lips by adding a smidge of highlighter onto the Cupid’s bow of your lips. You can also add a stripe of highlighter to the center of your chin under your bottom lip for emphasis. Then add gloss to the center of your bottom lip to give the impression of fullness.
Get Cheeky
Make your cheekbones pop with a pearlized highlighter. How? First smile, then place a drop of highlighter onto the top outer edge of the apples of your cheeks. Just remember that if you highlight your cheekbones, only opt for one other area to highlight. In other words, you can choose shimmer on the décolletage and cheeks, or the cheeks, nose and eyes but not the décolletage. When it comes to shimmer, choose two; don’t overdo.
Nose Job
If you like the thought of a Roman-esque holiday nose, use a sharp brush to draw a line down the center of your nose. Then blend into your foundation.
Viola! Wham. Bam. You’re glam.
You’re luminescent, radiant and ready to enjoy the holiday party circuit in style. You glow, girl.
**All award-winning Motives makeup mentioned here can be ordered on my home page at www.llstylestudio.com. Simply go to the bottom right hand side of the page under “and more” and click on Motives.com.