Ho Ho Holidays!

The holidays are finally here!! Good food, drinks and most important--the parties!
This is the time girls everywhere are pulling out all the stops with the glitter dresses, the extravagant hairdo's and the beautiful make-up. This is truly the most wonderful time of the year!
It's the best time to go big. Be daring. This is the time of year where red lipstick is the norm. Lots of people love the look, but can't pull it off for many reasons--they don't have the right shade, they don't have the right preparation, and they don't have the right tools.
It's a process. If you 're going to do a dramatic lip you want it to be the center of attention. It has to look perfect. Here's what I've found to be the best way:

Step 1 begins in the shower. Exfoliate your skin and most importantly exfoliate your lips. You can do this easily with your toothbrush or a homemade scrub consisting of honey and brown sugar.

Step 2 is to do your make-up flawlessly. Every year for the holidays I try to do an old Hollywood look. If you recall, their skin is immaculate. I also have a bit of rosacea and my overall skin tone is pinkish so I make sure it looks faultless. I start with a primer to even my skin before I use foundation, powder, then bronzer. Around my lips I use an eyeshadow primer. It's like foundation, but it's thicker and adheres better. It dries wonderfully. Not everyone has that skin color to use that, so use more foundation around your lips, and slightly on them as well.

Step 3: Always use a lip liner!!! This stops the lipstick from feathering out onto your skin. This is your chance to also make your lips slightly bigger than what nature intended. Only on the bottom lip, and if you're comfortable doing it, outline just right outside the lip line. Anymore will look silly. Fill in liner halfway into lip.

The tools to use: Primer, eyeshadow primer and lip liners in nude and red.

Step 4 is to apply your desired color. I have many reds before I found the perfect one. If you don't have an idea what your skin tone is think of it this way: if you have blueish/purple skin you are a cool tone. If it's yellow, it's warm. Cool tones should go for blue reds, and warm tones are better with the orange hues. If all else fails, go to a MAC or Sephora to find your perfect shade.

 

All my red lipsticks!

It took me a while, but I found a red lipstick that I LOVE! It's the Kat Von D make-up line exclusive to Sephora. It's called "foil" lipstick. The packaging is beautiful, and the color is gorgeous--a beautiful red with pink tones. It's called a foil lipstick because it goes on sparkly and shimmery but is a matte. So this ensures that once it's on, it stays on. I hardly have to reapply.

The most beautiful color, rightly named Adora.

This year I'll be rocking the vibrant pink at my holiday parties. All of the above steps apply, but instead of using the red lip liner you'll use the "nude"--which is the liner closest to my natural lip color. Again, I have many pinks :)

What if you wanted to do some striking eye looks? Eyelashes are always a great way to go. You can still have the expressive lip with a pair of doe eyes. It really completes the classic old Hollywood look. One of my friends, Erika, recently went to a holiday party and had some really amazing eyelashes. They are called Paperself, and the lashes are made out of paper. Yes, paper! It's a very cool look.

You can find them at Sephora in a couple different styles as well. They are re-usable if treated with care. They look gorgeous!

What look will you be doing this holiday season?