In case you haven’t noticed, the holiday season is in full swing now, with Thanksgiving safely behind us one more year. It’s time to put our holiday selves together, with all the aplomb and flair befitting our royal selves–right? Well, at least, you should make a little effort for adding your own signature holiday dazzle and style to your look this year. Create a holiday look that will be memorable for all the right reasons. If you’ve never thought about doing anything different for the holidays, it’s not too late. You can start out small, in shifting a few key elements of your regular routine into holiday gear. Here are a few to try on, to see how they fit your holiday ambition this year:

Go Matter for Holiday Flatter
Tiz the season for sparkle and razzle dazzle, practically everywhere you look, and amid all this shine and twinkle of lights, a completely matte makeup look can stand out, in the most flattering of ways. Start with a primer that is specifically created to soak up facial oils so that when you apply your liquid foundation, there is no source of conflict. Don’t scrimp on your powder application, but do make sure it’s evenly applied. The end all here? Bright red, luscious lipstick. Top off the red with an ultra juicy shine from a long lasting gloss–or do the glossless thing–both are strikingly now!

Plum Perfection
The “it” color for this holiday season is showing up everywhere, and on the lushest eyes of the most unlikely models! Purple rocks the season of eye shadow effects for any holiday celebration. More specifically, it’s actually a plum shade that is a lot more of a go-with color than you might have imagined.  And you’ll have a blast going perfectly plum to the parties…Above, on the lids and all the way to a nice fade into the brows, or as a full thick revelation of plum perfection to surround the entire eye–there are some amazing plums out there with a varying degree of shimmer. Keep to the black mascara here. Don’t need that kind of competition. Black liner, too.

Go Green for the Holidays
Go ahead and do your customary makeup application for more festive occasions, but add a nice, bold essence of holiday teal or green shadow beneath your eyes that’ll be impossible to ignore. Go a little extra heavy on the mascara application, and let your green go all the way down to a nice fade out, right at the point where your lower lashes end. Hack: Stick with liquid liner for extra staying power that you just can’t get with pencils.

A Very Berry Holiday
Do the routine foundation, keeping the effects low, and apply a touch of fading gray on the lids and upward to the browline. Little or no blush—both will work here, and blast this look with a rich, emollient effect from dramatically deep–almost all the way black– berry colored lips, topped off with ultra-mega shine. This look kills with a heavy application of tons of mascara–black only, please.