Festive makeup, like all things, has its time and place, beyond which, just like everything else, is always going to be a bad idea, with no redeeming qualities or factors. It only works at certain times, and that’s just the way it is. On the other hand, when the time comes and festive makeup is appropriate, required or requested, there can be no more fun and creative way to perform your makeup routine. Are you checking into some more subtle ways to ramp up your holiday look without going all out and showing up dressed as Mrs. Claus, Rudolph or an elf? By concentrating your holiday look around your makeup application, you can have a lot of fun coming up with one or a few signature holiday looks to bring a smile to the faces of everyone you encounter, and you may already have everything you need, located among your makeup collection.

Just Nothing too Permanent Here
Festive holiday makeup requires a bolder look, so just know this, right off the bat. It’s one of those “Go big or go home” things. With this being said, the sky’s the limit. For holiday look efforts, you don’t want to get into anything permanent, but other than that, have at it. The new strobing or highlighting is an ideal way to lay a foundation or base for your festive embellishments with makeup effects, and there are some really good tutorials on the Internet for how to strobe or highlight your face. From this point, a bolder look could be achieved by attaching some metallic lashes in bold, festive colors. Just remember that when you add these to your look, it’ll be difficult to switch to non-faux, later on, perhaps midday, when you need to do the whole corporate business look.

Sparkle and Shine
When it is a more ramped up effort like this, surely the terminology festive and shine almost seem to be synonymous. Maybe you have a container or two of some over the top eye shadow with a blinding degree of sparkle. This is the time you can guiltlessly put that shadow to full use. Don’t forget to coordinate the colors you plan to use before you begin. This is much easier than having to come back and remove what you’ve done. When it comes to making your makeup festive, nothing you could possibly add would be more effective at doing festive than glitter. Generally speaking, the finer the glitter, the less sparkle it will have. Make sure that what you’re applying will do better than some shiny powder, but placed in strategic places, glitter can marvelously sparkle up your festive ambiance. The best area is around the eyes, and especially on the area just under the eyebrow, tapering in toward the nose. Remember, a little goes a long way, so don’t ruin your festive look by making it look more like a war zone.

Eyeliner Art
With a little practice, you can learn how to use an ultra fine eyeliner brush to add diminutive embellishments, from well-placed lines of dots and swirls to tiny seasonal touches. Add some holly by first laying down some powder or lipstick that’s green where you’ll want the holly to go, and red where the berries will be. After that, come back and draw your holly and berry outlines on top of and surrounding the color. Nail polish (Not manufacturer recommended,) works for this too, and offers more colors.