Here at A Beautiful Life, we love the Christmas season as it brings a little extra glamour and sparkle to our wardrobes and sometimes our make-up (hey why not). However, Christmas party makeup when you’re past your Twenties needs a slightly different approach to ensure the result is more naturally glowing than Eurovision glitter ball.
Party beauty focuses on a radiant base, strategic shimmer, and defined features to enhance your natural beauty with that little extra 'Je ne sais quoi' to bring on the compliments.
An Overview
Hydrated, Glowing Skin: Mature skin tends to be drier, so a hydrated base is crucial. Use a rich moisturiser, followed by a primer to blur fine lines and ensure makeup longevity. Opt for a lightweight liquid or serum foundation with a luminous finish, applied sparingly to avoid a cakey look.
Cream Products: Cream blushes and eyeshadows are excellent as they won't settle into lines and provide a natural, dewy finish. Blend cream blush upwards along the cheekbones for a lifting effect.
Strategic Shimmer: Embrace shimmer for a festive look, but apply it strategically. A touch of highlighter on the high points of the cheeks, the bridge of the nose, and the cupid's bow adds a beautiful glow. For eyes, cream-textured shimmery eyeshadows work well across the lid, as they are less likely to crease.
Eye Definition: Keep eyeliner soft. An easy-to-smudge pencil in brown or a soft kohl works better than harsh liquid liners, which can emphasize fine lines. Use an eyelash curler and a good mascara to define lashes and add lift.
Defined Brows: Full, but natural-looking brows frame the face and provide an instant eye lift. Fill in any sparse areas with a soft brow powder or pencil, then brush through to blend.
Bold Lips (Optional): A glamorous red or berry lip can be stunning for a Christmas party. Use a lip liner to prevent the colour from feathering, and choose a creamy or satin finish lipstick for a hydrated look.
Key Tips and Techniques
Prime your face and eyes: Use a face primer to create a smooth surface and an eye primer to prevent creasing and ensure true eyeshadow colour. One of our new favourites is the Mii Smoothing Face Prep - this ultra-lightweight silky serum primer glides effortlessly onto the skin and creates a flawless base. Designed to blur fine lines and minimize pores for smoother, longer-lasting makeup and a camera-ready soft-focus finish without the filters.
Choose a dewy foundation: Use a lightweight, hydrating formula to avoid a cakey look. Apply with a brush and blend well into the jawline and ears. One product you just have to try is the Award-Winning Katherine Daniels Pure Pigment Foundation Drops. After over 30 years working in the cosmetics industry, I am rarely ‘wowed’ by a product, yet this really did get that reaction. It leaves your skin looking flawless, moist and glowing and you can control the amount of coverage by mixing a few drops with your favourite moisturiser for a natural day look or adding more coverage for a special event. It’s also an amazing concealer too.
If investing in the foundation I highly recommend treating yourself to the Katherine Daniels Foundation & Concealer Brush too! For a professional airbrushed finish, buff your pre-mixed foundation drops (with your moisturiser) in small circular motions all over your face, then use the fluffy tip of this brush for under eyes and any problem areas. When used neat as a concealer this product works wonder. Total magic – in one tiny tube!
Set with powder (optional): Use a large brush to lightly pat translucent powder over your T-zone and under the eyes to set the makeup and prevent creasing. Mii’s Illusionist Translucent Setting Powder is a multi-talented wonder worker, the translucent loose powder contains unique spherical particles to blur lines, banish shine, and keep your foundation flawless for even longer. On application, this powder transforms to a colourless finish, leaving a velvety veil of perfection to suit all skin types and tones.
For perfect application we love the Doll Smash Airbrushed Kabuki Brush. Honestly - meet your new best friend. Soft, subtle, and multi-functional – this brush is a must-have beauty essential. Designed with a large showcase surface area, it is the perfect tool for a quick on-the-go top-up! Re-apply throughout the day (or night) to manage shine.
Eye Make-Up: Cream shadows are excellent because they don't settle into fine lines. Apply a base shade like taupe all over the lid and socket and continue under the lash line. We love the Mii Forever Eye Colour Crayon Eyeshadows for their gorgeously creamy yet feather-light texture. They deliver highly pigmented colour that glides effortlessly into place and lasts for hours. You can use them alone and just apply all over the lid and gently smudge with your finger tip or blend with more colours to create a really smoky shimmery eye.
Another of our favourites is the Studio 10 Liquid Foil I-radiance. This unique 4-in-1 liquid eye primer, liner, colour wash and shadow is formulated specifically for mature skin with long-wearing metallic pigments that feel ultra-light yet result in a highly metallic (yet glitter-free) colour. Trust us – the compliments will keep coming.
Add definition: Use a deeper, brown or grey eyeshadow or add eyeliner and smudge for a sultry smoky eye effect. Perfect for this is the Mii Skyliner Eye Pencil, this long wearing pencil glides on smoothly giving richly-pigmented definition. Buildable and blendable, with a smooth glide, high impact colour just apply the pencil onto your upper and lower lash line for a statement eye that takes no time to create.
Define brows: Fill in brows with a natural-looking, feathery technique. The Eyebrow Queen Brow Pro Pencil has been specifically designed to be the most versatile of all brow pencils. It’s innovative tiny triangular, self-sharpening tip allows you to draw the most precise hair strokes as well as define and shade your brows to create most natural to the boldest of looks. This dual-ended Brow Pro Pencil has a long-lasting waterproof formula and comes in an array of shades (including some paler grey/taupe shades) with a generous sized brush at the other end of the pencil to groom your brows into place.
Finish with mascara: As we know when we start to age our lashes get sparser, shorter and thinner, so any help in this area is gratefully received. We love the Studio 10 6-in-1 Perfect Lash Mascara which comes in both black or a softer brown shade. Thanks to their revolutionary flat-angled upper brush, the product can be worked deep into the root of the lash, without the need for curlers. And the fine comb brush defines and separates while reaching even the shortest bottom lashes without smudging.
Cheeks and Lips
Apply blush: Use a cream or powder blush in a peachy or rosy tone and apply it to the apples of the cheeks, blending upwards toward the temples. Studio 10 offer a couple of fabulous options that even the most novice of make-up users could use with ease.
Firstly their Wake Up & Glow Lip & Cheek Tint Lipstick & Blusher is a three-in-one product that is also great for taking with you in the tiniest of clutch bags. It instantly boosts the complexion and lips with a flush of buildable colour. Enriched with a deeply hydrating hyaluronic acid balm running through its core, the tint intensively moisturises the complexion and soothes the delicate skin of the lips, adding back the pigment that can be lost through ageing. Just smooth over lips and dab directly onto the apples of the cheeks, and use your ring finger or a brush to blend.
A classic red lip provides instant glamour and is perfect for Christmas. If your fancy upping the glam choose shade ‘EmpoweRED Poppy’ from the range – it’s totally Marilyn Monroe-worthy!
Alternatively, if applying your product at home, you can’t go wrong with their Plumping Blush Glow-plexion Highlighter & Blusher. Famously described as ‘Eight hours of sleep in a bottle’, this is the ultimate wake-up-and-glow complexion boost. It genuinely rejuvenates lacklustre, dull and tired skin for healthy, glowing skin in an instant. When they say it takes 10 years off your age – they are not joking – it is literally magic! Just dab a couple of drops on your cheeks (and even your eyelids or lips) and you’ll see what we’re talking about.
As we get older our lips become less defined and often lose their fullness. Ask any makeup artist and they will swear by lip liners as the secret weapon to achieving the perfect pout (without the need for expensive injectables). The Doll Smash Pout Lip Liner Pencil has to be one of the creamiest yet long-lasting lip liners we have used. Even a novice can achieve the perfect pout in seconds with these. Our top tip – outline your natural lip then take the pencil and outline again going just outside / adjoining this line. This gives you a fuller lip but still keeping the look natural. Then just apply your lipstick or gloss over the top for your perfect pout!
Finishing Touches
Add highlighter: Apply a subtle highlighter to the top of your cheekbones, under the brow bone and bow of your lips to add a lit-from-within glow. A favourite is the bestselling Mii Celestial Skin Shimmer Bronzer/ Blusher/Highlighter. It contains a mixture of strongly pigmented shades that can be used as an individual highlighter /bronzer or blusher – or alternatively, lightly swirl your brush over all the shades and apply in circular motions to the cheeks and temples to add a super healthy glow. We’ve even used them as a natural eyeshadow and they looked beautiful!
Polished Nails: Finally, don’t forget your nails! We have curated our favourite shades from the Mii Colour Confidence Nail Polishes which includes an array of sumptuous Chritmassy reds – or some more subtler nudes if that’s more your vibe. These high-shine, long-wear and quick-drying shades come with a pro-glide brush which ensures smooth, even application with salon-level precision and a flawless, chip-resistant finish. Fool proof we promise!
In Summary
Well hopefully we’ve given you some inspiration (or event some handy gift ideas) to try and experiment with at home. We always say, never be scared of make-up. So many people say they don’t know what they are doing so they just avoid trying. If this is you, why not be bold and give it a try.
The formulations have advanced so much in recent years and are almost fool proof to apply. Alternatively, why not get your friends round and all have a go together, before a big night out?
WIN WIN!!
Even better – send us some pictures of your new Christmas party looks using any of our recommended products - or post and tag us online - and the best one will receive a Complimentary A Beautiful Life luxury tote bag with 10 complimentary beauty products inside!