Beauty,  Makeup

The Holidays and Makeup

I’m sure you saw this post coming – Christmas and makeup are two of my most favorite subjects, so it only makes sense to combine the two and write about it! Doing my makeup is honestly a therapeutic and relaxing experience for me, and I look forward to doing it every day. It puts me in a good mindset for the rest of the day and I just feel better when I have my “face” on. Today for the 12 Days of Kaelamas I’m showing you all my favorite makeup items to use around the holidays!

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Realistically, my makeup routine isn’t that different around the holidays than it is the rest of the year…but I have a few things that I think are especially festive, quintessential Christmas items I have been using a lot lately. Expect a lot of sparkles coming up.

Glitter Eyeliner

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First up, my pride and joy. If you follow my snapchat or my twitter or have talked to me in real life at all recently, you will know that a few weeks ago I bought the Urban Decay Heavy Metal Glitter Eyeliner. I have the color Glamrock, which is a silver glitter and I am OBSESSED WITH IT!!!!!!!

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Not an understatement – I have worn it every single day off since I purchased it. It’s just so beautiful and sparkly and just adds a special something. I feel so put together when I’m wearing it and I get so many compliments, from my friends to my manager to the barista making my Starbucks drink. I just LOVE this eyeliner and I wish I could wear it every day of my life. It’s amazing around the holidays to make you look super sparkly and exciting!!! They also have a beautiful gold color “Midnight Cowboy” that I love and want to get next 🙂

The Perfect Red Lipstick

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lol at me taking the pic on a red background…k

The holidays are nothing without a classic red lip! I have a few beautiful reds:

reds-swatched

Lately I’ve been really loving the Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick in Santa Sangre. It really stands out as a perfect pure “Christmas” red imo! I also I like Make Up Forever Artist Rouge Lipstick in C404 and then the Revlon Colorburst Matte Balm in Striking, but I don’t actually have that one right now because I left it in my car and it melted 🙁 But I linked it so you can see haha. I think a festive red lip looks beautiful paired with an obnoxiously Christmas smoky glittery eye look (which is what I usually do lol)

Sparkling Glowy Highlighters

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I LOVE a good highlighter to give you a subtle sparkly holiday glow.

highlighters-swatched

My favorite right now is the Hourglass Ambient Strobe Lighting Powder in Iridescent Light (bottom in the above pic). It’s just got such a lovely sparkle that really pulls your entire makeup look together. Above it looks like it has a peach tone but when applied with a brush it’s much more sheer and just sparkly. Another favorite is the Too Faced Candlelight Glow Highlighting Powder in Rosy Glow (middle swatch). It’s less subtle and adds more of a shine than the Hourglass, and the gold color of it just makes you look so warm! I also love the NYX Born to Flow Liquid Illuminator in Sunbeam (top). This one REALLY pumps up the glow factor and isn’t exactly subtle, but it will definitely make you sparkle!!

Beautifully Blended Shadows

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I feel like I am just listing my favorite products at this point hahaha. I obviously love a good sparkly look for the holidays but I also think a nice all-matte eye can be really beautiful! For shimmery shades, I love Urban Decay’s Naked 2 palette and Naked Basics palette, as well as the Nude Tude palette by The Balm.

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My swatches are horrible but Half Baked from Naked 2 is a BEAUTIFUL sparkly gold, and Verve is a pretty silver. To add some dimension, I like Busted from Naked 2 or Sophisticated from Nude Tude. Venus from Naked Basics or Sassy from Nude Tude both make a beautiful inner corner or brow bone highlight as well!

For mattes, my FAVORITE THING EVER lately is the Lorac Pro Matte Palette:

They’re swatched there, the top row left to right and then bottom L to R. These shades are just so amazingly smooth and pigmented. Using the mattes can take a little more work (and a LOT of blending) but the result is so beautiful! I use this one for work a lot and I think the results can be super pretty 🙂

Stunning False Lashes

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This one isn’t essential (obviously none of this is really essential lol) but I think there’s just something so fun about fake lashes. I think a lot of people are scared of them because their idea of fake lashes is this:

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BUT they don’t always have to obnoxious and dramatic (but they can if you want them to be!!) I’ve been wearing them a lot lately on my days off and they really make such a difference. I don’t even use anything dramatic for day to day – in fact, the ones I have are actually super natural looking! My favorite are the Eylure Naturals No 20. They are SO thin and wispy and perfectly sized for my eyes, I didn’t even have to trim them. Applying them was difficult the first time, but only gets easier with practice. Don’t bother with the glue that comes inside though, I use the Duo glue and it’s much better 🙂

And to finish off, here’s some looks I’ve done the past few days using a lot of those products – the one where I have matte eyes was done with the Lorac palette and for once I’m not wearing a bold lip??? Then the ones where I look like I’m about to go to bed are from our Thanksgiving, I have my shimmery eyes and my glitter liner on and no lipstick cuz I already took it off to eat lol. And in all the pics I have my lashes on! Sorry I am not very good at taking pics of my makeup haha

That’s all I have for today! I LOVE talking about makeup (as if you didn’t know that already…) so this one was really a fun post for me. Hope you enjoyed reading and maybe even got some new holiday makeup ideas! 🙂

<3, Kaela

PS: This post contains affiliate links, meaning for each click or purchase made through the links in this post, I will receive a small (very small!) percentage of that purchase. My full disclaimer can be found on my about page 🙂

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