Dress Up Makeup

As part of the Life Well Lived series, BlogHer asked a few of their bloggers this question:

What is your favorite way to add a bit of sparkle to your holiday look? Is it with make-up, clothing or accessories?

I love to wear the sparkle in my clothes and accessories all year long, so to make the holidays any different, I had to get brave and try out some new makeup.

I took a long hiatus from fancy makeup – like, a decade or so – so I had to go back to the drawing board when I thought about holiday makeup. I wasn’t feeling as adventurous as I did in my twenties. I’m still dutifully studying makeup trends, weighing my tastes, deciding what works for my current mid-30’s face, so I was not about to go all hog wild with all kinds of eyelashes and rhinestones. Plus, holiday parties as a suburban mom pretty much involve midnight games of Rummikub with the neighbors or shmoozing at Bear’s office party with a bunch of nurses in scrubs. Neither one really calls for a huge deviation from the norm.

But I did get to go to one great party this year – the BlogHer Christmas party – and since it was the only for real grown up party I was going to get to go to for ages, I threw caution to the wind and wore fake lashes and everything. It was so much fun to dip my toe into some more adventurous waters, but a little of that goes a very long way.

For a look that’s a little more special than my everyday makeup, but not so much that I look like I’m getting a glamourshot taken, I love to go with a color of eyeshadow that offers a little shimmer. I picked up this palette of MAC eyeshadow and I’ve gone back to it over and over again this season. It’s got variations of all the plums, browns, and blacks that I typically wear, but with some sparkle that takes me out of the typical look. For my midnight game adventures I wear a little bit of the plum along the crease of my eyelid, for my BlogHer Christmas party I wore a whole lot of that copper all over.

It’s enough to make me feel all done up, without making me feel self-conscious about how different I look.

BlogHer wants to know how you shake up your look this season. Add your best tips to tips offered by experts and while you’re at it, enter BlogHer’s current giveaway of a Kindle Fire!