I get extremely excited about Christmas, especially now so that I have children. It is the day to pull out that new dress and do something a little more exciting with your makeup. But unless you have someone else cooking for you, you don’t want to spend an eternity in the bathroom getting ready. Here are two festive season makeup looks you can do in a flash.

Look 1 – Christmas Lunch

I love to add a bit of sparkle to the eyes but make sure I do it in a way that is subtle enough to wear in the day time.

• Start with a moisturised face making sure you have included an SPF and apply a primer. There are lots of good ones around, but a lovely basic I always come back to is the Laura Mercier Foundation Primer.
• Apply an eye primer and pat in to whole eye lid. This will help your eye shadow to stay crease-free all day. This is an especially important step in warm weather!
• Apply a lovely shimmery eye shadow over the entire lid. I love the ones in the Urban Decay Naked 2 palette (which you can buy here). YDK is my favourite colour – a perfect sparkly taupe.
• Take a clean fluffy blending brush and blend away the obvious edges of eye shadow. If you are working with the Urban Decay Naked 2 palette, you can use the shade Foxy to blend with.
• Apply a little bit of dark brown eyeliner along your lashline for definition. I use the Estee Lauder Pure Colour Intense Kajal eyeliner in Blackened Cocoa.
• Curl your lashes and apply a coat of mascara
• Making sure you have cleaned away any speckles of eyeshadow which may have fallen down on to your cheeks, now is the time to apply a light layer of foundation or (tinted moisturizer if you prefer). Add some concealer to the inner corners under your eyes, patting in to blend using your ring finger.
• Add some creamy blush to the apples of the cheeks and blend upwards using fingers. It helps if you smile while you do this so you can put the blush right on the apples of your cheeks.
• Choose a neutral lipstick and apply it over lips which have been lined first.
• Set the face with a translucent setting powder to give it some staying power.

You are done and ready to go and enjoy the festivities!

Look 2 – Christmas Night Drinks

I have achieved this look by working over the top of the first look, so it is a true day to night makeup look.

• Go more intense on the eyes by using a black eyeliner along the lash line.
• Once again working with the Urban Decay Naked 2 palette, apply the shade Pistol (a gun-metal metallic grey shade) to the whole eye lid.
• Now apply Blackout (a matte black shadow) in the outer corner of your eye and along the crease. Lastly apply Verve (a silver shimmer) to the inner corner of your eyes.
• You now need to blend away any harsh lines using a clean, fluffy brush.
• Add a second coat of mascara.
• Line your lips and go a little darker on the lipstick. I have used a MAC lipstick in Cosmo.
• Add some more blush if needed then give the face a nice dusting of powder to take away any shininess.

Have a wonderful Christmas!

Here is a full list of the products I used to create these looks and where to buy them:

Laura Mercier Foundation Primer

Chantecaille Future Skin foundation in Vanilla

Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer in Cool Sand

Nars Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base

Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette

Estee Lauder Pure Colour Intense Kajal Eyeliner in Blackened Cocoa

Clinique High Impact Extreme Volume Mascara in black

Stila Convertible Colour in Illium

Nars Lipstick in Fabala

Kevin Aucoin Eye Pencil Primatif in Black

MAC lipstick in Cosmo

Laura Mercier Universal Invisible Loose Setting Powder

MAC Lip Pencil in Spice