5 Shortcuts to the Top Beauty Trends (Just in Time for New Year's Eve!)
No time to properly learn the ins and outs of the latest beauty trends? No problem. With New Year's Eve but hours away, here’s a cheat sheets to the hottest, most festive holiday trends that can (quickly) turn anyone into a beauty superstar for just one night.
Grown-Up Glitter:
Glitter instantly evokes festivity, but it's tricky terrain to navigate for anyone over the age of 12. The surest way to pull it off: Keep the sparkle dark and stardust-like — and avoid great big iceberg-like eye sequins. A shimmer-rich neutral eyeshadow like copper, bronze, or beige dusted on the eyelid transmits just enough catch-me-if-you-can allure to make it a party, without ever looking like an overgrown teen.
Rich Red Lips: You can get the best of both worlds (color and naturalness) with lip stains. Use a lip marker to get rich color that sinks right into the lip immediately, tinting skin without looking like makeup. Evenly trace your natural lip line and fill in, and if you end up applying too much color, just brush off with a wet toothbrush (some color will remain, but just a sexy, natural flush that you can leave or rebuild the tint on.) The result is natural, saturated color that never looks like “lipstick” at all.
Blinged-Out Nails:
Crazy nail art is everywhere, and though obviously not for everyone, it’s very inspiring, even if your wildest manicure has been brushing on a single coat of glitter. This is the easiest trend to pull off: Transform a basic manicure (with a classic color like pale pink, classic red or sophisticated deep maroon) into a chic, dazzling number via a single, well-placed drugstore-bought gem. Simply paint your nails, then, while polish is still wet, stick a single gem at the center base of your nail — an easy point to hit, and the best way to ensure they're all placed evenly and uniform on every finger.
Voluminous Updo: If you just woke up from a power nap and have 10 minutes to get to your big party, volume is all you need to go from urchin to elegant. But rather than blast our head with zillions of products,m just go with with one – a light hairspray to create uniform stickiness. Then pull it up into a ponytail and slide a donut (a cheap foam hair accent available at most drugstores) at the base of the ponytail. It will mimic the full hair you don’t have. Wrap the ponytail around the donut, secure with bobby pins, and spritz some more.
Instant '60s sexy.
Lush False Lashes
: A fattening fiber-lash builder is a godsend for those who love the effect of falsies but lack the skill to properly apply them (and isn’t that all of us, really?) Lash fibers are mascara-like tubes of tiny dry fibers that you whisk onto wet lashes between coats of mascara to thicken and build up density and length without actually having to apply “false” lashes. Word of warning: If you have sensitive eyes or contacts, loose fibers will probably fall into your eyes. Best to pass if that's the case, since no one wants to be stuck popping in eyedrops in the bathroom as the ball drops.
