Winter beauty tips and party looks

It's pretty much winter in the northern hemisphere, so for a lot of us the air is dry inside and cold outside. For many people this means changing your beauty routine because your skin is drier.  Not so much for me, though.  My skin remains oily all year-round.  

One of the blogging communities that I belong to asked us to do a post about our winter beauty routines, so this is mine:  the changes that I make are in my hair care and the make up that I wear.  Since it's sometimes too cold to let my hair air dry, I have to blow dry it more and it gets too dry.  So I need to do more deep conditioning.  My favorite deep conditioner is Kerastase Masqintense, but it is pricey.  I've tried various ones that are less costly, but haven't found one that I truly love.  A related product that I do love, however, is John Frieda's Clear Shine glaze.  I'm not sure that it actually makes my hair healthier, but it makes it LOOK healthier and feel softer.  After I dry it, Bumble and Bumble's Brillantine is another great product for giving my hair shine.

As for make up, in the winter I LOVE more intense make up, especially dark lip colors.  I definitely wear more make up in the winter, and I love that it doesn't get hot and wear off easily.  I use everything in winter:  primer, concealer, foundation, luminizer, blush, and the usual eye make up and lipstick.

The following "how to" is a nice option for a holiday party.  It has the stereotypical sparkly gold eye shadow with a twist - purple eye liner and a medium-bright lip color.  Here's the finished look with lipstick only, and further down I have a photo where I added lip gloss.  I do both, depending on my outfit and my mood.  

Here are the products that I used for this look:
MAC paint in Base Light (old)  
MAC eye shadow in Cranberry
MAC eye shadow in Vanilla

Urban Decay's 24/7 eye pencil in Lust

Maybelline Falsies mascara

Make Up For Ever Full Cover concealer #4

MAC Cream Colour base in Hush

MAC Cremesheen lipstick in Speak Louder

MAC Lacquer in Fanplastico

this is probably a good example of why you shouldn't use products that are really old, which this paint is.  It didn't go on evenly like it normally would. 

 But I covered most of it up with powder eye shadow.  It looks like copper, but it was actually a color named Cranberry.

The third shadow I put under my eye brow for a highlight.  I used MAC's Vanilla - a matte off-white shadow

Then I used a fluffy brush to blend them all

Instead of using black or brown, I once again used a dark purple (similar to my last post )

I used Laura Mercier's smudge brush to smudge the liner a bit

Then put mascara on top and bottom lashes (after I curled my lashes)

 A little extra tip:  One way to make yourself look younger/better is to cover up redness in your skin.  The skin in the (very fine) crease from my nose to the corner of my mouth is usually redder than the rest.  Just by using concealer to cover this, my skin looks much better.  Technically you should use a brush - it would be more precise and use less product, but I usually just use my finger.

Another tip for winter, when skin can be dry and look dull, is to use a luminizer, mineral powder or highlighting cream or liquid.  I use a very pale cream from MAC across the top of my cheekbones.  Benefit's High Beam and Stila's luminizing foundation are also very good, as well as MAC's Mineralize Skin Finish.

Here's the finished eye (before I took the little bits of smudged mascara off.)  :-)

Lip gloss is a plus in the cold weather, as it protects your lips AND adds moisture.


Or just use a creamy formula lipstick, like MAC's cremesheen.

To see other blog posts about winter beauty routines, check out the links on IFB's site here