Beauty Tuesday | New Year’s Eve Makeup & Hair

I did something thisNew Year’s Eve that I rarely, if ever, do. I spent more than 5 minutes on my makeup. No – seriously. I can usually put on a full face of makeup, from concealer to mascara, in 5 minutes or less. I’m not generally one for anything fancy. But New Year’s Eve is a special night – it calls for a little bit of oomph. And… I was kind of bored.

 

I got ready for the evening in a little bit of a weird order. I started my hair, then put it up into a messy bun, did my makeup, and then finished off my hair. But for the sake of convenience, I’ll tell you how I did it all together.

Hair.

1. To start, I poured some baby powder all over my head. My hair hadn’t been washed in a couple of days, and I’m not a fan of dry shampoo. Since my hair is blonde, baby powder works perfectly – nothing special.
2. Once my hair was “dry shampooed” and there was no more baby powder to be seen on my strands, I braided two thin sections of my hair, just behind my ears. The main portion of my hair style was inspired by Zoella’s Halo Braid tutorial – which you can check out here.
3. When the braids were finished (not secured in place, just … hanging) , this is when I stopped to do my makeup and put my hair up into a messy bun.
4. BUT – to continue on with the hair, the next thing I did was start back combing and teasing my hair. My hair is very thin, and when I wear halo braids, the braids tend to slip around a lot. I also wanted a bit of a Brigitte Bardot-esq bump at the crown of my head, behind the braids, which my hair would never have sustained without the teasing.
5. As I teased each section I sprayed it with TIGI Bed Head Masterpiece Massive Shine hairspray.
6. I then pulled it all back (combing it so that there was no part visible) and arranged it so that it had a bit of a bump to it (holding it in place with a clip) and finished the halos by securing the braids across my head (finish watching Zoe’s video to see what I mean). At this point my hair did not look pretty. Due to all of the teasing and hairspray it looked… blerg. So, I kept moving forward.
7. Once the braids were in place, I added quite a bit more hairspray to ensure they wouldn’t slip, removed the clip from the back of my head, and then brushed out my hair (going only front to back, not to the sides – again, I wanted to make sure there wouldn’t be a part in my hair) to smooth out the rats’ nest on top of my hair.
8. The result – a perfect halo braid with a cute Bardot Bump that didn’t slip and slide all night. In fact, the photo above is from before I left the house. The photo below is from about 5 hours later – sometime around 1am. Braids still firmly in place … although my sister and I were looking a little blurry by then.

Makeup.

As I said earlier, I am not into taking eons to do my makeup. But it was a special night and I had some time to kill – so I went for it. Everything I put on my face/cheeks was the same as my day to day – the only thing I really did anything different with was my eye makeup.

1. After putting on my moisturizer (Oil of Olay for Combination skin), I used MAC Mineralize liquid foundation in NC25 all over my face, including my eyelids. (I know, a lot of people avoid putting foundation on their eyelids and use an eyelid primer – but I’m a rebel. And lazy.)
2. I then covered up my spots with MAC Studio Fix concealer in NC20, and blended. Then added a bit more concealer, and then blended a bit more.
3. Next up, MAC Studio Fix powder in NC25. (For my day-to-day makeup I sometimes skip either the liquid foundation or the powder – it can be a bit much for daytime).
4. For my cheeks I used my Sephora Baked Blush Duo in Tea Rose Tickle – using only the lighter color. I’m not one for contouring, so I simply sucked in my cheeks and put the blush on the hallows of my cheekbones, with a little extra on the apples of my cheeks (which I found by smiling) and a little bit up to my temples. No highlighter. No bronzer. Just blush and some serious duck face.
5. For my eyes I used my Sephora Natural Instincts palette (similar here). I started by using Desert all over my lid, and then Buff in the corners and along my crease.
6. I then added a bit more of the Desert in the center of my lid to maximize the color, and carried the color along my bottom lash line.
7. I lined my top and bottom lashes with Sephora Kohl in Black (similar here), and added a very small cat-eye flick at the ends.
8. Using the color Pearl from the eyeshadow palette I highlighted my brow bone, adding an extra touch of color right in the arch of my brow.
9. I filled in my brows using L’Oreal Brow Stylist Custom Shaping Pencil in Medium Brown. You can check out my tutorial here! 
10. The final step was to curl my eyelashes (which is actually kind of difficult because they’re really long), and swipe on a couple of coats (literally just 2) of Sephora Plumper mascara in Black (similar here).

You’ll notice that there’s no step in there for lipstick. My lips get super chapped due to a medication I take, so I rarely wear anything on them. When I wash my face I gently use a facecloth to exfoliate my lips, and then will occasionally swipe on a bit of Chapstick (the moisturizing kind, with the blue wrapper) – but otherwise, I just leave them alone.

So – that’s that chick-a-dees! Let me know what you think, and show me YOURNew Year’s Eve hair and makeup looks!

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