The holiday season is upon us and with it comes the oh so arduous task of looking glamourous for (physically distanced) cocktails. The colours! The textures! The combinations! Just thinking about how many ways we can easily and quickly make our South Asian features just shine… makes me giddy with delight because for far too long we have hidden ourselves under layers of flannel and black screens on Zoom. Check out the perfect eye and lip beauty looks perfect for the holidays!
THE DECISION
The first step is to decide on your focus: eyes or lips. Picking one is key, because when you are transitioning from your work look to a cocktail one, the last thing you want to haul around is an overstuffed makeup bag.
EYE OF THE TIGER
If your focus is eyes, brown-eyed beauties such as Bollywood actress Konkona Sen and rising Canadian star Sandy Sidhu are great references.
Konkona is renowned for her expressive eyes and in the picture above, she demonstrates the allure of the soft smoky eye. The first step is to curl the eyelashes. Then take a creamy, dark liner such as Kulfi Nazar No More and draw a thin line along the upper lash line. Once the line is drawn, take a cotton bud and smudge the line to soften it. Then use the same bud and trace the lower lash line. I avoid drawing a line along the lower lash line because it risks closing the eye, and particles of pencil could migrate into the concealer which creates more darkness in the area.
To ensure that light is attracted to area, I use a cool-toned medium brown eyeshadow such as Shade EyeShadow 02 from the Estée Lauder Candy Glam palette from the limited edition Blockbuster Set to lightly define the crease. I am impressed by the pigment intensity of the eyeshadow as I only needed to apply two light layers to achieve an excellent colour payoff. I then added 2-3 layers of Estée Lauder Sumptuous Extreme Mascara (“Mascara”, included in the Set) to define the upper lashes.
The above steps will take 5 minutes to complete and only requires 6 lightweight items to execute: eyelash curler, cotton bud, eyeshadow palette, mascara, eyeliner and crease brush.
Sandy is a rising Canadian star whose pairing of a cool-toned eye shadow with a sixties cat eye, creates an unforgettable, modern take on the swinging sixties of London. To create the look, first curl the eyelashes. After, pat the mobile lid with a medium-toned oyster shade such as Eyeshadow 03 in the Candy Glam set. The oyster shade, like the aforementioned cool-toned medium brown, delivers excellent colour pay off with only 1 or 2 layers, hence it will look gorgeous on a variety of skin tones. Once the eyelid is shimmery, pull it taut and use an inky black liquid pen sch as Wander Beauty High Line Liquid Eyeliner and draw a series of strokes along the upper lash line, and then lift the line at the outer corner of the eye. Once a line is established, I like to trace the pen over the stroke to create a uniform line. I apply 2-3 layers of the Mascara, and then use cotton bud to apply the cool, medium brown eye shadow to lightly define the lower lash line.
The above steps will take about 6 minutes to execute and only requires 5 products, namely the eyelash curler, mascara, liner, eyeshadow and cotton bud.
MOUTH OF DESIRE
If your focus is the mouth, then the legendary Rekha and the Witcher star Anya Chalotra are excellent references.
Rekha is the queen of the power pout and she always amply demonstrates how a well-applied lipliner can create a sensual mouth that is simultaneously defined and mysterious. The lipliner is particularly important for matte shades, which is a popular finish for holiday season 2021.
I am impressed with Buxom’s Power Line™ Plumping Lip Liner because the bevel-tipped liner creates a defined shape without any tugging and the creamy texture permits the pigment to lay easily on the skin. I also like that each pencil includes a duck-billed, flat lip brush, that I use to immediately feather the line to soften the line. I then dip the same brush into a matching lipstick, and the liner melds seamlessly with the lipstick.
If you want the Rekha lip, I recommend the Clé de peau Lipstick Mini Set because it is composed of a quintet of shades that are ideal for work and play. For play though, there is shade that is outstanding, because of its feminine beauty and its universal appeal for all skin tones… The shade is Relentless Rose a deep, unabashed pink that is reminiscent of the festivals in South Asia. The lipstick is matte but it does not dry the lips.
It pairs beautifully with Buxom’s Power Line™ Plumping Lip Liner in Powerful Plum. The brightness and intense glamour will instantly evoke the seventies!
If you want a softer matte mouth, then Anya’s matte pink lip looks are the embodiment of same. I recommend using a liquid lipstick such as Nars Air Matte Lip Colors because they provide intense pigment, but their liquid nature makes the look inherently softer. To create the soft, pink matte look, I recommend the Shag shade for light-to medium lips. Shag is warm pinky brown that veers towards taupe and is exceptionally sophisticated. Chaser is a cool mauve that evokes the sixties. Its coolness contracts beautifully against warm, deeper skin tones. I found that with this formula that the liner is optional because the doe foot applicator allows you to easily deposit the colour in the corners of the lips and on the peaks of the cupid’s bow.
Both lip looks are easy to achieve within one minute and require a maximum of two products.
PART(Y)ING THOUGHTS
As I draft this blog there are rumblings of lockdowns and travel bans. Regardless of how the season progresses, the above tips demonstrate how easy it is to transition from blah to whoa mama! A few tools some well-chosen lips allow you to transform your look and hopefully your mood.
Meena Khan | Features Editor - Beauty
Author
Meena (@meenalaregina) always loved the idea of exploring the non-conventional idea of beauty. Having grown up as a pimply chubby teenager, she wanted to see the change in the world that best reflected your uniqueness as well. Her well-received collection of blogs where she tries on various beauty p...