Top Holiday 2024 Makeup Trends

For most people, makeup is a way to enhance certain features and minimize imperfections. The holidays are also a time to add a festive touch, create a mood, tell a story, and really tap into your creativity. Here are holiday 2024 makeup trends and a few tips on how to achieve that flawless complexion that accompanies the trend.

The Frosty Look

LimeSky from Adobe StockChoose bright whites, metallics, silvers, icy blues, mint and cool pale pinks. Think winter sky at dusk. Visualize platinum highlighters like crystalized snow in the moonlight. A sparkly shimmering, reflective lip gloss, like the glaze on a frozen lake would be useful in this look. Pastels work well with the bright reflective blanket that covers much of the world throughout the wintry months.

Candy Coated

 Use pastel, metallic, icy or warm hues. A monochromatic pallet of a well-placed assortment of pink would be useful here. Create a soft look by lining the lid with the deepest burgundy shade blending up to a fully saturated pastel pink. Lighten up even more with a snowy glow trend. If your skin is fair and flawless, go with a minimal tint on the skin and gloss on the cheeks. If needed, add a bit of subtle concealer. For the eyes, add shimmer white and barely-there pastel pinks, like a winter sunrise reflecting off newly fallen snow, subtle and beautiful. Add a translucent pink lip tint or balm, and plenty of mascara to finish.

Vamp Glam

For those who want to balance the holiday glitz with a little foreboding mystery, pair wintry tones that sparkle and shine, with an added sophistication of a vampy dark lip.  Use an umbre’ with mid to deep tone reds for added allure. Try a matte black lip for the ultimate boldly sophisticated statement.

Espresso, Latte, Cappuccino 

Coffee is still in however you take it. Drink up these rich, monochromatic, earthy hues. Although these colors enhance this year’s (back by popular demand) reds, they will be especially great for autumn as well.  Autumnal hues of gold and red are all too soon replaced with hazy beige, taupe and brown. Chunky sweaters and woolen textiles call for the balance of these deep rich tones, not only on the eyes, but also on the lips. For daytime, try a matte beige, or a mid-tone mocha lip shade. As the shorter days cast evening shadows, let your eyes reflect their surroundings. Add a layer of copper metallic, sparkling chocolate, or shimmery taupe for the evening.

Sudged Grunge Eyeliner

This year is reminiscent of the 90s when kohl eyeliner blurred the lines between grungy and sophisticated fashion.  A decade later, it was touted the morning after look, as we proudly smeared mascara under our eyes. All of this was preceded by the kohl and Vaseline adorned eyes of the roaring 20’s.  A perfect time to honor this burgeoning era of artistic expression might be New Year's eve. Donning a fabulous “flapper-esque” metallic display paired with brooding kohl liner is sure to be a hit. Red is sticking around in a big way this year, and this look is a perfect way to express the fiercely independent, vibrant, well defined red lips of the 1920s, so striking against a flawless complexion.

Office Siren

This look may not be everyone’s choice for every day; however, what could be a better choice for an office party? There is at least one day you shouldn’t have to debate whether to adhere to masculine dress codes for the office. Assert your confidence with sleek femininity looking flirty yet structured.  Start by taking your usual brown/beige lip colors and ombre them from deep to nude and add a clear high gloss. Break out your strobe creams and give your matte foundation a hint of glow on the highlight points. Paint on a nice statement eyeliner on upper and lower lids. Using a gel or liquid create a wing or cat eye, amp it up even more with deep toned metallic flicks. Keep the shadow in cool matte muted tones. Apply blush and bronzer and blend to a subtle contour. Use a matte powder to diffuse if needed. A pair of dark framed oversized blue light glasses can be a fun yet useful addition.

Jewel Tones

Go ahead and compliment that Christmas tree by wearing vibrant jewel toned eyeshadows. Add matte or shimmering jewel toned eyeliners and mascara for an even more festive look. Another luminous gold highlight trend would pair beautifully with this look. Try a golden hued cream for the cheeks for a softer look, and a dusting or glaze of gold over the jewel toned shadow on the lids.

Flawless Foundation

Every year it seems as though we are being told that foundation trends should be dewy, natural, ethereal or barely there. The problem here is that most of us do not have the flawless skin to support this ongoing trend. Here are some tips for specific skin types and conditions for those that might find this trend challenging.  The most common problems are how to cover blemishes, hyperpigmentation, post inflammatory hyperpigmentation or rosacea, without getting the foundation cakey or exacerbating wrinkles.

For unwanted pigment, always use your complimentary colors on the color wheel; however, try applying your natural foundation first. If you do require fuller coverage, try mixing products. In a clean jar, take a small amount of your favorite full coverage 12-to-15-hour foundation. Mix varying amounts of your favorite glow or BB cream with an optic blur. If the product is still too thick, add a bit of tint or sheer foundation. These products can be used to alter the undertone (warm, cool, neutral) and intensity level from season to season as well.

When applying the foundation, spray your skin first with your favorite toner, as well as spraying your  blender/sponge. Apply small amounts of base by area, then stipple the foundation thoroughly, build coverage as needed, spray and stipple. It is better to work in thin specific layers rather than trying to apply one heavy layer. Now that the foundation is in place, go to your color wheel to neutralize pigmentation showing through your flawless foundation. For example, for a red papule, take a minute amount of earthy green camouflage concealer and stipple onto the lesion not affecting the surrounding tissue. Set that with a good setting powder, then dot on a small amount of full coverage camouflage cream foundation or full coverage concealer in a matching undertone (less is more). Again, stipple with setting powder. People notice the big picture, not the tiny spots of camouflage.  The overall look will be natural to dewy depending on the ratio of the mixture. Try finishing off the look with another 2024 trend by highlighting the center of the face. This can also be helpful by pulling focus to the center on broader faces, but not advisable for excessively oily T-zones.

Dewy makeup is also not very realistic for very oily skin. If the skin is very oily, use a mattifying lotion that is designed to keep oil at bay all day, and then follow the steps above, omitting any glow. Research to find a mattifying lotion that works for you.  Be sure to use a good makeup remover (dissolver) to keep pores clean. This is especially important for oily skin when wearing foundation. In addition to regular exfoliation, optionally spot treat breakouts with salicylic prior to makeup application. Some looks call for natural matte foundation this year. This will be a great look for oily and textured skin. For this look, apply full coverage all-day-wear powder foundation on top of the finished look. As muted blush is another great trend this year, apply powder right over the blush. However, instead of a beauty blender heavy application, dust lightly with a large fluffy brush, feathering off at the edges of the blush for a beautiful soft matte look.

If you need to cover larger areas of redness as with rosacea, try a slightly different approach. In addition to a green optic primer, add a bit of green toner drops to your long wear foundation. Apply only to the affected pigment. Then tone and stipple lightly over the top of the area with the luminous foundation match that you made.  Straight green concealer can be impossible to cover.

For under eye circles, use an array of peach to pumpkin orange or even brighter depending on the intensity of the unwanted pigment. A thin layer well stippled will keep things smooth. Peaches and oranges are great to neutralize dark pigmentation. These warm hues work great for most hyper pigmentation. Also, for dark undereye circles, utilize eye cream with light diffracting pigments. These are like sandwiched metallic layers that create multilayered reflections and can be great to dab on top of the makeup. As great as these products are for dark circles, they will exacerbate eye bags. You can skillfully apply the optics to the crease line only, over the orange color corrector and concealer.  Keep the high point of the bag slightly darker and matte.

For dry mature skin, it would be advisable to have a series of chemical peels to make the canvas as smooth as possible. Dermaplaning also alleviates the problem of fleshy colored vellus hair left by foundation. Be sure to apply makeup to well hydrated skin, no matter what the skin type. I the winter months when the humidity is low, and forced air heat is everywhere, Keep a fine mist toner in your purse to rebloom the look.