This Shimmery New Year's Eve Makeup Look Is So Sexy, You'll Want To Kiss Yourself At Midnight
All I've gotta say it, thank God the end of 2018 is nigh. I think I speak for a ton of people when I say we're ready to go out with a bang, and I, for one, am determined to send 2018 off on a high note. Meaning, my makeup should look damn good while I kick this year to the curb. And this glitter New Year's Eve makeup tutorial will make sure that happens.
However, when you know you're gonna be partying pretty hard long into the night on a holiday, you need a long-lasting look that's festive, sultry, and pretty enough to repeat, if we're being honest. (Hey, why would I only wear a look I love once?) To point me in the right direction, Kat Von D Artistry Collective Makeup Artist Steffanie Strazzere showed me how to create a spectacularly sexy, glittery makeup look that's totally apropos for a New Year's Eve soiree — as well as any other night you need a sultry look with a shiny flair.
To create this look, Strazzere used several new makeup arrivals from Kat Von D, namely the Lolita Eyeshadow Palette ($39, Kat Von D), the Everlasting Glimmer Veil Liquid Lipstick in the shade iconic, fan-favorite shade "Lolita" ($22, Kat Von D), and the Glitter Gel in "Tesoro Gold" ($20, Kat Von D). However, if you're hoping to recreate the look and you don't have these babies in your arsenal, you can easily swap in any deep reddish/burgundy/plum eyeshadows, a shimmery gold eyeshadow in a cream or powder formula, and a metallic lipstick.
All right, now that we've got the necessary tools in order, it's showtime, baby. Time to strategically smear glitter all over and serve up a damn good ~lewk~. Starting with a clean base on my eyes, Strazzere applied the shade "Lolita" on my eyelids, and then deepened my crease and the outer corner of my eye by blending in the burgundy shade "Corazon" and the deep plum shade "Eterno." If you aren't into wearing glitter on your eyes, these colors alone are a prime combination by themselves for a sultry smoky eye that you can wear any time of year.
When using darker colors like this and going super smoky, Strazzere recommends two things: 1) completing your eye makeup before applying foundation and concealer, and 2) having a makeup wipe or cotton swab handy to address any eyeshadow fall-out. A makeup wipe or cotton swab can easily swipe away any fall-out during the application process, and applying complexion products after doing your eyes will prevent any fall-out from messing up your concealer or foundation. Strazzere says this also makes it so you don't have to "keep chasing your concealer," which can result in a cakey, creasy look.
After applying the darkest shades in the Lolita palette in my crease and blending thoroughly, Strazzere moved on to the main attraction: ~the gold~. Now, if you're a glitter lover (*raises hand*), you'll intuitively want to goop this product on your eyes until your whole lid looks like a brick of gold. However, Strazzere says there's a better way to go about applying this product.
"With this product, if you want it really opaque, the way I find it works the best is if you start off with a thin layer and lightly pack it on — that way you can get it really diffused and blended where you want it," she tells me. "Let that dry entirely, kind of like a nail polish. Then, once that dries, you can go back and add a second layer."
According to Strazzere, this application method will help with making sure the product doesn't move, crease, or fade throughout the night. "If you try to do like one really thick layer, what happens is your eyes, obviously the skin on them moves all the time, so [the product is] gonna crease and crack," explains Strazzere. "But if you do these really thin layers, it stays flawless."
Using this method, Strazzere applied a thin layer of the gold Glitter Gel using a small brush and let it dry before adding another layer. She applied it mostly on the inner portion of my eyelid, as well as the center, and she also blended the color slightly toward my outer third and on the inner portion of my lower lash line. As you can see in the photos, this product packs A TON of shine — as if Strazzere poured real liquid gold right onto my eye.
As a finishing touch on the eyeshadow look specifically, Strazzere blended the shade "Eterno" onto the outer portion of my lower lash line to smoke out the look and give it an incredibly sultry, grungy, nighttime feel — perfect for embodying your vampiest self on New Year's Eve. One little known tip Strazzere has for smoking out your lower lash line is that she, personally, uses a dense, angled lip brush "so you can pack it right into the lash line." "Then, after, I use the smallest blending brush I can find and just diffuse the edge," she says. "So that way, you don't get a ton of fall-out, and you get the product exactly where you want it."
Of course, if a smoky eye gives you hives (I can't relate, but I'm trying to understand), peep the pic above for how this look appears with and without an under-smoke.
Not to be dramatic, but I was so excited about this look that I had half a mind to ask Strazzere to hurry TF up and finish it so I could take 15 million more pictures of myself and hit up parties I wasn't even invited to so I could show everyone how dope this looked. Wearable, yet extravagant. Festive, yet sexy. Gold, yet really f*cking gold. I felt damn good.
She finished off the whole shebang by smoking out the other eye, applying a couple coats of mascara to seal the deal, and a coat of the Everlasting Glimmer Veil Liquid Lipstick, a truly shimmery liquid lipstick that dries almost instantly. Because Strazzere understands me on a spiritually level, apparently, she gave me a prime tip to make this lip shimmer even more — because there can never be too much shine, especially on New Year's Eve.
"If you want this [lip] to be extra shimmery ... if you put it on with a brush and stamp it down, it will give you a much more glittery finish," she says.
Finally, Strazzere set her tools down, I looked in the mirror, and I realized this look was my sexy, grungy, glittering dreams come to life. Not only was this look incredibly appropriate for a New Year's Eve party, but it was also generally beautiful to look at — like a shimmering work of art, rather than a glitter explosion on my face.
Luckily for everyone, if you have fallen in love with this look and are able to run to a beauty retailer before the clock strikes midnight on NYE, all of the Kat Von D goodies Strazzere used are available at Sephora. On the other hand, if you already have your NYE look sorted, but you still want these tools to have and to hold forever and ever, they're all available on the Kat Von D website and the Sephora website as well.
This NYE, make sure you carry a mirror around with you. If you end up rocking this look, you'll wanna kiss yourself come midnight.
