Holiday Party Look 2011

Hello girls :) I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!  This weekend was my office Holiday Party, and thanks to your help in the comments on my 100 Followers Thank You post, I devised a smokey purple look:

Glitter is so darned difficult to photograph!

Face: Dermalogica Active Moist, Stila Sheer Color Tinted Moisturizer in Medium, Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer (a sample I had. I knew it was risky to try it out for an event, but the risk paid off and I LOVE this stuff! Best primer I've ever tried, as far as feel on the skin and finish it gave my foundation.  I'm definitely going to invest in a bottle!) applied with a flat Eco Tools Foundation brush, Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation in 52 Vanilla applied with the beauty blender sponge (this is the best application method for this foundation.  My skin looked nearly flawless!  If it wasn't more time-consuming than my Sephora #55 brush, this combo would be my HG). Just FYI, I had prepped my skin earlier in the day with Vivo Per Lei Facial Peeling, followed by a wash with Philosophy Purity on my Clarisonic Mia. I'm sure this helped with smoothing my skin under the foundation.

Please pardon the weird shadows cast on my face

Cheeks: I used the NYX Highlight and Contour Powder (review here), and kept my blush very subtle using sheer Rimmel Santa Rose on the apples.  Then I highlighted my cheekbones with a little Benefit Highbeam.

Eyes: I didn't really need it, but out of habit I applied Garnier Tinted Eye Roller to the dark circle area.  This messed up the finish of my foundation a little, but I was able to blend it in the end.  The Bourjois Healthy Mix had actually covered up enough of my shadows, though.  I applied Too Faced Shadow Insurance to my lids and lower lashline with a synthetic concealer brush (this is kind of drying on my lids. Can anyone tell me if the NARS shadow base is less drying but not oily like UDPP?).  Next I dabbed on Tokidoki shadow in Donutella, a shimmery champagne with silver glitter.  I think it is a lot like Urban Decay Midnight Cowboy in that it has tons of glitter fallout.  I liked this effect for my festive look, so no worries! This went on my lids' inner third and corner, and the purple from NARS duo eyeshadow in Bysance went on my lids' outer two-thirds.  I found this shadow frustrating as I really had to pack it on with effort.  I hear this is common for purple shadows, though. I was originally going to use the gold in this duo as well but decided not to.  Next, I applied NARS single in Ondine (a plummy brown) in my crease and outer v.  It wasn't giving me the depth I wanted, so I darkened the crease with Giorgio Armani Eyes to Kill Intense in Red Lust (probably any black eyeshadow would have done the trick; this one just has a reddish nuance that won't really show in this look). The last shadow I used was Wet n Wild Brulee, a matte cream, to blend Ondine out and highlight my outer browbone.  I had to reapply and keep blending all the shadows until I got the desired balance of the colors.

Next I lined my lower lashline up to the inner half of my iris with Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner in Asphyxia. I wanted to bring in the pinkish-purple shade to match the amethyst look of my Jewelmint Screen Siren earrings. I topped it with NYX Crystal Glitter eyeliner in Crystal Pewter.  I applied Revlon Beyond Natural Lashes in 91182 Flirty with Duo Lash Glue and used a liner brush in the black gel shade from Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips Glam Gel Creamliner trio in Glam Green Eyes to hide the lash band.  I topped this with NYX Crystal Glitter eyeliner in Crystal Onyx.  Lastly, I applied Majolica Majorca Lash Expander Frame Plus Mascara. And after all that, I forgot to put any mascara at all on my lower lashes... argh!

Lips: MAC Hue topped with Too Faced Glamour Gloss in Barely Legal.  There was heaps of glitter on my eyes and I didn't want my lips or cheeks to compete.

It's pretty obvious which dress I ended up wearing:

It wasn't very cold, even with the snow on the ground :D

Originally I was going to do a regal combo of gold and purple as many of you suggested.  I did up my nails with over-the-top bling to bring more gold into the outfit and planned to use a little gold handbag to tie it together.

Sadly, it wasn't meant to be! My nail decals trapped water in the shower and the whole shebang just peeled off with only hours until the party and my full makeup left to do.   Rather than freak out, I removed the nail look, replaced the gold in my eye makeup with a glitter-bomb champagne shadow, and switched to a duo-chrome evening purse.  Right at the last minute, I applied two coats of NYX Girls nail polish in Spot Light, a polish with hexagonal holographic- and silver micro- glitter in a clear base.  This would up looking awesome with the boyfriend watch my husband bought me for my first Christmas present!  I had been wanting a boyfriend watch but the Michael Kors ones were too big for my wrist.  The Fossil ladies' boyfriend watches were also too large.  In the end, I got a real men's watch with crystals... would you know this was meant for men? The only differences were we had to remove more links... and it was $30-$50 cheaper than the Fossil ladies' boyfriend watches! I love it <3

Yay, thanks G <3 xoxo!

So, obviously I'm really in the spirit this year... are you guys still psyched for the holidays or are you over it already?