The Perfect Holiday Look // Tips For Making It Last & Taking It Off

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One of my favorite thing about the holidays, aside from family and food and giving gifts, is the fact that glitter becomes incredibly more prevalent in stores and in makeup looks. There’s also ample opportunity to really amp up that glam factor and I am HERE for that.

With great glitter and bold lips comes great difficulties with making the look last and taking it off. Super dry “butthole” lips and glitter that never seems to come off are too real, but today I’m going to help you solve these dilemmas while looking fabulous.

For my look, I did my lips with a nice pinkish, plum neutral color. I wore Neutrogena® MoistureSmooth Color Stick in the shade Plum Perfect (70) from Walmart. Funny enough, Plum Perfect is the name of the company I interned at last semester.  The color is very moisturizing and is easy to layer.

I kept my bronzer and blush light for this look, but layered my foundation for full coverage. I put pale gold glitter on my lids and smoked it out with gold and black shadows. Then, I topped the look off with false lashes. This was my first time ever applying them and I definitely recommend practicing applying them before actually completing this look for the holidays. I applied one lash too close to my tear duct and the other I glued incorrectly, so I’m definitely glad this look was a test run.

Anyway, now that the look is complete, here are some tips for making it last all night and taking it off with ease…

Tips to make your look last all night:

1. Start with lip liner + fill your lips in with it.

What I like about these Neutrogena Color Sticks is that you can layer them with a lip liner to slightly darken the color or you can keep it light and simple.

For the bolder, darker lip I put Plum Perfect over a plum lip liner but for my lighter look I used the product on its own. You control the intensity of the color, which I think is great. They also smell really nice and fruity and keep your lips feeling soft!

2. Moisturize first.

If your skin is prone to dryness or flakiness, this is extra important. It’ll help your skin stay more hydrated which will make your skin look even nicer. The Neutrogena color sticks I mentioned have mango and shea butter, which helps you skip the step of moisturizing your lips!

3. Use primer.

Obviously, right? Use a small amount of this because when it comes to primer a little bit usually goes a long way. I find that primer works best when applied with your (clean) fingers.

4. Bring oil blotting sheets.

I keep these in my purse at all times. These are perfect for anyone who has oily skin, it helps remove shine and oiliness.

5.  Bake your face.

This has been incredibly trendy, but if you don’t have the time for this, try just taking a translucent powder and packing it underneath your eyes and on other areas you’d like to set. After letting it sit for as long as possible, sweep it away and boom! Your makeup has extra staying power. Make sure you do this before you put on your outfit, because the powder can be a bit messy.

Tips for makeup removal:

1. Press the Neutrogena® Makeup Remover Cleansing Towelette down and hold for a few seconds for tough to remove makeup.

This is especially important for glitter eye shadow, which I used in my look here. This lets the remover kind of soak the product, sort of like pressing nail polish remover down and letting it soak glitter nail polish before you take it off. I love these Neutrogena ones, which I got from Walmart, because they don’t leave any weird residue behind or dry out your skin, they’re also very affordable.

2. Moisturize after removal.

Although these makeup remover towlettes are gentle on the skin, you still want to ensure your skin stays nice and moisturized!

3. If you wore false lashes, clean them with a little bit of makeup remover on a cotton swab.

Focus it on the actual strip and try to avoid getting it on the lashes themselves.

4. Focus on your eyes.

Mascara, even when not waterproof, is very hard to remove. I always do this step first because I usually end up with residue/black mascara flecks on my cheeks. Once again, Neutrogena’s makeup remover towlettes are gentle enough to use on the eyes (even if you wear contacts), so I like using these on my eyes as well.

5. To double check your lip color is off, kiss the makeup remover towlette.

This sounds weird, but I know that I often don’t remove all of my lip color but usually can’t tell. If you kiss the makeup remover wipe and color shows up, it means there’s still product on your lips.

6. Exfoliate your lips.

If you opted for a less moisturizing lip color, this is key to avoiding a lot of dryness. If you’re wearing a more matte or stubborn lip color, exfoliate your lips after removing the color. Of course, even if you wore a moisturizing lip like I did, you can still exfoliate your lips so they’re extra smooth.

7. Lazy or forgetful? Put your makeup remover wipes on your pillow.

Since it’s probably going to be a long night, you might just want to crawl into bed instead of taking off your makeup but this is a BAD idea. There are so many reasons not to sleep with your makeup on that I won’t spew back at you, but leave your pack of wipes on your pillow.

This will force you to have to acknowledge them and stare down your choices right in the face before being able to sleep. You can also literally remove your makeup from your bed if you place the wipes there.

All of the products mentioned in my post can be found in the cosmetics section under “Neutrogena” at your local Walmart!

What is your favorite holiday look?