Add a Little Sparkle to Your Holiday Look

I'm a little older, so I like adding a subtler look by adding metallic colors and accents in my clothing. You can read a little more about my holiday glimmer and glam at: http://fab50review.blogspot.com/2012/01/adding-tha...

I love to wear the sparkle in my clothes and accessories all year long, so to make the holidays any different, I had to get brave and try out some new makeup.

I took a long hiatus from fancy makeup – like, a decade or so – so I had to go back to the drawing board when I thought about holiday makeup. I wasn’t feeling as adventurous as I did in my twenties. I’m still dutifully studying makeup trends, weighing my tastes, deciding what works for my current mid-30′s face, so I was not about to go all hog wild with all kinds of eyelashes and rhinestones. Plus, holiday parties as a suburban mom pretty much involve midnight games of Rummikub with the neighbors or shmoozing at Bear’s office party with a bunch of nurses in scrubs. Neither one really calls for a huge deviation from the norm.

But I did get to go to one great party this year – the BlogHer Christmas party – and since it was the only for real grown up party I was going to get to go to for ages, I threw caution to the wind and wore fake lashes and everything. It was so much fun to dip my toe into some more adventurous waters, but a little of that goes a very long way.

For a look that’s a little more special than my everyday makeup, but not so much that I look like I’m getting a glamourshot taken, I love to go with a color of eyeshadow that offers a little shimmer. I picked up this palette of MAC eyeshadow and I’ve gone back to it over and over again this season. It’s got variations of all the plums, browns, and blacks that I typically wear, but with some sparkle that takes me out of the typical look. For my midnight game adventures I wear a little bit of the plum along the crease of my eyelid, for my BlogHer Christmas party I wore a whole lot of that copper all over.

It’s enough to make me feel all done up, without making me feel self-conscious about how different I look.

I got a sparkly manicure this year and I really love it. But like some of the other readers, I love to wear sparkly tops under jackets and cardigans to add a little fun to a regular workday.

I love the luminizer idea! I mix it into my tinted moisturizer so I get a light coverage and a little "glow"!

I rarely wear makeup, but if I have a holiday party to attend I usually put on a little makeup, just to take things up a notch. I have a casual wardrobe, so a typical party outfit for me is skinny jeans and a sweater, dressed up with heels and jewelry.

Att first I wasn't going to answer it. For one thing, I don't think of myself as having "a holiday look," and for another, I realized that, as I get older and become ever more comfortable in a smaller body, I tend to "add sparkle" to my "everyday look."

In other words, I don't need the excuse of the holidays to add a little shine. I enjoy it each and every day.

In fact, a few years ago I realized that I might be becoming one of Those Middle-Aged Women who goes in for sparkly-shiny stuff. And, um, that's not always a good thing. Does the word rhinestones fill you with terror? It kind of does me. Fashion error alert!

Mostly I'm more subtle than that, though -- or I like to think I am. Yes, sparkle has worked its way into some of my everyday clothing: yesterday I bought a couple of wonderful, one-of-a-kind designer woven tunic tops that had just a hint of same-tone sequins sewn into its fabric here and there. I add increasingly chunky, sparkly jewelry to my work outfits to add a little bling and keep things from getting too boring.

And the other day I picked up a new pair of glasses with Lafont frames that feature almost Tiffany-like arms into which are set tiny panels of color and a few scattered crystals.

Basically, I'm loving the sparkle, and I say why save it only for the holidays?!

I love the luminzer tip, Erin! I am going to try it soon and I'll let you know how it goes.

I use sparkly shadow and shimmery and/or colored mascara for adding a bit of holiday pop to my makeup look. Thanks for all these great ideas.