Amidst flashing fairy lights and festive decorations, December is undoubtedly a month painted in red, green and gold. This offers us a unique opportunity to add more colour to our fashion and beauty. Even if you are generally self-conscious about wearing bright colours, the holiday season gives you the perfect excuse to experiment with a fun colour palette – beyond wearing an eyewatering Christmas jumper! Here are some ideas on how to add some festivity into your look this holiday season:

Glitter:

Need I say more? Glitter is a staple during the holidays and not only for decorations. Body glitter allows you to literally bathe yourself in sparkle or, for a more subtle look, eye glitter packed on the lid creates a pretty shimmer. Using concealer on the eye beforehand (or special glues) prevents the glitter from migrating down your face. Glitter gel eyeliners can also double up on your winged eyeliner, as in the tutorial below. If you find wings difficult, lining your eye normally like this has a similar effect! 

Red Lipstick:

Add a bright red into your look! This not only looks amazing on most skin tones, and also means that you can be more lazy with eye makeup. For that bright holiday red, I would suggest using a lip liner to keep the lines around your mouth sharp. However, using concealer carefully or dipping an angled eyeliner brush in lipstick and using it to line your lips can work wonders. Doing your lipstick in pink first, making them more easily traceable, also ensures a neater red. This video gives some tips for achieving this:

Green Eyeshadow:

Green eyeshadow seems instantly festive and can really brings out blue and brown eyes! This is also good practice if you would like to try out darker or more neutral smokey eyes. Personally, I cover my entire lid with a white base, then use a fairly large fluffy eyeshadow brush to lightly dab green across the eye. Going back over this multiple times will increase the intensity of the green. Afterwards, to blend it slightly, swipe a light brown in the crease of your eye to soften it. Adding brown or green with a thin brush to the bottom of the eye, smudging it lightly with a finger, completes the look. To avoid green eyebags, if you wear concealer put it on afterwards. This tutorial gives a more in-depth demonstration of a darker green smokey eye:

Hair Chalk:

A way to make your hair temporarily more colourful is by using hair chalks! Hair chalk is essentially what it says on the tin, chalk designed for use in your hair. While this may sound a little disastrous, it  temporarily adds streaks of blue, pink, red, green and any other colour you can imagine. Unless your hair is naturally platinum blonde, this only stay in until you wash your hair, with little damage. This is perfect for people who would like to try bright colours, but fear the bleach.  If you’re looking for a more long term change, semi-permanent dyes offer this. I will be doing a more comprehensive article on this in the future, so if this interests you, watch out for this! 

Colourful clothes: 

Adding colour into your wardrobe can be as simple as wearing a cute red top, or coat that has a bright blue lining.  Accessories, such as scarfs or hats, can also provide a shot of colour into your look. While you may be worried about adding colour to your wardrobe, primary or pastel colours especially compliment black and white items of clothing. Pairing something simple with a statement piece is an easy way to cautiously add colour to your wardrobe – although, if you feel more daring, purposeful colour clashes and bright patterns can really work.  

However you choose to spend the holiday, have some fun! Take some photos with fairylights around the camera; wear small baubles like earrings. Despite all the careful advice above, makeup and fashion are ultimately about what makes you feel good – so whether you’re rocking a red lip, a bright blue suit or your normal look (or perhaps all of the above) have fun experimenting with what makes you feel most festive!

Video credits go to PEACHY, easyNeon, and light child on youtube
*The bubble or myself do not own the rights to these videos*