Christmas Cocktail Party: Get Ready With Me!

First of all, please take this survey as I am striving to improve the blog in the new year and would love to know what you’d like to see more of, what you think could improve, and any other feedback you might have! I gotta warn you guys, today’s post is going to be very photo-heavy. But since there are only a few days until Christmas, I thought I’d do at least one Christmas-themed outfit/makeup post.

A few weekends ago, one of our friends hosted a Christmas party that was Cocktail-dress required, and I didn’t realize that until we were almost to the party. So I didn’t get to go full cocktail; my husband and I ran to Target on the way and grabbed the maroon peplum dress I’m wearing in this post and some silver flats, and I had to make do with a few bobby pins I found in my purse… and that was it. I actually changed in the car. Yeah. That really happens.

So today I thought I’d do the outfit proper, with what I would have looked like if I had realized beforehand that it was a cocktail party. I shot a photo tutorial for some fun makeup, showed you how I did a quick and easy holiday hairstyle, AND photographed my outfit, all for one post.

Ready? Yes? Yay!

First up, makeup. We’ll call this look Sugarplums Dancing. Because you’ll see why. As always, begin with a clean, moisturized face. I’ll admit I slept in my makeup last night and only washed it off right before this picture, but uh… pretend I woke up with a fresh face, ok? Apply your regular routine of foundation, blush, and powder, applying a bit of extra powder beneath your eyes as this will make it easier to brush away any falldown eyeshadow later.  I prefer to do my brows before I apply eyeshadow, but this is because I use the same brush for dark liner shadows as I do for my brows, so… if you’re lazy about changing brushes like me, fill in your brows as you please.  Next, taking a shimmery shadow that is a few shades lighter than your skin, apply it to your browbone and the inner corner of your eye to catch all that light from the Christmas tree. Then with a light gold shadow, cover your lid from your lash line to just above your crease. Use the same gold shadow all the way beneath your lower lash line. Taking a dark plum shadow (and now you see where the makeup name came from), create a vee shape from mid-lash line, up and out to the crease, and inwards again. Apply the same shadow on the outer half of your lower lash line.  With a dark brown shadow, deepen the plum color only on the outer edges of your eye, and apply dark brown just at the very outside of your lower lash line. And then, with a darker gold shadow, pop some color on the middle of your lid. Just for fun.  Blend it all because that’s how they say you should. (I’m feeling facetious today, can you tell?)With dark brown or black liner, create a cat-eye shape (or whatever liner shape suits you the best. I like cat-eye because it’s a bit retro and universally flattering.) If you like, set the liner with shadow in the same color.  Now for some fun! With a wet shadow brush, grab yourself some straight gold glitter and dab it on wherever you want. I applied it just above the liner line from the inner corner out to where the darker shadow begins.   Curl your lashes, if you need to (I have to because otherwise they hit my glasses.), and add a few layers of mascara. My current favorite is L’oreal Original Voluminous. It’s kind of amazing stuff. Now, with some plummy liner, line your lips to prevent feathered edges, and first apply a plum-colored lipstick, followed by a pinkish-red lipstick. Mixing lip colors adds dimension and also creates custom colors; this made my lips match the dress I’m going to wear.  Now your face is pretty. (Well, it probably was before. Now it’s… more pretty.)

Next up, the easiest, laziest fancy hairstyle known to woman. Curl your hair loosely (or as curly as you like, actually). I took pretty large sections of hair and was done in about five minutes because I hate spending hours on my hair. Be sure your hair is parted on one side or the other.

Then, taking a large section on the side that your hair is parted away from, pull your hair straight out from your head and curl it under with your fingers, from halfway down the shaft of your hair. This will create some volume instead of slickly-pulled-back-hair. Pin the rest of your hair on that side up in the back, so that you’ve got all the hair to one side of your head. On the other side, loosely bring your hair back from your face in a small section, and pin it back over the hair that’s already tumbling over your shoulder. And… you’re done.

Get yourself into a pretty holiday outfit, and go party! See more of the outfit after the jump!

So, had I known that it was a cocktail party, this is what I would have looked like (here’s what I DID look like). This dress is a bit more form-fitting than I usually prefer, but it was literally the only really Holiday looking dress Target had on clearance, and the peplum helps it feel less bodycon than it is. Please ignore the wonky belt, by the way; the waist of this dress is apparently just slightly lower than it should be on me. And how perfect is this gorgeous scarf with this dress? One of my friends bought it for me years ago from the state fair, and I don’t wear it nearly as much as I should. It’s so beautiful, though!   And, of course, no party outfit is complete without a gift for the host. You can’t really tell in these pictures, but this is like… the worst present wrapping I’ve ever done. It’s actually one of my husband’s Christmas presents, and I ran out of full pieces of wrapping paper just as I got to this one… which was the last gift I had to wrap. So I cut up the pieces I did have to fit the box, and taped them haphazardly at the edges. It’s kind of funny, actually. The bow and sparkly snowflake detract from the ugly parts, though.  I really, really love all of the colors in this outfit and the makeup. I’m always quite pleased when outfits are kind of matchy-matchy, and especially when I can create a makeup look that is appropriate for the look I wanted AND happens to match something I’m wearing. Maroon is one of my favorite colors, and the more I look at this outfit, the more I need more things that are this color. Also, the more I want to wear this lipcolor. Well! I hope you all enjoyed this get-ready-with-me/tutorial post; I think next time I might try to film it instead to cut down on how many pictures there are, but… whatever. I’m still ramping myself back up to doing video and not getting frustrated in the editing process.

Dress, earrings, ring and heels, Target | belt, thrifted | tights, I don’t remember | lipsticks: Maybelline Mauv-elous and Red Revolution, both a few years old.

Also, I’m sorry: I didn’t realize I was going to be a walking advertisement for buying your clothes at Target. But I have to admit, I only ever go to Target or Goodwill, so… oops. I even got my lipstick at Target. Man. Addicted, much?

I hope you are all having a wonderful week! If you don’t follow me on Instagram, here’s what I wore for yesterday’s dress.

Happy Tuesday!

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