It’s that time of year to celebrate and with the cooler weather, time to make a few changes to our skin care and make up. Drier weather calls for treatment serums, richer moisturizers, lip balms and eye cream.

One of my favorite holiday looks is slightly shimmering golden eyeshadow, black eyeliner and red or wine colored lips.

It’s a great time of year to try some fake lashes even if you’ve been using lash conditioning products. Try eyelashes from Ardell or Eyelure.

A strong dramatic eye with sparkling black, gray or chocolate brown eye shadow, lots of lashes and a softer lip color is a striking festive statement too. One of my favorite chocolate brown eye shadows is from Chantecaille and it’s called Chocolat. Try combining it with another Chantecaille eyeshadow called Jasper for a warm coppery glow. I love the look of lining the inside lower lash line with Lancome Black Coffee pencil.

A lot of make up companies are offering holiday collections. Check out maccosmetics.com for some very inspiring holiday palettes in fun containers. LORAC is offering a beautiful lip gloss collection I love.

The beauty of the internet is we can research and shop in comfort and privacy. Of course it’s not the same as feeling textures and seeing how different colors react on our skin, but we can get a good general idea.

Enjoy experimenting or just pump your signature looks for a little holiday cheer.

What changes are you considering for your summer makeup? Now that it’s officially summer, I’m making sure to get sunblock on my face, neck and decollete every day and even including my arms, shoulders and legs if exposed.

Even though we wear sunscreen, we can still get tan. It might be time to darken your foundation a 1/2 shade, maybe a little rosier. We want our faces to match our bodies especially if we use more protection on our faces.

Color: Summer is a great time to experiment with some brighter colors and bronzer. Try a brighter nail polish (Essie’s summer collection is great) to start – especially on your toes. If you want to experiment with color on your eyes, this is the time of year to do it! Try a bright colored pencil just under you lower lash line for a subtle change. Bright pink or coral lipsticks are a fun pop of color especially when wearing summer white clothes. If you want to add the brighter color to your cheeks, use a softer shimmery or sheer lipstick or gloss in a complementary shade.

Bronzer: My favorite bronzers are matte or have only a slight shimmer. Apply the bronzer with a fluffy brush on all the areas of the face the sun would naturally hit. I like to start with the top of the cheekbone, moving down along the jaw, dusting the forehead, chin and even the tip of your nose, maybe even the tops of your shoulders and collar bones if exposed. Using a larger fluffy brush will make sure the color is dispersed lightly and prevent streaking. There are many shades of bronzer to choose from – experiment and find one that fits your complexion. A honey-colored bronzer works well with fair skin, rosy bronze colors look good with medium skin tones and tawny or amber bronzers work well with darker complexions.

The mirror is our friend. Look into a mirror in daylight to get a realistic view. Streaks or blotches can easily be blended out with a cotton pad or powder puff.

Product tip: Colorscience makes a loose powder with a brush attached in many colors which contain sunscreen. I love this product!

A friend who is a mother told me a great Easter tradition:

Plant jelly beans with your kids on Good Friday, ask them to water them on Saturday, on Easter morning see the lollipops in the ground where the jelly beans were planted! I love this story, it makes me smile every time I think about it.

[Images via: Nesting In New Jersey]

I’m excited to share my ideas, techniques, experience and opinions about how I use make-up to reveal beauty. I’ve been in the beauty business for over 25 years and have worked with some of the most gorgeous women in the world. Everybody I meet has the desire to look and feel good. I think using make-up is a way to reveal our beauty to ourselves and to others. Everyone has unique skin tones, features and style. As we start this journey together, I want to encourage you to look in the mirror and make friends with your face. Instead of focusing on what you don’t like, let’s celebrate and love what’s pleasing to you. There are so many brands of skin care and make up to choose from. I’m sure many of you have bags, drawers and/or cabinets full. I’ll eventually let you know some of my favorites. This week I want to go over a quick daytime look to get you out of the house in minutes feeling confident and ready to face the day.

WASH: It starts with consistent skin care!

Wearing make up doesn’t necessarily make you break out, BUT not removing it completely can congest and irritate your skin. I always tell people to wash their face at least twice – once to breakdown the make up and second to completely remove and rinse. Follow up with some kind of treatment (like a serum), moisturizer and eye cream and you’re ready for more make up tomorrow. **Note: Which brand you use is up to you, your esthetician or your dermatologist. I’m more interested in knowing that you’re taking the time to care for your skin every day.

PREP: Moisturize and protect

In the morning after you wash your face, apply your moisturizer with upward strokes and then pat on the sunscreen. I like to use at least spf 30. **Note: Don’t forget your neck and any other exposed skin.

MAKE-UP: Quick & basic daytime look
1. Now that you have clean, moisturized and sun protected skin start with mascara. I know, the order seems different, but if you start with your eyes, any mascara or eye shadow that falls can easily be cleaned up without messing up the foundation. It also gives the moisturizer and sunscreen time to settle. Do the bottom lashes first to prevent the top lash mascara from transferring to your eyelid. **Note: I’m giving you suggestions, not rules. If you don’t want to do eye make up first, that’s ok. You might consider trying it and see what works best for you.

2. Use a small amount of liquid foundation spread evenly over the face with clean fingertips. For this quickie make up, I’m not going for total opaque coverage. I just want to even out the skin tone. **Note: Remember to blend well along the jaw- don’t leave any hard lines.

3. Pat on a concealer under the eyes and on any blemishes that are very distracting. **Note: Use a concealer that neutralizes the dark circles under the eyes instead of just making them lighter. I’ll address this in more detail in another blog. Choose what you like best, concealer then foundation or the other way around.

4. Use a powder puff to gently buff the make up into the skin. You can use a little translucent powder on the puff if desired.

5. Brush your eyebrows and fill in and/or extend as needed with an eye brow pencil or eye brow powder.

6. Apply powder blush to the apples of your cheeks. I like the blush to be placed high on the cheek bones. I think it looks youthful and healthy to have rosy color.

7. Add a lip color and/or gloss and you have a QUICK daytime look.

“Beauty is not caused. It is.” – Emily Dickenson