New Years Eve Glam Look Tutorial with e.l.f.

This year, I’m going to a wedding on New Years Eve, and I wanted to think of a fun look that is both wedding-appropriate, but also festive and fun for some late-night dancing after the reception. I decided to call in some reinforcements and teamed up with CVS Pharmacy to create this look for you guys! I armed myself with my trusty e.l.f brushes, and my friend Mike Silva (makeup guru and my go-to for creating fun new looks).

I’ve created a step-by-step tutorial of how Mike and I executed the perfect glam look with subtle contouring, sexy smokey eye, and plum-nude lip, including each type of e.l.f. brush we used in the process. I’ve also included some unexpected ways to use these brushes that Mike taught me–I always learn so much from makeup artists!

First, Mike mixed my foundation and put it on using the e.l.f. foundation brush. He showed me what is basically the dirty secret of the makeup world in getting the perfect foundational coverage without it being too cakey and covering everything you want it to: mix Smashbox Studio Skin 15 Hour Wear Foundation (shade 2.4 for me) with L.A. Girl HD Pro concealer (shade in light ivory). The more concealer you add, the more coverage you get. Voila! He also used the e.l.f. concealer brush to apply concealer under and around my eyes.

The most flattering way to apply concealer (L.A. Girl in Porcelain) under the eye is to draw a small triangle, with the point toward your cheek. You don’t want just your undereye to have coverage; swing the concealer up around the outside corner of your eyes as well to make them look bigger!

OK, so you’ve probably noticed the white powder underneath my eyes and on my chin; don’t mind me…I’m just “baking“! Mike introduced me to baking (you’ve probably seen a lot of makeup artists using this on Instagram and Youtube), which is basically just applying translucent powder over foundation and concealer under the eyes, on your chin and on the highlight of your cheekbones. The heat from your face “bakes” the foundation and concealer, setting it, ultimately minimizing wrinkles, smudging, and catching the fallout from the smokey eye we do later! Apply the power with a beauty blender and leave yourself “baking” for at least 10 minutes.

Next, Mike continued the contouring process using the e.l.f. bronzer brush. He used bronzer along the sides of my forehead and temples (thins out the face!) and the area below my cheekbones (follow the line starting from your ears to just before the middle of your cheek).

Time to get my brows on fleek! First, Mike tamed my brows using e.l.f’s brow comb and brush, then he filled in my brows with Benefit’s ka-brow! Eyebrow cream gel (this stuff is AMAZING; I use it everyday for my brows–it’s so easy to control how dramatic you want your brows, so it’s perfect for both a casual and a glam look). We finished it off with Benefit’s 3D Browtones Brow-Enhancer and my brows were ready to rock.

Smokey eye is up next! Let me just say that Mike absolutely KILLS the smokey eye. Unfortunately we don’t have a video of him doing it, but here’s a good tutorial I found YouTube. First, Mike patted on a neutral primer base, then he used the e.l.f. contour brush to shade in my crease and below my lower lash line with a shimmery brown. He finished it off using a blending brush to smoke out the eye with a darker layer on top, creating a more dramatic look.

We then finished off the smokey eye with some eye pencil. Mike taught me a fun trick using the e.l.f. angled eyeliner brush to get even more precision along the lash line than with an eye pencil–just rub the brush along the pencil to pick up the color, and then use the brush along the upper and lower lash lines–don’t take the liner all the way to the inside corner of the eyes, however, as this will make your eyes look smaller!

Last, but not least, Mike added some mascara and fake eyelashes to the mix to really accentuate the smokey eye. Hint: When applying mascara, apply the first layer on the top of the lashes, and a second layer on the underside of the lashes. This will create volume without looking clumpy!

Guess what? I’m all baked and ready to go! Mike removed my translucent setting powder with the e.l.f. blush brush (just brush it off–easy!) and then used it to apply a few dashes of blush above the highlight on my cheekbones. He also added some Nars Illuminator (shade Copacobana) to my cheekbones and the bridge of my nose to complete my contouring.

Yay! My New Years look is complete, and I couldn’t have done it without the help of Mike Silva, or my e.l.f. brushes! If you want to re-create this awesome look, be sure to stop by your local CVS and raid their new beauty aisle–they have tons of my favorite brands and all of these brushes together were only $15! Gotta love the look for less 🙂