Sephora's Debra Moroz applies silver glitter to model Joelle McKenzie for a spin on the glam look.

Rebecca Blissett

This holiday season, you have your pick of glam looks to choose from. Many of them we’ve seen before, so the trick is putting a new spin on them. Here’s what the experts are doing.

Glam Slam
“Sparkles are back this year with a vengeance,” says Debra Moroz, colour lead and product expert at Sephora (Pacific Centre). “It’s really glam this year.”

To rock this look, you’ll need a grey-toned shadow palette like the Givenchy Prisme Again! Eyeshadow Quartet in Precious Shimmer ($58). Brush a silvery, white-ish grey highlighter on the lid, decreasing the amount of product as you move toward the brow bone. Then work in a medium grey shadow over top, diffusing the product toward the crease. Then add a light dusting of shimmer on the lid. Moroz suggests Make Up for Ever’s Diamond Powder in Silver ($27).

After that, you’re ready to line the eye with some sort of black eyeliner, be it a liquid liner, smudge pot, or pencil. Moroz recommends that beginners use Sephora’s Retractable Waterproof Eyeliner ($16) on the top lash line; it takes a minute to set and comes with a smudger, so if you make a mistake you’ll have the time and the tools to fix it. For the bottom lashes, you can brush on a dark matte grey shadow.

Now it’s time to sparkle and shine. Take a liquid liner like Sephora’s Glitter Eyeliner in silver ($14) and go crazy…or not.

“There’s different gradients on this look,” Moroz says. “So if you’re not feeling very comfortable with lots of glitter, you can just put a little bit of glitter on the [upper] lash line, or put tons of glitter all over the lid or underneath the eye—whatever you’re comfortable with.”

Golden Goddess
We normally associate a dewy, golden look with warmer weather. But you can easily winterize it for the holidays: all you need to do is pop out those peepers.

“Summer’s more about natural, glowy cheeks and lips, whereas winter’s about glamming it up a bit, so you kind of want an eye focus,” says Kendra Lovick, makeup artist at BeautyMark (103–1120 Hamilton Street). She suggests starting by putting a base of gold cream shadow all over your lid.

“You want to blend it just above the crease,” she says. “Like a sunset, it should fade right up to the brow bone.”

Then take a gold-shadow palette like the Stila Eyeshadow Trio in Gold Glow ($37). Put the light shade on the lid, the midtone in the crease, and the dark shade in the outer corners. Also, you’ll want to apply some of the darker shadow over whatever liner you go with. In this case, Lovick suggests the Stila smudge pot in bronze ($26), which you apply along the top lashes with a dense, stiff brush and blend upward.

Even though the emphasis is on the eyes, you still want your skin to have that golden glow. Lovick likes Stila Illuminating Liquid Foundation ($50) all over and Cargo bronzer in medium ($26) on the high points of your face.

After that, all you need is some pink blush, mascara, and a nude lip-gloss, and you’re good as gold.

Red Lips
Every year, classic red lips make a comeback just in time for the holidays, and this year is no different. The great thing about this look is you don’t have to spend a fortune to look like a million bucks. The key here is prepping your kisser beforehand.

“If you’re going to do a red lip, you should make sure your lips aren’t dry and chapped,” says freelance makeup artist Stephanie Mattis, who helped us find some cheap deals at Shoppers Drug Mart. “Exfoliate them with a really gentle exfoliator especially made for lips, or use a toothbrush and just flake off excess dead skin. Then use a really good lip balm. But before you go to apply your lipstick, make sure you tissue off the balm, just because you want the lipstick to really adhere.”

To prevent the lipstick from bleeding, Mattis suggests patting on some concealer and pressed powder around the mouth. She also recommends using a lip brush as well as a lip liner. If you’re looking to save money, Revlon’s ColorStay clear lip liner with a built-in sharpener ($12.49) will give you more bang for your buck because you can use it with every shade of lipstick.

When it comes to picking the actual lipstick, Mattis says the general rule is warmer shades for olive complexions and cooler shades for pale complexions. If all else fails, you can’t go wrong with a true red—it suits almost every skin tone.

Her top picks for recession-friendly reds are Love That Red by Revlon ($10.49) for olive complexions, Temptation by Rimmel (8.49) for paler complexions, and Very Cherry by Maybelline ($9.99) for the aforementioned true red.

And since you don’t want your eyes to compete with your showstopping mouth, use a soft wash of silver (for cooler tones) or gold (for warmer tones) on the lids and some black mascara to complete this look.