Your party season beauty kit, from red lipstick to shiny hair

Party season is heavy with occasions, and you’ve last year to make up for, so no need to hold back. Not to stress – a wardrobe of high-performance staples will waltz you through the festivities.

Add polish to chocolate-advent-calendar-skin with the new season glow-givers. Chanel have liquefied candlelight with the latest Les Beiges Sheer Highlighting Fluid and new brands on the block Refy and Makeup By Mario, from influencer Jess Hunt and Kardashian consigliere Mario Dedivanovic respectively, also have sheen to supply next-level sparkle – just sweep a touch on the high points of the face.

Hair is the biggest faff of it all, but not with the right tools. Landed in Ireland is K18, the breakthrough hair godsend that – bear with me here – reconnects the interchains and intrachains that make up the structure of the hair. In short, it repairs your hair – in just four minutes – and the worse the damage to your hair, the better the results. You replace your conditioner with it and leave it in – it dries with no residue, leaves hair instantly softer and shinier, and heals hair from the inside out. Once you’ve repaired your hair, you won’t want to hurt it with styling, but you don’t have to with the Dyson Airwrap – it gives foolproof salon-standard styled hair easily at a lower temperature for less heat damage, and can curl, wave, smooth and dry hair. It’s also now in a new covetable colourway; Prussian Blue and Rich Copper.

Hair heroes are all undergoing a colour make-over this Christmas, with LanaiBLO adding Saffron, Kingfisher Blue, Metallic Navy and Blossom Pink to an already colourful line-up of the fast-drying hairdryers. They’re also available to be personalised, making it an excellent gift for yourself or someone else. Finally, The L’Oreal Professionnel Steampod 3.0 joins the colour chaos with the second limited edition collaboration with a signature pink makeover, Steampod 3.0 x Barbie. Available exclusively online and in stores from Peter Mark, the Steampod offers faster, smoother styling with less damage and breakage. All are expensive but time-saving, life-changing self-gifts.

The festive-slump saviour, minimal-effort dependable and party season staple is, of course, red lipstick – but which? Take it from the most seasoned of red lip cognoscenti – Rihanna, Gwen Stefani, and Dita Von Teese – who all wear MAC’s mega matte cult favourite Ruby Woo, which now comes in three new mattes – liquid, diffused and whipped mousse. Prefer a semi- matte? Lancôme L’Absolu Rouge Drama Ink gives all-day colour in one stroke.

Bored of bordeaux? Look to the navy nails at Anna Sui’s autumn/winter show; a rich inky hue suits all skin tones and lengths and is a statement on its own or a neutral base for nail art. Finally, if you can’t face any of that this party season, just dress your eyes like tinsel with disco shimmer. ’Tis the season after all.

Photography by Zara.

This article originally appeared in the Winter issue of IMAGE Magazine. We may earn a commission if you buy something from any affiliate links on our site.