For those of you late for the ride on red lips, you’ve got a lot of catching up to do because there’s a new lip color in town and her name is Orange (pronounced OR-WRENCH).

I touched on the orange lip last year and if you didn’t rock it then, now is the time to give her a go. The bold hue is best complimented with a fairly understated face and a bad attitude–needed for all the naysayers trying to blot out your shine.

If you’re ready to be bold, check out my tips for finding the right orange:

Fair Skin (think Nicole Kidman or Kelly Osbourne): Try a more modest pinky-orange. Anything too dark and bright can be too much for your fair skin. Try MAC Lipstick in CB 96 or Make Up For Ever Lipstick in Pinkish Orange 403

Medium Skin (think Sarah Jessica Parker or Rachel Bilson): Try a medium pumpkin-ish orange like MAC Lipstick in Meltdown.

Tanned Skin (think Jessica Alba or Eva Mendez): Go for a bright warm orange like Make Up For Ever Lipstick in Flourescent Orange 201.

Olive Skin (think Padma Lakshmi or Lakshmi Menon): Go for a neutral orange like MAC Lipstick in So Chaud.

Dark Skin (think Gabrielle Union or Alek Wek): Brighter hues show up so beautifully on darker skin tones, so be bold and try an orange like MAC Lipstick in Morange.

More Make Up For Ever…

Don’t get too caught up in racial or ethnic backgrounds when it comes to skin color. People of different racial or ethnic backgrounds can have similar coloring and therefore can wear similar makeup shades. The suggestions I made above are to help you narrow down your choices, but are not absolutes-–you can definitely try shades for a skin tone that differs from yours (for instance MAC Lipstick in Morange can be worn by a multitude of tones). The general idea is the darker your skin, the deeper and brighter you can go with your lip color.

P.S. For a completely FIRE lip combo that’s definitely not for the tame, try MAC Lady Danger Lipstick with Make Up For Ever Waterproof Lip Pencil in 17C and then top it off with Illamasqua Intense Lipgloss in Temper. Hey, you either go hard or go home!

Whatever your V-Day plans include (mine will be spent sending myself “secret” gifts from Sephora), amp them up with a hot red lip! For the legions of you out there that have been scared silly of rocking this can-work-on-every-skintone shade, Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to try it out. And if you want to show them up, Miss Honey, try it out with a seductive smoky eye and then top your red lipstick off with a red gloss.

Get the Look:

The Smoky Eye
The most simple way to create a smoky eye is to line your eyes with a black eyeliner pencil and then smudge the line upwards with either a eyeshadow brush like MAC#214, a Q-tip, or the tip of a makeup sponge. Follow with two to three coats of mascara.

To get a bit fancy with it, you’ll need to layer your products for the boldest, longest-lasting smoky eye. Start out by applying an eyeshadow base like Urban Decay Primer Potion all over the eyes. Next apply a matte eyeshadow closest to your skin tone all over the eye. After that layer a shimmery eyeshadow color similar to the matte one just on the lid and on the brow bone. Then take your main smoky color and with a thick eyeshadow brush like MAC#217 and apply it in a V shape to the outer corners of the eye and in the crease. Be sure to blend the shadow carefully so that there are no harsh lines where the different colors meet. Then line eyes with black eyeliner. Last, curl lashes and apply a lash primer (if needed) then apply two to three coats of mascara. As with any eye look, if your eyes are small or close-set, do not line all the way into the inner corners with a dark liner or shadow. Doing so will make your eyes appear even smaller and more close-set. Instead line the inner corners with a pale gold or silver liner or shadow.

There’s tons of methods of achieving a smoky eye, so you can use my tips above or experiment to find a look you love.

The Red Lip
First, you’ll need to choose the right red. As overwhelming as that may sound, it’s actually quite easy when you know your undertones. If your undertones are warm (there’s a yellow or golden undertone to your skin, you tan to a golden brown color, your veins are green, you look best in gold, etc.), then a red with a yellow or golden base works best. Reds to try: MAC Lipstick in Brave Red, Lady Danger, Cockney, and Lady Bug. If your undertones are cool (there’s a red or blue undertone to your skin, your veins are blue, you look best in silver, etc.) then a red with a blue base works best. Reds to try: MAC Lipstick in Russian Red, Dubonnet, Ruby Woo, MAC Red, and Viva Glam I. If you’re olive toned (neither yellow nor blue undertones) try a red with neutral undertones. Some reds to try: MAC Lipstick in Fresh Moroccan and Spice It Up!

As with foundation, finding a red you love takes time and patience, but you will find it! If you’ve found your red lipstick love, spill it in the comments section.

Great news if you’ve been looking for a mineral makeup to match skin of color AND were looking for a great deal: Monavé Minerals is having a 50% off sale TODAY ONLY (Friday, Jan 22nd). The sale is 50% off the entire retail website! Enter code ‘MONAVE50′ in the promo box at checkout.

If it helps you pick out a shade, I’m a MAC NW47 and their ‘Brenda’ shade matched my skin perfectly. You also want to get their Oil Control Humectant if you have oily skin (stock up on some to prepare for the summer) and several of their Versatile Mineral Powders (they work as eyeshadows, blush, lip products, and more).

Check out some of my reviews on this line:
Monavé: Mineral Makeup for Darker Skin Tones
Monavé Oil Control Humectant
Monavé Minerals Heather Dark Mineral Powder

Anna Sui

60s inspired hair and doll-like makeup reigned

Doll-makeup colors like bright pink and coral look absolutely gorgeous on every skin tone especially when worn on the cheeks. The trick is the darker your skin, the brighter and more pigmented the hue.

Corals:
For the cheeks, try NARS Blush in Gilda, Make Up For Ever Sculpting Blush in #22, or Make Up For Ever Powder Blush in #18. For the eyes, try MAC Eyeshadow in Paradisco or Make Up For Ever Eyeshadow in #5. For the lips, try MAC Lipstick in Costa Chic, Ravishing, and Vegas Volt.

Bright Pinks:

For the cheeks, try MAC Blush in Dollymix; NARS Blush in Desire, Mata Hari, and Crazed; or Make Up For Ever Powder Blush in Fuchsia 26 and Candy Pink 85. For the eyes, try MAC Eyeshadows in Stars N’ Rockets and Da Bling; or NARS Eyeshadow Duo in Caravaggio. For the lips, try MAC Lipstick in Saint Germain, Speed Dial, Pink Nouveau, Speak Louder, Impassioned, Lickable, Girl About Town, or Chatterbox.

Balmain

The fashion house paired rumpled hair and barely there makeup with their sequined and slashed clothing.

Barely-there makeup actually can require just as much work (sometimes more) than brighter looks.

To start, you’ll need great skin and freshly manicured eyebrows. Wash, tone, and moisturize skin according to your skin type. Then apply a foundation primer which helps to smooth out skin giving it an even plane to apply foundation. Next, apply foundation only where you need it and blend it in with a foundation brush or a makeup wedge. Set with a finishing powder. Work the eyes and lips with shadows and lip color that closely match your skin tone. Add dimension to the eyes by adding in a shadow 2-3 shades darker than your skin tone. Finish the eyes with several coats of mascara and add a pinch of color to the cheeks with a soft pink blush.

MAC’s upcoming All Ages, All Races, All Sexes Collection (ad shown above), hitting U.S. stores January 7, 2010, will feature tons of nude makeup for all shades. Get your wallets ready! For more on the collection, go here.

Derek Lam

Wild and colorful seemed to be the trend.

The key to doing this look right is to pick one feature on the face to wear a bright and keep everything else relatively understated.

Some hot brights to try: Yves Saint Laurent Luxurious Mascara in #4 Fascinating Violet; Make Up For Ever Eyeshadow in #92, #72, #171; or MAC Eyeshadows in Chrome Yellow, Bitter, Orange, and Freshwater.

Louis Vuitton

The makeup at Louis Vuitton was very bright-eyed and doll-like. The look is not to be taken literally, but you can gather some inspiration from it with some undereye highlight and luxurious lashes.

Perk up your eyes with a touch of Yves Saint Laurent Touche Éclat, a creamy highlighter pen that erases the signs of fatigue and adds radiance to the undereye area, then bring them out with a pair of Ardell Fashion Lashes.

Michael Kors

At Michael Kors, hair was sleek and the eyes were adorned with violet eyeshadow.

Violet is such a gorgeous color–even moreso since it’s universally flattering on all skin tones.

Some violets to try: MAC Eyeshadows in Satellite Dreams, Creme de Violet, Parfait Amour, Purple Haze, Beautiful Iris; NARS Eyeshadow Duo in Jolie Poupee; or Make Up For Ever Eyeshadow in #9.

Oscar de la Renta

Oscar de la Renta partnered dramatic cat eyes with perfectly manicured brows along with his ladylike fashions.

Get the look with threaded, waxed, or tweezed brows, some liquid liner like mark On the Edge Hook Up Liquid Liner, and a steady hand.

Perfect your cat eye: First, with a firm grip on your liquid liner, carefully draw a line on the upper lash line (getting as close to the area where the lashes and the lid meets) when you get to the outer corners of your eyes, extend the line out at about a 15 degree angle. If you have trouble doing this freehand, you can use something like the edge of a business card to help guide you. Repeat one to two more times until you achieve your desired thickness. To get a flat even plane to work with, you may need to “stretch” the outer corners of your eyes a bit with your index finger—not too hard though. If your eyes are small or close-set, don’t extend the line all the way to the inner corners of the eyes. Instead use the eyeliner brush to apply a pale gold or silver shimmery shade in the inner corners to give the appearance of a “bigger” eye. To avoid getting the liner on your bottom waterline, you can use a waterproof pencil liner (like Make Up For Ever Aqua Eyes) on this area instead.

If you made any mistakes or have any smudges, you can easily clean it up with a Q-tip or the edge of a makeup wedge dipped in eye makeup remover.

Prada

At Prada, it was all about big hair and bright lips.

We’ve already discussed how hot the bright lip is and I’m glad to see it making a comeback this spring. If you need a refresher on what colors to wear for your complexion, go here.

Lanvin

Going away from the obvious pastel-colored asthetic for spring, Lanvin glammed up models’ eyes with smudgy smoky eyes.

The smoky eye is another classic look we’ve covered. Go here for tips on how to create yours.

Source

So there you go—a highlight of some trends to come next season. Which ones will you be rocking come spring?

‘Tis the season to get dolled up! If your holiday plans involve party after party, check out some of these HOT Holiday Makeup Looks:

Red Lip, Smoky Eye

Most of the time when putting together a makeup look, you go for bold lips and neutral eye or vice versa, right? Well since fashion has taken a real “bad-ass” approach this season, why not do the same with your makeup? And it’s the holiday time, so get festive!

Get the Look:

The Smoky Eye
The most simple way to create a smoky eye is to line your eyes with a black eyeliner pencil and then smudge the line upwards with either a eyeshadow brush like MAC#214, a Q-tip, or the tip of a makeup sponge. Follow with two to three coats of mascara.

To get a bit fancy with it, you’ll need to layer your products for the boldest, longest-lasting smoky eye. Start out by applying an eyeshadow base like Urban Decay Primer Potion all over the eyes. Next apply a matte eyeshadow closest to your skin tone all over the eye. After that layer a shimmery eyeshadow color similar to the matte one just on the lid and on the brow bone. Then take your main smoky color and with a thick eyeshadow brush like MAC#217 and apply it in a V shape to the outer corners of the eye and in the crease. Be sure to blend the shadow carefully so that there are no harsh lines where the different colors meet. Then line eyes with black eyeliner. Last, curl lashes and apply a lash primer (if needed) then apply two to three coats of mascara. As with any eye look, if your eyes are small or close-set, do not line all the way into the inner corners with a dark liner or shadow. Doing so will make your eyes appear even smaller and more close-set. Instead line the inner corners with a pale gold or silver liner or shadow.

There’s tons of methods of achieving a smoky eye, so you can use my tips above or experiment to find a look you love.

The Red Lip
First, you’ll need to choose the right red. As overwhelming as that may sound, it’s actually quite easy when you know your undertones. If your undertones are warm (there’s a yellow or golden undertone to your skin, you tan to a golden brown color, your veins are green, you look best in gold, etc.), then a red with a yellow or golden base works best. Reds to try: MAC Lipstick in Brave Red, Lady Danger, Cockney, and Lady Bug. If your undertones are cool (there’s a red or blue undertone to your skin, your veins are blue, you look best in silver, etc.) then a red with a blue base works best. Reds to try: MAC Lipstick in Russian Red, Dubonnet, Ruby Woo, MAC Red, and Viva Glam I. If you’re olive toned (neither yellow nor blue undertones) try a red with neutral undertones. Some reds to try: MAC Lipstick in Fresh Moroccan and Spice It Up!

As with foundation, finding a red you love takes time and patience, but you will find it!

My dark skin beauties, there’s a terrible myth out there that red lips are not for us. Don’t listen to it! I’m NW47 and my favorite red is MAC Dubonnet. If your confidence in wearing red is wanning, be sure to check out How to Rock Reds & Pinks with Confidence.

Glitter

If you’re a Wendy Williams Show fanatic like me (how you doin?) then you would have seen the FABULOUS Iman on Wendy’s show a couple of weeks ago. Naturally her face was beat from here to tomorrow, but what really caught my eye was her use of glitter on her eyes. It wasn’t Studio 54 disco ball glitter, but very sophisticated and a very pretty trace of glitter on the inner corners of her eyes. Lucky for us, Iman has the very glitter available in her Iman Cosmetics collection. I am so hyped about trying it–but I’ll have to wait a bit since for now it’s only available online via Target.com (but I will be stalking my delivery people everyday until I get it thankyouverymuch). If you saw this last week Monday’s Wendy Williams Show, you’ll see that makeup artist extraordinaire Sam Fine also used a glitter liner on a subject for a hot holiday makeover. And the good news is whether you’re 15 or 50, you can rock this look!

HOW TO WEAR IT:
*Much like its cousin glue, a little glitter goes a long way! Don’t overdo it.

*Keep it off your face–a bit on the eyes is fine, but all over the face? I think not!

*Stay as close to matte finishes (matte=no shine, no shimmer) with the rest of your makeup to avoid looking like a disco ball (or a pre-Gulliani 42nd Street street walker)

*A dab of glitter on the center of your lips is a really hot way to ring in the New Year

Check out these glitter-approved products:

IMAN Luxury Liquid Eyeliner- Onyx; IMAN Luxury Liquid Eyeliner – Copper; IMAN Luxury Liquid Eyeliner – Sapphire; IMAN Luxury Liquid Eyeliner – Platinum

M·A·C ‘Pigments & Glitter’ Palette

Grey Smoky Eye

Grey smoky eyes were seen on the models at Michael Kors’ A/W 09/10 show. And it’s no wonder—grey is one of those eyeshadow colors that looks great on everyone. And it’s totally a festive look for the holidays!

Dior 5-Colour Designer All-In-One Artistry Palette – Smoky Design; Dior 1-Colour Ultra-Smoothing High Impact Eyeshadow (Crystal White 006, Chrome 026, Argentic 056, Trendy Taupe 066, Flash Back 086); Dior 5-Colour Iridescent Eyeshadow – Smoky Crystal 089; Yves Saint Laurent Eyeshadow Duo (#5 Blue Legend/Grey Illusion, #19 Oatmeal/Petrolium Blue); bareMinerals Tutorials – Rocker Eye; NARS Eyeshadow Duo in Paris and Underworld; MAC Sorceress eyeshadows; M·A·C ‘Trend F/W’ Eyeshadow 4; Yves Saint Laurent Long-Lasting Eye Pencil in Mercury; Make Up For Ever Aqua Eyes in Dark Grey 21L and Grey 22L and Kohl Pencil in Night Blue 5K; Yves Saint Laurent Luxurious Mascara in #8 Sublime Grey

More great greys not pictured:
MAC Eyeshadows in Silver Ring, Knight, Print, Knight Divine, Scene, and Idol Eyes

How to do it:
The key to a smoky grey eye is to use variations of grey. For instance, use a light, shimmery grey in the corners of the eyes, a medium grey on the lid, and a dark grey on the outer corner (aka the outer V). A grey smoky eye also looks great when you use a pencil brush (like MAC #219) to line the eyes with a shimmery light grey or grey-blue shadow or an eyeliner pencil. As with any eye look, don’t forget to use a base like Urban Decay Primer Potion or MAC Paints.

Fair Skin:
Go for light, silvery greys

Olive Skin:
Go for medium toned greys

Dark Skin:
Go for darker, slate greys

Berry Lips

The great thing about this color is that it can be flattering on an array of skin tones. Lighter skin tones should reach for lighter, more ‘pinky’ berry colors while darker tones should go for deeper, ‘vampy’ berry tones. As always, the darker your skin tone, the brighter you can go in color.

Some berry colors to check out:

1. Bobbi Brown Lip Sheer in Black Raspberry 2. MAC Lipstick in Cyber 3. MAC Lip Pencil in Nightmoth 4. MAC Lipstick in Rebel 5. Yves Saint Laurent Golden Gloss in #6 Golden Plum 6. NARS Lipstick in Scarlet Empress 7. NARS Lipstick in Viridiana 8. Dior Addict Ultra Gloss Reflect #777 9. Nars Lipgloss in Chantaco 10. MAC Lipstick in Dark Side 11. NARS Lip Lacquer in Hot Wired

There you have it. A quick rundown of gorgeous looks to rock at your holiday shindig.

Now tell me—what are your holiday plans this season?