To the thousands watching Emily Wood on social media, her devil-may-care attitude encourages you to rip up the makeup rulebook. While creating four easy party makeup looks on herself at Glamour's holiday shoot, she excitedly flits from one subject to another, leaving sentences to fizzle out before finishing them like a struck match that won't light properly.
But that's Emily Wood down to a T: a whirlwind of creative energy. Allergic to the formulaic clean girl, her approach to makeup is refreshingly unorthodox. She delights in the perfectly imperfect, famously scribbling lip liner as eyeshadow and blush while on the Tube, on buses and even walking through a park.
So who better to inject some joy and playful self-expression into this season's party makeup looks than a self-proclaimed “face decorator”? For Emily, it's not about creating a full beat. You're not wearing makeup to the party, your makeup is the party – so remember, the icy blue eyeshadow you've smudged across your eyelids only looks better the longer you're on the dance floor and there's no such thing as too much shimmer.
Ahead, is Emily's guide to the coolest DIY holiday party makeup – whether you're looking for low-lift Christmas party makeup ideas or inspiration for maximalist glam on New Year's Eve…
Feeling toasty
“It's the perfect chic, festive face," says Emily, who describes this toasted makeup look as her ‘elevated every day’ for adding a soft, diffused warmth to the face. It's also a great first base for building out the other eye and lip looks in this shoot.
To start, Emily used her TikTok-viral trademark lip liner trick. She scribbled Ilia's Lip Sketch Hydrating Lip Crayon in Banquette ("it's the perfect base as you can move and manipulate it") on the middle of her forehead, the bridge of her nose, on her cheeks and, of course, on her lip line. After blending, she doubled down on her lips by layering a more heavily pigmented lip liner over the top to create a “bold, super defined, but lived-in lip line.”
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Key to the look is a “lifted Twiggy-esque lash", Emily says, adding that she's a fan of Milk Makeup Kush Mascara because “it's got the perfect brush for that clumpy, yet intentional finish." As well as adding instant drama, it's also a quick holiday party makeup hack for busy people. "It's really easy to do: apply loads of mascara and let it dry completely. Then curl your lashes and comb them through with a lash comb.”
To add a festive flush to the cheeks, Emily used a combination of cream and powder blush. “You will always get a more pigmented, longer-lasting finish if you use a cream and then a powder,” she adds. A swipe of icy highlighter on the cheekbones, on the centre of the lips, the Cupid's Bow and tip of the nose completed the look.
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Into the blue
Blue eyeshadow has had a major redemption arc over the last few years, being reinvented as perennially chic rather than dated or cartoonish. Emily gave a '60s-style graphic eye a modern twist by creating a shimmery gradient for added depth. “It's winter, it's Christmas, it's frosted!” she laughs.
Emily recommends using a cream eyeshadow stick to lay down a base first before packing a shimmery eyeshadow on top with a brush. “With a blue eye, the key is to work with shimmer rather than a matte texture because it blends better,” says Emily.
After applying a deep blue eyeshadow generously across the lids, she softly transitioned to an icy sky blue hue, winging the colour all the way up to her brows.
Silver lining
Unsure how to do glitter makeup for a party? “With an OTT silver shimmery eye, just be unapologetic,” says Emily. “Let it be messy. You're going to have to radically accept that there will be some imperfections. Some specks may drop down onto your cheeks, but that's actually the fun of it.”
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For this tinsel-inspired eye look, Emily recommends leaning into different textures. She first used her fingers to pat a pan-pressed silver pigment onto the lids before going in with a second layer of silver eyeshadow – this time with bigger light-reflecting flecks – and pushing it close to the roots of the lashes to create a 3D dazzling finish. The rest of the face was left relatively bare aside from a softly diffused lip to keep the look elegantly undone.
After hours
If you’re looking for a variation on the classic smokey eye, look no further than this ombré iteration featuring a trio of shades: black, grey and silver.
Rather than try to create a dense base coat with a matte black pigment, Emily recommends “picking up your metallics and your pressed shimmery eyeshadows as these textures move better and are way more forgiving.”
In terms of placement, dust from dark to light across the entire lid to create a sexy, gradient effect without any harsh lines. Ensure the sheen from the black hue (Pat McGrath Labs Mothership III: Subversive) hugs the lash line. Then, using the Beauty Bay Bright Matte 42 Colour Palette, Emily blended the Molasses shade into the crease and Platinum over her brow bone, extending the colour out into a graphic wing.
For added intensity, “pair your smokey eye with loads of black mascara on both the top and bottom lashes, and go crazy with a black kohl eyeliner in the water line,” Emily adds. The final touch: a frosted red lip created using metallic red eyeshadow (Cherryade from the Beauty Bay Bright 42 Colour Palette).
For more from Fiona Embleton, GLAMOUR's Associate Beauty Director, follow her on @fiembleton.
Photographer: Tiffany Nicholson
Stylist: Samantha Gasmer
Prop Stylist: Elaine Winter
Hair Stylist: Nastya Miliaeva
DP: Mar Alfonso
Sound Op: Lily van Leeuwen
Photographer's Assistant: Leanna Slupinys
Photographer's Assistant: Grace Puffer
Production: Féte Production
Location: Ginger's Bar
