Polished Holiday Makeup

Nicole is a dream makeup subject: She loves makeup, but she's relaxed about the whole process. The day these photos were taken, she'd spent all day studying for her master's and training for a 5K. Despite being exhausted, she showed up and let me subject her to makeup and all sorts of picture-taking. The pictures represent a persona: In real life, she is extremely down-to-earth, funny, and kind. She represents that beauty on the outside is best enhanced when there's beauty on the inside. We share a love of trash TV - "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" and "Hoarders" - and spent most of our makeup time discussing these shows.

For her face, I applied foundation and concealer, then set it with powder. I applied a pink cream blush to her cheeks, then dusted a powder blush in a similar shade over it. On her eyes, I applied a shimmery gold shadow, accented by teal shadow in the outer v. Her eyes were lined with brown liner, and a set of false lashes were applied. We alternated between nude and a berry shade on her lips. Face makeup and lipstick by Make Up For Ever; eye makeup by Lorac.