With summer barbecues, backyard cocktail parties and festivals on the horizon, it’s time to get excited about makeup again after a winter inside. 

Holiday-ready makeup should never be a chore, however, and it’s easier than you think to impress with just a pop of well-placed colour. Keep your makeup polished but carefree by wearing a bright lip paired with dewy, glowing skin. Since lips are the focus here, you can keep the rest of your look blissfully minimal with a great base and lashes if you’re feeling particularly festive!

Prep and prime

The role of a great makeup primer is similar to that of an undercoat – allowing the colour that follows to look its best and last the distance! It’s also key to adding a little extra glow that will last all day long and well into the night if your celebration requires it, and we are huge fans of Aleph Beauty’s Serum/Primer for doing exactly that. An effective multi-tasker, with a highly concentrated formula that delivers its potent active ingredients to deeper levels of the skin than a cream or a lotion, this beauty nourishes, protects, repairs and prepares your skin all at once.

Packed with a high concentration of deeply nourishing moisturising ingredients like macadamia and oil-free jojoba extracts, antioxidants, milk thistle extract and an innovative plant stem cell complex that boosts your skins metabolism and collagen production, it is a pre-foundation application essential.

Ace that base

Modern clean foundation formulas are built to last the distance and enhance your natural beauty, as opposed to creating a mask that you can’t wait to take off at the end of the day. This is where we make another nod to Aleph, in particular, their Concealer/Foundation for its skincare properties and general no-nonsense approach. Made in New Zealand using 100 per cent natural ingredients, Aleph products have been formulated to protect against environmental toxins, regenerate cellular energy and work to increase collagen production, and the fact that you can use this little number as a foundation AND concealer makes it great for travel and on the go. 

If you want a little extra glow factor, mix it with the brand’s Radiance, which can also be applied on the eyelids for a super flattering glossy effect or as a touch of transformative iridescence when applied to the lips or over a lip colour. Radiance is also the perfect highlighter when applied to the high points of the face, lending a healthy, youthful gleam, or if you like things more matte, the brand’s Prep/Finish Powder is a pore-refining invisible second skin that protects against blue light and environmental pollutants while extending makeup longevity.

Lip service

For a signature bold lip, make sure your lips are soft and exfoliated before application. Manually polish your lips with a soft toothbrush or Henné Organics’ Lavender Mint Lip Exfoliator, then slick on some lip balm and let it settle for a few minutes before you apply your colour of choice.

A red or hot pink lip look is sophisticated and perfect for Christmas or New Year’s Eve, so find a popping colour that you feel really good in and shape your lips with a matching lip liner to ensure the colour stays put. Aleph’s Cheek/Lip Tint in Sangha is a true signature red, or opt for or Henné Organics’ Lip Tint in Intrigue for a more subtle brick red.

Lashings of lashes

We’re all about keeping things simple, so leave the eye shadow palette in the drawer and just opt for lustrous lashes with a nourishing mascara that makes a big statement. Aleph’s brand new Lift/Lengthen Mascara – which is finally here after over two years in development – is our key to perfectly defined, natural lashes. Designed to lift, define and add volume to lashes on each application, you can also rest assured that this clean formula uses only the best ingredients to get your peepers flashing.