Day into Night: Transforming Your Look for Evening Elegance

How do you change your makeup from an office or daytime look to a knockout evening visage? Here are some ideas to consider:

Add a dark shade of eyeshadow to the back corner of the lid or in the crease.

Use the same shade of dark or black eyeshadow to create a more dramatic line around the eye and you can smudge this to create a sultry appearance.

Use a wedge or angle brush to add extra definition to the arch of your eyebrows, or add a bit more brow powder to the ends of your brows (but don't overdo it, and don't extend your brows more than ¼ inch past the eye's outer corner).

Add some shimmering highlights to the cheekbones, center of the forehead, chin, neck, shoulders, or décolletage. Use a shimmery powder (applied with a brush) or a shimmery liquid.

A vivid red lipstick always makes a dramatic evening look, especially if you are wearing black.

Deepen your daytime lipstick by mixing it with a darker lip liner from the same tonal family. Be sure to blend the edges well-this is not the "light lipstick, dark lipliner" look-then apply an ultra-shiny lip gloss.

Avoid overdoing your blush. Making the cheeks look overly colorful doesn't improve an evening look. If you want to further accent the cheek and/or temple area, the two best choices are applying a bronzing powder (matte or with slight shimmer) to add depth and definition or applying a few drops of liquid shimmer to the cheekbone area and blend lightly so as not to disturb your blush. When applying bronzing powder, use a Powder or Blush brush, and apply a sheer layer of color, brushing down from the temple area over the cheekbone and apple of the cheek. Soften any hard edges with a sponge.

Avoid applying more mascara, unless you're adept at doing so without creating a clumpy, spiky mess.

Paula Begoun