Makeup to make your Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day’s aesthetic is incomplete without a glowing and gorgeous makeup look

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LAUREN PETTIT | DAILY EVERGREEN ILLUSTRATION

“Go forth into Valentine’s Day and show yourself a little love.”

ANNIKA ZEIGLER, Evergreen columnist

Valentine’s Day is arguably one of the most fun holidays to get festive. It’s easy to make pink and red tones look sexy on anyone. These luscious colors are exciting to use while creating makeup looks as reds, pinks and warm tones in general complement just about every eye color and complexion.

There are millions of ways to make the perfect Valentine’s Day look whether you opt for full-face or something more natural. One of the most versatile red-toned eyeshadow collections is Jeffree Star Cosmetics’s Blood Sugar Palette, which offers a variety of nude, pink, red and purple tones. They range from Glucose, a white matte, to Coma, a dark black-plum shade. The shade names are playfully on-brand, the colors to die for and the pigmentation holds its weight on any skin tone and any eye base, providing strong color payoff for every complexion.

If you are looking for something smaller and more electric, try opting for Colourpop’s mini Strawberry Shake palette. This nine-shade collection features three stunning, pink-toned shimmers as well as six mattes, ranging from a nude peach to a deep raspberry-red. If you are planning on a smokey eye, Lime Crime’s Venus XL Palette offers a sultry array of cool-toned purples, including Celestial, a dark, captivating plum splattered with gold reflux – a personal favorite of mine.

Cute, festive Valentine’s Day makeup doesn’t stop with eyeshadow. If you have a light to medium skin tone, try adding Nars’s coveted blush in shade Orgasm to the high apples of your cheeks to create a soft, natural flush. Glossier’s Cloud Paint in Haze is a similar color, yet comes in a liquid-to-matte formula and will fare better for deeper skin colors. If you’re looking to get really festive, you may opt for Kaja’s liquid-to-matte Cheeky Stamp in any shade, my personal favorite being Feisty. This easy-to-blend formula comes in a cute, compact heart-shaped stamp.

If you want to really vamp your makeup up with a killer lip, I suggest Fenty’s best-selling Stunna Lip Paints in Uncensored, an alluring true red, or Uncuffed, the perfect pink, natural nude. If you favor glosses to mattes, Lime Crime’s Wet Cherry Gloss packs a hard punch in a little bottle, clinging to your lips and providing a wet look. I highly recommend Maraschino Cherry, a sultry red. If you’re expecting your night to end with a kiss, my suggestion is Jeffree Star Cosmetics’s Velour Liquid Lipsticks — specifically Romeo, a baby pink, and Calabasas, a light plum. These lipsticks are packed with one-swipe coverage pigment and I can assure they will last through anything. And I mean anything.

If you’re on the more experimental side like me and want to throw a graphic pop into your look, you could experiment with Trixie Cosmetics’s Sprinkles in Buffy. This chunky glitter is filled with silver-shifting pink hearts and crosses of several sizes. It works as a fun accent above your eyelid, below your eyeliner, or anywhere else on your face. Milk Makeup sells a heart-shaped eyeliner stamp that adds the perfect accent to any look and can accentuate your Valentine’s Day theme.

Truthfully, “Valentine’s Day Makeup” can be anything your heart desires as long as you feel beautiful, happy and powerful wearing it. You could even skip the makeup and rejuvenate your face with a little extra skincare. I don’t get to tell you how to live your life, but because I’m writing this and you’re reading it, I get to tell you that you’re beautiful and that I’m sure any pink, purple, natural, goth or graphic look that you create will look stunning. Go forth into Valentine’s Day and show yourself a little love, whether you do it with makeup or not.