Welcome to our podcast, Who What Wear With Hillary Kerr. Think of it as your direct line to the designers, stylists, beauty experts, editors, and tastemakers who are shaping the fashion-and-beauty world. Subscribe to Who What Wear With Hillary Kerr on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
When it comes to holiday makeup, sometimes it's okay to stay in your makeup lane.
Who What Wear's beauty director, Erin Jahns, shares how sticking to your comfort zone can be a good thing.
"I do think there is something to be said with staying in the lane of where you're comfortable and what you know works for you and then finding little ways to elevate what you're already doing," Jahns says.
She recommends choosing one feature to focus on when getting glammed up this holiday season.
"Choosing the eyes, choosing the lips, maybe just having your skin look amazing, and then rolling with that," Jahns says.
For the latest episode of Who What Wear With Hillary Kerr, Jahns shares her holiday makeup tips, the products she's loving right now, and so much more.
For excerpts from their conversation, scroll below.
For those of us—like me—who maybe stick to a relatively standard makeup routine year-round, one thing I always like about holiday is I feel like it gives you a free pass to experiment a little bit. As someone who knows a lot more about this than I do, what are some good tips for approaching our holiday makeup experiments?
I'm exactly like you. I kind of stick to a basic routine most of the year and then also do like taking the holidays as an opportunity to be a little bit more creative, have a little bit more fun, try the bright colors that I maybe normally would not. I do think there is something to be said with staying in the lane of where you're comfortable and what you know works for you and then finding little ways to elevate what you're already doing.
Especially if you're someone who's maybe a little bit more of a novice with makeup or isn't really used to going super wild or crazy with their makeup.
One good rule of thumb that I really like is just choosing one feature to focus on.
I know it can get really exciting—you're on TikTok and Instagram and looking at red carpets, and you see all these amazing looks with eyes, lips, everything. But that can get a little overwhelming, and I think it can be a lot to digest if you're not used to it.
Choosing the eyes, choosing the lips, maybe just having your skin look amazing and then rolling with that.
Thinking about office parties or family gatherings, what would you suggest to look like the best version of yourself? Maybe upping the ante a little bit but not going fully overboard?
This is something that I definitely do, where I save the big, glittery, bold, lips for big parties, events, things like that. In the office and family, I kind of keep it low-key, but just a little bit better than what I would maybe normally look at the office. Especially since I feel like I'm pretty minimal.
I usually do a skin tint, maybe some mascara and a lip gloss.
I think just wearing a little bit of color on your lips. I feel like this is the best time of year to do something that—maybe a really pretty berry or a wine color. Even a red that you find that's like flattering for your skin tone and hair.
Maybe it's even just adding a gloss or just doing a liner if you normally just do mascara.
I think people get really intimidated with eyeliner, but I think liquid liner is actually pretty easy.
Even if it's just doing a little flick on your sides can immediately add some definition and make your features just pop a little bit more.
What are some of your favorite things out there? What else do you think really always delivers every single time in getting that base of your look right?
I think people really underestimate that your complexion and the brows are the framework for everything.
Even if you're trying something like a great lip or a great eye, it's not probably going to look great if your brows aren't on point or your skin's not on point.
For brows, I really, really like Anastasia Beverly Hills. I feel like that's a given.
One brand that also I feel like you don't hear about as much but has really great brow products is Make Beauty. It's a little bit newer. They kind of relaunched recently.
I also love Kosas. I'm just obsessed with Kosas. I really, really liked their brow products as well.
For complexion, like I said, I will use the Kosas foundation and concealer probably to my dying day.
Haus Labs by Lady Gaga. They have a foundation and they just launched a concealer that is really, really, really great.
Again, I don't usually do that on a day-to-day basis.
If you don't like as much coverage, skin tints are really great.
I am obsessed with the new one from U Beauty.
I feel like that is the one skin tint I have tried where it is basically what you wish your normal skin, bare-face skin, looked like.
But you still don't look like you're wearing makeup. It's like magic in a bottle, I'm convinced.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Next, check out our interview with Laura Brown.
