Perfect (Zoom) Party Looks

15th December 2020

Zoom Makeup Tips for Your Christmas Office Party

2020 has been the year of the virtual conference call, the virtual date and now we’re on the precipice of a new historic event – the virtual office Christmas party. You’ve probably already seen the invite slide into your inbox and if you’re anything like us, you’re wondering what you’re going to wear on the top half of your body and what makeup is going to look amazing on the big screen.

Thankfully, we’ve put together some of our top tips to help you feel glam for your office Christmas party, so you can shine on the big-zoom-screen and spend little to no time getting ready.

Get the perfect lighting

The key to feeling like a star on webcam and preventing yourself from looking washed out is to have proper lighting. Sadly, it’s unlikely your virtual office party is going to be held during daylight hours (especially at this time of year), so we recommend looking into boosting the amount of natural light near your webcam to help you look your best.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to invest in a cheap ring light on your phone, webcam or buy a stand-alone model. If you don’t want to splurge on a ring light, then moving a lamp or positioning your laptop near a good light source will help. It’s an amazing way to help add depth between your face and your zoom background. This is a conference call game changer.

Apply Flawless Contour and Bright Blush

While you can get away with wearing more makeup on webcam, the trick to feeling glam and flawless on the computer screen is to focus on makeup that defines and brings dimension to your face. You want to highlight the parts of your face that make you feel more like you.

Use a soft contour to sculpt around your jawline and under your cheekbones and then use blush to bring life back to your face, particularly on your cheeks. A gel or cream blush may work better than a powder formula that will mattify – why not try a dab of lipstick, blending with your fingertips.

Now is the time to experiment with shades you don’t normally use and see how they look on your webcam – you want to select a colour that pops and apply it carefully with your brush, building up the colour checking to see how it appears on the screen. If you end up applying too much just use a beauty blender to blend it out – no need to start over.

This is the perfect chance to go for a bright and vibrant look as intense shades look better on computer screens and you can shine during your festive party.

Highlight and Reduce Shine

Webcams can highlight unwanted shine, particularly if you’re sat in front of a light for an hour or more, so we recommend keeping some blotting paper nearby to dab away excess oil and using a mattifying primer or translucent powder if you think you might succumb to shiny skin.

Much like with the blush and contour, we love the idea of applying highlighter to the features of your face to bring back depth and dimension. Adding a touch of highlighter to the corner of your eyes helps open and brighten your face.

Use the same highlighter on your cupids bow to enhance your lips, making them appear fuller and more luscious.

Enhance your lips

No Christmas look, virtual or otherwise, would be complete without a glam red lip. Intense colours look great on webcam, so red lips are the perfect option for a virtual office party.

Whether you’re thinking of opting for a classic red lip such as our Cape Town shade, or looking to experiment with something new, we recommend playing around with a few shades and seeing what makes you feel the most confident and pops the most on screen.

Start by lining your lips with a lip liner to bring out the definition in your pout – we love our metamorphosis velvet lip definer for its intensity and creamy formula. To give your lipstick even more staying power, apply the lip definer all over the lips, followed by lipstick over the top for a brilliantly intense look, or use a contrasting shade for an ombré effect.

We may be slightly bias, but our metamorphosis velvet semi-matte lipstick is the perfect option for virtual parties as it has the perfect highly-pigmented formula that works well on screen and retains its intense colour.

Practice Makes Perfect

The best thing about a virtual office party is that you’ll be able to prepare beforehand, perfecting the lighting and choosing your festive party backdrop. Experiment with different shades and makeup looks until you’re ready to hit the (virtual) dancefloor!