Alright, people — New Year’s Eve is right around the corner and if you’re anything like us you’re already stressing about what makeup look you’re going to go with to ring in 2018. And to help break things down for us, we talked to beauty guru extraordinaire Laura Lee about how to perfect our New Year’s look! So get ready, take some notes, and slay this holiday season with this gimmick-free beauty guide.

Balance a sparkly eye with a bold lip

“I always like to add a little sparkle to the eye,” she said. “Nothing too dramatic, but I like to take it there and for the lip, do a bolder lip color, maybe like a bright red or deep maroon or dark plum and have a little sparkle on the eye with a sexy lash.”

You don’t have to be a beauty expert to rock NYE

In her collab with ColourPop, Laura launched a perfect eyeshadow shade for New Years — and it doesn’t take an expert to master it either. The shade, aptly named Ritz, is a perfect addition to your New Year’s Eve glam (and with a $5 price tag you pretty much can’t go wrong).

“[It’s a] Super Shock Shadow, so they're kind of wet and creamy but they don't dry out,” she explained. “[It’s] like a really sparkly glitter — but since the shadow texture is kind of wet and creamy, you can kind of rub your finger across it and spread it across your eye a few times. Then you're done and you really don't have to worry about the fallout of glitter. It's the easiest way to apply glitter to the eye. It also has a taupe-y undertone to it. It's very interesting, the color. It looks like you put taupe eyeshadow all over your eye, put down glitter glue, and added an iridescent sparkle to your eye — when all you did was rub your finger across your eye. That's all you have to do.”

Plus, in purchasing the shadows, you’re helping out animals in need, because 100 percent of the proceeds go to the No Kill LA Best Friends Animal Shelter, which doesn’t believe in euthanizing animals. So now you’re beautiful on the outside and the inside!

Take the right steps to keep your makeup fresh all night:

Obviously, New Years is a long night for everyone, but setting your face correctly will keep you fresh all night long. “I have two tricks, one thing that literally will keep your makeup on all night and day, and hopefully not crease when you smile — or any lines or wrinkles you may have to make it crease — is baking or setting it with a setting powder and really leaving it there, like a loose setting powder,” she said. “I'll take a beauty blender, dip it in the loose powder, and really press it into the skin and I'll leave the powder setting all over my face for five minutes. Then I'll take like a fluffy brush and dust the excess powder away, and I swear your makeup will be locked in until the next morning. Also, I like to hit it with a setting spray.”

Don’t put your cream products over your powder products

“Any time, a big no-no for makeup is putting a cream on top of a powder,” she explained. “Once you've set your makeup, you definitely don't want to go back in with a concealer or put a cream contour on top of the setting powder because it's going to be a chunky mess." 

Be extra AF, but don’t cake on the product

Turns out, sometimes less is more according to Laura. “Another big no-no people do in makeup is they apply too much product, [like] a facial primer,” she said. "You're supposed to be using a pea-size amount of facial primer, not [as much as] foundation. Primer you're only supposed to use a dot of, and the concealer thing — if you're using a really full-coverage concealer you might not want to apply it in the full triangle under your eye, you might want to just dot under the eye and blend it out in the triangle motion, because it ends up being too much makeup and then it starts to crease.”

So, there we have it. Get that sparkle. Rock that bold lip. Don’t cake, but bake to perfection, and you’re gonna look totally snatched this New Years! Thanks Laura, the Larlees are grateful!