The start of a new year is the perfect opportunity to refresh your beauty routine. Whether you're heading to a glamorous New Year’s Eve party or simply want to start 2024 with a fresh, glowing look, now is the time to embrace new face makeup essentials that will have you radiating confidence all year long. A glowing complexion is always in style, and with the right products, you can achieve that luminous, dewy look that turns heads.
From hydrating primers to the perfect highlighter, these makeup essentials will have you glowing from the inside out. Let’s dive into the top products that will ensure your face shines with beauty and confidence in 2024.
Hydrating Primer: The Secret to Flawless Skin
To get that radiant, glowing look, it all starts with a good base. A hydrating primer is essential in 2024, as it not only preps your skin but also adds an extra layer of moisture, helping your makeup last longer. Choose a primer with added skincare benefits like vitamin C or hyaluronic acid for a healthy glow that lasts all day.
Product Overview: This hydrating primer moisturizes and smooths skin, providing a flawless base for makeup. It fills in fine lines and pores, ensuring makeup stays in place all day.
Why We Love It: It offers lasting hydration, a smooth texture, and a glowing finish, making it perfect for all skin types.
A good hydrating primer will smooth your skin’s texture, minimize the appearance of pores, and create a perfect canvas for foundation. Brands like Fenty Beauty and Tatcha offer primers that infuse skin with moisture while providing a subtle glow, which is essential for creating that “lit from within” look. Apply it after your skincare routine, and you’ll be amazed at how much smoother and radiant your makeup will appear.
Radiant Foundation: The Glow You Deserve
The foundation is the heart of your makeup routine, and in 2024, it’s all about the glow. Swap your matte foundations for lightweight, hydrating formulas that leave skin looking luminous and fresh. Look for foundations that offer a dewy finish and buildable coverage, so you can create a natural, glowing complexion.
Product Overview: Radiant Foundation delivers a luminous, glowing finish while providing medium to full coverage. It’s designed to enhance your natural complexion and leave skin looking fresh and radiant throughout the day.
Why We Love It: This foundation evens out skin tone, hydrates, and gives a beautiful, dewy glow without feeling heavy.
Foundations like Charlotte Tilbury’s Airbrush Flawless Foundation or Estée Lauder’s Double Wear Light are perfect for achieving that perfect balance between coverage and radiance. If you prefer a more natural, glowing finish, consider a tinted moisturizer or a BB cream, such as IT Cosmetics’ Your Skin But Better CC+ Cream. These formulas will even out your skin tone while keeping your face hydrated and glowing all day.
Illuminating Concealer: Brighten and Lift
No makeup look is complete without a touch of concealer to brighten your under-eye area and hide any blemishes. But in 2024, it’s not just about covering up imperfections; it’s about adding glow to those areas that need a little extra lift.
Product Overview: Illuminating Concealer brightens dark circles and lifts the under-eye area with a lightweight, radiant formula. It provides full coverage while leaving a fresh, glowing finish.
Why We Love It: This concealer instantly brightens tired eyes, conceals imperfections, and delivers a youthful, luminous glow without creasing or settling into fine lines.
Choose an illuminating concealer with light-reflecting properties to brighten dark circles and highlight high points of the face. NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer and Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Concealer are two fan favorites that give you a flawless finish with a luminous effect.
Apply your concealer under your eyes, along the tops of your cheekbones, and down the bridge of your nose to create a subtle, radiant glow.
Cream Blush: A Natural Flush of Color
Forget about powder blushes—2024 is all about cream blushes that melt into the skin for a natural, dewy finish. Cream blushes offer a more youthful, radiant look compared to their powder counterparts, and they can easily be applied with your fingers for a seamless blend. They also work wonders on dry skin, providing extra moisture for a hydrated, glowy look.
Product Overview: Cream Blush adds a natural, dewy flush of color to your cheeks. Its creamy texture blends effortlessly, providing a soft, buildable tint for a fresh, radiant look.
Why We Love It: This blush gives a natural finish, blends seamlessly into the skin, and provides a healthy, youthful glow.
Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez and Glossier Cloud Paint offer some of the best cream blushes on the market, with a wide range of shades suitable for all skin tones. Opt for soft peach, pink, or coral shades that add a natural flush of color, perfect for those days when you want to look like you’ve just stepped out of the sun.
Highlighter: Glow Like Never Before
Highlighter is the key to that stunning, radiant glow that everyone is after in 2024. A good highlighter can make your skin look youthful, fresh, and dewy, and it’s essential for giving your face that lit-from-within glow.
Product Overview: Highlighter enhances your natural radiance with a shimmering, lightweight formula. It catches the light beautifully, adding a luminous glow to your cheekbones, brow bones, and cupid’s bow.
Why We Love It: This highlighter creates a radiant, dewy finish that complements any makeup look, giving you a glowing, youthful appearance.
Stick to liquid or cream highlighters for a more natural, dewy effect. These formulas are easy to blend and offer a soft, subtle glow that looks like your skin is naturally glowing. Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector (which is now part of Smashbox) and Charlotte Tilbury’s Hollywood Flawless Filter are top choices when it comes to highlighters that give a luminous finish without being too glittery.
Apply the highlighter to the tops of your cheekbones, the bridge of your nose, and your cupid’s bow for an extra glowing effect. You can also apply a little to your brow bones and the inner corners of your eyes to open up your face.
Setting Spray: Lock in Your Glow
Even though you want a glowing look, you don’t want it to fade halfway through the day. That’s where a setting spray comes in. A lightweight, hydrating setting spray will lock in your makeup while keeping your skin looking fresh and glowing throughout the day.
Product Overview: Setting Spray locks in your makeup, ensuring it stays fresh and in place all day. It provides a weightless, breathable finish while enhancing your glow and preventing makeup from fading or smudging.
Why We Love It: This setting spray keeps your makeup intact, boosts radiance, and provides long-lasting hydration for a flawless finish.
Urban Decay All Nighter and Morphe Continuous Setting Mist are two excellent options to keep your makeup in place while maintaining that dewy, luminous finish. Simply spritz your face once you’ve finished your makeup to set it in place, ensuring that your glow stays all day.
Lip Gloss: For That Perfect Pout
No glowing makeup look is complete without a little shine on your lips. In 2024, lip gloss is making a major comeback. Choose a lip gloss with hydrating properties to keep your lips looking plump and glossy all day long.
Product Overview: Lip Gloss delivers a high-shine finish with a smooth, non-sticky texture. It enhances your lips with a touch of color while keeping them hydrated and soft.
Why We Love It: This gloss provides a perfect, glossy pout that’s comfortable to wear all day, leaving lips looking plump and radiant.
Go for clear or soft pink glosses that add a subtle shine without overpowering the rest of your makeup. Fenty Beauty’s Gloss Bomb Universal Lip Luminizer and Glossier’s Lip Gloss are both fan favorites for their non-sticky formula and smooth finish.
Apply a coat of gloss over your favorite lipstick for an added glow or wear it alone for a simple, dewy lip.
Lash Lifting Mascara: Long, Lush Lashes
Long, voluminous lashes can make your eyes look bigger, brighter, and more awake, which is essential for a radiant New Year’s look. In 2024, opt for a lash-lifting mascara that not only lengthens but also curls your lashes for a more dramatic effect.
Product Overview: Lash Lifting Mascara lifts, curls, and lengthens lashes for a voluminous, defined look. Its long-lasting formula provides intense black color and holds lashes in place all day.
Why We Love It: This mascara creates dramatic, natural-looking lashes without clumping or flaking, giving you a wide-eyed, lifted effect.
Maybelline Lash Sensational Sky High Mascara and Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara are two top choices that add volume and length without clumping. These mascaras will lift your lashes and make your eyes pop, giving you a bright, wide-eyed look that complements your glowing skin.
Face Masks: Pre-Makeup Skin Prep
A glowing face starts with healthy, hydrated skin. To prepare your skin for makeup, consider adding a face mask to your pre-makeup routine. Opt for hydrating or brightening masks to nourish your skin and provide that radiant glow before you even apply any makeup.
Product Overview: Face Masks provide deep hydration and nourishment, prepping your skin for flawless makeup application. Packed with essential nutrients, they refresh and revitalize your complexion.
Why We Love It: These masks leave skin smooth, hydrated, and glowing, ensuring makeup goes on evenly and lasts longer, for a perfect canvas.
Drunk Elephant’s F-Balm Electrolyte Waterfacial Mask and Origins Drink Up Intensive Overnight Mask are fantastic options to hydrate your skin and ensure a smooth, dewy canvas for makeup application.
Healthy Skin Care: The Foundation of Glowing Makeup
At the core of any radiant look is healthy skin. Healthy skin ensures that your makeup sits beautifully on your face, so take care of it! Drink plenty of water, get enough sleep, and follow a skincare routine that includes exfoliating, moisturizing, and nourishing products.
Product Overview: Healthy Skin Care products nourish and hydrate your skin, providing the perfect foundation for glowing makeup. Packed with vitamins and antioxidants, they help maintain a clear, radiant complexion.
Why We Love It: These products improve skin texture and hydration, ensuring your makeup applies smoothly and lasts longer for a flawless finish.
Invest in serums with brightening ingredients like vitamin C, or hyaluronic acid to keep your skin plump and radiant. Your makeup will thank you!
Glow Into 2024 with Confidence
The start of a new year is the perfect opportunity to revamp your makeup routine and give your skin the glow it deserves. With the right products and a little know-how, you can achieve a radiant, luminous look that will have you shining all year long.
Whether you’re prepping for a special event or just want to look your best every day, the key to glowing skin in 2024 lies in hydration, illumination, and subtle radiance. With the right face makeup essentials in your beauty arsenal, you’ll be ready to tackle 2024 with confidence, charm, and, of course, an irresistible glow.
