Just in time for Christmas, Caroline Barnes, UK make-up ambassador for Max Factor, shows us how to create the season’s most eye-catching looks…

Beauty direction: Samantha Silver
Photography: Tony Kim

Make-up has the power to transform, this much we know. A shimmering swipe of Mac’s Strobe Cream can pep up a dull pallor instantly. Despite a festive diet of mince pies and prosecco I can still have cheekbones with the aid of Nars Laguna bronzer. But when it comes to party make-up it will always be the eyes that take centre stage.

And it’s the feline eye that’s firmly on the make-up agenda this season. After last season’s penchant for naked lids we saw a formidable onslaught of liner looks for a/w 2016: heavyweights Kenzo, Versace and Fendi made liner the focal point of their make-up looks as every designer pledged allegiance to elegantly dressed lids.

It’s no surprise, really. For centuries, it’s been the go-to make-up look for women across the globe. From Cleopatra’s soot- ringed smokey eyes to Audrey Hepburn’s delicate flicks, Amy Winehouse’s iconic wings and Adele’s signature liner kicking sexily up at the outer corners, a cat eye is the most alluring and prevailing make-up trend of all time. You can keep your high maintenance red lip, there’s an innate power and simplicity to the womanly curvature of this feline definition. A cultural marker of femininity, crucial to the perceived beauty of the eye is shape. Larger eyes are an indicator of high levels of the female hormone, oestrogen and none of nature’s own has as striking eyes as the cat. Those with high levels are considered to be more fertile than those without, the animal kingdom’s trick for natural preservation. While we can’t do much about colour, eye shape is something we can manipulate with make-up. With just a few well-placed flicks and swipes, elongated almond shapes can be made of smaller and rounder eyes, transforming them into bigger, wider, more awake pools.

Whether your aim this weekend is to nail the feline flick, a beauty zeitgeist no matter what your age, ethnicity or style; or master a simpler evening shadow, you’ll find an eye make-up look over the next few pages in our definitive guide to dressing your eyelids this party season...

Party perfect make-up: how to create this season's most eye-catching beauty looks