Make-up Artist Sapphire Shen Gets Creative Every Christmas

Make-up artist Sapphire Shen loves Christmas. In fact, she loves it so much she’s shot a make-up campaign for no one but herself, every year, in honour of the festivities.

For the rest of the world, the end-of-year rush races, then winds down into a long, languorous standstill with days best spent whiled away cocooned under duvets with mugfuls of hot chocolate and mulled wine in hand as we attend to the merriment of Christmas; then, for the sparkling New Year to finally, finally descend. But for Sapphire Shen, a mainstay figure in the pages of Prestige as a Beauty Awards judge and an always-on-set make-up maestro, the end of the year is high time to get to work.

“Christmas has always been my favourite season,” she says, palpably inspired, considering the existence of her annual festive shoot, now in its eighth iteration. After all, a professional, highly sought-after make-up artist, freelance by trade, is forever bound to contracts, clients and briefs with stringent specificities. Shen’s Christmas stunt is her once-a-year chance for a no-holds- barred exercise of pure, indulgent, utterly selfish – it’s Christmas! – bout of creativity.

“The extravagant and over-the-top decoration has long been a recurring source of inspiration,” she muses. “The vibrant colours, the glitter and the different textures … the glow, the scent of mulled wine, the snow, the Christmas carols … Christmas has always been a sensory explosion for me.”

And every year, Shen starts with a signature colour. “I try to do something different every time,” she says, reminiscing on her favourite black-gold palette of two years ago. This year, it’s green, a colour the make-up artist admittedly is not too fond of – but she’s always up for a challenge.

“I typically use my Christmas shoot to summarise what I’ve done in the year,” continues Shen, who’s also a staunch speaker on behalf of those with Lupus, an autoimmune disease she suffers from. “Every year I try to do something I’ve never done before colour-wise, backdrop-wise … but this year, I want to go back to basics. No crazy props, no pre-sets. Just something very beauty focused. Detailed. A lot of close-ups.”

The word “reflection” comes up time and time again as Shen touches on why, exactly, these photoshoots – she anoints them as something of a “ritual” – means quite so much to her. “I want to use this year’s Christmas shoot as a way to relive the passion ignited in me when I first developed my interest in make-up all those year ago,” Shen says, “and to, once again, focus on make-up, just the make-up, if only to remind myself of things and basic techniques I might have neglected or forgotten after working in different fields for so many years.”

And, as Shen was touched to reveal, there’s something magical that happens at her festive photoshoots every year. “Everyone is so happy to collaborate at this time of year,” she says. “It’s some sort of Christmas spirit. And getting to do what I love without having to worry about spreadsheets and invoices – that’s something special.

“But the one thing that’s always in my Christmas repertoire, no matter what colour or theme or crazy idea I choose, is shimmer,” she thinks out loud, scrolling through her Pinterest boards, pinned for the occasion. “I might go for something glossy on the lids instead this year. Something gold.” And something glittery, too. And thoughtful. And meditative. And meaningful. And very much in the spirit of the season.

Sapphire’s Christmas Look 1: The Scarlet Lipper

Anyone who’s ever attempted a vivid red lip or any colour dark enough to matter, really, will have known the specific horror of attempting to swipe the colour on as you would a lip balm all the while thinking “Who needs a lip liner?” and have said colour almost immediately feather outside the lip-line upon application. Mistake number one. “This look requires precision,” Shen advises. “It’s basic yet challenging. You can never achieve a perfect red lip without a lip liner.”

To begin, the make-up artist recommends lip-lining from the corners in; she uses Sephora’s Lip Stain Liner in 01 Always Red. While the jury is out on whether or not to simply line or overline the lips – TikTok is particularly in favour of the latter, ridding the entirety of the cupid’s bow altogether with a technique christened “oval-lining” – the OG thesis remains: do not skip the lipliner. You might have to purse and pull at your face for that perfect, uninterrupted stroke but it’s perfection we’re after. Do not, again, skip the lipliner.

And once your lined, underlined, overlined, oval-lined lips are thus lined, colouring within the lines will be, quite literally, child’s play. Shen admits she won’t hold it against you if you then swipe on your lip colour directly – she likes Fenty Beauty’s Icon Refillable Semi-Matte Lipstick in 01 The MVP – but the precision-led method (and yes, one that would require an extra brush to wash) would be to tender any application of colour first upon a teensy lip brush.

After, blot your lips with a tissue paper to ensure a lipstick-free smile and, a final touch, something shimmery on the cupid’s bow. Unless you’re of the TikTok crowd that’s since drawn over it, in which case, carry on.

Fenty Beauty’s Icon Semi-Matte Lipstick

HK$185

Sephora Collection’s Lip Stain Liner

HK$95

Sephora Collection’s Retractable Lip Brush

HK$90

Sapphire’s Christmas Look 2: It’s Graphic

A matte-black graphic liner has always held strong as the definitive complement to a classic red lip, because a matte-black graphic liner holds court in a zone of Swiss-inspired neutrality. Here, said classic red lip is given room to shine all while the liner fades into the background. But perhaps a balanced retort isn’t the kind of make-up look one yearns from come Christmas Eve. And Shen, with magic up her sleeves, is all for a little reckless behaviour. “A colourful cat-eye liner,” she begins, “changes up the classic with a twist.” No black, then. And don’t even consider that shade of dark-almost-black brown.

Make Up For Ever’s Aqua Resist Color Ink Liquid Eyeliners, which is hosted in a whole variety of different shades and finishes, come heavily Shen-recommended. And if the festivities you’re to attend is particularly stringent on the mask-wearing and, therefore, red lipstick-concealing, you’d be glad for the half-hour you’ve thus spent sparring with your colourful liquid eyeliners for that fastidiously even cat-eye flick.

Make Up For Ever’s Aqua Resist Color Ink Liquid Eyeliner

HK$230

Make Up For Ever’s Aqua Resist Color Ink Liquid Eyeliner

HK$230

Make Up For Ever’s Aqua Resist Color Ink Liquid Eyeliner

HK$230

Sapphire’s Christmas Look 3: Euphoric Glitter

The beauty industry and, in particular, the glitter-and-shimmer industry owes a mammoth amount of revenue to HBO’s Euphoria, wherein an innocent “Euphoria Make-up” Google search now levies not make-up, all colourful and dopamine- inducing, but an SEO-researched “How to Do Euphoria Makeup for Halloween 2022” as a ranked-first search result. And while Euphoria has ushered in an era of rhinestones-on-face acceptability, we’ll be the first to say it: Christmas did it first. New Year’s Eve did it first.

“Glitter might be a little too much to wear on the daily,” Shen says, clearly, Euphoria teenagers well beyond her impressive Rolodex of clientele. “But a touch of sparkle is basically non-negotiable during the festive season.” From NARS’ limited-edition Christmas Uninhibited Eyeshadow Palette – Shen particularly favours it for its “easy-to-use earth and berry tones in a flurry of different textures” – choose a shimmery or metallic eyeshadow to swipe over the entire eyelid. “But remember to apply eyeshadow primer beforehand,” she says. “It’s especially important for shimmery finishes with a higher chance of fall-out.”

Then, direct a matte, warm-toned colour from the palette onto the outer corners and crease areas for definition. The final touch: another shimmery highlight shade to the centre of the eyelid and inner corners, applied easily with the ring finger or a dampened brush; the latter if it’s high-octane intensity you’re after. And why not? It’s the holidays.

NARS’ Uninhibited Eyeshadow Palette Christmas

HK$500

Amuse’s Eye Vegan Sheer Palette in 03 Sheer Peach (Sephora Exclusive)

HK$270

Natasha Denona’s Mini Nude Eyeshadow Palette Kit (Sephora Exclusive)

HK$220