By Ki Hackney Whether battling crowds, delays and always-overbooked airlines or staying put, the holidays, pretty much from Thanksgiving through the first week in January, are the season of too much of everything. Delays and overbooked airlines. Hosting. Guest-ing. Eating. Drinking. Eating and drinking some more! And getting way too little sleep! Our faces tell the tale. And those dark circles under our eyes seem to grow darker and bigger by the minute. Charles Stephen, the charismatic face designer for Giorgio Armani cosmetics at Barney’s can fix you right up. The secret ingredients are Armani’s High Precision Retouch radiance-enhancing concealer and Master Color Corrector – pocket-sized mini-wands of fluid that go on with built-in, eyelash-thin brushes, and your finger does the tapping to spread the one that works best for you from the inside corner of your eye across the entire dark, under-eye area to the outer corner. With refreshed eyeliner “for a little mood,” lip gloss over the leftovers of her own lipstick and lip pencil, Alexandra and Charles Stephen turn to face the camera with a little hug. Although I know several people who use it alone, for most of us, one of these magical concealing potions is the dessert over Armani’s Natura Bisse Barcelona Diamond Bio Lift Contour Cream and Bobbi Brown’s cream corrector in bisque; before we apply foundation. For The Passionate Shopper, Charles asked two colleagues to be his canvases and help him show us how to say no to dark circles and gain a foothold on a bright new year: In addition to the Giorgio Armani products, what makes this department so thorough, is that if a product from another cosmetics company is required, the makeup specialists at Barney’s do not hesitate to add it. Each of our models has one non-Armani product in her overall makeup product range. Model A is Alexandra, manager of the Fresh department at Barney’s: In six steps, Alexandra was ready to face the day, with basic makeup that could take her anywhere: First, Charles removed Alexandra’s makeup with Giorgio Armani’s Cleansing Milk that is particularly gentle on they eye area, smoothed on Cema Nera face cream, then patted on the Diamond Contour Cream and our featured High Precision Retouch concealer, number 3.5 (to balance her skin’s yellow base tone), followed by Modelling Compact Cream Foundation #7, sheer bronzer #1 – always extending the foundation and bronzer onto her neck to give a longer look – blush #10 on her cheeks. For the full makeup, Charles added to the light coating of mascara that Alexandra was already wearing, eyebrow pencil #3, soft shades of eye shadow #58 with #53 on the brow bone, creamy eye liner “for a little mood,” lip gloss #21 over the remains of her own lipstick and lip liner #2. In 10-12 minutes she was finished.

At Barney’s in the Giorgio Armani cosmetics area, face designer Charles Stephen (a favorite for clients including Cindy Crawford and Whitney Houston) is removing old makeup for model Alexandra who’s the manager for Fresh at Barney’s.

Crema Nera mineral regenerating cream has been applied all over Alexandra’s face and neck, Stephen has gently applied Diamond eye contour cream to both eyes and is blending Bobby Brown’s corrector in Bisque onto the left eye to begin brightening her dark holiday-weary undereyes.

Alexandra’s Left eye is completed by tapping on Giorgio Armani’s magical High Precision retouch concealer.

Both eyes are wide awake, and Stephen has brushed on Arman’s modeling compact foundation cream for a smooth, overall appearance. At this point Alexandra could stop for the day.

For the whole nine yards, Stephen adds sheer bronzer on her face and neck; blush on her cheeks and is giving her eyebrows a bit more definition.

A mix of two soft shadows on her lids for day or night.

Some highlighter on the brown bone.

Model B is Maureen, Charles colleague in the Giorgio Armani department. For his co-worker, Charles needed 14 steps. He started by removing her makeup with the milk cleanser, then used the Crema Nera moisturizer that she could use day or night on her dry skin and because it have her a matte finish, followed by Diamond eye cream that also helped de-puff Maureen’s holiday-eyes, followed by Master Armani under eye color corrector #1 to take away the darkness in the more pinkish undertone of her skin and a topcoat of Vincent Longo’s concealer stick with pink on one end and yellow on the other (Charles used the yellow over Armani’s pink Master Corrector).

The products for Alexandra.

Charles used Armani’s foundation brush to apply Designer Modelling Compact Foundation #7, so he could get it up close to the eye and eye-socket-cheek bone area. Maureen likes this foundation for mature skin or, as she lovingly says it, “anyone over the age of 15!” Next: Bronzer #1 on Maureen’s cheeks, jaw bone, neck and forehead near the hairline; blush #10 on the apples of her cheeks, taupe eye shadow #7 with bone #36 on the brow bone, Starlash mascara #1, brown eyeliner “to open her eyes a bit,” sheer lipstick #14, lip pencil #2, and iridescent lip shimmer #1 (I’m a big fan of iridescent gloss, although mine are from YSL and Prescriptives).

Maureen, a colleague of Stephen’s in Barney’s Giorgio Armani cosmetics area.

Removing Maureen’s makeup with Armani’s cleansing milk.

After applying Crema Nera moisturizer to help her dry skin and give a clean, matte finish, Stephan smoothes on Diamond eye cream to “help de-puff her eyes.”

Next: Armani’s Master Corrector under the right eye, first.

On goes Vincent Longo’s concealer stick, using the yellow end to blend with the pink of Armani’s Master Corrector.

After Armani’s Designer cream foundation, which Stephen make sure to apply up close to the eye, cheek bone, and eye socket, is followed by bronzer on the cheeks, jawbone, neck and forehead near the hairline and a bit of blush on the cheeks.

Clockwise from above: Maureen was already wearing Armani’s taupe eye shadow and Charles added bone color near the brow and some brown eyeliner “to open her eyes a little more”; With some lipstick (shown); And lip liner, to be followed by a topcoat of shimmer; Maureen and Stephen admire the difference for 2008.