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Having a great look doesn’t have to mean buying an entirely new color palette or spending hundreds of dollars on makeup. Here are just a few items that can bring that extra bit of pizzazz to your next cocktail party or evening out.

1. Camouflage Whether it’s hiding redness, scarring, dryness or the occasional pimple, most women have at least one Achilles heel when they’re trying to achieve flawless skin. To best mask some of the signs of aging, it’s a good idea to pick up two different types of concealer. A pink-tinted one like Bobbi Brown’s Corrector ($22) is meant to neutralize by taking out discoloration in areas where your skin might be more blue or purple, while a porcelain-colored one like Bobbi Brown’s Creamy Concealer ($32) hides imperfections. Set both with a bit of the loose powder that comes with the creamy concealer, and you’ll give your skin a more youthful appearance in minutes.

2. Brighten Unfortunately, no matter how much makeup anyone puts on, the hardest thing to hide is tired eyes. (The Eagles might disagree, but Don Henley has never been a woman.) Ooh La Lift ($20) is Benefit cosmetics’ highly proclaimed “girdle for the eyes.” Dabbed underneath the eyes and followed by an application of Boi-ing under-eye concealer ($18), skin is tightened, dark circles are erased and other signs of aging disappear. Finish the lid and brow line with Lemon Aid corrector ($18), and you’ve had Benefit’s “instant eye lift.” With this kind of bright beginning, any other eye makeup, whether for day or evening, is guaranteed to look smoother and more polished on the face.

3. Trade If you really want to do your skin a favor, start applying all your make-up with brushes instead of sponges. (This goes for foundation and concealer as well as eye shadows and blush.) Sponges are breeding grounds for bacteria and can cause more frequent breakouts. Not only are brushes easier to clean, but they also don’t tug on delicate areas of the face like sponges do, leading to reduced firmness and sagging skin. Sephora, the beauty powerhouse, has a make-up brush for every need and whim ($4-$68).

4. Shine More often than not, colors with sparkle fall into folds of the skin and increase the appearance of wrinkles, but there are subtle and tasteful ways to bring some shine to the face without having a glittered, teenage look more appropriate for “Girls Gone Wild” than an evening with the family. BECCA cosmetics offers a Bird of Paradise gloss ($26) that can be applied to cheeks, eyes and lips for a bit of highlighting and sheen. The gloss is a nice product on its own and worn beneath shadows or blush it adds extra glow. BECCA’s loose shimmer powder ($20) is another good option since its can be brushed on lightly to highlight areas of the face without drawing too much attention or going overly glam.

5. Minimize Despite temptation and popular perception, the answer to looking younger is not piling on the make-up. Too many products lead people to notice the makeup itself rather than the features that the makeup is meant to accentuate. More often than not, dark colors and under-eye liner make eyes look smaller. And when you choose to play up your eyes, tone down the lips. A tinted gloss or basic matte color is all you really need when everyone at the party only really wants to make eye contact.

6. Restrain Many cosmetics companies tend to push large make-up collections, and it can be hard to ignore those prices and how much lower they are than the products’ supposed “value.” But, with this way of shopping, you usually end up with a large number of shadows and lipsticks you’ll never wear again. Rather than being drawn into an eight-shadow palette, consider using that same money for two or three new colors you really love and will probably wear again and again. Or, consider a more user-friendly palette like Laura Mercier’s Evolution of Colour for Eyes ($36) with four shadows in the same color family to easily transition from day to evening wear.

7. Gloss From Sophia Loren to Angelina Jolie, women have always coveted thick, full lips. While lip plumpers abound in cosmetics these days, their “venomous” qualities can be too much for some women. (Many products warn of a tingling sensation, but sometimes that tingling sensation is greater than a “tingling” and more akin to “very uncomfortable” or “burning.”) Luckily, Clinique has come to the rescue. Their line of lip plumping glosses, Clinique Full Potential Lips ($17.50), are offered in an array of pretty shades and adhere to Clinique’s usual standards of skin-friendly beauty. The gloss feels cooling as it goes on, and the results are immediate. When worn over time, the plumping effects of the gloss actually increase, leading to softer, fuller lips worthy of envy.