New Year’s Eve is a fun night for fashion.

From glitzy galas to festive house parties, the night offers a good excuse to have a little fun in the wardrobe and beauty department.

And yet, there’s a catch.

Depending on how you’re celebrating, it can be a long night, and keeping your look fresh until the ball drops isn’t always easy.

We chatted with stylebistro.com Executive Editor Danica Lo about her favorite looks for this year’s New Year’s Eve parties, and how to get your look to last until you lean in for that New Year’s kiss.

Here are some of Lo’s favorite tips:

Keep it simple, elegant and don’t show too much

Lo says the styles designers turned out for the holidays this year are “ladylike,” with plenty of beading, lace and embellishment but without plunging necklines or micro-mini hemlines. Boatnecks and higher necklines are in, the hemlines are a little longer and even long sleeves have made a comeback. Tuxedos and jumpsuits are also great choices this year, for a simple, slimming look that won’t require a lot of fidgeting. “New Year’s Eve is so complicated. You’re just trying to get from one place to another,” Lo says. “You want to make your clothes as simple as possible.”

Leave the daytime coat and handbag at home

If there’s a night to drag the fun stuff out of your closet, it’s New Year’s Eve. “The idea of not carrying all your worldly possessions is good” on a festive night like this one, Lo says. So go back to grandma’s rule that after 9 p.m. women should carry an evening bag. Toss your phone, keys, lipstick, powder and invitation in a cute clutch instead of dragging around the leather bag you use every day. The same goes for your outerwear. Cold nights do call for coats, but New Year’s Eve is the night for a great tailored blazer, tuxedo jacket or fur jacket, real or faux. Don’t cover your festive outfit with the wool coat that’s your daytime staple.

Apply fragrance smartly to ensure you’ll smell good all night

The first key to giving your perfume staying power is to moisturize well. Lo recommends putting a small dab of Vaseline on the areas where you’ll apply perfume, such as behind your ears, on your wrists or behind the knees. Another trick is to moisturize your entire body well and then walk around in a light cloud of the scent.

Festive hair = volume

Here’s how to do it. Lo shared her favorite volumizing tip. A few hours before you’re due to head out, spray clean hair with texturizing spray and pin it up in large Velcro rollers. Right before you leave, remove the rollers and spray the voluminous waves with a non-flaking hairspray such as Elnett, by L’Oréal Paris.

Prime your face to keep makeup in place

Makeup primer might not be an everyday part of your beauty routine, but it’s key to helping your makeup stay in place through all the festivities. Without primer, foundation, blush, and eye shadow tend to settle into creases in your skin and even slide around on oily faces. Lo loves Urban Decay eye makeup primer – it now comes in several shades to double as both a primer and a shadow. ( www.urbandecay.com)

For the best lipstick tricks, ask your grandma

Lo’s favorite tip for keeping lip color from rubbing off is one of the oldest – apply layer after layer, blotting in between. “The best tips are always the oldest tips,” she says. So apply lipstick and lip liner, then blot and apply a light dusting of powder. Then keep applying more lipstick and blotting, over and over, until you have a nice full look. The layers will help the lipstick last all night – or at least until that first kiss of 2013.