4 Ways To Lighten Your Makeup As You Get Older 3

January 23, 2009

The third of 3 parts on applying makeup that’s beautiful on an older face.

1. A little bit of bronzer every day. Just go around the outsides of your face, under your jaw, under your cheekbone, at your temples. I have a wide nose so I put it down the sides of my nose.

The bronzer and the contour are the same product. Choose the lightest color you could wear, more gold than peach or bronze, with no shimmer at all. Don’t spend a lot of time looking for this item. It’s near impossible to find in a shade that’s believable in winter, especially if your complexion is light.

Instead, make your life easier by choosing a pressed powder in a color 2 shades darker than your own color. There’s so much to choose from in this arena and it works really well.

I use AboutFace powder in Tawny that you read about 2 Beautiful Bronzers For Early Summer.

If I were shopping, I’d look at Estee Lauder’s AeroMatte because it’s:

pressed ; loose powder will not be controlled enough
sheer, which is more believable in winter and means a lighter color deposit
matte, because sparkly bronzer or contour just looks idiotic, especially in winter or at the office

Follow with blush in a rosy or peachy color. Choose something light and fresh in your color family. Dark blush makes skin look dull and lifeless. Nobody has brown cheeks. For some women of intense coloring, a deeper rosy-plum is fresh and believable. For others, spicy peaches and terracottas are very real colors. Stick with your color family and don’t go too dark. Bought your Color Swatches yet? Choosing makeup colors is a snap, a done deal, a cakewalk once you have your swatches.

Put the blush high on the cheek, under the outside of the iris, right above the contour, a little higher than the nostril. Think of putting it on the highest part of the round part when you smile.

Blend your blush better than you ever have. Two spots of bright or dark blush are too stereotypically old-lady. Use products that blend with absolutely no hard edges.

2. Avoid foundation with heavy coverage. Look for sheerer products. Try a foundation that is more transparent or if you love the one you wear, mix it with a little or your day cream ( the one with SPF, you know?) . It looks so much more like real skin. It is fast to apply, gives you some sun protection, is easy to blend into the neck, and can do wonders for how smooth your skin looks. Some powder on the shiny areas, the sides of the nose and center of the face, and that might be all you need to make a huge difference.

Some choose to go heavier with pigments and coverage as they age, but the skin is less forgiving and can’t carry this off attractively. In Christopher Hopkins’ great book, Staging Your Comeback, A Complete Beauty Revival For Women Over 45, he explains his preference for more opaque coverage in foundation in a matte finish. He feels it hides uneven coloration better, which he believes that people notice more than wrinkles. I don’t know about that – it may be true from a distance, maybe even a social distance of 2ft. or so. I think people do notice wrinkles.

(The BUY link only works on Christopher’s site but the book picture is linked to it.)

Here are some of the After photos for you to make up your own mind. He has incredible vision and beautiful, classy taste but I’d feel too made-up, and I already wear the stuff every day. Could be I’m not putting it on right.

Sheer coverage can do a shocking amount to even skin tone, even if a few discolorations come through. With Christopher’s suggestions of an opaque foundation and the powder under the eyes (which can be brushed away later), your face would have very little pliability, the coverage would look like a shield, and the wrinkles would almost blink.

I will concede that once we’re over 40, we have to be careful with dewy and glowy, just as he says. Unless you have 30 yr old skin, and perfect at that, take care with shine. You can always add it back in in a controlled way with a shimmer cream (see 6 Makeup Shimmer Do’s). Do we know this instinctively? The older we get, the less shine will work. That’s good. It keeps us in the realm of that watercolor diffusion which is the best makeup anyhow.

You’re brilliant, Christopher. I’d even let you at my hair. I don’t doubt I’d look much better than I do but I’m not with you on the foundation for an everyday look busy women can fit into their lives. You said “I know you can see [foundation] but others can’t.” I think they can. More about Christopher’s book in another post.

3. Eyeshadow that lifts. Women don’t require or desire a 4-eyeshadow blueprint. You put your light concealer under the eyebrow and that’s that done. You put a light neutral color on your eyelid. Where you put it on your eyes is what a makeup artist will tell you, but usually you’d go from the lash line to halfway between crease and eyebrow.

Where to apply the darkest shadow.

Our foreheads/eyebrows/eyelids are falling down with gravity and time. Instead of putting the darker neutral eyeshadow in the crease, apply it above the crease on the skin that falls down over the crease. If you raise your eyebrows, you won’t see where that is so relax your face and see what part of the lid is lying on top of the crease. See how the push pins are pointing to a fold of skin that falls down over the crease in the eyelid? Make it recede with darker shadow. Thanks to Jenepher Reynolds for this eye-opener.

4. Eyeliner. There is no way around it. You will look asleep without it. Our eyes, like our lips, lose definition with time. Our coloring softens and makes everything blend together more. Draw a line around something and it’s more noticeable. Our eyes are the part of our face that should be most noticed because they’re our expression and our vitality.

The color depends on your coloring, remembering that neutral makeup will always look more real. It will be some shade of gray, brown, or black. These colors are not hard to find. They range from soft grey to charcoal. You’ll find soft brown, milk chocolate, black coffee, grey-browns, lots of choice. Clinique’s Quickliner is but one of many good choices for application, staying ability, and color selection.

Buy from a company where you can test the colors. The sealed ones vary too much from the color on the packaging.

Posted by Christine Scaman | Filed Under Makeup

Comments

5 Responses to “4 Ways To Lighten Your Makeup As You Get Older 3”

Kathy on January 28th, 2009 7:00 pm

Hi Christine,

If you like Christopher Hopkins, check out Robert Jones” books, “Makeup Makeovers” and “Looking Younger” and website http://www.robertjonesbeauty.com. I think that Makeup Makeovers has a great section on eye shadow colors and application. It also has tons of makeovers, that mostly use the same neutral colors on women with different coloring. It proves that you don’t have to have a load of different eyeshadows to look great.
Christine Scaman on February 1st, 2009 4:18 pm

Kathy,

Thanks for this. I am always looking for this type of information. I looked at the site. There are no makeovers there, right? They must be in the books, because I couldn’t find them on the site.

I was really interested in your comment about using neutral colors on women with different coloring. I’m a big believer in the neutral palette as being the only classy one, but how to choose your neutral based on your own coloring is the sort of information I wish magazines were giving. They have access to huge artists with makeup and they’re always giving advice that real women really can’t use.

I’ll be keeping an eye out for those books.
Kathy on February 3rd, 2009 7:49 pm

Hi Christine,
The makeovers are in the books. The website is good for the tools (brushes, etc.) You can access the homepage, click on Workshops and download the workshop handouts. There is a lot of interesting information on choosing makeup colors.
Christine Scaman on February 7th, 2009 7:32 am

I found the information. Thanks for the guidance. The books look excellent. He’s got 4 or 5 books that I can find at Amazon, all with very similar titles. They are definitely on the list next time I’m in a bookstore. Judging from the cover photos, we seem to have similar taste – no odd colors, light neutral lips.

I see that he is working on his own signature makeup line, but the products and tools on his site are really interesting – particularly the concealer pencils.

From the workshop handouts – if he doesn’t have his own line yet, what company’s products is he referring to? The color names are so specific, like “Sunny Caramel”, that it must be from a pre-existing line. Somewhere, I got the impression that it was Mary Kay.

Thanks so much for this. The next time I feel in need of a present to myself, this will be it.
Christine Scaman on February 11th, 2009 8:41 pm

Hey, Kathy,

The day was today!! I bought Looking Younger and Makeup Makeovers. They are EXCELLENT. How pleased am I that you told me about this?!

Thanks again. I’m looking forward to studying every detail.