The Biggest Makeup Mistakes That Instantly Age Mature Skin
Are there some things you loved doing a couple of decades ago, but which you don’t love so much now?
A few days before Thanksgiving, I spent a wonderful few hours with my long-time best friend Joyce who lives in another state. We reminisced about giggling inappropriately during church while we sat next to each other in the junior choir and about some things we used to love doing, but which we don’t do anymore.
One of those things was wearing turquoise eyeshadow back in the 1980s! And I have a hunch that most of you have also bid adieu to that look. So today, we’re going to focus on some makeup “don’ts” that no longer serve our mature skin and features well.
Eyebrow and Eye Mistakes
Let’s start with our eyebrows. Many of us have looked in a mirror and noticed a few white or grey brow hairs that weren’t there yesterday. And we may have also noticed that our once thick brows are now a shadow of their former selves.
We want to fill in our brows since they frame our face and enhance our features – but there’s definitely a sweet spot. Brows that are too severe or heavy can age us – and even make us take on the look of an evil Disney character! In the video I’ll fill in my right eyebrow so it’s a little too dark and heavy so you see first-hand what I’m talking about.
We first notice a person’s eyes when we meet them, so making sure our eyes look their best is pretty important. Thank goodness eye primer came on the scene a couple of decades ago because it’s something that we don’t want to go without. But it needs to be a tinted eye primer that matches our skin rather than a clear eye primer.
Eye primer not only prevents creasing and smudging, but tinted eye primer also covers up the redness, discoloration and blue veins that start to show through our eyelid skin as that skin gets thinner. Our eye primer helps our eyeshadow go on evenly so the color on our lids isn’t lighter in one area and darker in another area. It also makes our entire eye area look brighter and bigger. In the video I’ll apply my eye primer only on my left eyelid from the lash line to the brow so you can see what a difference it makes.
Eyeshadow and Eyeliner Mistakes
The biggest mistake we can make with eyeshadow is not blending enough. We want our eyes to have a soft gradient of color rather than harsh edges. So it’s important to blend and then blend again. And if you feel you need to blend the eyeshadow in just a bit more, you can take a light color on an eyeshadow brush and go over the edges of the eyeshadow.
Black eyeliner can sometimes look a bit harsh on our mature eyes and brown eyeshadow can look a bit softer. Under the eyes, apply a lighter shade of brown eyeshadow just on the outer one third of the eye. If black eyeliner is applied all the way across the bottom of the eye it can make our eyes look smaller.
Face Makeup Mistakes
Think for a moment about what our skin looked like when we were young. It was bright and glowing. But as we get older, our skin gets duller. So bringing some glow back to our skin via a face primer with glow, a foundation with glow or a highlighting product can make a world of difference. My current favorite glow products are from Merit Beauty: their Beautiful Skin Glow Serum followed by their Great Skin Priming Moisturizer. If you have oily skin, you’d apply just one pump of the Glow Serum, but for dry skin – like mine – 2 ½ to 3 pumps.
The foundation I’ll apply on the left side has some glow – it’s Charlotte Tilbury’s Beautiful Skin Foundation. On the right side, I’ll use Wet and Wild’s Photo Focus Foundation in the matte version. As you’ll see in the video, the side with the Merit Glow Serum and Charlotte Tilbury foundation definitely creates more glow.
Blush Mistakes
Do you remember the days of quickly being able to swipe on powder blush and call it a day? Well, for most of us, the easy powder blush solution of our 20s and 30s has gone the way of carbon paper and the card catalog. This is because as our skin becomes thinner, less elastic, and more prone to fine lines – due to the decreasing collagen and elastin production – powder blush can end up emphasizing texture, accentuating wrinkles, looking splotchy and making our skin look drier.
But we can keep our skin looking glowing and gorgeous by using the right blush that hydrates and has a lightweight formula that doesn’t settle into fine lines. Cream blush reigns supreme for mature skin as does liquid blush that melts into the skin. Also crucial is our placement of the blush and the blush color we choose. The right blush will look gorgeous because it will look beautiful with the undertone of our skin which can be warm, neutral or cool. And if you’re not sure of the undertone of your skin, be sure to watch this video.
If you have a cool undertone, go with pink, raspberry, berry, mauve and blue reds for both blush and lipstick. Great shades for warm undertones are peach, coral, brick red or orange red. And for those of you with a neutral undertone, you can wear either warm or cool shades, but just not the deepest and brightest versions of those colors.
Do you remember hearing that blush should be applied on the apples of our cheeks? But ladies, where have those apples gone? We want blush to help lift our face and we can do that by applying it along the center of our cheekbone and sweeping it upward toward the temple. In the video I’ll apply one of my favorite liquid blushes from Elf in the shade “Pinky Promise.” On the right side I’ll go with a powder blush that’s definitely the wrong color for me and I’ll apply it in the wrong place: on the apples of my cheek.
Powder Mistakes
Many of us saw our mothers applying powder over their entire face, but how much powder and where we apply it very much depends on our skin type. Too much powder on our dry skin can make our skin look patchy, cakey and overly textured and accentuate visible dry flakes. It makes our makeup look like it’s sitting on top of our face rather than blending into our face. So it’s important to apply powder only where you need it. For me, that’s just my T-zone.
Lip Mistakes
Since our lips get smaller and less defined as we get older, lip liner that matches our lipstick color makes a positive difference. Lipliner defines our lips beautifully – and we can even make our lips look slightly larger by applying the lip liner on the outer edge of our lip line rather than just applying it on the lip line. Just this very small difference in where we apply our lip liner can make our lips appear fuller.
We also want to avoid a nude lipstick in the wrong undertone since we will look our best with a color that complements the undertone of our skin – and provides some contrast between our lip and cheek color. If we go with a nude lip color in the wrong undertone, our skin and lip color will blend in and there will be no contrast. And according to a fascinating research study, it’s facial contrast that makes us more attractive to other people.
So on the left side of my lips, I’ll apply my lip liner on the outer edge of my lip line first. Then I’ll apply a lipstick color that works with the undertone of my skin and apply a gloss on top of it. I’ll go lip liner free on the right side and use a lip color that is the wrong undertone for me which is also way too pale.
Hair and lips that look too severe can also be a mistake. And although it’s easier and natural to continue wearing the same look we’ve worn for years, refreshing our look by trying a new hairstyle, lip or blush color can not only update our look but also simply be great fun! And that’s what’s most important. After all, makeup is a wonderful form of self- expression that shouldn’t stop when we reach a certain age!
Let’s Have a Conversation:
Which makeup products and techniques have you thrown out the window because they no longer look good on you? What do you do instead?
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