Makeup And Cosmetics Tips For Mature Skin

How to Conceal Wrinkles

Less is more. Never has that been so true when it comes to makeup and our faces as we age. Here's some tips on the right and the wrong ways to apply foundation and powders.

Go light on the use of foundation.

Most women use too much foundation in the attempt to cover up wrinkles and fine lines. This actually has the opposite effect of highlighting imperfections instead of covering them up. Use a tinted moisterizer instead and only on the parts of your face that you feel need it. Go a shade or two darker as well no matter how light your skin. Darker shades can also help to hide those wrinkles as lighter shades have the tendency to make them stand out.

Powder Power

When you were younger, you probably had the problem of too much oil on your skin and thus used powder all over your face. Stop this habit. Now. Powder absorbs moisture and oil as it is intended to do. Mature skin lack moisture and don't need it. Use it only on either your nose or chin areas.

Professional makeup artists NEVER use powder on women over 50. Powder has the nasty habit of sitting on top of wrinkles and makes them stand out.

Sagging Skin and What To Do About Them

Plastic surgery? Facelifts? Botox? Wait! Don't run off and find a plastic surgeon just yet! Makeup can do wonders here too. Jowl lines are sometimes called funny lines as they extend from your nose are down to your jaw line. They appear most prominently when you laugh and that's why they are referred to as "funny lines". These tend to deepen as we age. You can minimize these by drawing attention away from them. Wear longer more prominent earrings as it will pull eyes away from your jaw lines but don't wear chokers or large necklaces as they will draw attention to your jawline.

A trick to hide those sagging necklines is to use the proper haircut. Haircuts that drop just below the chin will draw attention away from your chin. Longer cuts are better as they will draw the eyes even further down and distract from your neck.

Crow's Feet - No Not Another Exotic Chinese Dish!

Crow's feet are those wrinkles and fine lines that appear on the outside edges of our eyes. They also appear often when you laugh as we crinkle our eyes when we do so. When you were younger, your skin was elastic enough to bounce back from this act of crinkling. Not so when you get older. Your skin loses its elasticity and these lines become permanent.

Don't use heavy amounts of concealer or you'll risk having "raccoon eyes".  Just apply a few dabs of concealer and lightly pat it on with a good high quality brush. Do not use powder around the eyes as it will settle into those lines.

Saggy Eyelids

Don't use mascara on the bottom eyelashes. Curl your upper lashes and use the darkest color mascara you have on them to make your eyes pop. Use eyeliner only on the upper lid as well. Use liquid liner instead of a pencil as it stays better. Apply a natural looking curve line on the outer corners to give a faux lift to them. Make the lines light and not thick. Don't line the inside of your eyes.

Don't use shimmer or light eyeshadow. Use darker shades to create a shadow
effect to minimize the look of crow's feet.

Thinning Hair

No. We're not talking about a new hair re-growth product! We can go to the moon but we can't re-grow hair...yet! Facial hair thins as well. For us women, particularly our eyebrows. Thinning eyebrows need particular attention. Why? With thinning eyebrows, stray, out of place and uneven length hairs will stand out more than normal. Get them professionally done. Don't try to draw your own brows. They NEVER turn out looking good. If you must draw in to fill in, also have them professionally
done.

Hair Isn't The Only Thing That Thins!

Your lips will also thin as you grow older. This happens because we will lose fat in our lips as we age. That's why women have fat injections to plump up their lips. But you don't need to go to this extreme. Makeup can help here too.

Pick the right lip color. Skip the bright colors. Use a color that is a shade or 2 darker than than your natural color. Your lip line fades as you get older so create a lip line by using a lip liner. Then apply lipstick. Consider replacing your lipstick and using lip
gloss instead. Gloss can create the illusion of plump lips. Don't use lip plumpers. They do work but the effects are very temporary and when your lips deflate, it will cause your lip lines and lipstick to become displaced.