Aging Gracefully Calls for Rethinking Makeup and Shades for Maximizing Your Beauty Potential!

Aging does affect the choices and shades of cosmetics we should be using.   After all, what suited us so well before may now be entirely wrong for us due to changes in our skin and facial tone.

Starting in our forties, skin that was once plump and vibrant becomes drier, flakier and paler with every passing birthday.  To stay ahead of the aging game, you need to reconsider what stays and goes in your makeup bag.

Now is the time to get in the habit of wearing primer. This can help fill in some lines and create smoothness for more of a perfected surface before foundation goes on. Some complexions do not take well to lightweight silicone-based formulas and breakout or become irritated while others respond beautifully.  Nonetheless, if your complexion is very dry or on the sensitive side, your skin probably would prefer a silicone-free formula. Finding the right one is mainly through trial and error. 

In your makeup bag, you may have powder foundation and blush.  With this increased dryness that comes from aging, you may want to switch out those cosmetics for moisture rich creams, gels, and liquid formulas instead for added freshness.   Powder forms on dry skin can sometimes streak. 

If you don’t want to bother with primer, then keep the base only to the areas needed to even out your complexion.  A minimal amount is less likely to settle into lines and creases.

You might feel you need to set your foundation with finishing powder.  This is a mistake since that powder thwarts light reflection on that, otherwise, more luminous face.

Since aging lips thin as a result of less collagen production, it pays to lighten the shades of color you wear. Dark lipsticks can be too overpowering now.  The result can be lips that look tightened and pressed together. Sheer and brighter colors can liven up an ashier complexion.

Do read my earlier post for even more valuable help.

Eleven Makeup Tricks to Keep You Looking Younger

This woman takes her beauty seriously.

Keeping your real age hidden from the world is more likely if you make a few simple changes to your makeup bag and routine.  After all, we as women are entitled to our secrets!  

The following little tweaks to what you are doing or using can help you maintain a younger appearance.

1.  Try a moisturizing foundation that has light-reflecting pigments instead of ones that are heavy, dry and matte.  This choice can help add radiance and distract the eye with light more so from wrinkles than a thicker, non-reflective formula that can exaggerate them.
 
2.   You may want to experiment with gray-violet or taupe-mauve eyeshadow.  These universal shades seem to work wonders on everyone to enhance their lids and make the most of their eyes.  However, if you are at the stage with droopy lids, you need to take a different route with brightening the area to give the illusion of lifting the lid.   Pick a shade like golden vanilla or peachy beige shadow that either is  matte or has a soft gleam to it.

3.  As far as eyeliners, I suggest switching to  long-wearing gel eyeliner.   This type won't tug on delicate skin and stays put more.  Pencils, on the other hand, especially the creamier the formula, can smudge over time and end in fine lines.  Look into a slightly softer color than pitch black such as deep grays, browns or even taupes, which is a subtler way to define aging eyes.

4.  When lining your inner rims, you may want to look for bone-color eyeliner instead of a bolder white.  This color is just as effective as calling attention away from redness in a more natural way so you look well rested.

5.   Lashes thin as we age.  Therefore, you might want to consider trying lengthening formulas of mascara over volumizing ones.  Also, you probably should opt for waterproof formulas since they won't smudge to settle in fine lines and creases like the non-waterproof varieties. 

6.  Discover what an eyelash curler can do to open up your eyes.  You need to make friends with this tool since it can prevent over clumping on thinning older lashes for an ugly, spikey look. 

7.   Cream blush is another product you might think of switching to since it leaves skin with a dewy sheen.  A powder blush can look flat on older complexions and settle into any fine lines.

8.   In regard to concealers, you should start learning to use a brush with a thick, creamy formula.  If you begin at the inner corner of the eye, you place a small amount of the concealer and dot across the eye hollow before blending.  You will find this method works better on a more serious dark circle problem in those thinner hollows of your eyes than a thinner liquid concealer.

9.  Lighten up your lip color choices.   Equally important, you need to avoid overly dark and matte lipsticks.   Looking into softer well pigmented glosses can give you color and definition in a more flattering way.

10.  Make sure to use a clear or neutral color of lip liner to keep your lip gloss or lipstick from bleeding. 

11.  Last of all, you would best be served investing in a highlighter with a soft gleam.  A little highlighting powder on the cheekbones, temples, under the brows, or on the inner corners of the eyes, helps a face glow. 

Though you can't buy the next thing I want to suggest, I do recommend it as a stunning finish to complete your transformation.  Be sure to smile more because nothing is more attractive or approachable than a beautiful woman with a smile!