When applying makeup to mature skin, there are certain considerations we need to take into account that may not have applied previously. For better or worse, our mature skin behaves differently than it used to. It may sit a little lower and sink in a little deeper, and while this isn’t at all a bad thing, it is something we need to work with when applying our makeup instead of trying to follow the old methods which may no longer be yielding the desired results.
These very common makeup mistakes are super easy to rectify, and just by knowing these mistakes and their remedy, you will be able to get your makeup exactly perfect for you every single day.
The perfect place to start is up top, and while this information isn’t directly focussed on the eyes, it’s important to note that an eye shadow primer is going to be your best friend for creaseless eyeshadow. On top of that, a primer will help to brighten up an intensify your eyeshadow. Always use an eyeshadow primer as your base to build out the rest of your eye makeup.
The first thing to keep in mind is to not follow our natural eye line when applying eyeliner.
As we age, the skin around our eyes can droop slightly, and while this isn’t completely noticeable without makeup, applying an eyeliner will highlight this to great effect. Even a painstakingly drawn straight line will, despite our best efforts, follow the drop in our skin which leads to heavier looking eyes and a more aged look. The best way to avoid this is go up instead of out. When applying eyeliner, follow your natural line until the last lash. Once we get to the last lash, we give it a slight flick-up, as in the example below.
This helps to give our eyes an instant eye lift!
The second mistake we can make with our makeup also has to do with how we apply our eye liner. Filling in the eye liner all the way to the corner of your eye can lead to some unwanted creasing, especially if the skin on your eyelid is a little less taught that it used to be, like mine is. While filling in the liner all the way to the corner is a fantastic look, the conditions are perfect on mature skin for your eyeliner to smudge. Not an ideal look. To make sure your liner doesn’t crease, only fill in the liner to just over halfway.
Moving down a little to the lips, the ethos less is more is going to serve you well here. We can sometimes fall into the habit of overlining our lips all the way out to the corner because this is what we have been taught to do. By overlining, I don’t mean going over the lips, overlining in this case just means lining your entire actual lip line. This can give us ‘old lady mouths’ because as the day draws on, the lip liner can ‘bleed out’ from the corners of your mouth, especially on mature skin. The fix for this of course is to cut your lip liner off just before you get to the corner of your mouth, as in the example below. This way you can avoid any unwanted smearing and your lipstick will stay put all day long.
The next mistake we can make with makeup on mature skin is to not buff our foundation out to our neck area. Applying foundation to your face alone can essentially ‘cut-off’ the face and the neck, creating two separate and distinctly noticeable zones. Buffing your foundation out to your neck creates harmony between your face and your neck for a softer, more youthful look, so make sure you always buff!
Moving up slightly, a mistake that’s so easy to make when applying makeup on mature skin is to follow our natural eyebrow shape. For many of us, our eyebrows are not perfectly symmetrical or perfectly full. To create the illusion that they are, we need to follow a simple tip that will make a huge difference.
To match our eyebrows up and get them into perfect proportion for our face, there’s a simple measuring trick we can use to get them right every time.
To make the first measurement, take your eyebrow pencil and rest it at the corner of your nose and the innermost corner of your eye. Make a small mark here on your eyebrow.
For the second measurement, place the eyebrow pencil at the corner of your nose and along the outermost corner of your eye. Place a dot here along your eyebrow line.
The third measurement is from the corner of your nose to the centre of your pupil. Mark the dot on your eyebrow and this will indicate the peak.
Where these three dots sit indicate the start and end points of where your eyebrows should be. There will be a defined start, middle and end point. Quite often these dots will not match up exactly with your eyebrow. This is OK! Fill in the gaps.
Make sure you don’t go too heavy with filling in your eyebrows here and aim to maintain a natural look.
The last makeup tip to help give mature skin a soft glow is to apply a blush. When applying a blush, however, there are a few pitfalls we can avoid which work against us rather than for us.
You may have heard that applying a blush to the apples of cheeks as you hold a smile is the way to go, however applying your blush here can create a more aged look, reminiscent of a makeup choice your grandma may have made.
Because our mature skin sits a little lower, when we apply our blush to this area, it pulls our face down slightly by highlighting exactly where the drop in your skin is.
To avoid this happening, find the corner of your cheekbone (usually just below your lower eye area) and feel it with your pointer finger. Apply a little blush here for a gentle flush and a look that will help raise your features for a more youthful complexion. Make sure you buff out all of the blush so as not to leave any marks and maintain a natural looking glow.
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