Youthful Makeup Tips

Looking young has become an international obsession recently, driving women to extreme measures like surgery and botox in the quest for youthful beauty. You don’t have to be willing to risk your life and your retirement fund to get a more youthful look however. Follow the easy makeup tips below to safely and effectively take years off your appearance.

Written by Sarah Bertram, Green Health Research Contributor

Tip #1: The Right Foundation

Choosing the right foundation can be half of the battle when it comes to creating a more youthful look. The fine lines and wrinkles which characterize mature skin are emphasized by the use of heavy liquid and dense powder foundations. These foundation formulas can become trapped in lines and draw attention to them and away from the rest of your face.

To avoid this, look for light, loose powder foundations and tinted moisturizers to help even skin tone. Older skin often needs less coverage, so another option is to skip foundation all together and instead simply use concealer to cover any small areas of discoloration or unevenness of the skin.

Tip #2: The Right Brows

We’ve all seen older women whose brows have been plucked to within an inch of their lives. This razor-thin eyebrow actually ages the eye area and gives the face an unbalanced and unframed look. Eyebrows should instead simply be kept in shape by modest tweezing and filled in with the light application of a brow pencil. Filling in gaps is the main focus, not creating a completely different brow shape from what you have naturally.

Use a brow pencil that either matches your hair color or is only a few shades lighter. Don’t go darker on your brows as this looks unnatural on mature women and only emphasizes your age. Also use short quick strokes of the brush to mimic the look of natural brow hair, don’t make any long, hard strokes as this again will make your brows look artificial.

Tip #3: The Right Eye Makeup

As we age, the eye area is often the first to be affected. Mature women should use lighter colors than younger women, as hard dark colors can make the eye area appear smaller and emphasize dark circles. Instead of using black for a smoky nighttime eye, for example, mature women should instead opt for taupe or brown shades to create the same effect.

Liquid eyeliner should also be avoided as the hard line it creates is too drastic of a look on older skin. Pencil and powder eyeliners should be used instead, and all lines drawn with eyeliner should be lightly smudged to blur and minimize any sharp lines.

Tip #4: The Right Blush

Just as heavy foundation formulas can become trapped in lines and wrinkles, so too can blushes. When choosing a blush look for either a loose powder or a cream formula, as neither of these will age skin. When applying blush mature women should begin their application under the center of the eye, not on the apples of the cheek. While applying blush to the apples of the cheek can look fresh on younger skin, on mature skin it tends to look fake and draws the eye downwards instead of upwards. Drawing the eye upwards is important because this helps “lift” the face and makes it appear younger. Sweep blush upwards from under the center of the eye and lightly apply it to temples as well.

Tip #5: The Right Lip Products

Mature women need to be careful about what types of lip products they use, as the wrong formulas can be very aging. Mature women should avoid frosted lip colors or ashy lip colors, as these emphasize any grayness or paleness of the skin and can emphasize wrinkles around the lips. Sparkly lip products should also be avoided for similar reasons. Also consider using a creamy lipgloss rather than a lipstick, as creamy glosses add color to the lip without creating the harsh line of lipstick. If lips need more definition than a gloss alone can give, choose a lip pencil in a shade that matches your natural lip color to keep the gloss in place, give lips definition, and prevent wrinkles from being enhanced.