Changes You Should Consider to Your Makeup Routine in Your Forties & Onwards
Relax, forties are certainly the new twenties, just with more confidence. It is a good idea to incorporate some changes to your makeup routine that will take into consideration the changes that are happening in your face shape, skin and texture. It’s kind of like walking into Abercrombie & Fitch, a store notoriously popular with Generation Z, and trying on their jeans. They are great, just not for you. As we grow older, we pride ourselves on knowing what we need and reassessing our processes accordingly. I hope this article doesn’t depress you, its just kindly pointing out what may happen, and how to manage it. Here we go!
Time to Consider a Primer
If you haven’t considered a primer before then now is the time to start. One of the most attractive things about youthful skin is its smoothness. Applying a foundation directly to the skin make simply highlight the imperfections that tend to crop up over time. Whether they are fine lines, old acne scars that have become more prominent or enlarged pores, a primer will create a great layer on the skin that will help the foundation slide on effortlessly, and will conceal the imperfections for a smoother, more glowing look.
Do You Have a Magnifying Mirror With An Electric Light?
Remember the ones our mothers used to own, that changed colors to help with makeup application. Well you don’t need something that fancy. Ordering a well-lit, hand-held mirror with magnifying glass could be one of your best purchases so far. It’s one of those things that you really don’t know you need till you own one.
Makeup is all about precision, and with time our eyes need more light to see clearly, and some of us may even need a magnifying mirror for applying eyeliner or lipliner. This will simply make things easier, and the results are bound to be rewarding!
Reconsider Where You Apply Your Blush and Bronzer
As we grow wiser, our faces change shape. So understandably where we used to apply makeup to our cheek and jawbones may have changed. Generally speaking, due to gravity, our faces may appear longer, which means that the contouring techniques we used to use to define our cheekbones may not be such a good idea any more. I was just going to say, go to a makeup counter and have the specialist experiment on your face, but this doesn’t happen anymore, they aren’t allowed to touch your face!
Most of us will need blush higher up on the cheekbone, and on the apples of the cheeks also. As for bronzer, you’d need to experiment till you nail it. I am personally still trying :). The amount I usually use doesn’t do much anymore, and therefore I feel I need to add more all over.
Do You Own a Kabuki Brush?
Over time, the surface of your face will become more bumpy, not as in pimples but as in lack of collagen. Below your cheeks may have hollowed, and also below around your eyes. Your bones actually shrink over time, which leads to this bumpiness. When we apply blushes and bronzers to bumpy surfaces the product doesn’t disperse as evenly, which is why a lot of your mum’s friends have blush streaks that are way too dramatic. The solution is a big, fat kabuki brush that will help even out your applied product, giving you a more even toned, and softer face.
Change the Shades of Your Brow Pencil, Eyeliner, Mascara and Lipliner
With age we lose pigment, and we lose definition, which is something you really need to take into consideration. Your eyebrows may be more sparse than before, this is completely normal. Use a brow pencil, or even better, a brow powder to gentle define your brows. We’ve all seen it before, women with overly dramatic brows, jet black lashes that no longer match your skin tone or hair color, and of course a strong lipliner that only further accentuates your loss of volume in the lip, and possibly even the crows feet around the lips.
The Color of Our Skin
We’re guessing that you don’t spend as much time in the sun, you slather sunblock on religiously and all your skin creams are constantly resurfacing your skin; giving it a healthy, albeit lighter, glow. You need to incorporate this new skin color into your makeup routine in two ways. You need to adjust the colors you choose in every single makeup product, they need to be lighter in color. You also need to think about keeping things soft and blended. Dramatic looks are really quite tricky, not only do they highlight imperfections, they also accentuate the loss of volume in the face in general. Masters of the soft look are of course Bobbi Brown (btw did you know that Bobbi herself is no longer affiliated with the brand???) and Laura Mercier.
The Devil is in the Eyeshadow
We need a point just for eyeshadows! Aren’t they tricky to apply after a certain age. It’s like one day you way up and it’s just not sitting like it did before. Your eyes may have hollowed, making your eyelids recede, with this you get less room for application, because it’s like your eyes are sitting in a niche in the wall. Secondly, your eyelids themselves may have drooped which means that all of a sudden your eyebrows are too close to your eye. When this happens, get botox ;))). You may also have problems figuring out where the eyeshadow should end which is where they reliable lighted mirror comes in.
Consider Semi-Permanent Makeup
I love semi-permanent makeup simply because it obviously saves you the stress of application every day. It is also great at creating illusions that can make your eyes or lips bigger and more defined in a very natural way. As we age our faces get smaller, filler blows the face up till you start lookin a little like a blowfish. Opt for semi-permanent makeup instead of filler for lips in particular, you’ll thank us later.
Perhaps the one thing that has been a disaster in the semi-permanent makeup world are of course those terrible black brows that actually have corners… Did you ever have corners? And don’t let us get started on the bizarre shapes and the facial expressions they may create. So, if you know a great brow specialist insist on strokes instead of complete fill ins, and always opt for a light shade, you can always darken if needed.
