Older Woman Makeup Tips

Older Women Makeup Tips

How to conceal wrinkles, crow's feet, crepe-y lids & much more

By Julyne Derrick, About.com Guide

The last time I posted makeup tips for older women on my blog, women wrote in begging me for "more, more, more." So ladies, here you go.

Stay Away From Dark Lipstick

As we age, our lips thin. Super dark lipstick on skinny lips isn't attractive. Your best lipstick bet is the shade closest to your natural lip color or if you like color, rosy reds. Orange lipsticks tend to be aging, but pinks are not. If your lips have thinned or are super wrinkly, play up your eyes instead.

Not sure what color works for you? Hit the department store counter along with a friend you trust. Try on many colors with the help of a counter person and you'll figure out quickly what shades flatter your skin tone.
This is just one lipstick tip. Get more than a dozen more in (including the most flattering shade for older women) in Lipstick Tips for Older Women.

Try Eye Pencils Instead of Liquid Liners

Eye pencils are softer than liquid liners, which can be harsh on aging eyes. To soften the line even more, smudge it with your fingers or use an angled makeup brush dipped in dark shadow as a smudge-y eyeliner (this is how I line my eyes these days). Don't line the inside of the eye if you have small eyes, it makes the eye appear smaller.

Find out more in How to Apply Eyeliner.

Make Your Eyes the Center of Attention With the Right Eyeshadow Shades

Just as a fireplace can be the focal point of a gorgeous living room, consider making your eyes the focal point of your face. This will detract attention from any fine lines or turkey wattles.

Enhance your eye color with eyeshadow shades that will make your eyes pop. For brown or hazel eyes, golds and browns are gorgeous. Blue eyes look great with blue-gray and lighter browns and dark eyes look fantastic with dark shades.
Find out more in Eyeshadow: How to Apply It, My Best Picks & More.

7 Tips for Concealing Crow's Feet (aka "Laugh Lines")

People start developing crow's feet around the eyes in their 30s. I consider my own "laughing lines" and believe they are a sign of a good life. I hope to develop many more as I grow older.

But not everyone loves crow's feet. You can freeze them with Botox or fill them in with fillers (read more about these in Hollywood Secrets to Looking Younger), but there are few other non-invasive ways to conceal them or diminish the signs of them, including choosing the right pair of glasses.
Find out how in How to Conceal Crow's Feet and then check out Best Glasses for Older Women.

Don't Overdo Your Makeup

Less is more when it comes to makeup as you age. You don't want to pile on the foundation, the eyeliner and the heavy lipstick. Instead, you want to use highlighter pens, tinted moisturizers and a lighter touch with the shadow and lipstick. Oh, and you might want to get some bangs.

Find out what happens when the most famous celebs go too far with the makeup in Are Your Hairstyle and Makeup Aging You?.
More makeup tips in How to Conceal Wrinkles on Your Face.

Adopt a Great Skincare Routine

The key to looking younger than you is to get your skin in tip-top shape.

A good skincare routine will create the illusion of youthfulness. You shouldn't just cleanse and moisturize your skin, you should also exfoliate weekly and consider antioxidants or Vitamin A products. Super hydrating masks can do wonders to mature skin (see my list of the Best Face Masks). And if you really want to get rid of those wrinkles, you might consider lasers, Botox or fillers. Read more about these in-office procedures in my in-depth article, How to Fix Deep Wrinkles: 5 Wrinkle Fixes You Can Get at Your Doctor's Office.

How to Conceal Sagging Skin

As we age, we may begin to notice a big change taking place under the chin. And I'm not talking about excessive growth of chin hairs. You may develop a turkey wattle or you might what you consider a double chin. Either way, you might want to conceal it.

You could see a plastic surgeon and have lipo under your chin or a facelift, but if you don't want to spend the cash or endure surgery, there are inexpensive ways to conceal sagging skin and a crepe-y neck.
Check out these tips and many more in Loose Skin? 4 Tips to Conceal Sagging Skin.

How to Conceal Droopy Eyelids Without Surgery

Drooping eyelids are another natural part of the aging process but there's no need to invest in eyelid surgery. You can spend thousands on an eyelift or you can try these beauty tips that cost nothing. Find out how in How to Conceal Droopy Eyelids Without Surgery.

Thinning or Bushy Eyebrows

I'm a stickler for good brows and am known for making my friends let me tweeze theirs. Keeping your brows done nicely is like having a facelift without surgery, according to author Charla Krupp's brow guy. Here are some tips for perfect brows:

• Get your brows professionally done. Nothing opens eyes up like curled lashes and neat brows. If you can't afford waxing or threading every few weeks, use the professional's job as a map for your own tweezing. Simply pluck the stray hairs that grow in between professional tweezing or waxing. How to pluck your own brows.
• Drawn-in brows are a no-no. You know the pencil-thin line you see some of your friends or women in your town wear? Well, they only age you and they're somewhat tacky. Learn how to properly fill in sparse brows.
• Avoid tweezing gray brow hairs. Instead, conceal them with a brow powder or pencil.

Thinning Lips

Personally, I love a thin lip. I read somewhere once that it's a sign of intelligence. As we age, our lips lose some of their fat. Here's how to plump up thin lips.

• Picking the right lip color is a must. Makeup artist Bobbi Brown suggests skipping the bright colors and opt for a color that's just a shade or 2 darker than your natural lip color. Check out 16 Lipstick Tricks and Tips.
• As you age, your natural lip line fades. Create a lip line by coloring in lips first with a lip liner, then apply gloss or lipstick over the liner.
• Consider getting rid of lipstick and using lip gloss instead. Gloss creates the illusion of puffed-up lips, especially when applied to the middle of lips.
• Lip plumpers do work, but the effects don't last long (we're talking under an hour). So skip the plumpers and save your money. Even Vaseline on lips will make them appear larger.

Ack! What to Do About Sprouting Chin Hairs

For the record, I know 30-year-olds with chin hair problems. You can tweeze them or have your stylist tweeze them, but they will always grow back. The only way to keep chin hairs at bay permanently is electrolysis.

How to Get Rid of Your Moustache

• You have 2 options for moustaches: Wax them off with a home waxing kit you can buy in any drugstore or have a professional do it. See How to Get Rid of Hair on Your Face.
• To lighten dark moustaches, try kit made just for this which you can find in your beauty

http://wrinkles.ygoy.com/2008/05/20/can-make-up-hide-wrinkles/

Makeup Tips for Aging Skin

Makeup Tips for Aging Skin

Creative use of makeup can erase years from your face.

By Lissa Poirot
WebMD Feature

Reviewed by Brunilda Nazario, MD

As you age, you experience many things -- puberty, pregnancy, menopause, pollution, sunlight, dry winters, humid summers, stress. Your aging skin experiences them too. And even if you take good care of your skin, life takes a toll on it.

But you can turn back the clock, at least a little, with makeup. By skillfully applying makeup, you can hide wrinkles, age spots, and sun damage and also play up your best features. Here are some tips from the professionals: makeup artists.

Skin Care Slideshow: Foods for Healthy, Supple Skin

Hiding Fine Lines and Wrinkles

In trying to conceal fine lines and wrinkles around the eyes, lips, and forehead, many women make the mistake of accentuating them instead by overdoing makeup. Too much makeup settles and cakes into lines, making wrinkles more noticeable.

Prevention begins with a moisturizer. "After you wash your face in the morning, apply moisturizer while the skin is damp, which will plump it up and even it out, helping makeup glide on," says Billy Lowe, celebrity hairstylist and beauty expert for television shows such as Extreme Makeover and TLC's 10 Years Younger.

Don't forget to moisturize around the eyes. "Start with a silicone-based eye serum that will gel to the concealer and prevent it from slipping," says Lowe. And, he says, "Packing on the makeup to cover lines or dark circles will cause it to crepe and bring out creases." To avoid a cakey look around the eyes, don't use heavy concealers.

"Learn your bone structure and features of your face," advises Bridget Winton, makeup instructor at the Bellus Academy of Beauty & Spa in San Diego. "Focus on your bone structure to lift the face. Give yourself a youthful look by using lighter and darker shades to make hard lines soft and soft lines hard."

For a sagging chin, for example, work with a foundation that is one or two shades darker than your facial foundation. Cover the darker area with a translucent powder.

How to Brighten Aging Skin

A dull, gray complexion can be a sign of dehydrated skin, but skin also loses its rosy glow as it thins with age. While you work to replenish dry skin with moisturizers, you can also brighten color lost through thinning with lighter makeup.

Use warm colors to brighten the appearance of shallow, dull skin. Experts suggest using a foundation that is a half shade lighter than your skin tone.

To diminish dark circles under the eyes, apply foundation that's a shade lighter than your facial foundation to the area. Top it with a concealer and then add a loose powder to set the makeup and hide the color difference.

Illuminators and bronzers can also add a sun-kissed glow, but don't overdo it; a fake tan can add years to your face. Instead, blend the bronzer into your moisturizer or foundation and then apply it evenly to your face. Or use a loose powder just one or two shades darker than your skin tone.

To give skin a dewy look, Winton recommends spritzers and remoisturizing sprays to set makeup and add glisten.

Makeup Tips for Aging Skin

Creative use of makeup can erase years from your face.

(continued)

Soften Your Colors

Ruby red may have been your signature lip color since your 20s, but as you mellow with age, so should your color palette. "You don't want bright, vibrant colors that call attention to the eyes, lips, or cheeks because they will draw attention to damage and not blend with the skin," says Winton. "You can still stay with the harmony of your hair and eye color, just do it with softer colors."

Lowe says, "I'm a sucker for soft tones. I use them on everyone. I like neutrals and pastels and find they complement aging skin well."

Around the eyes, black mascaras and eyeliners are appropriate if your hair color hasn't grayed. When your hair color fades, so should your mascara; opt for a soft brown or gray.

Eyelashes also tend to lose their volume and thickness over time. A volumizing, defining mascara will plump them up. To make them even fuller, "apply a very fine layer of translucent powder to the lashes in between two coats of mascara," says makeup artist and former model Jemma Kidd. Or consider having your lashes and brows tinted with semi-permanent color at your local hair salon.

Plump Lips

Thinning lips are another downside of aging skin. But a few tricks can make them look full again.

Choosing the right color for thinning lips is as important as how it is applied. Again, avoid strong colors like red. They can make lips appear even thinner, while peach and beige colors, lip glosses, and tawny liners make them appear fuller and more defined.

Liners can help complete the illusion of fuller lips. Draw just on the outside of the lips and fill in with color, but be careful not to make them appear too rigid. "Most people use the pencil to outline the lips first," says Lowe. "This creates too much definition in the lining of the lip. Instead, use color first and then line the lip. It gives it a softer line that is still defined."

Feathery lines also appear around lips as you age. To stop lipstick from bleeding into them, use matte lipsticks and lip liners. Kidd recommends mixing a good quality lip balm with your favorite lip color for a glossier or subtler look.

Prevent Further Skin Damage

Makeup can make a temporary difference in your appearance, but it's most effective if you start with the best base possible -- well-tended skin.

No matter how old you are, your skin still needs moisturizer and protection from the sun.

Makeup artists stress the importance of keeping the skin hydrated and clean, and warding off additional sun damage.

Exfoliate the skin every day, says Lowe: "Pollution builds up on your skin and will prevent moisture from getting into it. Exfoliation removes the build up and speeds up cellular turnover, bringing new, brighter cells to the surface."

Apply moisturizer and sunscreens as a base each morning, and reapply sunscreen throughout the day. Make a point to wash makeup off every night and repair the day's damage by applying heavier, nighttime moisturizers.

"You know the saying, 'an ounce of prevention,'" says Lowe. "Take care of your skin at any age." 

http://beauty.about.com/od/spassalons/a/makeup_tips_for_older_women.htm

Taking bad pictures and making them look better

I love to have pictures taken of me, sometimes they are shot with the camera on a tripod using a remote shutter release.  I also like to use some editing software to change my photos.

These two look like pen and ink sketches.

You can take a bad pictures and make it look good by using photo effects.