In a report titled “Older Women: The Forgotten Demographic,” women aged 54 -90 were interviewed to establish their views on cosmetics and toiletries: what they use, where they buy and what they think of packaging, advertising and product claims. The results were eye-opening. Not only do we feel ignored, but we feel that much of the advertising and marketing messages directed at us are demeaning and patronizing. Sheila, one of the women who was interviewed, said glamorous models didn’t do it for her: “I’m very cynical and don’t believe if I use this (product) I’ll have perfect looking skin. It has the opposite effect.” Annie, age 50, said: “I shout at the TV when I see ads with women with no wrinkles or who are too young to have them.” I can hear most of you thinking, right on, Annie
In addition, only one of the top 6 cosmetics lines is using older women most of us can relate to in their print and TV ads and on their website video tutorials.
So, what does work to help us look our best? Fortunately, research has concluded that there are three things we can do to look out absolute best. In fact, the research indicated that these three makeup techniques can help us look 5 – 20 years younger:
Fill in our eyebrows. All kinds of interesting things start happening to our eyebrows as we get older: sparseness, wiry hairs, gray and white hairs and many of us notice a “disappearing act” of those tails. So filling the eyebrows in with pencil, powder, pomade or gel can make a startling difference.
Create an even skin tone with the right tinted moisturizer, foundation and/or concealer. Who among us does not have some redness, discoloration, sunspots or all of the above? The research study found that an even skin tone can make the most dramatic improvement—literally erasing 5-20 years from our appearance.
Add some color with blush and lipstick. As we mature, we lose blood vessels in our cheeks which gives skin a more sallow appearance. So bringing back some color revives our skin tone. But, it’s also important to put the color in the right place. We’ve always heard that blush should be applied to the apples of our cheeks, but where have those apples gone, ladies? So apply blush along the upper part of your cheekbone and bring it up toward your hairline. Going up is an important technique since we’re trying to outsmart Mother Nature by giving more “lift” to our face.
And though the nude lip look may be the trend, it’s not our friend since it tends to wash us out. Go for a luminous lip color (rather than matte) one shade darker than your natural lip color. And if you have a golden skin undertone (greenish colored veins on your wrists as opposed to blue), stick with melon, peach, coral and orange-red lipsticks. For a cool skin undertone (blue veins), check out pink tones, berry shades and blue-red lipsticks. And adding a touch of gloss adds even more light and radiance.
As a makeup artist who specializes in helping women 50+ look their best, I have the pleasure of teaching women these techniques on a regular basis. Is it any wonder that I love what I do?
We’ll be talking about each of these makeup techniques in more detail in future blogs, so stay tuned.