10 Makeup Tips for Older Women Javascript must be enabled to use this site. Please enable Javascript in your browser and try again. × Search search POPULAR SEARCHES SUGGESTED LINKS Join AARP for just $9 per year when you sign up for a 5-year term. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. Leaving AARP.org Website You are now leaving AARP.org and going to a website that is not operated by AARP. A different privacy policy and terms of service will apply. Close
Basic Makeup Tips for Older Women
10 secrets from a beauty pro
Mary J. Blige keeps her smoky eyes muted and cheats the crease by using a soft gray on lids and just above the eye socket fold. Julianne Moore has matte apricot lips. Getty Images (2): Aaron J. Thornton/FilmMagic; Stefania D'Alessandro; Steve Granitz/WireImage There are thousands of beauty tricks that make a difference in your looks — especially if you’re a woman age 50-plus. But who has time for all that? Let me show you a shortcut to the best of the best. As a beauty editor, I’ve watched top pros use these tips on magazine shoots with and everyday women for decades. They’re timeless and do work. Here are 10 from my greatest hits list. Author Inara Verzemnieks lets her asymmetrical brows and lips be; check out Judy Greer’s asymmetrical brows. Roberto Ricciuti/Getty Images; Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic/Getty Images 1 Test makeup in the right places
Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. Swipe lipstick on your thumb and foundation, concealer and shadow in the web between thumb and forefinger. No more wiping clean the store tester and applying to your face or the back of your hand, please. Not only is it unhygienic, it’s not realistic. Test on skin similar to the area where the product will be used. The soft, fleshy blue-red pad of your thumb is more like actual lip skin and gives a truer idea of lipstick shade and texture. The web of skin near your thumb is thinner, looser and crinkled — it will show how face makeup or will look when applied, blended and worn. 2 Apply skin care upward and outward br
It really does help counteract gravity, and it sidekicks and deep expression lines. Blend on creams, serums and oils in gentle sweeping movements, working from the center of your face outward. In the short term, it gets the circulation going, helps products melt into skin and feels soothing — in the long term, it minimizes the downward pull. Makeup artists, day spa aestheticians, facialists and the teeny print instructions sheet that comes with luxury face creams wouldn’t have it any other way! Start at the base of your neck and work upwards to the jawline. Then sweep outward along the jawline, from chin to ears, beneath nose to cheekbones to temples, in a big C. Blend eye cream from inner eye near the nose, in a hammock following the under eye. You’re subtly lifting the face as you massage up and out. 3 Apply brow makeup before eye makeup not after br
Unless you have tattooed or microbladed your eyebrows, or have genetically gifted strong full brows — your own are not what they used to be. Filling and before jumping to liner, shadow and mascara gives your eye area a brand-new bigger frame. This “window” will affect how much eye makeup you need or want — and maybe it's not as much as you thought. Dark hair? Go one or two shades lighter in brow makeup. Light hair? Go one or two shades darker in brow filler. 4 Start and stop brow makeup where it should
Entertainment $3 off popcorn and soft drink combos See more Entertainment offers > By age 50, unmatched features are the norm. One brow may be higher or differently shaped than the other; your top lip may have thinned to a nearly invisible line, while the bottom lip is still pouty. On your face, you may see that one side is more lined and crinkled than the other (usually the side you don’t sleep on is higher, firmer, less lined). It’s all OK. These quirky little “off” things give your face personality and individuality. Don’t strive to mask differences with makeup. 6 A makeup sponge is for adding moisture not makeup
Here’s a major secret: Unlike fingers, makeup sponges suck up a lot of face makeup. You end up using more makeup for each application and running out of that bottle or tube very quickly. The more expensive teardrop sponge is trendy, but those triangular ones have been around forever and do the job just as well. Use them to freshen a makeup overdose or retouch makeup during the day or evening. Simply run a makeup sponge under warm water, squeeze out the excess and dab (press, don’t swipe!) your face right over your makeup. It removes any excess color (too much foundation, blush or bronzer, for example) or makeup that has settled in crevices and lines. Carry one in a Ziploc bag in your handbag, and clean it often. 7 Create a new eyelid crease
Aging eyes are beautiful, but when deep, hooded or saggy, they rob your lids of space. This puts the emphasis on the droopy overhang and diminishes eye size and shape. When applying makeup forget the old rules about using a light shadow on the lid and a deeper color to contour. Instead, go darker on the lids with a medium shade (anything from gray to light brown), and blend it from the lash line straight up and over your real crease to extend above it. Keep the edge of the arc soft. This new fake crease is an illusion that expands lash to crease space, pushes back the overhang and makes eyes look bigger and stronger in shape — even before you get to liner! AARP NEWSLETTERS %{ newsLetterPromoText }% %{ description }% Subscribe More on entertainment AARP NEWSLETTERS %{ newsLetterPromoText }% %{ description }% Subscribe AARP VALUE & MEMBER BENEFITS See more Health & Wellness offers > See more Flights & Vacation Packages offers > See more Finances offers > See more Health & Wellness offers > SAVE MONEY WITH THESE LIMITED-TIME OFFERS