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Makeup Tips for Aging Skin
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.
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.
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