Eye Makeup Tips for Mature Skin

…And Any Makeup for That Matter

As you age, you may think that makeup should make you look younger, but that shouldn’t be the goal. Instead, you should use makeup as a way of enhancing your beauty and flattering the changing contours of your face. You can still get a youthful and healthy glow with these makeup tips for mature skin.

The trickiest aspect of applying makeup as you get older is creating a look for your eyes. The fine lines and crow’s feet around your eyes can make application a little bit tougher. Don’t despair, there are techniques that will boost your natural beauty and look flattering for women of any age. Read on for makeup tips for mature skin.

Achieving a Youthful Glow

Did you know that one of the biggest impacts of your perceived age is the appearance of your hands, chest, and arms? Those areas are more prone to sun damage, and often forgotten in the skincare routine. Most women are careful to moisturize, exfoliate, and apply sunscreen to their faces, but some other parts of the body can end up being neglected. Here are a few tips to get your skin on track and looking more youthful.

Moisturize. Skin that is hydrated will look more even-toned, and it will actually be healthier. To maximize your hydration, use a moisturizing body wash in the shower and slather on a good moisturizer after your shower.

Reduce Redness. Redness is an inflammatory response. If you notice that your skin is often red and/or itchy, switch to fragrance-free products that contain vitamin B3. Cool compresses can help soothe immediate redness.

Exfoliate. For truly glowing skin, you have to get rid of the old dead skin cells. An exfoliating scrub or body brush can help reveal your youthful glow.

Lifestyle Changes. Your skin is the largest organ of the body, and it can be affected by what you put inside your body. Drinking plenty of water, eating a healthy diet, and not smoking cigarettes are all ways you can improve your glow.

Sunscreen. It is likely that you have moisturizers or foundations that contain sunscreen that you use on your face daily, but do you remember to protect the rest of your skin in a similar manner? No matter the time of year, your skin needs UV protection to protect you from skin cancer but also to help slow down the signs of aging.

Related: Sunscreen in the Winter…Really?

Keeping Your Eyes Looking Youthful

The eyes are the windows to the soul, isn’t that how the saying goes? For most women, the bulk of their makeup routine centers around the eyes. So, it only makes sense that this is the area they want to keep looking young and smooth. What makes it so difficult is that the skin around the eyes is very delicate and can easily be damaged.  In order to keep your eyes popping with a youthful glow, follow these makeup tips for mature skin:

1. Daily Eye Cream. As you age, your eye cream should get thicker and thicker to protect this delicate skin and boost collagen production. The best way to apply the cream is by using your ring finger and use a patting motion instead of a rubbing motion.
2. UV Protection. It seems to always come back to UV protection, doesn’t it? Your eyes, just like your skin, need the same protections. UV rays can actually damage your retinas and harm your eyesight as well as adding to the crow’s feet around your eyes. Sunglasses will help keep both your sight and your skin safe.
3. No Pulling or Rubbing. As you already know, the skin around your eyes is very delicate. You want to avoid pulling on it when applying or removing makeup, and you also want to avoid aggressively rubbing your eyes. If you have itchy eyes due to allergies, consider an antihistamine or a daily allergy pill to break the habit of rubbing.
4. Lifestyle Changes. To help protect the skin around your eyes, you can make a few lifestyle changes. Reducing your salt intake, getting enough sleep, and using a humidifier in your bedroom can all help improve the youthful look of your eyes.

Makeup Tips for Mature Skin That Will Keep You Looking Amazing As You Age

One problem that women have as they are aging is developing a makeup routine to accommodate for the changes on their skin and face. Think about when you learned to apply makeup. Were you in high school? In middle school? The biggest hurdles at that time were likely breakouts that you were trying to conceal. As you age, did you learn new techniques more suited to the face of a twenty-something or a thirty-year-old? How about when you reached the age of forty or even fifty? Those same middle school techniques will look very out of place on the face of a fifty-year-old, and they will probably even make you look older.

Makeup Tips for Mature Skin – The Face

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Lips: While matte lipsticks may be on-trend, they aren’t always right for the older demographic. Matte can make the lips very dry, and it can actually make you look older. Stick to a lipstick that has a bit of luminosity. The shine is flattering to the face, and it will keep the lips more hydrated.

Foundation: To keep your foundation from settling into all of the fine lines on your face, switch to a soft buffer brush for your applications. You also want to apply the foundation around the lip area if you find that your lipstick bleeds into the fine lines around the mouth.

Related: Tips on Wrinkle Prevention and Reduction

Makeup Tips for Mature Skin – The Eyes

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Eyeliner: When the age of reading glasses hits, some women will choose to give up on eyeliner because it is too hard to see. However, eyeliner really defines the eye area and definitely gives a more youthful appearance. Switch to a pencil that can be smudged instead of a liquid. This switch will not only give you a softer look, but it helps you get away with a less than straight eyeliner line.

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Mascara: To give your eyes the best look possible, you will want to find a mascara that is lengthening instead of volumizing. The lengthening mascara will keep your lashes from looking stubby. Also, if you have gray or lighter colored hair, switching from black to dark brown will be less harsh for your face.

8 Makeup Tips for Mature Skin That Are Actually Making You Look OLDER!

It can be hard to pick out the good makeup tips for mature skin from the bad makeup tips, but it can be even more difficult to find the makeup techniques that are age appropriate. When you look at most of the beauty tutorials and articles circulating online, they tend to focus on the younger end of the population. So, while the tips may be great for a 24-year-old, they will actually make a forty-something look older. The following are things you may have heard as good tips, but they are actually not doing you any favors.

#1 Wearing Matte Makeup Makes You Look Younger

This is categorically false. The matte makeup actually makes your skin look more dry and dull. As you age, you should be using less matte because a youthful glow comes from glowing and moisturized skin.

#2 Shimmering Eyeshadows Will Accentuate Your Wrinkles

This is actually the opposite of what happens. In fact, the sparkle of your eyeshadow can cause wrinkles and dark circles to be less noticeable. The shimmer can be thought of as a distraction. That doesn’t mean you should go overboard and start plastering glitter all over your eyelids, but just a few touches of shimmer will be a good touch.

#3 Smoky Eyes Are Only For Those Under 30

A strong and smoky lid can make your eye color pop, and it gives you a more confident look. If you need proof of this fact, check out the over 70 Jane Fonda on the red carpet. She looks stunning with her smoky-eyed look.

#4 Mature Women Should Switch to Tinted Moisturizers

This myth probably stemmed from the fact that older women shouldn’t cake on the foundation because it will settle in the wrinkles and make you look older. However, there are plenty of lighter full-coverage formulas on the market. A tinted moisturizer won’t help even the skin tone or hide things like broken capillaries and sunspots.

#5 Your Blush Should Not Be a Bright Color

A dull color on the cheeks will give you a washed out and tired look. It is much better to choose a bright pink, peach, or red color and then apply it sparingly. This will give your cheeks a natural flushed look which is definitely more youthful than a colorless monotone face.

#6 Blush Should Be Applied Under the Cheekbones

If you learned your makeup technique in the 1980s, you are probably guilty of using your blush in this contouring method. Applying underneath was supposed to make the cheekbones more defined. Moving your blush up to the apples of your cheeks will have a gravity-defying effect on your face.

#7 Lip Liner Ages You

While it is true that lip liner application can go horribly wrong, and there are plenty of photos from the 1990s and early 2000s to prove it, using it can actually make you look younger. As you age, you will begin to notice fine lines around your lips (these will be more pronounced if you are a smoker.) These lines can turn into little ditches for your lipstick to run right off your lips and settle in these wrinkles. Lip liner can act as a barrier against this running. Choose a shade that is either the same color as your lips or your lipstick for the best results.

#8 Waterproof Mascara Will Cause You to Rip Out Your Eyelashes

Any kind of mascara can be a bit difficult to clean off of your lashes. However,  if you use a gentle eye makeup remover and do some light massaging, the mascara will come off without taking your lashes with it. Waterproof mascara helps keep your lashes curled throughout the day. Consider what humidity can do to your hairstyle, your lashes are affected in a similar manner.

At the End of The Day

Growing older is a fact of life, and you should attempt to do it with style and grace. That doesn’t mean you can’t put your best face forward though. These tips should help you keep your skin, and especially your eyes, looking youthful and bright.

It may be possible for you to find a local makeup artist that understands how to apply products on a mature woman. You can get a one-on-one tutorial, but you will probably find that they will tell you many of the tips that we have outlined here. Remember that your face is not the same now as it was when you first started applying makeup in your teens. As long as you make the proper adjustments, you can still look just as fabulous today as you did back then.

More Great Makeup Tips for Mature Skin:

12 Makeup Mistakes That Are Actually Aging You

How to lift mature eyes with makeup

34 Beauty Expert-Recommended Secrets to Looking Younger