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Our faces are prone to losing colour and depth as we age – and we may also notice the appearance of pigmentation, fine lines, and wrinkles. As a result, many mature women worry that their skin may appear dull and lifeless without multiple layers of makeup.
However, it’s entirely possible to add life and vibrancy to your face with just a small selection of the right makeup products. To show you how, we’ve partnered with award-winning makeup company Look Fabulous Forever.
Tricia Cusden launched Look Fabulous Forever in 2013, aged 65, after struggling to find products that worked well for her skin. Look Fabulous Forever offers a unique range of skincare and makeup products specifically tailored to mature skin. Tricia’s mission is to help women find products that suit their skin and make them feel their best.
With that said, here are nine tips to bring life and vibrancy to your face with minimal makeup.
1. Create a smooth base for makeup
Mature skin becomes more absorbent with age – and we may also notice the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. This means that, without the correct base, makeup can begin to seep into fine lines and look unpolished. The same goes for our lips and the skin on our eyelids, which also tend to become thinner and less elastic with age.
Using a primer can make a huge difference to how your makeup sits and often reduces the need to wear as much product. Primers help to create a smooth and even surface by filling in pores, smoothing out skin texture, and blurring imperfections. This allows makeup to sit more seamlessly – and many good-quality primers increase the wear time of makeup too.
Look Fabulous Forever’s primers are specifically designed to extend the wear of makeup by preventing it from wearing away throughout the day. Their Face Prime contains aloe vera extract and silica, which are effective at filling in pores and fine lines.
They also have a Lip Prime, which helps to prevent lipstick from smudging, and their Eye Prime is slightly pigmented and designed to help neutralise discolouration and broken capillaries, and keep eyeshadow in place.
To learn more about the difference primers can make to mature skin, check out Tricia’s video guide below…
2. Bring life to your brows
Just like skin, hair becomes thinner with age too – and this includes our eyebrows, which often fade and become more sparse.
Filling in your eyebrows can be daunting – particularly as the balance between just enough and too much eyebrow product can be a fine line to tread. Plus, for many mature women, filling in eyebrows is a fairly novel concept.
However, it’s worth learning how because a little eyebrow TLC can make a huge difference to your overall makeup look. Look Fabulous Forever’s Bring Back Brow Shape and Eyebrow Brush make the perfect pair for bringing extra life to your brows. Bring Back Brow Shape’s ultra-fine brush allows you to build eyebrows more naturally than a pencil; and its waterproof formula means that it stays in place all day too.
The team at Look Fabulous Forever say their secret trick is to use a wedge brush and taupe eyeshadow to fill in your brows; using upwards, hair-like motions. This is a simple but wonderful way to add natural definition and structure to your eyebrows without creating too much contrast.
For more tips, check out Look Fabulous Forever’s article; How to restore shape and definition to your eyebrows. Or, watch the video below…
3. Use matte eyeshadow
For mature women, eyeshadow can sometimes be tricky to apply – particularly if your eyelids no longer provide such a smooth base.
Certain eyeshadow products can actually accentuate creases – especially those that contain a certain amount of shimmer and shine.
However, Look Fabulous Forever’s No Shimmer Eye Shadow is completely matte, and flatters mature eyes by covering creases, instead of drawing attention to them with shimmer. You’ll find warm and cool tones, as well as a mix of both. For best results, Tricia advises applying eyeshadow with a shadow blending brush.
4. Add extra glow with highlighter
Highlighter has become all the rage in recent years – and for good reason. Highlighters help to bring an extra dose of glow and radiance to makeup. They’re typically applied on top of foundation to areas like the nose, brow bones, and cheekbones.
Look Fabulous Forever’s Instant Bright Highlight glides smoothly over foundation without cracking or creasing, and contains light-reflecting particles to result in a natural glow.
Check out Tricia’s video guide on everything you need to know about highlighter for tips on how to apply it.
5. Avoid ‘volumising’ mascaras and go for something lighter
Many people find mascara to be the finishing touch to their makeup – or at least the product that makes the most noticeable difference to their face by making their eyes look wider and brighter.
However, it’s important to pick the right product, as some mascaras can appear clumpy, harsh, and unnatural. Generally speaking, lightweight mascaras tend to work better than volumising ones, which can make lashes appear stiff and spikey. This is particularly true of mature lashes, which tend to be thinner and more sparse.
Look Fabulous Forever’s Lithe Lash Mascara is designed to create a natural look by subtly defining lashes without causing clumping. For those whose eyes are prone to watering, there’s also a waterproof version.
To find out more about the best mascara for older eyes, head over to the Look Fabulous Forever website. Or, check out Tricia’s video guide to mascara application below…
6. Warm up your skin with bronzer
When it comes to adding life and vibrancy to your face, bronzer is a fundamental step.
Bronzers warm up the skin and are great for creating a sun-kissed glow – even in winter. The product is best applied to areas that are most likely to be touched by the sun – for example, the cheeks, forehead, and chin.
Look Fabulous Forever’s Enduring Summer Bronzer is lightly pigmented, so you can add as much or as little warmth as you wish, depending on your preferred look.
Check out Tricia’s guide to applying bronzer below for more tips…
7. Try cream-to-powder blush
Many of us may worry that wearing less makeup will result in our skin appearing dull or washed out. But, just like bronzer, applying blush is a quick and easy way to add a splash of colour to your cheeks.
Cream-based blushers can end up disappearing, while powder blushers are known to seep into fine lines. So, when it comes to mature skin, a blush that applies to skin like cream and dries as a powder, can help to create a silky, long-lasting finish.
Look Fabulous Forever’s Real Radiance Blush has a cream-to-powder consistency and comes in a range of universal tones.
For tips on how to find the right blusher for your skin tone, check out the video below…
8. Liven up your lips
Last, but certainly not least, remember to give your lips some TLC. In fact, Tricia believes that lipstick is the most important makeup item for mature women.
This is because lipstick can bring vibrancy to lips and faces that are lacking colour and depth. Look Fabulous Forever’s lipsticks have a moisturising, long-lasting formula, and are specially designed to define the mouth and make lips appear fuller.
As mentioned above, don’t forget to apply lip primer before to help keep your lipstick in place!
Check out Tricia’s video guide to lustrous lips below…
Don’t forget skincare
A polished makeup look is founded on a good skincare routine. This is because creating a smooth, glowing canvas to apply makeup to can help products to sit more naturally, and for longer too.
Generally speaking, a good skincare routine should include the following steps…
Cleanse
A good cleanser is important for removing dirt, oil, and other impurities from the skin. This helps to prevent clogged pores which can lead to breakouts and provides a clean canvas for which to apply makeup to.
Removing makeup properly becomes even more important as we age because pollutants can hinder collagen production, which is essential for maintaining skin hydration and elasticity.
Look Fabulous Forever’s daily cleansing lotion is suitable for all skin types and is packed with skin-boosting ingredients like vitamin E and grape leaf. Experts advise cleansing your skin twice a day.
Protect from sun damage
Sunscreen protects our skin from the sun’s ultraviolet rays. This includes UVA rays, which are linked with signs of skin ageing like fine lines, wrinkles, and dark spots.
As we mature, it’s natural to want to take steps to try to renew our skin with anti-ageing creams. However, unless we also apply sunscreen everyday, these products only help to mask the root cause. For this reason, adding sunscreen to your morning skincare routine – preferably one that’s factor 50 – is one of the most beneficial things you can do for your skin; not only when it comes to health, but in terms of how your makeup sits too.
Look Fabulous Forever’s SPF 50+ Serum is fast-absorbing and designed to sit naturally under makeup. While mineral-based SPFs should be applied after you moisturise, Look Fabulous Forever’s SPF is chemical-based and must be applied before other skincare products.
Hydrate and moisturise
Our skin naturally retains less moisture as we age. For this reason, having a good-quality moisturiser and hydrating serum in your skincare routine is worth your while.
Hydrated skin provides a better base for makeup and often results in a smoother, glowier finish by reducing the appearance of fine lines and preventing makeup from looking cakey.
Products containing hyaluronic acid are particularly worth investing in. Hyaluronic acid is a natural substance found in the fluids of our eyes, skin, and joints – and research shows that it’s capable of retaining over 1,000 times its weight in water, and therefore highly effective at boosting hydration.
Look Fabulous Forever’s hydration serum contains hyaluronic acid; and their day face cream also contains vitamin A, C, and omega-3 fatty acids, all of which are praised for their ability to boost hydration and support healthy skin barrier function.
Final thoughts…
It’s natural for our skin to change in feel and appearance as we age. But while it can be tempting to turn extra coverage as a solution, the good news is that with the right products and application, it’s entirely possible to add life and vibrancy to your face with minimal makeup.
To browse more skincare and makeup products specifically designed for mature skin, head over to the Look Fabulous Forever website. You might be interested in taking their colour quiz, which is great for determining which makeup shades suit your skin tone best; or you can browse Tricia YouTube channel for more makeup tips.
For further reading, check out the fashion and beauty section of our website. Here, you’ll find everything from how to accessorise with confidence to hair care and styling tips.
What are your favourite minimalist makeup hacks? Will you be trying anything new from our article? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below.