YouTube tutorials offer a wealth of invaluable makeup tips and hacks, especially for those over 50 seeking advice on foundation and other beauty tools. Gabriela Soares, a renowned makeup artist and popular content creator, shared a captivating and informative video showcasing her “face transforming makeup tips” designed to make one appear “10 years younger.”
Using a 58-year-old model as an example, Soares first emphasized the critical importance of “prioritizing your skin prep.” She detailed the necessity of regularly cleansing, hydrating, moisturizing, and exfoliating the skin, as well as always applying primer before any makeup. “When the skin lacks hydration and suppleness, putting foundation and concealer on top of it will actually make the skin look worse than not putting foundation or concealer on at all,” she stressed.
Her next tip for mature beauties is to always “do your eye makeup first to avoid any shadow from falling and ruining the rest of the look.”
A Beauty Expert Shares ‘Face Transforming Makeup Tips’ For Mature Beauties To Take Years Off Your Look
After Priming The Skin, Do Your Eye Makeup First
Soares then acknowledged that there is “nothing worse than doing your foundation, your concealer, your powder, then applying eyeshadow and having everything underneath stained.” To avoid this, she suggests doing eyeshadow first after skin prep. Next, Soares recommended “prepping your eyelids” with concealer or an eyelid primer. “You don’t want to apply eyeshadow directly on the eyelid skin because the natural oils from your lids will lead to creasing and it’ll also make your shadow disappear very quickly,” she advised.
Prep Your Eyelids With Eye Primer Or Concealer
"There are two things you can do to prep the lids, you can apply concealer from the lash line all the way up to the brow bone and then set it with a powder, or you can actually use an eyelid primer," she said. She chose the latter option. "But one thing to note is that even if you do get an eyelid primer, this is a mistake I've seen people make a lot recently," she went on. "Even if you do get an eyelid primer, you still need to set it, okay? You still need to set it with a powder or it's going to be too sticky and hard to blend on top of, and it will also not last as long."
Soares continued: "So whether you use concealer or a primer, set it with a powder and then you're all set to move into the eyeshadow. Then what we always do is we have to set that with a powder. If we don't set it with a powder, it gets too sticky and then it's very hard to blend the shadows on top."
Create A Natural And Brightening Eyeshadow Look
For her next tip, Soares said to "not be afraid of eyeshadow as it can change your eye shape." She then showed a "classic eyeshadow look that is suitable for all eye shapes and age groups." After grabbing her eyeshadow palette, she then said: "let's start with our transition color, a medium matte color that comes into the eyelid crease."
"Use a wiper motion and a fluffy crease brush," she instructed. "Press the color into the eyelid crease and perform wiper movements to adapt, namely on the outer third of the eye. This is called a transition color. The transition colors are the colors that let all other colors merge with each other, like when wiping into the lash line and directly into the eyelid crease."
After that, she noted that "you can continue with a light, neutral color and a flat brush. This combination of the middle tone in the eyelid crease and the light color opens and really brightens the eye."
Apply Foundation With Brushes
Next Soares suggested applying foundation with the "right" tool. "Many women apply foundation with their fingers. That's not always wrong," she noted. She continued: "If you use a more viscous or denser formula than a toned moisture cream, you won't get the desired finish. Whether sponge, brush or finger, I compared the tools. In this video I have chosen the Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation for Hazel and used two brushes from Rephr."
To fade it "seamlessly," she used the Rephr brand's brush number five, "which is actually intended for rouge, but it works so well for foundation application." She also used "brush number 36, which is actually a eyeshadow brush for lipsticks, but works perfectly as a concealer brush." The makeup expert noted that she uses it to "detail the small areas, and I use number five to blend the whole face."
Be Strategic With Liquid & Cream Concealer Application
When it comes to concealer, Soares recommended first applying it to the "hollow zone" in your inner under-eye section, brushing it "down the side of the nose a little bit" and more into the inner cheek area. To not emphasize fine lines and wrinkles in the eye's outer corners, she noted that it's best to put as least amount of product in that area as possible.
"Cream products like to go into creases, it's very natural. What you want to do is stipple that product and shear it out but build up the coverage in any of the areas that have darkness," she said.
Balance Your Features With Cream Contour
She then suggested adding "a little bit of shadow to the face to balance out dimensions that are off balance." She recommended trying to create an "oval face shape" to "warm up your face and to make your face look younger." Other shapes of the face are beautiful, she stressed, "but for our eyes, if we can make the face more oval, it becomes more aesthetically appealing."
"If you want to shade precisely, don't apply too much," she added, explaining that "thin layers are better for longevity and a subtle finish to avoid overloading. This avoids products from setting, becoming crumbly or looking patchy." She applied contour to the very top of the forehead and beneath the cheekbones subtly.
Add Blush To The Cheeks & Upper Cheekbone Area
Adding a "color dab to the cheeks is crucial," the expert went on, saying that "not wearing blush is a common makeup mistake in this age group." Blush, especially cream blush, "gives the face freshness," she said, noting that she spreads it "on the back of my hand to evenly cover the cheeks and then on the upper cheekbone area."
This lifts and tightens the face, she shared. Soares also suggested opting for a "cream blush" to not make fine lines and sagging skin look more pronounced, like with powder blush.
Define The Vermillion Ridge Of The Mouth With Lip Liner
For her final recommendation, Soares advised accentuating the vermillion border—the distinct edge around the lips that demarcates them from the facial skin—using lip liner.
"Lip liner is probably the most underused makeup product that gives the biggest impact on mature skin because it not only defines the lip shape and creates a much fuller, more youthful-looking mouth, but it also prevents your lipsticks and glosses from bleeding into the fine lines.
In the video, Soares used a delicate amount of lip liner, tracing the model's lips. She concluded, noting that lip liner can help create "the lip shape you had 10 or 20 years ago while also preventing your lipstick from bleeding." The more you know!
