While makeup products have the power to take years off your look and highlight your best features, they could also accidentally draw eyes to wrinkling and signs of aging. We checked in with celebrity and professional makeup artists for tips and suggestions regarding avoiding looking older over 40 with common, easy-to-make makeup mistakes. Read on for insight and suggestions from Victoria DiPietro, cosmetologist and owner of Bella Angel (whose clients include Chelsea Handler, Elizabeth Banks, Bridgit Mendler and more), and Mandie Brice, professional makeup artist, author, and beauty instructor.
Error #1— Drawing Attention To Dark Circles With Eyeliner
Dark under-eyes and wrinkling around your peepers can be inadvertently emphasized with the wrong eyeliner application, DiPietro warns. To avoid this, she says to "not use eyeliner under your bottom lash," and instead, on your upper eyelid. "By using eyeliner correctly, you can create the illusion of a lift on your eyes," she explains. She instructs to "outline your eyes on the top lid and just in the corner of your eye." Additionally, DiPietro says you can "go a step further and add a cream color eyeliner or white on your waterline," which will brighten up your eye.
"Another tip to create a younger look with eyeliner is create a subtle wing," she suggests, adding to "make sure when you make the wing that you start at the last lash and go up just a tiny bit." It's essential to then "stop right under where your eye creases, so that the wing doesn’t disappear and exaggerate your crease," she notes.
#2— Wearing A Matte Foundation
As we age, our skin naturally produces less oil. This means that using a matte foundation, or type of product with a drying effect could make wrinkles look even more apparent and obvious, Brice says. "Here are some foundation mistakes that make people look older," she explains, "I would say that the main issue is when people use foundation that is drying— like powder, or even liquid." Skin with texture, Brice notes, (aka wrinkles), works "best with a cream or serum foundation," as anything drying can "accentuate the wrinkles." Skin prep is also a huge part of it, she suggests, "so ensuring that you are (at minimum) cleansing and moisturizing can also help the foundation look better as well."
Also, Brice stresses that many people are in the habit of using powder as a "last step, and they may not need it." Our skin produces less moisture with natural aging, so we "may not need powder to mattify and set anymore, but could be unnecessarily applying it, again, accentuating the wrinkles." Another tip Brice gives for anyone over 40 who is looking for the right foundation, is to remember that "undertones are key in picking what color to use, whether you're 'warm,' 'cool,' or 'neutral,' can make a difference on how well your foundation blends." You can find your undertone easily, she advises, by "looking at the veins on the inside of your forearm."
If they are blueish, you have a cooler undertone, she continues, and if they are greenish, you can go for a warmer color. "Or, if silver jewelry looks better on you, you’re more suited to cooler tones, but if gold is better, you have a warm undertone," she concludes. There’s also the possibility that you’re neutral, she suggests, "which is if gold and silver are equally flattering." Most brands of makeup have either the word 'warm,' 'cool,' or 'neutral,' Brice tells us, or the letters 'W,' 'C,' or 'N' in their foundation name or code to help you find the right one. Noted!
