Makeup can be a powerful tool to enhance your natural beauty and boost confidence, but certain application techniques and product choices can unintentionally age your skin. For women with mature skin, makeup mistakes like using heavy powders, the wrong foundation formulas, or harsh colors can draw more attention to wrinkles and highlight texture instead of creating a smooth, youthful glow.
We checked in with various makeup pros to discover three makeup blunders you might be making that highlight wrinkles and texture. According to them, powder blush, too much primer, and drawing your eyebrows downward are the ones to avoid. Keep reading to learn more.
1. Opting for Powder Blush
Skin naturally becomes drier with age, and powder blushes could make this even more apparent. Instead, go for cream blushes for a youthful and hydrating look.
The best kind of blush for aging, wrinkled, or textured skin, Dennis says, is one with a "cream or liquid formula" that does not have an "added shimmer" or glittery element in it. Powder and shimmer formulas, she stresses, can "draw more attention to texture and wrinkles." She also says she would "shy away from the cream-to-powder formulas because these can sometimes highlight texture in the skin." Instead, she concludes that it's best to "choose colors that invoke a youthfulness" like rose, cool peach, coral, terracotta, and soft reds.
2. Adding Too Much Primer Beforehand
There is such a thing as too much primer. Natasha Moor, global AAPI makeup artist and founder of Natasha Moor Cosmetics, advises to "apply your primer and foundation with a damp sponge in bouncing, pressing movements" for an optimal makeup look. Additionally, she explains, "applying your foundation with a wiping or rubbing motion can cause smearing."
3. Filling In Your Brows Pointing Down
Filling in your eyebrows can instantly bring dimension to your face and highlight its symmetry, but not if you fill them in to point downwards. As we age, our skin naturally droops, and this means that making your eyebrows point downwards can make them look saggier.
Makeup artist and cosmetologist Victoria DiPietro says "fuller brows" can help lift your face rather than enhance any droopiness. Her first tip is to comb them "up and trim the strays with a scissor."Next, "figure out where your brows should start and end, and follow a straight line from the edge of your nose up to your brow. That is where your brow should start and will be the thickest," she says. "Then follow a diagonal line from the outside of your nose to the middle of your eye, and that is where your arch will be and the highest point. Finally, your brow will end by following a diagonal line from the outside of your nose to the outer corner of your eye."
