9 Tips For Applying Makeup To Mature Skin
Mature skin is more delicate and fragile than youthful skin. As such, when performing certain facial or skincare routines, you need to be more cautious about the products you buy and how you apply those products to your skin.
Key Takeaways
- Prepare your skin with a hydrating cleanser and moisturizer
- Apply a creamy foundation
- Stroke upwards as you fill in your eyebrows
- Apply eyeliner, working your way from the outer corner to your inner corner
- Prime your eyelids with a liquid concealer
- Color-correct specific spots on your face
- Apply blush and highlighter
- Forgo contour or use a foundation to add subtle contour
- Apply a lip liner, then lipstick
That being said, just because you have delicate, mature skin doesn’t mean you shouldn’t slay and apply gorgeous makeup on days you need to! And yes, makeup for mature skin types exists!
In this post, we will share makeup tips and techniques for mature skin so you can turn heads in every room you enter.
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1. Prepare Your Skin
As you age, your skin produces fewer new skin cells. This is because the skin’s ability to retain water decreases with age, making the skin drier and creating fine lines and wrinkles.
As such, prepping your skin before applying your makeup will help minimize wrinkles and help the skin look hydrated and moisturized throughout the day. Always start with a hydrating cleanser, then immediately follow with a water-based moisturizer.
Applying a moisturizer helps the skin in two ways: 1) moisturizer helps your skin look smoother and moisturized all day and, 2) it helps the makeup sit well on your face and for longer.
We also suggest using a serum that contains hyaluronic acid or a face oil that contains jojoba oil as both are excellent at reducing the signs of aging skin.
When choosing a moisturizer, there are some tips we recommend:
- Choose a water-based moisturizer for added hydration and nourishment.
- Choose fragrance-free moisturizers since they do not contain any harsh chemicals that can irritate your skin.
- Choose a moisturizer that contains SPF.
- And finally, choose a moisturizer that contains some humectant to help you draw moisture into your skin. This will keep your skin both moisturized and hydrated.
When applying moisturizer, it’s important to apply it in an upward direction. Over time, our skin tends to sage downwards due to gravity so this method of application will help you uplift your face.
Wait 15 minutes after moisturizing before applying makeup.
2. Apply Your Foundation
Once your moisturizer has properly settled, you can apply your foundation. Be sure to find the right tone/shade of foundation that easily blends into your skin or has the same tone as your skin.
The ideal location to test your foundation is your jawline. This is because the jawline gives you the most ideal color tone of your face compared to other areas. While it’s tempting to want to test foundation on our necks or wrists, these areas typically tend to be darker or have a different overall tone from our faces.
To view how well your foundation blends, test your blended look under direct sunlight or in natural light to give you an accurate judgment. Testing it under artificial light can give you either enhanced or inaccurate results since some artificial light makes us appear lighter than our skin may be.
Here are some foundation application tips for mature skin:
- When it comes to the type of foundation to use, we recommend that you use a creamy formula such as a liquid foundation or a balm. Liquid and cream foundations tend to have hydrating properties and can make your skin look plump. On the other hand, powder foundations can cause your skin to look cakey. Plus, it can be difficult to apply powder smoothly across the face as some powder may stay in between your face lines, accentuating your wrinkles.
- Apply foundation with a sponge or a brush as opposed to using your hand to avoid looking streaky or cakey.
- Avoid using dirty brushes or sponges for two main reasons: 1) A dirty brush or sponge can cause bacterial infection to your face and, 2) using a clean brush/sponge will give you an even blend as dirty brushes and sponges with previous foundations can affect the coloration of your makeup.
- Ensure that your foundation has lots of coverage and less oil. You do not want to over-oil your face; instead, you want it to keep it plump but not oily.
3. Fill In Your Brows
Once you apply your liquid foundation, start on your eyebrows. Shaping and filling in your eyebrows have some anti-aging benefits for your face.
Our brows tend to thin out as we age, and the thinner the brows, the older we look. Therefore, filling your brows with a brow pencil, brow fibers and brow powder will enhance your look and your beautiful brows, making you appear younger.
There are three tips when filling in your brows on mature skin:
- Stroke your brows upwards – this will help lift up your face. Due to slower collagen production as you age, your skin is incapable of holding your face tight, and gravity begins to draw it downward, making it appear saggy. By stroking your eyebrows upward, you can easily uplift your face.
- Determine the right color for your brows. This will generally depend on your skin tone; the lighter your skin, the lighter your eyebrow pencil should be and conversely, the darker your skin, the darker your eyebrow pencil should be. Ideally, you want your eyebrows to blend in with your skin tone to make sure your brows have a natural-looking finish.
- Lastly, use a brow gel to hold the fill in place. If you do not use a gel, your hard work can rub or smudge off.
4. Work On Your Eyeliner
Your eyes enhance the symmetry of your face, and as you may know, your face becomes a bit asymmetrical as you age. However, using eyeliner on mature eyes will help even out these small imperfections.
Start at the outer corners of your eyes and continue along your lash line. If you are looking to make your eyes pop, apply to the inner corner as well.
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5. Don’t Forget Your Eyelids!
Eyelids are one of the first areas on the face that begin to age. You may notice that over time, your eyelids become darker or even red. So if you want to achieve a youthful look, it’s important not to neglect your eyelids.
One way you can reduce wrinkles, redness, or darkness is to prime your eyelids after applying your foundation. This will help to mask the appearance of wrinkles on your eyelids.
Whether you will be wearing eye shadow or not, applying a primer around the eyelid areas will help reduce the appearance of wrinkles and crows’ feet, evening out your eyelid to its natural tone and making you look more youthful.
You can also take the extra step to apply a concealer in addition to your primer for a more even look. The concealer will help you correct areas by hiding dark spots and age spots, giving you brighter skin.
When applying concealer to your eyelids, allow it to dry out for at least 5 minutes. Similar to using a foundation, you’ll want to use a brush or a sponge to gently spread the concealer out and around your eye area for more coverage. Spreading it out aggressively will cause the sponge or brush to absorb everything.
We recommend you use a liquid concealer since it blends seamlessly into the skin and doesn’t cause creases. When you are done applying your concealer and primer, you may notice a thin line that separates the foundation from the concealer you applied on your eyelid.
To fix this, use your foundation brush or sponge to blend out that area until the line is gone. No setting powder is needed.
6. Add Concealer
Color correction is an optional step; however, if you have colored spots on your face and you want to achieve an anti-aging makeup look, then you might want to use a concealer. Use your concealer sparingly as its purpose is to hide blemishes, not serve as a foundation.
Below is a list of various concealer types and the blemishes they will help you correct:
- If you have purple or brown blemishes, use a yellow or orange corrector.
- If you have red blemishes, use a green or yellow corrector.
- If you have blue blemishes, use a red or peach corrector.
- No matter the color of your blemishes, avoid packing the color corrector in; keep it light.
7. Don’t Forget To Apply Blush!
For mature skin makeup, we suggest a mineral cream blush. Cream blushes will blend better into the skin and give your cheeks a healthier and more natural glow.
Powder blush, on the other hand, can accentuate fine lines. The powder can also get trapped in fine lines and wrinkles, making them appear more prominently.
Highlighters are a must-have makeup tool for women as they reduce the appearance of fine lines and dark circles. However, using too much highlighter can give your face an unnatural look.
As you apply highlighter, make sure you use it moderately. You’ll want to counteract the appearance of your wrinkles, not accentuate them.
8. Be Careful With Contour
While contouring might be great for giving your face a nice shadow effect, it might be worth skipping if you have mature skin. Contour tends to accentuate, age, or mature your facial features.
We recommend people with mature skin use foundation to contour their skin as opposed to using an actual contour. You can also use a highlighter to contour your face.
9. Lips!
If you’re going for a natural look, you can accentuate your natural lips with a neutral lip liner. If you plan on applying lipstick, be sure to apply the lip liner first and make sure it matches your preferred lip color.
Lip liner will help seal the lipstick application while giving you the opportunity to define your designed lip area.
Wrapping Up
This sums it up for our tips for applying makeup for mature skin! Looking beautiful is possible at any age. We know you will look stunning!
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For over 60 years, Viviane Woodard has represented “The Purity of Skincare”. We are the leading beauty brand for skin care products and promote the importance of good skin hydration. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest for skin care tips, product discounts, and more.