Can you teach an old dog new tricks?

Margaret, I hope that you are going to have lots of fun exploring makeup! It is such a wonderful form of self-expression. Please come back to this thread again and share what products you’ve bought.

Thanks for your helpful comments everyone. I will do a lot of searching blogs and checking out everybody’s advice. Than you Petal, yes I agree, I will not be going all beige, ha ha! I am keen to try a few different lippy colour too, just know I won’t be going goth. I hope everyone doesn’t think that is my usual dress style in the pic, it was country club hens weekend in the Hunter Valley.
I have a few busy weeks ahead, but in my down time, I will take everyone’s advice on hand, especially about testing gel eyeliners.
If I am brave enough, I will post some pics.

Margaret, thank you for sharing a photo of your beautiful self.

I am in my early fifties and I love wearing makeup! I don’t listen to all the well-meaning advice from so-called experts. I mean the advice such as only wear neutral eyeshadows, apricot lipsticks, BB creams instead of foundations. I don’t believe in rules for makeup, no matter how old you are. I think that I can get away without following rules because I have always looked younger than other people my own age. Perhaps when I’m in my sixties and beyond I will have to admit defeat and change the way that I do makeup. Having said that, I don’t think that I will ever stop wearing bright and/or bold lipstick.

Sometimes I believe that as women age, they need a bit more definition on their face with makeup … eyebrows start to disappear, lips can get thinner, eyes might be less obvious as the eyelids start to sag and become crepey.

I think that older women CAN wear black eyeliner. It is just a matter of applying it in a way that is flattering (I don’t apply it as thickly on my lower lash line like I used to when I was younger). I often wear brightly coloured eyeliners (violet, teal, cobalt blue, aqua). I’ve tried neutral eyeliners such as aubergine, pale grey and brown, but they don’t accentuate my eyes very well.

One thing that I’m starting to find to be beneficial is to curl my eyelashes before I apply mascara. I have very pale eyelashes and I need lots of volume. Curling my eyelashes really helps to give more oomph to my eye makeup.

If you have dry skin like me, the best thing that I can suggest is to apply liquid foundation with a damp blending sponge. Real Techniques makes an excellent one (you can buy it in Priceline). A sponge helps to reduce any cakiness.

Another thing that’s really helpful is to use an eye primer underneath eyeshadow. This will help to stop your eyeshadow from creasing. I agree with the previous suggestion about using gel eyeliner because this is less likely to smudge, especially if you have hooded eyes.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask me in this thread.

Thanks Steph and misfortune8, will check out katshepsutt’s ideas over the next few days. Steph didn’t think to use purple eye pencil or gel, but will certainly try that soon. Today though it’s the scrubs on, and helping lay floating floors at my daughter’s new house. Will report back soon, when I try some of these ideas. X

Maybe you’ll be interested in bh member katshepsutt’s blog:
http://katscolourings.blogspot.com.au/

She’s in your age bracket, she breaks rules & has fun. I’m only a few years behind you guys, I’m 49 but I’ve followed a few of katshepsutt’s ideas.

Wow! Thanks for the great tips Steph Speth, I tried to put other pics up, but they all came out upside down. Ha ha!
I will take your advice and get a few make overs, my daughter recently got married, so I had one then, my make up was very nice, the artist said I had good skin for my age and she was raving about my green eyes. I have experimented with a few different colour for shadows, learning that purple shades are supposed to be good for green eyes, but have only been brave enough to use subtle muted shades.
I have never tried gel liner, so will definitely try that. I used to wear dark plumb lippy, and know I can’t get away with that, I now use coral tones, which seem to suit me. Thanks for your interest and advice, I love beauty heaven and I am trying to soak up all the information from the great articles and blogs.

Definitely can! Welcome back!

My mum isn’t very into makeup so when there’s a special event I do it for her so if there’s one piece of advice that I can offer – don’t do your makeup the same now that you’re older like you did when you were younger. When I did her makeup similar to how I do my own it looked awful, when I did her makeup taking advice from her about how she did it when she was 35, it looked dated.

What looks good on her is when I obey some simple rules of makeup on mature skin (She’s in her mid fifties so if any of this advice is too old for you then I apologise! But if you’re older than that then these are tricks I got from books/blogs about mature faces in general so i think it’s applicable)

• The thing you hear the most is avoid shimmer. That’s true to a point. Shimmer can settle in fine lines easily but I find it to still be lovely as a bit of sparkle along a lashline or a non-chunky shimmer in a cheek product. Used sparingly I think it can be quite youthful
• Consider alternatives to black eyeliner. The colours I use most commonly on my mother are grey and navy which are less harsh but still provide great definition. We use those because she’s cool toned like me but browns are beautiful too.
• Use long wear formulas. I personally only ever use gel liner on my mum now because I find that pencil is likely to feather into fine lines and liquid looks too harsh (on her… I don’t think that can be said for everybody) so I make sure I go for something that isn’t going to try to wander.

If I were you I would try and find the time and money for a makeup consultation with a brand that has great products for your age – maybe Estee Lauder, Chanel, Bobbi Brown, if you want to get really fancy shmancy then Armani or Guerlain. The fee for having your makeup done is almost always redeemable on product and they can give you some tricks. Use your redeemable spend on things that can’t be duped like foundations and concealers. I think after years of working fulltime it’s something very worth doing or alternatively would be a lovely Christmas gift.

I hope that helps!