10 Make-UP tips to look Fabulous after 40

Can make-up help you turn back the clock? Last week I met celebrity make-up artist Deborah Williams who answered that question for me. Deborah is the founder of GRACE (www.gracemakeup.com).  She specializes in helping midlife women look their best!

Deborah says make-up can almost reverse aging. “Time marches on, but there’s a lot you can do with the colors you wear and makeup choices and the way you apply it to help you look as good as you ever did. Some clients tell me they’ve never looked better! The way to do this is with color and care, and by forgetting what used to work for you at 18 or even 28. Learn what will work for you now.”

Here are some of the tips Deborah gave me to get the head start on aging (gracefully) with GRACE:
1. Know your colors

For this you may need to consult an expert (Deborah at www.gracemakeup.com). Determine whether you’re winter, summer, spring,or fall. You may remember when this was the hot thing to do and it still should be. Wearing colors that suit will make you look brighter, fresher, younger, and bring out your best. Your season is one of the factors that also determines the colors to use on your face,
particularly for your eyes and your lips. However, please note: as you age, your colors may flow. If you were a winter when you were 18, you might be a fall at 48 —depending on skin
tone and hair shade!
2. Go softer

Don’t use the heavy streak of Cleopatra black eyeliner that may have worked in the past. Ninety percent of the time, the color used in your brows should be the color used as the first contour to shape your eye.
3. Remember your roots, please

You want eyelashes to frame your eyes, not spider webs. To achieve this, apply mascara to the roots only to give a lustrous look and pull the brush up andout of the eye to open it up. Don’t ‘ski’ down the top of the lashes.

4. Outside only

Don’t use mascara on the inner eyelashes (closest to your nos!). This tends to draw attention to the heaviness in the eye bag

5. Glow with blush

Don’t use blush to shape your face as you may have in the past. Instead,dust lightly on the apple of the cheeks to give a healthy glow.
6. Careful when you line

When you are lining your lips, make sure that the pencil is either on the inside of the lip outline, on the lip, or that the pencil just skims the outside lip line for the most natural look.
7. Watch the Frosted Shadows

Frosted eye shadows are fine, but only at night. Use where the candlelight will enhance andnot make it gleam too harshly.
8. Play up the Positive

Accent Your Choose your best feature and accent it. Select either your lips or your eyes, but not both.
9. Be sure to wear Foundation

Foundation not only evens skin tone; it can make the years fade away. Use it to soften areas that have shadows.
10. Reduce Eye heaviness

Use a single light tone of neutral shadow in a light wash from the lashes to brow bone to reduce heaviness around the eyes.
To learn more check out www.gracemakeup.com

Can we wear shimmer in our makeup after 40?

Came across an interesting blog post the other day at Raising Angls.com. The writer told the story how of how she was at the makeup counter recently and was asking the woman behind the counter , ” Is it Ok for women over 40 to have those “shimmer things” in the eyeshadow. The woman’s reply was “Why YES!, you can shimmer all you want after 40 you just dont want to sparkle!”

We were curioius what our favorite expert Christopher Hopkins (The Makeover Guy) thoughts were on the difference between shimmer and sparkle.

Here is what he said:

“I agree. A little shimmer in the right places can be very effective. (Key: right place). The brow bone, a touch in the eye lid, a soft shimmer in lip color. It’s the size of the particles, really. It’s like eggshell vs. matte vs. gloss. But it is pretty difficult to tell how much shimmer something has until you’ve worn it for a few hours and it has settled into ‘areas’ we’d rather not accentuate with shimmer or shine.”

If in doubt, save the shimmer for evening, and eliminate highly frosted or seriously shiny makeup altogether.

Christopher Hopkins is the author of Staging Your Comeback: A Complete Beauty Revival for Women Over 45