Lifestyle Choices

 

Eyeliners

Finally put on your eyeliner. A good way of emphasizing eye shape without looking too obviously made up is to use a pencil in the same tone you are using for your eye shadow, dotting it all along the upper lashes and then just under the lower ones so the two lines meet at the outer corners and form a little triangle. This kind of liner looks good when it is gently smeared with a brush or fingertip to blend it into the surrounding area and keep it from looking too heavy. You can also use another color line drawn on the inside of the lower lid if you like. If you use a light color there, such as off-white, it will make your eyes look bigger. If you use a bright color such as electric blue or brilliant green, it can look great for evening.

The other way of applying eyeliner is with a brush, in which case you use liquid or cake liner and get a more definite line—a real line instead of an intensified eye-shadow color near the lashes. It is drawn just above the roots of the upper lashes and just below the roots of the lower ones, again meeting at the corner. Many women use black eyeliner, but usually a gentle gray or slate or muted brown is better. If you are over thirty- five black can be very aging.

 

Mascara

Mascara makes eyes look more glamorous. It seems to create an aura of mystery about the eyes when lashes are darkened and thickened. Unless you are planning to walk in the rain or to go swimming with your makeup on, you are better off using a mascara that is not waterproof. Waterproof mascara is very hard to remove, and you often have to do a lot of rubbing in the process, which can stretch the delicate skin around the eyes and slacken it.

Some mascaras contain fibers to lengthen the lashes and make them look even thicker. They are fine so long as you don’t have particularly sensitive eyes; otherwise you are better off with a simple, fiberless one.

Apply your mascara by looking down into a mirror held next to your chin and you will not etch lines into your forehead, the way most women do by crinkling it up. You will also get better application this way, since the brush or wand strokes the lashes easily from their origins to tips from underneath and slightly curls them to make them look evenlonger.

 

Cheeks

The single most important makeup product to help a face look younger is a little cheek color applied in a sweeping line over the cheekbone and fading to nothing at the temples. You can also use cheek color on your chin and forehead and even on the upper part of your eye socket, just below the brow, for a healthy glow. The best colors for everyday wear for most women are warm burnished copper or dusky peach, because they make the skin look particularly healthy. When you wear a warm cheek color, your lipstick should be warm as well, and vice versa. Where you apply blusher depends on the shape of your face and the effect you want from it. Use it high on the cheekbones and it accentuates a well- sculpted face. Use it across the cheeks and it gives a simple warm glow. Never use it in the way we did in the fifties and sixties, to make hollows under the cheeks. This is far too obvious for today’s natural-looking face.

 

Lips

Balance your eyes and lips, making one or the other more prominent. If both are strong or in very bright colors, it tends to make a face plastic- looking, and there is little in the way of contrasts to create interest. Most women tend to pick lipsticks that are too bright or too pink to flatter their coloring. There is certainly a place for fire-engine reds and vivid fuchsias, but for everyday wear you are probably better off with a muted brownish pink or a softened melon or salmon. Shop around until you find four or five lipsticks in differing tones that look good on you. They will go with almost everything you wear normally and will work with most makeup looks you are after.

When applying lipstick, use a pencil or a lipbrush to outline your mouth first, so you get a good, sharply defined edge. Then apply your lipstick and blot it and apply again if you want it to stay.

Fashions for lip gloss come and go. If you want to wear it, it’s usually best to apply it only on the bottom lip, so it catches the light, and not to carry it all the way to the edge of the mouth, or it tends to blur the lips‘ outline. Some lipsticks are translucent and impart a kind of see-through color. They look great on younger women. So can the frosted lipsticks. Older women are usually better off with cream lipsticks, since frosting shows up wrinkles on the lips and the see-through ones don’t give enough definition.

 

Powder

Recently powder has been making a comeback although for years younger women have insisted that powder could be aging and that they wanted shiny, freshly scrubbed-looking faces. In fact just the opposite is true. A little translucent powder that imparts no color but gives a smooth, matt finish can actually make a face look younger. It is also an interesting effect to powder only parts of your face, such as the sides below the cheekbones, the nose, and the forehead, and then leave a sheen on cheeks and chin. Just as one can mix light and shade to make a face more interesting, so one can mix finishes.

The best way to apply powder is either with clean absorbent cotton, dabbing it lavishly all over and then brushing off the excess with a new piece of cotton, or with a brush. I prefer the brush method, because it always seems to stay better that way. Always use a powder that gives no color, just a matt, smooth finish, and always brush away every speck of excess once you have applied it.

Last of all, after you have applied your makeup completely, you need to set it with water. This step is very useful, for it will make a face last far longer than it otherwise would. Spray your face with spring water from an aerosol can or with a fine mist from a plant-misting bottle. Then blot gently once with a tissue.

The whole process of making up may sound complicated, but with practice it should take very little time—no more than ten minutes from start to finish.

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