Hair and Makeup for Mature Women: Going Back to Childhood and Celebs Who Do It Right!

no makeup makeup

After the disco 70s and the outlined eyes and lips of the 80s, it's rather nice to be in the mature stage. As an ex model and pageant gal, I have studied this process from the eyes of a woman who is turning 64 and from observation of trends and others. There are some pro's and con's with makeup for those in and after menopause.

Con's:

Skin is paler, less rosiness.
Skin may be flaky, chalky, or wrinkled.
Eyes appear smaller as flesh closes in around them.
Lips might get pucker lines.
Lashes tend to thin out after menopause.
Eyebrows get gray hairs.

It may seem crazy there are any pro's but let's really look at this (and it all has to do with going back to your childhood before the estrogen rush) -

Is your hair more like it was when you were a kid, before the estrogen surge? My hair was fine and thin and with adolescence, it got thick and strong. By adulthood, it was gorgeous!

As you lose those breeding years hormones, your hair pretty much goes back to childhood. As a kid, it was not only fine and thin, but strawberry blonde. As I hit the estrogen elevator, it became penny copper.

So, how does this help us as we are seniors?

Your hair color should revert back to childhood coloring. Usually, for most of us, it's a lighter color. This also works well with the pale and less flushed skin, as well as making it easier to transition to full gray when we're ready.

childhood color

(first grade)

childhood color at 58

Let's discuss makeup in the mature years. Less is definitely more! It's natural to want to cake on foundation to even out skin and to add lots of color to the pale cheeks, as well as trying to make the squinty eyes bigger with liner, lashes, and shadows, but....

Our faces were bare as kids. We looked fresh scrubbed and natural. As breeding-aged women, we tended to peacock up to dazzle and attract, but as we age, we have less hormones and a fresh-scrubbed face with a bit of color to not look too ghostly, make us look young like children who don't yet wear mascara and bright red lipstick. Every time you showcase your eyes or lips, you are having focus on areas of the face instead of the face as a whole. When you are more monochromatic, you are a whole face and eyes move around when looking at you and see a face, not EYES or LIPS.

The goal here is to be less disruptive to the face. A good foundation for a flawless palette, a bit of cream (don't use dry powder on an aging face), a lipstick that is a softer version of what you used to wear, and mascara only on the top lashes to make eyes bigger, maybe some eyeshadow that is a light to medium neutral to help shadow some hanging eyelid flesh. When it comes to brows, set down brown pencils, they create very distracting and harsh brows. You want nothing on you to be harsh. Use a powder and a tiny eyebrow brush to coat any stray grays and it fills in naked spots on the brows without any harsh lines.

Remember, no harsh eyeliner, no harsh strong lipstick, no brows drawn on with pencils. These all distract the eye. Have you ever talked to someone with huge fake lashes or drawn on eyebrows? You can't stop looking at them.

no makeup

minimal clean makeup

good foundation

cream cheek blush

lipstick one shade darker than lips natural color

very pale aqua shadow under eye

mascara upper lashes

a pale neutral tan shadow on upper eyelid

mascara eyesbrow auburn color to coat stray grays

There are luminous lotions you can use when you don't want to put on makeup. They give you a fresh-scrubbed look and then you can use a lip gloss with color and even use it on your cheeks for a naked look.

If you're going out at night, you add some depth, but you still make no harsh lines.

I lined the top eyelid with mascara, mauve eyeshadow not too dark. Under the eyes, I often put the palest aqua or lavendar shadow without making it a harsh line. A great foundation for helping even up skin, pleasing warm pink lipstick, and good to go! In this case, the curls helped to soften the look even further and to fill out fine hair.

I try to think of this from a man's point of view. A woman with strong makeup in her mature years kind of makes them think of this -

Bright lipstick, black eyeliner, and all they can see are powdered creases around the eyes, tiny beady eyes, and a sense of desperation. This is likely the woman wearing strong perfume and long fake fingernails and short skirts, oblivious to how to showcase the beauty of maturity.

Classic. Simple. No frosting. No harsh outlines. No thick pasty makeup.

I am not a fan of highlighting and contouring past the age of 45. It just comes off too harsh and adds a depth to the face that makes it look hawkish.

It's easy to go on YouTube and watch popular influencer's videos on makeup application (apparently, this is a career for all youth now). Step away from this. They are trying to sell you up to 20 items to do your face from things to prep the skin to sealing it when done. They show techniques that are absurd, like the trend to put white frosted highlighter on the inner corner of the eye near the nose and you see it on a lot of lemmings these days and all you can do is stare at that white spot.

Step away from young makeup artists, they are making a living on peddling goods and they are not your peers.

These celebs definitely get it. A less caked up face, the more like a child's youthful unmade face.