Don’t worry, you got this!
Each decade, our skin changes. It’s a fact of life— and lifestyle, too. In your 40s, things start to really get fun. (You think this is true in your 30s but just wait.) Updating your skin care routine to meet you where you are is important, as is finding the right makeup for your changing skin and knowing how to apply it well.
You can’t get away with slapping just any old makeup on anymore because that makeup starts to sink into fine lines and wrinkles, collects around dry skin and ultimately, doesn’t provide the coverage you want.
In this article, Avital Elgaziel, makeup artist and salon owner for 20 years and founder of PUZZLE Makeup, provides sage tips on applying clean makeup over 40. She’s a huge advocate of living your best life and bringing out your authentic beauty at every decade—like me!
““The main thing that happens to skin as you mature is a loss of collagen. When we lose collagen in the skin, we lose skin tightness and that natural glow, and pores get bigger. Makeup is not going to hold the same way it did when your skin was tighter and the texture was smooth. If you use makeup incorrectly or the wrong product, it can make skin look older than it is.””
The First Steps to a Clean Makeup Routine Over 40
1. Wait 10 minutes after skin care to apply makeup. It might seem like a long time to wait if you’re hurrying around in the morning, but try this: Apply your serum, moisturizer and SPF (or whatever your product routine is) right after you get out of the shower. Then, do other things like brush your teeth, do your hair, get dressed, drink a glass of water and have your coffee/tea and/or eat breakfast for 10 minutes. Now you can apply makeup. Elgaziel says spacing it out allows moisturizers to absorb into the skin so makeup doesn’t wear off quickly, get pilly or burrow into lines.
2. Choose a great clean makeup brand. No matter what age you are, look for clean formulas without toxic ingredients like parabens or talc. Look for a foundation that isn’t thick. You can always layer it. “A thin formula allows your skin to breathe. When your skin breathes, it helps the makeup stay on the skin and is healthier for the skin,” says Elgaziel.
Plus, if you’re dealing with hormonal shifts, such as during menopause, putting chemicals on your skin—the biggest organ in the body that absorbs everything—can create more issues. Like making hormonal acne worse.
How to Apply Makeup to Maturing Skin
3. Apply your foundation and concealer with a sponge. “A brush creates a muddy, thicker look. Fingers have natural lines in them that doesn’t make them ideal. I like a wedge sponge. The thin side creates a thicker formula; the thicker side creates a thinner formula,” says Elgaziel, who adds that the goal is to look good and have it last so you don’t have to touch it up during the day. Here’s her recommended technique:
Make dots on your face (forehead, nose, cheeks, chin) with foundation first.
Use your sponge to make soft strokes going from the middle of the face to the outside of the face. Make sure it’s even all over.
Then, if you have concealer, make small dots under eyes and use the sponge with the same soft stroke from inner to outer eye. If you don’t have concealer, use your foundation for under eyes.
“You can find an amazing product, but if you apply it totally the wrong way, you end up changing the formula,” Elgaziel says.
4. Avoid face products settling into fine lines and wrinkles by avoiding “the dab.” Applying face products by dabbing is a popular technique by YouTubers and that might be cool for 20 and even young 30-somethings, but Elgaziel says, “It’s the worst thing you can do for mature skin. It makes your natural skin follicles look deeper and creates pigmentation in some areas that is darker than other areas. It’s often too heavy and can make you look older. Applying foundation in soft strokes with a thin formula is the best thing you can do for your makeup look.” Good. to. know.
5. Use a liquid foundation and concealer, but layer it with pressed powder products, not creams. The reason: Putting cream blush and cream shadow over a liquid foundation means it is not going to hold to the skin, advises Elgaziel. Sure, those YouTube videos and smart Facebook ads with cream blush on top of liquid foundation look amazing. But did they record what happens to the makeup in two hours, let alone eight hours? Didn’t think so.
Personal anecdote: I love Ilia makeup, but what Elgaziel describes has been my experience applying Ilia cream blush (Multi-Stick) over its clean, light liquid foundation (Super Serum Skin Tint). It looks great for like two hours and then I feel like I need to reapply blush. Once Elgaziel gave me this tip, I’ve been using PUZZLE Makeup’s pressed powder blush over the Ilia Skin Tint and it literally lasts the entire work day or evening out. I still love my Ilia cream blush, though, so I use it for a natural-looking cheek color on days when I don’t wear foundation.
PUZZLE Makeup’s reusable magnetic palettes hold shadows, shimmers and powders in one place. Each makeup product comes without packaging for an eco-conscious nod to the planet.
6. Don’t shy away from eyeshadow and blush with shine. “If you buy only matte eyeshadows and blush, you’ll lose that natural glow and make yourself look tired,” she notes. Since maturing skin can already look dull, bring it to life by mixing it up with pigments that have a little shine in them—without going overboard, of course! Or if you love your matte eyeshadow, then go for a blush with some subtle iridescence, or vice versa. Don’t use either one exclusively.
7. Think long, slow strokes when applying blush and shadow. (Sounds naughty, doesn’t it? Well, makeup should be fun so have a giggle why don’t you.) Using an eyeshadow brush on pressed eyeshadow and a blush brush on pressed blush, swipe it across the pigment with the body/side of the brush (not the head) vs. twirling it around. When you twirl the head of your brush into makeup pigment, it will go on heavy. Instead, the soft strokes is a more controlled technique to add layers of color. You can always go darker by adding another layer. If you prefer a loose eyeshadow or blush to a pressed one, just beware that it goes on thicker and it’s a stronger, less natural look.
8. Know how to use your makeup brushes. Size matters. (Ha. Here I go again!) Remember this rule: The bigger the brush, the softer the color. The smaller the brush, the darker the color. “You can have one eyeshadow at home and create three different looks with different brushes. You don’t have to buy 10 different eyeshadows. Start with three to four and use them with different size brushes to create various looks,” Elgaziel says.
9. Avoid lipstick bleed with a lip stain or use a lip liner. If your lips are thinning or have fine lines cropping up around them, lipstick might begin to bleed over the edge of your lips—and that ain’t sexy. “Lipstick moves because it has a creamy/waxy formula that can be hard to keep in place,” says Elgaziel. Instead of lipstick, a lip stain can be a nice alternative that stays put. But if you’re really attached to the lipstick look and aren’t a fan of a stain, try using a lip liner, which will serve as a barrier of sorts, first before applying lipstick. “If the lipstick moves, it will sit on the liner, not the skin,” she says. Another idea: Apply a lip liner and a thin gloss. Typically wand glosses are thinner formulas than glosses in tubes.
Makeup artist, salon owner and founder of PUZZLE Makeup Avital Elgaziel doing what she does best!
Need Help Finding Your Makeup Colors and Formulas?
There’s nothing wrong with that! Consider getting direction from a makeup artist to learn about your own skin tone, undertone and what colors make things pop for you in a very natural way. An expert can help pinpoint those things if you’re having trouble figuring it out. FYI, Elgaziel offers one-on-one Zoom consultations/makeup lessons and custom-blended foundations.
But Will a “Thin” Foundation Work If You Have Adult Acne?
First things first—address why you have the acne. Is it hormonal? Is it dietary? Do you have the right skin care routine for your skin type? Identifying the root cause of the acne to treat it is best.
Next, know that wearing makeup puts stress on your skin. So when you try to cover up acne with a heavier foundation and concealer, your skin doesn’t breathe. The natural result of that combination is skin becoming more reactive.
“Say you cut your hair super short and then let it grow. You’ll have a stage that you hate your hair. You have to pass this stage to have the hair that you want. It’s the same with makeup,” says Elgaziel. Meaning, once you stop the cycle of acne-creating makeup and move to a cleaner, lighter foundation that doesn’t clog pores and allows skin to breathe, there might be a period of time where you’re not happy with your skin.
But then! Success.
Hopefully by using these simple makeup tricks for maturing skin, you feel more confident and in love with the skin you’re in. Have a question about makeup application for over 40 skin? Ask it in the comment section below.