The Art of The Forever Young Face
The Forever Young Face
When a 65-year-old neck looks like a 30-year-old’s, you may want to pay attention to what I have learned making up my face.
After practicing the art of retaining whatever youth I can hold onto for over 51 years, sampling dozens of products, I have made some helpful general philosophy discoveries.
THINGS TO DO
- Be Good to Yourself: If what you try doesn’t smell good or feel good, get rid of it.
- Be Good to Your Skin: Do whatever it takes to keep it clean, moisturized, and blemish-free, and do it every single day.
- Make your Makeup Work for You– Do whatever you need to to learn what your color palette is, as in what colors look well on you.
- Learn your own personal preferences by experimenting with different products. Do you like oil-based or water-based makeup best?
- Invest In Great Moisturizers–See what works for you. Dare to do only half of your face for three weeks and see if you notice anything.
- Don’t be afraid to use more than one. Right now, I use three. Buy yourself some glycerine; it is in all the great moisturizers.
THINGS I HAVE LEARNED NOT TO DO
- Don’t Forget to Moisturize Your Neck–Three sisters and I were sitting at an outside cafe commiserating about the effect of age. The youngest said, Just look at my crepe neck. I said, Want to know why your neck doesn’t match your face? Of course, she wanted to; they were all ears. Because you have neglected your neck and stop moisturizing at your chin line. She said, Look at her perfect neck.
- Don’t Put Concealer Under Your Makeup–It belongs to really conceal, on top of the makeup. (After 40, I learned I look better when I put concealer under my eyes and around my mouth. After 50, I learned that I needed to go clear around the eyes, over the puppet lines under my nose, around the pleats above my lips, between my eyes, and over my forehead, unless I am wearing bangs.)
- Don’t Use Powered Eye Shadow, Eyebrow Color or Blush–Cream stays where you put it and it does not get into your eyes, float down to your cheeks from your eyes or onto your clothes.
- Don’t Use Power Puffs Over Makeup Unless You’re Out–You get a much better look by putting whatever powder you choose on with a power brush.
- Don’t Let Your Eyebrows Tell You Where They Belong–Eyebrows are not smart. Avoid letting them dictate what look you want over your eyes. If they grow across your face and touch each other, put a space between them. If they look like the bushes Groucho Marx had on his face, pluck them thinner. If they shrink and thin as you age, elongate and make them thicker. As a rule, your eyebrows should follow the natural bone line up from your nose and definitely begin before your eye does.
- Don’t Waste Your Money on 4-Step Washing and Toning Regimes Twice a Day–I wash my face with soap each morning with a rough cloth, rinse it well and tone it with Witch Hazel. An 85-year old who saw me washing my face with soap, whose face has ruts so deep it looks like the Roadrunner has been doing non-stop laps, said, Oh, Barbara, you shouldn’t use soap on your face. It dries it out. I’ve creamed my face clean all my life. Just try it. The following night, I used her cream. Then, I asked her to watch an experiment. After I wiped off all the cream, I then took a cloth and washed my face with soap. She was shocked at all the makeup her creme missed.
