It’s inevitable that the passing of years will bring about some expected (and unexpected!) changes. But the good news is that we can make just a few tweaks to our makeup routine and embrace the contours of our face as emblems of experience and wisdom to truly help our beauty shine through.

Here are 11 beauty tips that can help u lose that old lady look:

Choose a Flattering Hair Cut

A flat, one-length cut can age us – as can a severe center part. After 50, most of us need to have layers and depth and find a cut that flatters our face shape.

For instance, wearing your hair straight and flat against your head will emphasize the length of your face. However, if you cut your hair above chin length and create some fullness around your face you will create more width.

Don’t Guess with Eyebrow Hair Color

Interestingly, eyebrows that are too light or too dark can age us – as can eyebrow tails that come down too low. The rule of thumb for dark eyebrow hair is go one shade lighter. If you have very light hair, go one to two shades darker. If you have gray hair, either go with gray or taupe but definitely fill them in.

Use an Eyeshadow Primer

As we get older, our eyelid skin gets thinner, and our eyelids may produce more oil. This means that veins or other discoloration can be very noticeable, and eyeshadow can crease or smudge more easily.

Using an eyeshadow primer that matches our skin tone can get rid of any discoloration. It can also keep our eyeshadow perfectly in place without any creasing or smudging.

Be sure to check out Elise’s YouTube channel which specifically focuses on makeup tips, techniques, and product reviews for those of us 50+. Don’t forget to subscribe!

Color Theory to the Rescue with Eyeshadow

Dark eyeshadow across our eyelids can create a beautiful smokey eye look, but for most of us, this look can age us by making our eyes look smaller. To make our eyes look bigger, we need to apply some color theory tips.

Since light colors make things appear to come forward and look bigger and dark colors make things appear to recede and look smaller, we can make our eyes look larger by applying a light color all the way across our eyelids.

Eyeliner Lover? Choose Your Color Wisely

In general, thick black eyeliner across the top and bottom of our eyes can make us look older for several reasons. For one, black can look a little harsh because our skin gets paler – and the stark contrast between our paler skin and black eyeliner can be a bit jarring.

Also, black around the entire eye can close up the eye area and make our eyes look smaller. So, choose an eyeliner color that will not appear so harsh on your eye, and, if necessary, only apply on the top lid.

Don’t Forget Mascara

Not wearing mascara can definitely age us. Mascara helps to define and lift the eyes. And an eyelash curler can truly be our best friend.

Take Care of Those Spots!

When our skin tone is uneven, we appear older. In fact, according to recent research, evening out our skin tone can do more than anything else to help us look our best.

Most of us develop some redness, age spots, or other discoloration as we get older. The key is to even out our skin tone with tinted moisturizer, tinted SPF, foundation, or concealer. It’s at the top of the list of the most important things we can do with makeup to help us look like the best version of ourselves.

Erase the Dark Circles

We can best camouflage dark circles or other under eye concerns by using a color corrector. Very often these blemishes have blue or purple tones, so using a peach, salmon, or apricot color correcting concealer can truly make a difference.

How dark a peach or salmon color you choose depends on how dark your skin tone is.

You Need that Blush

Since our skin and lips get paler, we lose facial contrast – which, according to a recent major research study, definitely makes us look older and less attractive. We can create more contrast – and more attractiveness – by wearing blush and lipstick.

Color Undertone Matters

But, as with anything, it’s very important to wear the right blush and lipstick color. Remember Carole Jackson’s book Color Me Beautiful from the 1980s? It’s a matter of finding out our skin undertone – which can be cool, warm, or neutral – and wearing the colors that are best for that undertone.

If you have a cool undertone, you’ll want to stick with pinks, plums, raspberries, and blue-reds. Warm undertones can look gorgeous in peach, coral, tangerine, and orange-reds. And if you have a neutral undertone, you have both warm and cool tones in your skin so you can wear both cool and warm colors.

Choose a Light Lipstick

Dark lip colors make our lips look smaller, and a matte lipstick absorbs light rather than reflect it, so dark matte lipsticks can make us look even older. Bringing more light and radiance to our lips with a lighter, more luminous lipstick formula truly does help us look our best.

What tweaks have you made to your makeup routine to help you look your best? Which of the 11 tips above might you try? Which of them are already a part of your routine? Please share below!