Minimal doesn’t mean no makeup, nor does it mean using all browns so that you blend in with the wallpaper. You are wonderful, beautiful, and have too much to offer in this crazy world to blend in! Minimal means simple but stylish makeup that stands out. It’s a technique.

As mature women, it means knowing when to draw the line on, well, lines! For example, using liquid liner, pencil, and strong colors can often look garish and overdone. It takes a practiced hand and some education to learn how to make-up so that it looks current and age appropriate, but it can be done.

In this video and article, I will go over some basics with minimal makeup for fall 2021, including what part to pop, blended eyeliner, and picking the right lip color.

Pick a Part to Pop

What is your best feature? Do you have beautiful eye color or shape? Or are your lips full and luscious? Or perhaps you have those magnificent cheekbones that many of us pine for? Whatever is your best feature, that is the one to focus on for minimal makeup.

A bride to-be recently emailed me a picture of the makeup trial run application for her fall wedding to get some advice on how to improve it. The makeup looked heavy and mask-like because the artist failed to pick a part to pop and instead applied heavy eyeliner, heavy pink blush, and too bright lips.

To have a more classic minimal look, I recommended that she focus on the bride’s large, expressive eyes, and then minimize everything else with softer tones and blending.

In the video, I demonstrate two parts to pop; the eyes or the lips. In the first, I used a deeper lipstick called Joanna by Jane Iredale, and in the second, I created a stronger eye using Naturally Matte Eyeshadow Palette. Both looks are easy to do, and use all the same colors except the lipstick. Perfect for WFH (Work from Home) Zoom meetings!

How to Blend Eye Liner

Minimal eye makeup starts with knowing how to blend eyeliner. You can actually use a fairly heavy and dark liner if it is well blended and the rest of the face is softened. Here’s my technique: Apply a pencil eyeliner using a liner that blends easily, like MAC Kajal Eyeliner in Brown Border.

Then use a soft brush like MAC blender brush #231 and run it along the line to soften it down. Do the same for the lower lash-line, being careful not to be too heavy on the line. You can then add a slight crease color so that your face doesn’t flatten out with the heavy liner. If you’d like, add a pop highlight shade to the lid for added dimension.

How to Pick Lip Color

Minimal looks require the right balance of intensity and neutrality in color choices. For example, if you’ve decided to accentuate your eyes, then pick a neutral lip shade to set it off. Try Jane Iredale Stephanie lipstick and Spice lip pencil for a soft but pretty pink.

If you want to make your lips the focal point with a minimal eye, then try a deep raspberry like Joanna Jane Iredale lipstick. The key component here is to have the eye look work in conjunction with the lip color to create a minimal but pretty fall look.

I find that using too skin toned of a lipstick can at times be flat and unexpressive on mature women. If this is the case, add a little lip gloss to brighten it up, like MAC C Thru, a wonderfully neutral but bright lip gloss that works with nearly any lipstick shade on lighter skin tones.

Minimal doesn’t mean no makeup, and it does mean add color in the right tone and quantity! Adding color, strategic blending, and deciding on what part to pop are stylistic challenges that reap huge rewards in the makeup department. As mature ladies, we can become adept at negotiating our color choices and techniques to look our best and stay current.

What does your minimalist fall look consist of? Have you explored minimal makeup techniques? What is your best feature to highlight with makeup? Let’s have a chat!