Stop Helping the Clock! 3 Makeup Mistakes that Make You Look Older

You may not realize it, but, your makeup techniques may actually be making you look older. That was the message of professional makeup artist, Ariane Poole, when I interviewed her recently. Join us as we discuss the 3 most common mistakes that older women make when it comes to applying makeup. Enjoy the show!

Margaret Manning:

Today my guest is Ariane Poole, who is a professional makeup artist. She is a great friend of Sixty and Me. Welcome, Ariane.

Ariane Poole:

Thank you, Margaret for having me. Hi, everyone!

Margaret:

It is so great to have you here. Ariane, you and I have talked quite a bit about this whole idea of anti-aging, though we don’t use that word.

Ariane:

I hate that word because it’s got a negative connotation.

Margaret:

It does. However, we are big fans of positive aging, so that’s what we focus on. We discussed that we want to look good for our age, and we want to use makeup in any way that can hide the wrinkles a little. We really want to feel good about ourselves. Also, makeup is fun.

One of the things we tend to do though, is use makeup application techniques that we used in the past. We think that’s going to make us look younger, but you’ve told me many times, “It’s not gonna happen. It doesn’t make you look younger, but you can definitely make yourself look older.”

Ariane:

I think there are makeup techniques that can definitely make you look older. When I do my talks, I tell people, “Most of us learn to use makeup when we are in our teens and twenties.” When we are in our teens and twenties though, we want to make ourselves look older, so that we would be taken more seriously in the work place.

As young women, we put on a face to make ourselves look older. When you say to a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old, “You look 25,” they take that as a huge compliment. If you tell me, “You look ten years older than you are,” I would be going, “Oh, really? What have I done wrong?” When I was twenty, if someone told me that I was 25/30, I’d be going, “Thank you,” because I achieved my goal.

We employ the techniques we know, unless we’re shown something else, and we think, “I don’t look as great as I thought I would.” Why’s that? A lot of women blame themselves, but if you’re not being shown the right techniques, then there’s no way you could achieve a great effect. What I would like to do is show you how to make yourself up wrong.

Margaret:

Show us the mistakes that make us look older.

Ariane:

Yes, okay. One of those mistakes is putting on a heavy foundation. For the video demonstration I’m going to do one half of my face older.

Margaret:

I love your demonstrations because you have to regroup completely.

Ariane:

True. I’ll only leave a little bit of my eye makeup on.

Margaret:

We have talked about foundation before. I had the tendency of using the heavy kind, too. Now I use your foundation, the Ultimate Face Tint. It’s really fantastic, and I’m not just saying that. I have tried tens of foundations.

Ariane:

I’m going to use a slightly heavier foundation for this demo. It’s not a bad foundation—it’s actually a good foundation. However, even though it’s a great product, it may not necessarily work well for somebody that is a little bit older. It’s quite a bit thicker, and that’s what we used to use when we were younger. We did it because we wanted to look older.

Margaret:

It kinda makes you look like you’re wearing a mask. Like a persona, isn’t it?

Ariane:

Yeah. This is the right color for my skin, and I’ve chosen a good quality product. I haven’t gone for nasty products because our purpose here is not to diss anybody’s brand. I’ve gone for something that I know will be too heavy for my skin.

Margaret:

You can see immediately that in some ways it looks very artistic. You can say it looks like a piece of art that is not natural.

Ariane:

No, exactly. Then I’ll put on some power, though normally I don’t use powder, either.

Margaret:

I have learned this the hard way as well.

Ariane:

I’m not going to pile on the powder as my purpose isn’t to exaggerate. I’m doing it how I see women do their makeup.

Margaret:

A lot of the makeup videos I’ve watched on YouTube do this. I’ve watched this for younger women who are trying to look more mature. There’s not a lot for older people.

Ariane:

There’s not a lot for people our age group. Some of the tutorials for our age group still assume that we are going to wear this heavy kind of coverage.

Next, I’m going to use a heavier concealer as well. This is my brand of concealer, but I normally use it to cover my redness not for underneath my eyes. A lot of people use it for the eyes, though, so, that’s what I’m going to do. Again, I think this is too heavy.

Margaret:

This is from your palette?

Ariane:

This is mine, yes. I love it because I use it for hiding my redness. When I use it on its own it looks great, but now I’m using it with other products. I’m purposely not doing my brow, because most women don’t do their eyebrows.

Margaret:

They put too much foundation and forget the eyebrows.

Ariane:

They just skip the eyebrows. Then they use a matte eyeshadow because, if you read the magazines, anybody over 40 should be wearing a matte eyeshadow. That’s actually not true. Matte is really dry, dehydrating and isn’t great. We can use a little bit of shimmer. I’m not saying frost though because frost is hideous on everybody.

So now I’ve put on a matte topey kind off eyeshadow, which, in some instances, could be really, really nice. After this, women either skip doing the eyeliner, or they do the eyeliner right down to the edge, and I’m not exaggerating.

Margaret:

Yeah, we sometimes try too hard, don’t we? That’s the thing, sometimes just being natural is enough.

Ariane:

You see the difference between my two eyes?

Margaret:

Oh goodness, yeah!

Ariane:

That’s because I just followed the arch of my eye. When we put on eyeshadow in an arch, it looks good when we are younger. When we are older though, it makes us look like we have droopy eyes. That’s not the effect we want to achieve.

Next comes the blush. Sometimes women don’t even wear blush, but I feel really naked without it. I’m going to choose a blush color, but because people are afraid they’re gonna have those sort of vivid rosy cheeks they go for something really neutral, like a topey color.

The blush I’m going to use if from my brand. This is great for another skin, on someone who is a bit younger. It’s too neutral and as we get a little bit older, this is a bit too bland. I’m going to pop that on, and apply it where people tend to put their blush.

Margaret:

Too high.

Ariane:

Exactly. So they use a color, which is receding their cheekbones. By putting it up there, they’re pushing that cheekbone in. That is making me look jowly.

Margaret:

This would have been a great Halloween costume you could have worn. Half and half.

Ariane:

Finally, they would choose a beigey color for the lips, because they don’t want to have something that is too harsh.

Margaret:

Oh, my gosh, your jowls! You really can see the difference.

Ariane:

Oh, I know.

Margaret:

Yeah, you’re doing exactly what you said you’re going to do: the mistakes that people make. We call them mistakes, but they’re just techniques that don’t work well.

Ariane:

We have not been informed that there is a better way of doing it. I’ve been this comparison when explaining this to people, “You know, if you’ve been told to cook something in the oven for some ridiculous amount of time, and it comes out burned, why are you blaming yourself? The instruction said to cook it for that long period of time.”

I’m using a bit nude lip color.

Margaret:

Which, as you said, may look really beautiful on a younger person.

Ariane:

The other day I did someone’s makeup for a wedding. I used this nude color with a nude gloss over the top, in combination with a smokey eye. It looked fabulous.

Margaret:

In a quick review: You’ve put foundation that was a bit too heavy. You put too much concealer and on the wrong place. You forgot to fill in your eyebrows. You used a matte eyeshadow, and you used a liner to pull your eye right down.

Ariane:

I used the liner how we would normally use a liner. If you’re somebody who tries to do the flick, we’re even into more trouble there because the eyes don’t age evenly.

Then the other thing we’re told is to put a shimmery highlighter underneath the arch of our brows.

Margaret:

Oh yes! I forgot about the shimmer. I’ve seen so many people use it.

Ariane:

The shimmer brings the brow bone forward and sinks our eyes back. As we get older, our eyes naturally sink back. We don’t want them to sink back even further.

When I look into the mirror, the half of my face that I just made, I absolutely don’t like. Your viewers might actually like it, though.

Margaret:

Actually, I like that you smiled too. When you put a lot of foundation on, those crease lines and the crow’s feet really show. You can really see the difference. Like we’ve said before, makeup is personal. If you like the transformation that a lot of makeup provides, there’s no problem.

However, I think that there are ways you can make yourself look natural and fresh; ways to accent the good. Then there are ways that you can make yourself look a little drab and older.

Ariane:

You’ve all seen me without makeup, and you know I have a really blotchy complexion. I have a really uneven skin tone.

Margaret:

Make up really makes a big difference. Thank you for the thorough demonstration and for completely wrecking your beautiful makeup. I hope people find this helpful, because some women are put off of doing makeup. They’ve seen people go over the top, and they want to look more natural. I think some of the products you have are fantastic.

Ariane:

There are lots of great products out there. Most of the time, problems come with your application techniques and your choices. When you’re a little bit older, you need things that are pigment rich, but lighter weight. Those are the kinds of products that we need to choose.

Margaret:

Fantastic! Thank you so much. I hope you find that useful, everyone. If you’ve got any comments, leave them in the section below. Thanks so much, Ariane. I now know what not to do.

Has the way in which you apply your makeup changed at all as you have gotten a little older? Have you tried any of the makeup for older women techniques that Ariane mentioned in this video? Please join the conversation.