Some Tips Before We Proceed...

The end result of a good makeup is supple-looking, even skin, balanced features and a youthful appearance overall.



Now that you've taken the steps to revitalize your skin with proper skin care, and invest in your face value, it's easy to make a few small errors in your makeup that will age you more! Remember the blush... circular shapes on the front of the cheeks, not the angular line along the cheek bone...? Let's look ahead to developing our look, and skip the downfalls that could decrease your face value.



Priming your skin, choosing the correct foundation type, and applying a shade of blush that isn't too overpowering and placed correctly should give your skin an even and supple appearance. The idea is to have your makeup enhance your skin, not coat it like a clay mask. The less makeup you wear, the more natural it looks and the younger you appear!



CHOOSE A FEATURE:



When doing your makeup, you can choose to pull attention to your eyes, your lips, or balance the look with some focus on each.



Some women feel that to have one featured over the other that the eyes or lips must be darker in color. While this can work, using shimmers and colors that attract attention can work just as well as going smokey or vamp. In fact, lighter shades that reflect more light, make features appear larger and can attract more attention on a more mature face.



When doing your eyes, try not to use colors that are too dark or too glittery, and keep these products away from the outer corner of the eye. These colors will define any sagging or crepiness in the skin...settling into the fine lines, and exaggerating your age. Keep the color and shadow on the eyes focused on the lid, and under the brow...less on the crease and outer corner.



Lips should always be lined. Lining the lips and using a lipstick or gloss over a lip that has been filled in with a pencil will really help define the lip line, as well as keeping color from bleeding into the fine lines around the lips. You have to worry about this less if you wear neutral and soft shades.



Brows are also a feature that needs to be enhanced. Using two shades of powder or a combination of powder and pencil will give you a nice natural look, and frame your eyes...and highlighting the area under the brows can give you a bright lift that lifts and shapes the area around the eyes. In my personal opinion, youth is in the cheek and the brows!



Now with this in mind, let's move on to eyes...

Color of Youth...

Now that you're face has been properly cleaned, primed, and you've applied the perfect foundation product, the next step is brighten your complexion with a little blush or bronzer. It is the one product that can age you ten years, or increase your face value by a few!

Take a look at the following images:

This is an image with slightly exagerated blush. For most, this is how we were taught that blush should be applied: in an anglular shape from the side of the apple of the cheek blended up toward the temple, accentuating the line of the cheek bone.

The goal of this application is to "lift" the face, accentuating the angles in the contours, which works to also accentuate the loss of adepose tissue in middle-aged women, any sagging of the jowls, and, in the process... aging your face!

Doing your blush in this way can add up to 10 years to your face...decreasing your face value.

In this image, the same face, same blush, but look at the difference of face shape... notice how the cheeks look fuller, the face more youthful?

By applying the blush in a rounded shape, on the front of the apples of the cheeks, you create the illusion of rounded, cherubic face. This technique is used by a lot of actresses to play younger characters. If you take a look at Ashley Judd in DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD, she ages from 15 to 35... and the difference in looks?

You guessed it: blush position!

Blush and bronzer can be used interchangeably. I like looking for formulas that have some shimmer, they added glow really brings a angelic glow to your face...adds to your face value.

A tip about some bronzer: don't apply it as a foundation. Bronzer is meant to be a "highlight"...a way to make your face look as though it's gotten some sun, a little color...but not a full color base. That weird, orange tone is meant to compliment most skin tones on a SHEER level. It is not supposed to be a skin tone!

Young skin that is orange doesn't help your face value. Old skin that is orange doesn't help, either.

Face value is about standing out for the health and vitality of your skin, how young you look compared to your actual age. It's not about standing out for looking like an oompa-loompa, or for laying in a tanning bed until your skin looks like cheap leather. Here is another image to think about:

Not even a bold, fashionable bag, a cute bikini and a blonde do can increase your face value if you get this far!

Don't get this far!

No one should ever get this far!