The Story in Your Eyes

It's where we see the laughter and sorrow of our lives... in the delicate tissue around the eyes: crows feet, crepiness, dark circles and bags. Nothing gives away our age like our eyes. To increase our face value, we need to start here!

This post has been written with women of a certain age in mind, and while you may be looking into a mirror thinking that you're still too young to think about a simple makeup plan like this... just remember that it's info you'll need someday.

As mentioned before, using eye treatments that can tighten and firm the skin of the eye should always be used, and while dark circles can be hereditary, there are products that can lighten and diminish their appearance. Moving into cosmetics, using a highlighting creme or pencil to highlight the area under the eye, as well as the lid itself, will mute the darkness, visible capillaries, and otherwise prime the area for makeup.

Most fashion magazines tell women that there is no shimmer in their life after 50... literally, do not use shimmery products. I disagree. It's not about not wearing shimmer, but where you apply the shimmer.

Once your eyes have been primed, apply a sheer, shimmery tone... something soft and neutral to the lid. Don't apply it from lash line to brow, just the lid. This will really give a nice highlight to the lid... making your eyes appear to twinkle. Use a similar shade in a matte shadow to give base tone to the area between the crease and brow. Then using a slightly darker shade in a matte shadow, apply a contour to the crease, but be careful not to apply too much toward the outer corner where the product can slip into the fine lines and accentuate the crows feet. It's all about centralized placement... keep it on the center of the lid.

We're also changing our palette. Soft neutrals and pastels play best on aging skin. Dark tones that are used to create smoke and deep drama in the eyes of a younger client can be horrid reminders of just how old we are as those dark tones slip into the fine lines around our eyes and give bold definition to any sagging or drooping that may be occuring. By removing our darkest tones from our library, we're left with base tones and contour colors. Allow the definition to come from liner, and worry less about color.

Pencil Liners can be very heavy and sticky... and they pull the skin when applying. On an aging eye, when the tissue is thin and has less elasticity, the pencil line looks garish. It is a better idea to work with a liquid liner. The line tends to be smoother, and as long as you take your time, it can be a very fine line just along the lashes. That simple definition can make all the difference.

The same applies for the lower lash line. A pencil line will be too heavy and make your eyes appear to droop. Instead, use a fine brush and a shadow to create a soft, subtle line of definition under the lower lashes.

Before applying brows, use a highlighting pencil or creme to create a slim highlight under the brow and on the inner corner of the eye. Blended into your shadows, this can give the illusion of a lifted brow, and a wide awake eye. Subtlety is key to highlighting...if you get too heavy handed, you won't look young, you look like a drag queen.

Brows are also a dead giveaway to age. When filled in softly with a light brow powder, they can they be defined by using a brow pencil. be sure to apply the pencil is simple strokes, as if you were drawing indivdual hairs. When unsure of how dark they should be, start light and add... you can always add more, but it's a pain to have to start over if you've gone too dark. This applies to clients with strong brows or next to no brows... you must have them! It is a sin not to do your brows!

Lashes also make a huge difference to your face value, and a simple pair of demi-lashes on the upper lash line will give you a little added fullness and flounce. As we age, we can sometimes lose lashes and that sparseness gives away our age, too!

Finish the eyes with a volumizing mascara. Your lashes should look thick and defined. If you require more length, and false lashes aren't your game, apply a coat of lengthening mascara as your second coat over the volumizing product.

Again, this post is written for women of a certain age, but the simplicity of the concept is a good base for learning how to think about makeup in regards to aging... and we're all aging... have been since we were born! Remember... it's all about increasing your face value!

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!

Color Me Perfect

After applying primer to perfect the surface appearance of the skin, and highlighting or brightening flawed areas, it is now time to apply foundation for an even skin tone. This is not a maditory step...unless you are going to be in front of a camera, and let's face it, in these technologically savvy times, we're always on camera.

For those lucky folks that have clear, even skin, a light powder over a little highlighter can do marvelously well. For the rest of us, there are three types of foundation: creams/liquids, wet/dry pressed compacts, and loose powders.

As was true for cleansers, the same applies for foundation: choosing the best product for you is dependent upon your skin type. Creams and liquids were designed for those users with dry skin. The added moisture provides a "binding" benefit for the skin. Wet/dry pressed compacts tend to be the most versatile products, giving levels of coverage depending on whether they are used wet or dry with a sponge or a brush. These compacts are ideal for normal/combination skin. Loose powders are ideal for oily skin types. The powder absorbs oil, binding it to the skin for the longest wear without becoming shiny.

Foundation should be light on the skin, and hardly noticeable. Your skin should look soft, supple, and perfected...never dry, never oily, never painted on.

If you choose the proper product for your skin, the only other consideration is the proper tool for application. Brushes will give you the softest finish, and a light to medium coverage from most products. A sponge deposits the most pigment and provides a heavier coverage. Used together, a brush and sponge can create beautiful effects on the skin.

Don't be afraid to layer products to get the best coverage. If your liquid is too light, don't apply more liquid, but set the liquid with a wet/dry powder using a brush. The combined coverage of the two products will make a huge difference and provide a soft finish together.

Next up: Bronzers and Blushes

Highlighting Your Flaws = Younger Looks...?

Once your skin has been cleansed, treated, moisturized and primed, the next step is to highlight your flaws: dark circles under the eyes, broken capillaries, hyperpigmentation (sun/age spots) and blemishes.

It's okay, you can pick up your jaw. I heard it hit the floor.

Yes, I meant to write highlight instead of hide.

Most of these imperfections will show through foundations, and then we reach for concealer. This building up of pigment over these areas can lead to a heavy-handed look and can make them appear even darker. The idea is to mute these areas before applying foundation.

Some companies offer face primers in sheer tints... green to counteract red, mauve to counteract green, and yellow to counteract purple. It comes down to basic color theory... complimentary colors, those colors that fall directly across from each other on the color wheel, cancel each other out... create a neutral. For instance, using a green tinted primer over Rosy cheeks can mute the redness and allow for a more even color in the foundation.

If that's too much thinking for you, try using a highlighting pencil... make sure that it has a soft, creamy "lead" that can be easily blended with a concealer brush or fingertip. The brightening effect of a highlighting pencil can usually provide muted coverage for these trouble areas. Once, these discolorations have been highlighted, your foundation application will usually kick these highlighted areas back toward the shade of the foundation.

This is a technique that is very useful and cost-effective. You will hardly ever need concealer, or the tinted primers. If you bought every primer needed to balance all of the tonalities of your skin, you'd go broke!

The highlighting pencil has a lot of uses:

1. Highlighting Imperfections;



2. Lifting the Brows;



3. Making Eyes appear brighter;



4. Making Lips appear fuller;



5. Correcting noses;



6. Counteracting sinking cheeks...

... just to name a few.

So, before you apply foundation and grab the concealer, try highlighting those little imperfections and watch them disappear! It's a nifty trick that is inexpensive and can increase your face value.

Revitalizing for Radiance

Step Two: EXFOLIATION

Exfoliation is an important step in a skin care regiment, although not a step that should be included on a daily basis. Even with the oiliest of skin types, three times a week is more than enough.

Exfoliation is the process of sloughing or buffing off the excess dead skin cells from the surface of the skin, revealing the fresher, younger cells beneath. While some cleansers contain acids that also affect cellular turn-over, a manual scrub can be used to finish the job. As the plump cells that are formed in the basal layer make their way to the surface, losing moisture and flattening out before finally setting on the surface, they can get caught up in excess oil, and need to be cleared away so that younger cells can take their place, and new cells can be formed.

As we age, the production of fresh cells slows, and exfoliation is the key to keeping the skin working!

Even for someone with dry skin, using a manual exfoliant once every few weeks will help to stimulate cell production and turn-over, leading to stronger, firmer, less sensitive skin.

Be careful not to use products that contain materials that are too sharp, like apricot kernels or walnut shells. While ideal for your feet, these may be too abrasive for your skin, causing microscopic tears in the skin. Instead, look for a scrub that uses jojoba beads, silica crystals or physician's grade microdermabrasian crystals to help buff away excess skin cells.

If you use an exfoliant that is too harsh or use it too often, your skin will be dry, irritated and red, and will not function properly. As nice as your skin feels after an exfoliation, too much of a good thing is definitely bad in this instance.

Next up, Step Three: Toning.

A world without skin care...

...would be a world of ugly people!

It's the question that the majority of Americans ask every time they hear about skin care: What's the big deal?

Your skin is the largest organ of the human body. Its purpose is to protect the musculature and systems underneath from the sun, from airborne pathogens, and dehydration. Taking a vitamin supplement or detox concoctions may fortify and enhance the performance of our internal organs, but what about the skin? It is abused far worse than any other organ on a daily basis.

Skin health, endurance and longevity are somewhat genetic, with people from warmer climates and darker skin tones getting the better genes. Heredity, though, is not a fail-safe for younger looking skin. External factors, like environmental pollutants and lifestyle, affect face value as well.

Environmental:

The sun has a great deal to do with the decrease in face value. Spending time, unprotected in the sun, depreciates your skin the same way that driving a classic car in a smash-up derby depreciates its value. UVA (aging), UVB (burning) and UVC (cancer) radiation are all bombarding our skin each day. While they may lead to a darkening of the melanin in our skin, leading to a beautiful tan, which is actually a safety protocol to keep the radiation from reaching our internal organs, other effects are also taking place.

Collagen production decreases, elastin proteins knit together creating wrinkles on the skin's surface, and melanin production can become irratic, leading to hyperpigmentation (sun spots) or Hypopigmentation (when melanin is no longer produced leaving pale white splotches on the skin, which cannot be corrected). All of these lead to skin that looks older than it is... and a decreased face value.

Environmental pollutants can also cause skin damage, like burning and cancers.

Lifestyle:

Medications, legal and otherwise, can cause skin damage by dehydration, hormonal imbalances and severe breakout. Alcoholic beverages don't just leave you with a dry mouth in the morning, but can severely dehydrate your skin as well. When the body is lacking moisture, it will take it where it can... even reallocating it from one organ to another.

Your skin requires a healthy balance of oil (lubrication) and water (hydration) to function properly.

Tanning and cosmetic procedures can also lead to skin damage. If the sun causes the most damage to the skin, imagine the damage that is being done when you increase the exposure to UV radiation to 3x the amount of the sun in order to tan faster. The perfect analogy for vising a tanning booth is placing a grape in a food dehydrator. This does nothing to increase your face value.

Some products that are found in the current skin care market are developed for the ideal skin type: normal/combination, tending toward oily in the T-zone. However, these ingredients are not strong enough to treat oily skin types, and are too astringent for drier, sensitive skin types. Other treatments, which may be marketed to solve acne and the like, may dry up the blemishes, but also strip your skin of oil and moisture, which leads to dry, sensitive skin, and in some cases even more oil production.

If redness or irritation that last longer than 5 minutes occurs after the use of any product, discontinue use immediately! In a professional setting, with an esthetician or dermatologist, therein lies the exception, although they too should be providing treatment maintenance products that would reduce the redness, irritation and swelling caused by the treatment.

The Big Deal...

Skin care is important to our overall health, because skin that cannot or does not function can lead to serious illness. It is one of the keystones to living a better, healthier life. Proper skin care fortifies the barrier function of the skin, which allows the skin to accept moisture, but keeps moisture from evaporating, and assists in the healing of breaches in the skin. It also provides avenues for the enrichment of the skin with topically applied vitamins and minerals to calm, soothe, and promote more efficient organ function. Skin care also provides the opportunity to add moisture to the skin, and to apply additional SPF protection.

Proper skin care is the most powerful ally in increasing your face value!