Last night I was at a show. The women looked so glamourous, and their make-up was so beautiful. Later, backstage, they looked garish and old up close.
This is a lesson that all women over thirty need to learn. Hard lines, perfectly applied streaks and dark eyeliner can look beautiful as you walk through the door at an event. But it is terrifying up close, it puts off men and women alike. It becomes a Halloween mask.
I see a real life example of this every single Friday. A woman walks by on her way to a business meeting, once a week I watch all of the men that attend my own meeting look up to admire this 50+ beauty as she walks through the door. She is dressed immaculately and she's in wonderful shape. But up close, in the words of my teenage daughter she's a mess.
She's not Tammy Faye Baker, but she channels her. Her foundation is two shades two dark and she does a flawless job of blending at the hairline, but the demarcation at th neck makes her carefully applied cosmetics looks mask like.
She wears false eyelashes, they are too long, but when she bends down to reach for her meetings agenda, the eyelashes become obvious. It's a bit like seeing what you believe is a beautiful piece of art and getting close to find its a crayon rendering.
As we grow older and want to remain looking youthful. Less is more. It's time to invest in one of the lighter, light reflecting foundations. Blend, blend, blend should be the watch words for those of us that no longer have a perfect canvas.
Am I saying we shouldn't update our look? No! (Update by all means, go to the Trish McEvoy counter and buy one of the new color wash eyeshadows. Yves Saint Laurent offers one of the best highlighters ever made, bringing light to our faces and actually giving us a youthful look. )
I am saying less is more. Leave the heavy handed make-up to twenty year olds and their forgiving complexions. The advantage of age is discretion, our experience gives us the upper hand and remember if it would look good on the runway...it would look scary up close.
Today's Beauty Affirmation, Today I acknowledge that aging beauty is not about covering up. It is about adding light to my best features and uncovering, not covering my beauty.
Jillian Hurley, Editor http://www.AmericanBeautyAdvisor.com to see a complete bio please visit About Us on our website.
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