Does Your Makeup Make You Look Older? 52-Year-Old News Anchor Shares 3 Tips To Prevent This
Change up your techniques to keep looking your best.
Makeup is designed to highlight your best features and qualities, from brightening your eyes to enhancing your cheekbones. Applying makeup at a certain age, however, requires a shift in perspective. The trends that work for 20-somethings don’t always complement mature skin, and can actually make you appear older than you are. To be clear: There’s nothing wrong with looking your age. There’s also nothing wrong with using makeup techniques that flatter your skin type. News anchor Tamsen Fadal does just that, and she recently shared her top three tips for preventing makeup from aging her — and they really do work.
Meet Tamsen Fadal.
A primetime news anchor in New York City, Tamsen Fadal is a 52-year-old mom of two who makes TikTok videos about getting older, from the struggles of menopause to the wisdom she’s gained with each passing birthday. Among her most popular posts are “Dating Advice From a 51-Year Old Who Used To Be a Matchmaker” and “Ways I’ve Improved My Life After Turning 50.”
Tip 1: Go light on the foundation, or don’t use it at all.
While foundation evens out your skin tone and gives you a “clean slate” to work on, it also sinks into fine lines and wrinkles, making them more prominent. (And if your skin is dry — which mature skin often is — foundation without any moisturizer beneath it can create dry, flaky skin patches.) So, Fadal recommends using very little foundation or ditching it altogether. She uses a combination of concealer and powder instead. “I try to put concealer around those red spots to knock those out, and then just put a little powder over them,” she explains.
Tip 2: Use less contour, and place it high on your cheekbones.
“Make sure your contour doesn’t just cut your face,” she says, making a slicing gesture just below her cheekbone. “Move it up a little bit.” To find the right place for your contour, draw a diagonal line from the top of your ear to the top of your cheekbone. Draw contour onto this line, and stop when the line is directly below the outer corner of your eye. “It raises up your face instead of [dropping] it low.”
Tip 3: Draw eyeliner in your water line.
This last tip might sound counterintuitive — doesn’t eyeliner below the water line make your eyes appear bigger and brighter? Actually, it can make all of the makeup on your eyes appear disconnected, and pull your features downward. “I don’t put liner underneath my eyes,” Fadal confirms. “I put it on my water line, and above, and pull it up on the sides.”
To achieve Fadal’s eyeliner look, apply eyeliner on the water line, starting from the outer corner of your eye, and then stop midway. The closer you get to the middle of the water line, lessen your pressure on the pencil — you want the liner to fade into the rest of the water line. (You can also use your finger to gently smudge the liner in the middle of your water line.) Leave the inner corner to the middle of your eye bare. Then, apply eyeliner just above your top lashes, starting about three-quarters of the way from your inner eye, and ending at the outer corner. Join the bottom and top lines of eyeliner with a flick upward, creating a small, upturned wing.
Want more makeup tips? Check out Fadal’s fake eyelash trick to make her eyes appear less droopy, and this hack to erase eye circles quickly.
