Makeup Tricks

I know Susan Sarandon uses at least one of the makeup tricks I swear by.  She must have learned it from Lauren Hutton, the beautiful 70s model who launched the "Face Disc" a few years ago, when she returned to modelling and found none of the current makeup techniques worked for her. 

Having watched a commercial for her makeup disc a number of years ago, I ordered one.  Hutton, now 69, uses many slight-of-hand techniques I have adopted.  The movie I am watching, starring Sarandon, highlights one of the best, i.e., the brown brush along the underside of the jaw-line to define the end of the face and the beginning of the neck.  The result is that your jaw appears to be in shadow, thanks to the dark liner underneath.  Absolutely brilliant, but you must use a very thick brush so it all blends.  If she hadn't used this "trick", Sarandon's skin would have appeared less taught, her face droopy and her neck still attached to her face.  I have been "re-defining" my jawline for a few years with considerable success because, ladies, we do not want our faces to morph into our jaws and necks!

If you look at my blog  picture, you will see the defining jaw-line this technique creates.  

Another trick I use is a pencil for my going-grey brows.  Warning, never use a liquid liner, just a pencil where needed.  For the lips?  Buy yourself Elizabeth Arden's Lip-Fix Cream, a wax that seals the lines around the mouth into which lipstick tends to seep, making one look like an old Parisian whore.  Very expensive, but never mind because it lasts for at least two years.  Worth every penny. Use a lip-liner after the sealer has set, then apply the lipstick.  Incidentally, I do not use an official "lip-liner".  Instead I use an eyebrow pencil because it is not as harsh.   

You know that dark part, where your inside eye sockets meet the bridge of your nose?  That's because the skin shrinks and your skin is black in that area.  Solution?  Dab a little bit of heavy concealer and pat it in, don't rub it in because that diffuses the effect.  You want it to stay there.  Then apply a lighter concealer under the eyes.  Full-on eye make comes after that.  I still have not mastered false eyelashes, but happily my own are long and full enough that several applications of L'Oreal black mascara -- top and bottom of the uppers -- does the trick.  You have to wait a minute or so for the mascara to slightly dry before applying another coat.  That way is sticks and builds up better.  

Well ladies, that's what I have learned over the years, now that I am "of a certain age".  Have fun with makeup!