The make-up you should ditch at 50 (and what to wear instead) (2024)

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I can’t tell you exactly when, but at some point between the ages of 47 and 50 make-up stopped working for me. Don’t panic, there’s a happy ending – or I might not be writing this now (“beauty editor is failed by lipstick; The End” is not fun or useful for anyone to read). But I can’t pretend I wasn’t thrown.

I’ve been writing about beauty for more than half my life and in that time have favoured skincare over makeup, as editors of my cohort usually did. Any makeup I wore wasn’t far from the sort of elevated natural look TikTok calls a clean girl/French girl/quiet luxury aesthetic. If these references lose you, know that they’re all reasonably interchangeable versions of a fresh look; some shinier than others but essentially a case of move along, nothing to see here bar an occasional red lip or smudgy eye, worn casually against polished skin.)

So this really isn’t an ‘I swapped long wear foundation for tinted moisturiser and never looked back’ story, because tinted moisturiser is where I started. And yet, there came the moment that even a whisper of tinted moisturiser was too, too much. A pared-back wash of a single eyeshadow looked clumsy. Powder formed that kind of floating veil of particles I notice on my seven year old’s chin when she’s been deeply involved with a packet of cheese puffs.

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But if recent years have given us anything, it’s role models. Not just the glowy midlife women rightfully taking space in the public eye (Demi Moore, Michelle Yeoh, Halle Berry et al) but thoughtful and chic make-up artists who have been doing what they do for years, and so understand how to cope with the changes in face and skin that come with age.

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“I think it’s a combination of losing volume in the skin and becoming more hollow in certain areas,” says Gucci Westman, Nicole Kidman’s right hand woman in makeup. “There’s less elasticity and everything feels a little less vibrant. I’ve noticed this on myself and with clients I’ve worked with for a long time. I used to always wear brown eyeshadow – it was a no-brainer – but now, with my eyes becoming more hollow, I don’t necessarily do that anymore.”

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Where does that leave us? As the iconic makeup artist Bobbi Brown points out, “Yes, less is more, but the right thing is the most important.”

Here’s what I’ve learnt so far – and the best bit is, it takes me three minutes or less to pull the whole thing together.

Concealer is the new foundation

For all the bouncy, balmy bases in my bathroom, what works for me now is nothing but concealer, applied lightly under my eyes and over what makeup artist Sarah Reygate (who looks after Kim Cattrall, Sharleen Spiteri and Elle Macpherson) once described to me as the “muzzle” of the face: nose, chin and around the mouth. On the other hand, Lisa Eldridge “never” puts makeup on her nose (“I just look younger when I don’t”, she says).

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Nose or not, my greatest tip for an invisible finish is to apply when skin feels slightly tacky, either over skincare or Grown Alchemist’s deliciously cooling and blurring gel primer, which I can’t recommend enough.

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Skin Defense Primer, £33, Grown Alchemist; The Concealer Pen with TFC8®, £64, Victoria Beckham

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Brighten Up Concealer, £15, Sculpted By Aimee; Westman Atelier Vital Skincare Concealer, £45, Space NK

Lose the lip

Ok, not entirely, but beauty content creators Sam and Nic Chapman once told me that the quickest way to make makeup look modern and cool is to “take one thing off”. For me, that’s lipstick, which can quickly look de trop even when everything else is stripped back.

Instead, I choose tinted balm in a tawny or squashed blackberry shade, which mimics the naturally blue-ish hue of the lip better than any nude or pale pink but has a bit more punch.

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Clinique Almost Lipstick in Black Honey, £18.37 (reduced from £24.50), Boots; Sisley Phyto-Lip Balm in 3 Crush, £36.80 (reduced from £46), John Lewis; Augustinus Bader The Tinted Balm in 3, £33, Space NK

Blush plus glow

As Bobbi Brown points out, “if you even out your skin with any kind of base you need to put a little bit of colour back”. Her second point is that a small amount of shine is essential to give life to an older face and her third is that the cheeks are really the only place for any kind of shine at all, so a creamy, slightly reflective blush makes sense in every way, especially as dry skin can’t cope with anything powdery.

I adore Brown’s Jones Road Miracle Balm, as do so many midlife women I know. It’s a sheer, glossy tint that can be worn as a highlight or blush, depending on the shade you choose, though Pinky Bronze suits almost everyone, says Brown.

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As for where, Brown is a fan of a pinched cheeks placement on the apples. But I wear mine higher up at the tops of my cheekbones for a lifted look, while Gucci Westman has been applying her Baby Cheeks blush “closer under my eyes and near my nose, concealing any redness first, then adding colour back intentionally”.

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Miracle Balm in Pinky Bronze, £36, Jones Road; Soft Pinch Liquid Blush, £24, Rare Beauty; Westman Atelier Baby Cheeks Blush Stick, £44, Cult Beauty

Less lash

As makeup artist Victoria Bond points out, we “lose” our eyes as we get older. Unhelpfully, nothing looks less flattering than a voluptuous, doll-like lash on an older face, so an unbulky mascara is important: Victoria Beckham’s debut formulation (Future Lash; the one in the black tube, not the white) and Glossier Lash Slick are elegant and smudge-proof.

I am also devoted to Lashify’s DIY lash extensions. With a couple of clusters at the corners I can often skip any kind of eye makeup altogether. They’re so good at defining and lifting (though I would be remiss not to mention Bond’s brilliant tip of Sweed Satin Eyeliner in Mink Greige, for a something-and-nothing flick of colour).

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Future Lash Mascara, £32, Victoria Beckham; Lash Slick, £20, Glossier

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Control Kit, from £110, Lashify; Satin Eyeliner, £21, Sweed

Powder, but less of it

Most women, says Bobbi Brown, need a touch of powder “on their forehead, around their nose and under their eyes”, but for me that’s where it ends, since nothing looks less flattering than an excess of this. And actually, since I swapped my dewy tinted moisturisers for a slightly mattifying primer and concealer, I have less shine to cut.

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Every makeup artist I’ve ever known ensures precision application with a much smaller brush than you might think (think eyeshadow-sized), and as with everything in makeup, modern formulations are so much less cakey and more hydrating than they once were (Gucci Westman even calls her powder “pressed skincare”). So do use it but do use less.

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Westman Atelier Vital Pressed Skincare Powder, £69, Space NK; Skin Finish, £22, Refy; Rose Silk Finishing Powder, £23.40 (reduced from £39), Jurlique

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The make-up you should ditch at 50 (and what to wear instead) (2024)
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