Ready For My Closeup

One of the many things I appreciate about retirement is not having to wear makeup every day. I went from a full face – foundation, concealer, blush, eyeshadow, mascara and lipstick, to being fresh faced; at least as fresh faced as a 55 year old could be. Moisturizer, lip balm and maybe some mascara was the new regime. As the years passed and the inevitable wrinkles, age spots and disappearing eyelashes became more noticeable, I decided maybe there was something to be said for a bit of help, just to freshen the look. Nothing drastic or permanent, me but just a little brighter.

Things Have Definitely Changed

Of course I needed new products for this quest and, after visiting a Sephora store and being completely overwhelmed by the array on offer, I clearly needed a new strategy. Enter Instagram which introduced me to a whole new world that included, eyebrow lamination (I’m still not sure what this is), baking on your makeup, and a seemingly endless number of “anti-aging” products that were new to me.

I consider myself a pretty savvy consumer but sadly there were more times than I’d care to admit along this journey that I got taken in by slick ads and unrealistic promises. In my defence, who doesn’t want “botox in a bottle” or wrinkles that disappear overnight? Thankfully I have found a new routine and products that I am happy with, but there were definitely some bumps in the road…

The Lips Have It

After watching 12 step, ten product YouTube makeup tutorials, I decided it would be wise to start small and so my first foray was into a lip plumping lipstick. The ads promised plump lips with just one application, which I knew deep down was pretty impossible. But I took the leap anyway and ended up with a massive reaction that did give me plump lips but not the kind I was after. Not to be deterred, I came across a lipstick that promised hydrating shine and recommended a color they said was perfect for every lip tone… You guessed it – another miss. Suffice to say the color was not perfect and my lips were not hydrated or shiny. And so it was back to my Blistex lip balm.

Maybe The Eyes Have It?

I always considered my long full eyelashes to be one of my best features. But with aging they became quite sparse and short. When I came across tubing mascara I thought this might be a solution for me but when I saw the price tag it was a hard NO, so back to my old reliable Covergirl mascara. As the eyelashes went so too the eyebrows. Apparently shorter eyebrows are another aging surprise. Enter eyebrow gel which seemed like the perfect solution but after multiple tries and ending up looking like I had two caterpillars on my eyebrows, I gave up. I’m definitely no Brooke Shields. Fortunately no pictures of this debacle exist.

Shine Bright Like a Diamond

Not to be deterred by my previous failures, I decided to try and find a good foundation. In the over 60 crowd, hydrating products that brighten and give you a “glow up” seemed to be the trend and sounded good to me. After “doing my research” (scrolling Instagram) I came across a product that promised to give a natural glow and that no makeup look – exactly what I was looking for. But it was not to be. The best way I can describe how it looked was that I was sweating profusely all over my face. When I had the bright idea to dust on some powder to try and tone down the shine, I was left with a gloopy mess.

Everything Old Is New Again

After all these fails, I decided why reinvent the wheel? So it was back to some of my tried and true products and a simplified version of what I used to do – just tinted moisturizer, blush, lipstick and little bit of mascara. I’m pretty happy with the results. What do you think?