|| 30 January 2022

Eye Makeup Tricks for Certain Age

Once, when I was in my late 40s, I was in conversation with a woman of impeccable chic in her early 70s. The one exception to her head-to-toe chic I noticed was her eye makeup. She looked as if she had black rick rack on her upper eyelid and her eye shadow extended out onto her face.

Oh dear, I thought. Did that mean when I was her age, would have all over the place eye shadow and that I would have to choose between no eyeliner and a messy, zigzagged line? I need my eyeliner. I have small eyes, and without eyeliner, I look squinty-eyed and shifty.

Unfortunately, as we age, like other parts of us, our eyelids are often not as taut as they were when we were younger. This looser skin makes it more difficult to apply eye makeup precisely. What to do?

Never fear. Our Chic & Slim Special Correspondent Kat to the rescue with some eye makeup advice.

Kat wrote:

I recently came across a trick for applying eyeshadow, which can be difficult on certain age eyes. When doing the top lid, look up into a mirror (what I do is tilt the mirror) so you see the whole lid, without any crease, or hooding.

To line or shadow lower lid, look down (again, I tilt the mirror). It really does make things easier, and the result is always cleaner and more precise. Works with powders or creams.

She continued:

Our upper lids have a tendency to develop a hood as we age, which makes shadow and liner tricky to place, because the upper lash line is pretty much invisible.

I thought it might be useful to illustrate the mirror positions. Mine sits on the bedroom window sill, and is just about at eye level. Photo 1 (below) shows the mirror positioned straight on (as one would normally have it when making up).

Photo 2 (below) shows the approximate tilt for doing the upper lid.

 

Photo 3 (below) shows the position for the lower lid.

 

Either position 1 or 2 works for mascara. It’s a matter of preference. Obviously, one has to fiddle around to get the angle right, but the important thing is to have the whole of the upper lid visible, without any folds or pouches!

Merci to Kat for sharing this certain age eye makeup advice — and for supplying the accompanying photos.