Where does one start when it comes to makeup for mature skin? What are some common mistakes you see people making?
First, the skin texture starts to change as we age. When I was creating my line, Sonia Roselli Beauty, I thought a lot about skin prep. I remembered that when I was applying makeup, if I would do a facial beforehand, the makeup would look so much better on skin of all ages, but especially on mature skin.
As we age, our skin starts to look more sallow, it’s more dry and dehydrated. Makeup is a play on light. It’s how light reads on the face. When your skin is hydrated and plump, it reflects light differently. I don’t have time to do facials on people these days, but little things like exfoliating can really help your makeup lay better and you can get a truer color read on the skin. The first product we launched was the sexApeel Instant Exfoliation Spray because I really believed that this would help people so much, especially for mature skin.
This goes back to the biggest mistakes I see people making. They’re not prepping their skin . They might be using a primer, but that really just makes your foundation slide everywhere! Plus, I see a lot of people choosing the wrong foundation formula for their skin. They might watch YouTube and the latest influencer is talking about this foundation and so they buy it, but they’re unimpressed with it… because the texture isn’t right for them. For example, a super matte texture isn’t good for mature skin that’s dry and dehydrated.
One of the first things we bonded over was that damer från Polen we both love to actually look at our clients for a few minutes before we get started painting the face
Want to get more information about the different skin types and how to take care of them? Download my free Skin Type guide below!
#3 Mature Skin Techniques
When you paint the skin the way you see it being done on Instagram, it really can age someone. It can look very harsh. There’s so much science that goes into makeup artistry, from color theory to placement and one of the bad things about social media is that we’re putting people into these cookie cutter look, and that takes all of the fun out of makeup artistry.
Vivian Baker is an Oscar-winning makeup artist and one of my good friends. We figure out their best features and then we create something in our head that’s uniquely them.
Following a formula really is the death of creativity as a makeup artist. When people are looking at makeup on a model, they’re not really looking at the makeup… they’re looking at the person wearing the makeup. That person is beautiful. You could put mascara on them and you’d still want that look.
Behance is one of my favorite sites to go to and see the work of makeup artists who might be too busy working to be all over social media. Train your eye to see different things. When you’re thinking about mature makeup, think about Jane Fonda, Helen Mirren, and even Jennifer Aniston and see how they do it.
If you do makeup on people over the age of 40, and you do those heavy makeup looks, they’re going to look 20 years older. Makeup artistry is how you make people feel, and if someone were to do that to me, it would make me feel like I can’t wear makeup like I used to.