Find your skin tone.
Everyone, regardless of ethnic background and skin colour, has one of two skin undertones. You will fit into either the warm skin toned family or the cool skin toned family.
Warm toned skin has a yellowish look and a golden caste to it.
Cool toned skin has a blue look and a pink caste to it.
When you are buying make-up you can avoid costly mistakes when you know your skin tone.

Here is a simple test to establish your skin tone:
Place a silver bracelet on one of your wrists and put a gold bracelet on the other. Disregard any personal preference you may have to gold or silver and study the effect each metal has against your skin.
Answer honestly which looks best?
If it is the silver bracelet then you are cool toned.
If the gold bracelet looks better then your skin is warm toned.


What comes next?
Colouring in! We tend to fall into a make-up routine and stick with it. Many of us have applied our make-up the same way since we were teenagers – cleanse, tone and nourish (on a good day!), slap on a layer of foundation, swipe on a bit of blusher, swish a few strokes of deep black mascara onto the eyelashes, maybe draw a nice thick line of eyeliner, dab on some lipstick and hey presto, you’re good to go!
Well, no, you are not good to go!
We haven’t actually finished with primer yet, other primers are available to help us to get gorgeous!
Eye shadow primer – with the texture of velvet. It comes in a flesh coloured liquid and covers all those little veins, blotches or redness’s on the eyelids. A dab of eye shadow primer on the upper eyelid can smooth and fill fine lines, creating an evenly coloured neutral base for your eye shadow to glide over and cling toall day. Camouflage cream works just as well if you don’t have a designated eye shadow primer immediately available.
Mascara primer is a must-have product to help thicken the eyelashes. Essentially it is a clear, conditioning undercoat applied prior to mascara. Every little bit of help counts when it comes to fattening the eyelashes!
Lip primers tend to dehydrate the lips. An alternative is a little camouflage cream pressed around your lip line prior to applying lipstick or gloss. Set this with a light coverage of translucent powder.



The eyes have ‘It’
We’ve all seen glossy advertisements featuring young poodle-haired models with thick feathery eyelashes weighed down with white mascara rimmed with creative slicks of shimmering crystals and we think ‘Wow!’



And it is wow. But it’s not wow for us!



Pared down eye make-up works best for us fabulous people in our summer years! Our make-up is most flattering and youthful when it’s present but not overpowering. The newer look is soft, subtle, luminous and pretty.
So, sadly the time has come to jettison those wild colours you’ve hoarded in the depths of the cosmetics drawer in the hope that they’ll come back into fashion! Anything deep purple, emerald and sapphire or metallic has to go, (along with the hot pinks!).



The Golden Rules of Eye Make-up

• If you wore it the first time around; you’re too old to wear it the second time around. (This applies to clothes as well!).




• Don’t match your make-up to your clothing. Ever. The progressive way is to tone your make-up to complement your clothing. Matchy-matchy makes you look oldie-oldie.




• If you are in doubt about eye shadow colours go neutral or light.




• Make yourself a promise that no glittery, sparkly, pearly, frosted, candy coloured or glassy looking eye shadow will ever touch your eyelids again. As gorgeous as these finishes are, they do not enhance or flatter eyes that are looking at the summer of their life.




• A little sheen is fantastic. Light bounces off the soft-focus pigments in the product and provides a touch of dewy freshness.




• Apply a dab of eye primer to cover tiny veins, blotches, redness or discoloration and to blend the skin tone on the eyelids before smoothing over the eye shadow.




• Powder eye shadow is the more current product. Creamy eye shadow settles into the eye creases, slips off the eyelids and does not provide the same longevity that powder eye shadow will give you.
  

Things worth noting about eye shadow:

• Loose powder shadow such as mineral eye shadow can be difficult to control when applied with a brush as it has a tendency to scatter and flick all over the place. It behaves better when applied with a foam-tipped applicator.




• A pan of compacted matte textured powder shadow applied with an eye shadow brush or a foam-tipped applicator is a better choice than loose powder shadow.




• Powder shadow that is too matte will give your eyes a dry, chalky, lifeless look. Use power eye shadow containing a little sheen (sometimes known as ‘silk’).




• Three stripes of eye shadow swept horizontally across the eyelid is an old-fashioned look. We left the rainbow behind in the eighties.




• Matching your eye shadow with your eye colour is out-dated and not particularly successful. The colour of the iris plays a very small part in the overall face and hair colour scheme.




• Blusher used as eye shadow makes the eyes look squinty and bloodshot. Blusher formulas contain too much red pigment to make a successful transition to eye shadow.




• A streak of stark white shimmery eye shadow swooping across the bone beneath eyebrow is very dated, very drag queen.

Shadowing your gorgeous eyes:
Smooth silky eye primer over your eyelids to camouflage imperfections and prevent your eye shadow from sliding off.

Blend two neutral coloured eye shadows onto the eyelid. Use colours that complement each other, your skin tone, eye colour and your hair colour. Many cosmetic houses offer multi-coloured eye shadow pallets that have been carefully harmonized and colour blended by professional colourists.

Use a broad soft eye shadow brush or a good quality foam-tipped eye shadow applicator to cover the eyelids entirely from the roots of the eyelashes to the bottom of the eye brows with pale neutral coloured matte eye shadow.

Both warm and cool skin tones benefit from neutral coloured eye shadow containing a little warmth. Beige, taupe, pale peach, ivory or vanilla are useful neutral colour names. Chose a colour that is close to the skin colour on your eyelids.

Translucent or opalescent whites look ghostly and do not cover imperfections.

Apply a second, darker shade to the crease of your eyelids from the inner corner to the outer corner with an eye shadow brush. The darker colour gives depth and definition, and contours your eyes.
Smudge the edges of the second colour (the darker contour shade) to blend subtle shadows into the base colour with a designated eye shadow contouring brush or use the edge of an eye shadow foam applicator.

A quick brown word
Do you prefer to wear neutral-looking eye make-up? Many women do as brown shades look good on everyone regardless of their eye colour and skin tone. There are more brown-toned, brown based eye shadows on the market than any other colour.
Brown eye shadow is useful to contour the eyelid creases over a base coat of light pink-toned eye shadow.
If your eyes are green or hazel apply contour shades in brown-khaki, brown-gold or bronze-green to complement but not match your eye colour.
If you have blue eyes nearly all the browns will enhance your eyes. Try beige-pink eye base shadow and contour with one of the lighter browns such as taupe or medium brown-grey.
If you have brown eyes try the darker brown eye shadow pallets such as charcoal, chocolate and red-brown (mahogany) for a smoky look. Gold and tan shadows are great natural-looking contour colours, beige is always a great base colour.

Eye Liner
Do you remember your first bottle of eyeliner? I so remember mine. It came with a brush attached to the inside of the lid. The idea was to paint the shiny black liquid in a thick line close to the upper eyelashes where it was supposed to gleam all day and peel off in one strip at night. By lunchtime most days it had flaked; and by evening when I caught the bus home my creation, so artful in the morning, had disintegrated to a few shreds dangling in my eyelashes.
I persevered until the family cat leapt through the bathroom window and sent the bottle crashing to the floor, ending my Hollywood aspirations! Probably not a bad thing!

Today’s most flattering eyeliner comes in a soft, beautifully colour pencil that has a melting texture enabling the colour to glide across the eyelids. The edges are then gently smudged into the base eye shadow already in place to give a subtle natural look.
The goal is to draw a thin line as close as possible to the eyelashes so it appears you aren’t wearing any eyeliner and your lash line is naturally dark and lush. Jet black pencils make mature eyes look small and severe; softer colours such as black-violet, black-gold, deep brown or smudge-black are more flattering alternatives.
The trick is to have a steady hand, a sharp pencil and a magnifying mirror. If the pencil is blunt and too rounded the resulting line will be thick and dated. You don’t need me to remind you why the magnifying mirror is a necessity!
When you’ve drawn a thin line, smudge the edges into your base coat of eye shadow with a smudging brush, a cotton tip or the edge of a foam tip eye shadow applicator for a soft and natural look.

How to draw the line
An eyeliner pencil that can be sharpened with a pencil sharpener will always provide a good pointy tip to work with. An automatic wind-up eyeliner pencil that winds the product out of a tube never seems sharp enough.Make-up pencil sharpeners are useful to sharpen lip liner pencils and eyebrow pencils too of course!
Start in the middle of the upper lid and draw tiny soft strokes close to the eyelash roots to create a fine line from the middle of your eyelid to the outer corner. If you find your little short strokes waver all over the place, draw tiny dots close together. Some make-up artists recommend drawing the line from the outer corner inwards but it is difficult to do this yourself.
Return to the middle (where you began) and use just a few fine strokes to extend the line in the other direction, towards the inner edge of the iris. It is best to stop there, if you go all the way to the inside corner you’ll make your eye look smaller.

Here’s a trick for eyelids that are starting to look droopy:
Go to the middle of your eyelid and draw another fine line above the one you’ve already drawn close to your lashes, from the middle to the outer corner. This creates an optical illusion making the eyes look lifted. The idea is to keep the emphasis and colour close to the iris and not focus attention on the eyelid.

If the under-eye can stand the attention (that is if you do not have puffiness, dark circles or bags beneath your eyes) draw a very fine line in among the lashes from the inner iris to the outer corner.
There’s no law that says you have to use the same colour you used on your upper lids. Have a go with a brighter, lighter or totally different coloured pencil and see how you like the result.

A hint of colour will make your eyes pop:
If your eyes are green or hazel try forest green, minted green, black-violet, black- gold or chocolate eyeliner pencil.
Blue eyes look great with charcoal, navy, dark purple or dark brown eyeliner pencils or kohl.
Brown eyes are enhanced by smudge black, chocolate brown, eggplant and navy eyeliner pencils.
Always smudge and blend your eyeliners.
A pearly white, ivory, beige or icy pink coloured pencil used on the inside rim of the lower lashes will ‘open up the eyes’.


None of the following are a good look:

• A full circle of eyeliner around the eyes – too heavy.




• Extended cats-eye tails – unless you are Paris Hilton.




• Dark pencil lining the inside rim of the lower lashes visually closes the eyes and makes them look smaller. So eighties! Use a translucent white pencil on the lower rim to open the eyes up.




• More make-up applied below the eyes than applied above them.




• Bleary eyes and red eyes – along with our teeth and nails, the whites of our eyes lose their brightness and can appear cream or ivory as we age. The tiny red veins within the whites of the eyes can ‘pop’, giving a red-eyed appearance. Use eye drops to regain youthful sparkle.

Luxurious Lashes
Picking your way through the myriad of mascaras on the market to find the one for you is daunting to say the least.
Amazing mascaras claiming to add volume, length, fatness, curl or texture to your natural eyelashes are available at every price point plus there is an overwhelming choice of colours!
Well, forget the colours. Cobalt blue, aquamarine, magenta and violet mascaras look fantastic on the stage, on teenage girls, and in the Mardi-Gras. Leave them there!
The ideal mascara colour for most women in their summer years is black. Why? Because it subtly defines the eyes and looks natural (have you ever seen anyone with naturally green eyelashes? I don’t think so!). If black is really not your thing, deep navy helps the whites of your eyes appear whiter and brighter.
If you are fair and black mascara is a little too harsh for your colouring try dark brown mascara.
We want our mascara to give our eyelashes length and volume. We’re after a sultry frame of long thick eye lashes to flatter us, to make us look youthful and to make us look awake! What we don’t want is a sad fringe of dated brittle-fibred clumps.
So, to get gorgeous eyelashes make your choices and follow the directions!

Make-up artists advocate curling the eyelashes prior to applying mascara. Curled lashes open up the eyes. Mini eyelash curlers are manageable by everyone.

• It is a very bad idea to heat eyelash curlers with a hair dryer; it’s dangerous to have hot metal so close to the eye area.


• Curl your eyelashes before you apply primer or mascara, eyelashes are prone to breaking if mascara is applied first and then an eyelash curler is used. Can you afford to lose even one eyelash?
  

Mascara primer is an essential to visually thicken skimpy thin eyelashes. There are many brands on the market, look for one containing a built-in lash-hair conditioner designed to prepare the lashes for mascara to follow. Primer thickens and lengthens the eyelashes and provides a base for mascara to glide over. Unlike the rest of the body, we want the eyelashes to appear fat, so mascara primer is one of the few must-haves in this book!

Have you hung onto a faithful old tube of mascara that has seen better days but can’t let it go because you just know there is still some mascara left inside?
Do you run the tube under the hot tap or soak it in a cup of boiling water for a few moments to loosen the mascara clinging to the insides?
Did you know that a well maintained tube of mascara has an average life of about four months before it starts to ‘go off’?
One of the reasons mascara clings to the inside of the tube is that the formula has thickened and become sticky from being pumped. We all do it, move the wand in and out of the tube in an attempt to rid the brush of excess product or to pick up more mascara on the brush. But pumping also introduces air into the tube, dries out the product inside and makes it lumpy, bumpy and clumpy. Stop pumping!

• Begin mascara application strokes at the base (roots) of your eye lashes. Many of us have slipped into the habit of applying mascara from half way up our lashes, or just to the tips of our eyelashes.


• Fully cover every single lash from the base to the tip.


• Wiggle the brush around the base of the eyelashes and gradually draw it to the tips to visually open up the eyes. Apply as many coats as you like although usually just a couple are enough. Application to the upper eyelashes is more manageable if you tilt your head back slightly and look along your nose into the mirror.


• It is just as important to apply mascara to the bottom lashes as it is to apply mascara to the top lashes to complete a full frame for the eyes.


• Application to the bottom lashes is easier when you tilt your head down and look up into the mirror. The late Princess of Wales perfected this head down, eyes up, beguiling look that’s ideal for bottom lash mascara application.


• If mascara smudges from the eyelashes onto the eye area, allow it to dry and then tip-sponge the smudge with a cotton bud or an eye shadow foam applicator dipped in a little skin toner.


• Water resistant mascara is easy to remove with cleansing creams or make-up remover pads.


• Waterproof mascara which is exactly that - water proof. Use oil-based eye make-up remover to remove Waterproof mascara.


• Cosmetic houses constantly reinvent mascara with fat brushes and thin brushes, long wands and short wands, and formulas to volumize, lengthen, separate, curl, thicken or fatten your eyelashes. Look for the magic words – “thicken” or “fatten” when you are buying mascara!
  

Eyelash tinting
Perhaps the spiky look of mascara is not for you? Do you prefer a silky, natural look but feel your eyelash colour is too light?
Many beauticians and hairdressers provide eyelash tinting services at a reasonable cost.
Do-it-yourself eyelash tinting kits are available from mass retailers, but tinting formulas can irritate the eyes so it really is a treatment best left to the professionals who know what they are doing.

Faking it
False eyelashes are fabulous! They are fabulous for filling in gaps where the natural eyelashes have fallen out, fabulous to ramp up the ante from au naturel to outrageously glamorous; and fabulous to bring sexy drama to the eyes!
Contrary to popular perception, false eyelashes are not the domain of the young and the beautiful! There is no reason why mature women shouldn’t wear them.
Eyelashes with names like “Von Teese, Marilyn and Miss Flirty” are designed for everybody! Some false eyelashes such as the heavy, sultry, ultra thick lashes with diamonds and jewels along the lash line are like coloured mascara and best left in the Mardi-Gras.
Individual fake lashes look youthful. They come in clusters of about ten lashes or on a strip that you can trim to your own requirements.

Individual lashes are easy to apply. All you do is take a cluster from the pack with tweezers and dip the end into a tiny blob of eyelash grip then glue it in among your own eyelashes. If you’re concerned the individual lashes can be detected as fake, just trim them to the length of your own lashes and no one will be any the wiser.
Add a few clusters to the outer corner of your eyes, about five clusters per eye are generally enough. Brush mascara over to meld the fake lashes with your own lashes.
To remove the fake eyelashes moisten the base with glue remover and simply peel them off and put them back into the box they came in and then remove your eye make-up as usual. Most faux eyelashes can be re-used around ten times before they become too tatty to wear.

Luscious lips
Lipstick is the cosmetic to transform your mood and express your personality. Studies have found that lipstick sales increase in times of financial stress when women struggle to find ways to reassure themselves that luxury is still within their reach.

The power of pink
Light, luminous, hydrating, clever, natural, gorgeous, kissable pink lipstick is
the only colour to wear!
The correct pink brings light and luminosity to your mouth and gives the illusion of a glowing youthful complexion and young white teeth.
Cosmetic houses update their lipstick ranges seasonally. Not all the new colours are appropriate for the mature woman – wild purple and deep scarlet won’t work, but any light and pretty shimmery shades are absolutely spot on for us.
The ideal lipstick has a velvety texture, and contains a hint of shimmer in a pink slightly lighter (one shade lighter) than your natural lip colour.
These are dozens of pink shades waiting for you to try at the lipstick counters. The most youthful and chic lipsticks are sheer and pretty, or shimmery or glossy.
If your skin tone is warm steer away from icy pinks. Wear lipsticks containing a dash of peach, apricot, gold shimmer or a hint of spice.
If your skin tone is cool then icy pinks are great for you, or try pinks containing hints of blue or silver/crystal shimmer. Keep away from lipsticks containing a lot of gold, yellow or warm colours (corals and browns).

Another quick brown word - about lipsticks
Brown coloured lipsticks are always included in lipstick ranges. Unlike brown eye shadow, brown lipsticks are best approached with extreme caution! Many look natural and pretty in the tube and have shimmery textures and pink-sounding names such as ‘Tea Rose’.

Unfortunately brown pigment blends quickly into mature lips, bleeds into any fine lines or cracks around the mouth and needs constant re-touch attention because it becomes invisible making you look as though you’ve forgotten to put your lipstick on.

Brown lipstick shades are seldom flattering.
Pink is our very best lipstick friend!

Little lippy things for you to know:

• Even if they haven’t worn a skerrick of make-up for years, most women have worn lipstick at some stage.


• The average shelf life of a tube of lipstick is about four years after which it can start to shrivel up, separate, break down or become rancid.


• Light, glossy pink lipstick suits everyone; it is just a matter of finding the correct mix of warm or cool pinks for you.


• Dark coloured lipstick is a red flag of old age. It makes the lips look thin and mean. It’s a look that does no favours to mature lips that have started to lose collagen. Go pink!


• Dark coloured lip liner filled in with light lipstick (or not filled in at all) was done to death in the eighties. Use a natural pink coloured lip liner and fill in with a gorgeous feminine pink lipstick.


• Pink lipstick that’s too dark may bleed into any fine lines around your lips.


• Pale pink lipstick can make you look washed out. The right pink visually plumps up your lips.


• Mauve lipstick makes us look old, sick and sad.


• Orange lipstick makes us look as though we’re trapped in a time warp.


• Nude lipstick is never flattering; wear clear glassy lip gloss instead.


• Ditch purple, burgundy, crimson, mahogany or any other deep, horrid colours and throw away the matching lip liners while you’re at it!


• Texture is important. Frosty and opaque lipsticks are outdated, metallic textures weigh heavy on mature lips, and matte lipsticks are dull and flat because they don’t contain light reflectiing ingredients. Audit your make-up drawer and re-stock with light glossy pink replacements.


• Lipstick lasts longer on the lips than lip gloss but why not use both? Apply lipstick to the lips and slick gloss on the top to give the appearance of full lush lips.


• Shimmery, shiny, sheer, creamy or glossy are sophisticated elegant lipstick textures that enhance youthfulness and bring luminosity to the complexion.
  

Lip enhancers
Lip enhancers temporarily plump up thin lips. Any other way to pump up the lips for more than a few hours will involve collagen filler injections or collagen regeneration laser sessions, both of which need to be done by accredited specialists who will relieve you of considerable amounts of money - especially for the latter which is also painful.

• Massaging your lips with your fingers or an old toothbrush irritates them and inflates them for a while.


• Some lip glosses contain lip enhancing ingredients such as cinnamon. You’ll know when a lip gloss contains enhancers – it makes your lips tingle.


• The illusion of a full, plump pout is best obtained with the use of glossy pink lipstick, a lip liner to match the natural lip colour and a tube of pink lip gloss. Apply the lip liner, fill in with the lipstick, blot the lipstick on a tissue and apply another coat, then top with the lip gloss.


• Lips look bigger when lines are drawn slightly above and slightly below only the middle (the cupids bow) of your lips and not the entire outline.
  

Long-lasting lip stains are available from some cosmetic companies. The stain is brushed onto the lips and then topped with a coat of glossy lip shine. A steady hand is needed to apply the stain because the formula is usually thin and watery. It takes a few moments to dry during which time the stain can travel or bleed into any feathery lines surrounding the lips. And there it will stay; drawing attention to those lines and no amount of scrubbing will remove it.

Lipstick is always a more flattering alternative.

Ruby red lips

• Attention grabbing and dramatic red lipstick is sometimes considered the epitome of glamour.


• Red lipstick is the most difficult colour to pull off – unless you are Dita von Teese.


• Red lipstick was last fashionable in Europe, in the 1980’s.


• Red lipstick looks absolutely amazing on celebrities in photographs taken in controlled conditions.


• Red lipstick in the light of day looks crap on nearly everyone else; especially the woman who has left her thirties.


• If you have a burning desire to wear red lipstick experiment with light, sheer shades and textures or wear translucent red lip gloss.

Fast track to fabulous lips

Ready!
The first thing when applying any make-up is to ensure the surface is exfoliated and moisturised. Lips are no different. Include your lips when you’re exfoliating your face. Gently rub the exfoliant product over your lips to remove any flaky, peeling or cracked skin. Wash the exfoliant off and moisturise your lips with a lip balm such as Blistex or Chapstick or your usual nourishing moisturiser.

Steady!
Concealer or camouflage helps prevent lipstick from bleeding into feathery lines around the mouth. Blend a little around the edges of your lips to fill in the lines and provide a barrier.
Lip liner gives the illusion of fuller lips. Quite honestly, the older we get, the more help we need to keep our lips on the front of the face (as opposed to disappearing into the mouth!
Lip liner when skilfully applied makes the lips look well formed and full.
Your lip liner should be the same colour as your lips, or a little lighter, but never darker.
Nude-sounding names are often a useful guide to lip liner and lip pencil colours. Mature lips have usually lost a little colour so the products we use on them - lipsticks and lip liners- need to be lighter than the products we wore ten years ago.
It’s important to use a lip-liner because no one has a perfectly symmetrical mouth - have a close look at the mouth next time you see a photo of your favourite celebrity!
A dark line drawn around the lips with a half-used-up almost forgotten deep plum coloured lip liner you rescued from the back of your make-up drawer makes you look like a cast member of the Addams Family!
Use a sharp lip liner pencil or lip liner crayon to outline the natural outer edges of your lips and to correct any naturally smudged or wobbly lip lines – that’s what lip liner is for!
Fill in the upper and lower lips by bringing a few strokes of lip liner pencil across the cupids bow on the upper lip and the fuller part on the lower lip. This provides a key for the lipstick and if it slides off during the day at least you’ll have some colour and defining lines left from the lip liner.
Lip liner pencils (encased in wood) last longer than lip liner crayons (the thin stick of product you wind up out of a cylinder).

Go!
Apply lipstick or lip gloss or both. Lipstick lasts longer when it’s applied, blotted with a tissue to absorb any excess oils in the lipstick and then re-applied.
Models use a trick to shine under the spotlights by applying a dab of lip gloss to the upper bows and the lower fullness of the lips. A more manageable way is to cover the entire lips with a coat of lip gloss.

The Toolbox
A set of make-up brushes made from soft natural bristles is a lifetime investment. Brushes distribute product more evenly than hard-pressed cotton buds or foam applicators and there are brushes designed for every cosmetic application.
Start your brush collection with a broad rounded soft-haired eye shadow base brush. A lipstick brush is another useful investment to collect the product from the base of the lipstick barrel.

• Add brushes to your collection as and when you can. Make-up brushes are great gift suggestions!


• Wash your brushes regularly with liquid soap or shampoo and allow them to dry naturally.


• Wipe brushes with a tissue after using to get rid of gunk and any dust and bacteria.


• Variety stores sell individual brushes at reasonable prices, or wait for the sales. Cosmetic companies sometimes offer reduced price brush sets during promotions when new products are launched or as complementary companions to other products.


• Hard-pressed cotton buds are useful disposable tools for blending eye shadow and smudging eyeliner. They are ideal for dabbing camouflage and concealer over blemishes and a cotton bud dipped in a little toner will correct any eyeliner, eye shadow or mascara smudges.


• Foam applicators are handy little semi-disposable tools. They come in packs of at least 10 and can be washed with liquid soap, squeezed out, left to dry and re-used several times.


• Store make-up brushes, pencils, mascara and long tubes of make-up upright in an old coffee mug in your bathroom drawer.


• Store lipsticks with the shade and brand information facing up in an old plastic tub or plastic aerosol cover (if you can find one!).
  

Good to Go!
Now you are almost good to go. Follow this step by step guide to a professional looking make-up.

• Step 1 Skin
  Apply foundation primer all over your face, including the eyelids and the area below the eyes.
  Follow with foundation. Warm a small amount on the back of one hand; use the other hand to smooth it evenly over the primer and into your jaw line.


• Using the pads of your ring fingers, gently smooth concealer onto the under-eye area and blend the edges into your foundation. Smooth a little concealer around your lips to fill in fine lines and provide a base for lipstick.


• Shake a little brightening powder into the lid of the container. Use a medium flat brush to pick up a dab and then flat-press it under the eye area on top of the concealer to lighten and brighten the eyes.


• Take a thin-tipped brush and lightly apply camouflage where you need it – to cover any redness around the nose, blotches, sunspots, freckles, scars or whatever. Blend the edges into the surrounding foundation.


• Shake a little translucent powder into the lid of the container and use a velour powder puff rolled around your middle finger (like a taco) to transfer the powder onto the puff. Rub the puff against the back of the other hand to work the powder into the puff and then roll and lift it over the foundation on your face.
  

Step 2 Eyes

• Apply a small dab of eye shadow primer to the upper eyelids. Use the pads of your ring fingers to blend and smooth it from the roots of your eyelashes to the eyebrows to form an even base for the eye shadow to follow.


• Use a broad, fat brush to apply eye shadow base all over the upper eyelid from the eyelashes to the eyebrows. Blend the base into the foundation around the bridge of your nose, and into the outer corners of the eye area.


• Draw short light strokes or tiny dots next to each other as close as possible to the roots of the upper eyelashes with eyeliner pencil. Smudge the edges with an eye shadow applicator or cotton tip so it blends into the base eye shadow colour. Apply a very thin line in amongst the roots of the lower eyelashes, then blend and smudge it.


• Take a second eye shadow colour and brush into the eye creases to highlight the contours.
  Tilt your head back and looking down your nose à la Marilyn Monroe, apply a coat of mascara primer to your top eye lashes.


• Now, doing your best Princess Diana imitation, lower your head and look up into the mirror to apply the mascara primer to the lower eye lashes.
  Repeat the performance with a coat or two of mascara over the top.
  

Step 3 - Eyebrows

• Brush or pencil your eyebrows with short strokes to give them depth.
  

Step 4 Blusher

• Gently blend blusher into the apples of your cheeks and smooth the edges into the surrounding foundation. Dab any extra off with a dry tissue.
  

Step 5 Lip liner and Lipstick

• Using small strokes, apply lip liner where it’s needed on the outer lips. Draw a few extra strokes on the fleshy part of your lips to blend the lip liner and the lipstick that follows.


• Slick on lipstick or lip gloss.
  

Eye brows
Full-looking eyebrows are a sign that you are still very much in the game, but getting them right is one of the trickiest things we ever do! Perfect brows don’t stand out and they don’t call attention, they are refined, sophisticated and the shape remains the same. We notice eyebrows that are badly shaped or in poor condition. There’s nothing flattering or attractive about untidy, bushy, shapeless, thin, pencilled-in or grey eyebrows!
Eyebrow shapes and thicknesses go in and out of fashion and are best left to models to play around with. Eyebrows are not made to be thickened and thinned at fashion’s whim. They take forever to grow back, unfortunately by this point in our lives most of us are stuck with the eyebrow hair we’ve got and can’t grow them another way anyhow!
Well defined, groomed brows and clean arches flatter the face.
No doubt at some stage you’ve come across the confusing pencil trick to determine the brow arch. You know the one –you place a pencil along the outside of the nose to the forehead and establish where it intersects with the eyebrow at each end and that’s where the eyebrows should begin and finish. The problem is that as clever as this trick may be, it doesn’t allow for puffiness, a little extra face padding, or the size or shape of the eyes. And then you have to work out the shape…

Wow-brows
The smart ways to shape your brows are to have them done by a brow professional, or to use an eyebrow stencil kit to shape them yourself. These little gems are easy to use:
Select the stencil that’s the nearest match to your real eyebrow shape and line it up on your brow. Then either cover the hair within the stencil with wax or colour it with a pencil, remove the stencil and pluck away any hair that was out of the stencil (the hair that’s not waxed or coloured) and sabotaging your perfect eyebrow shape. Flip the stencil over and attend to your other brow. When you’ve finished plucking remove the wax and reveal your clean new eyebrow shape.
It’s an old wives tale that you should never pluck any hair above the brow. If hair above your brow is wrecking the shape, tweeze it. Your face won’t fall off!

Alternatively visit a brow expert to have your eyebrows professionally shaped. Brow experts use different hair removal methods – tweezing, waxing, and some may use threading – a quick technique to remove hair by pulling it out with twisted cotton threads.
If you decide threading is for you, discuss the eyebrow shape that will best suit your face shape and your eye shape with the technician. Ensure the technician knows is proficient; eyebrow threading is seldom a temporary eyebrow solution! I had my eyebrows threaded when I was in my late twenties and the hair has never grown back.
Waxing can damage the delicate skin above the eyes, but it does remove a good wad of hair in a single whip. This reason alone makes waxing best done by a professional. Eyebrow hair takes at least 6 weeks to regrow – if it’s going to grow back at all.
Tweezing is by far the quickest, easiest and most precise way to remove eyebrow hair. Tweezers are small enough to fit into your make-up bag, glove box or office drawer so they are instantly on hand to attend to stray eyebrow hairs as they appear. If you stay on top of stray hairs you’ll maintain your eyebrow shape.
Buy a pair of good tweezers (or several of pairs if you intend to keep them in different locations). Slanted tips work well, flat tips are okay, but don’t bother with pointed tips because they don’t grip the hair properly and can slip and stab the skin. Tweezing is less painful when a warm water compress is held over the eyebrow before you begin. Wet a washcloth under hot tap water and press it against the brow area. Or, tweeze after a shower when the warm water has softened the skin and relaxed the pores so the hairs come out more easily.
The perfect eyebrow shape has a moderate width and a longish tail tapering slightly at the outer edge.

Here’s the thing:

• If you have discomfort issues you could numb the brow area by applying a topical mouth ulcer anaesthetic such as Bonjela five minutes before you begin tweezing.


• Switch brows – pluck a few hairs from one brow, then a few hairs from the other.


• Always pull the hair in the direction of the hair growth.


• Avoid mad shapes like too rounded (clownish) or tadpole (where the inner brow is thick and tapers off to a tiny thin tail extension).


• Longer tails look more youthful than short stubby tails.


• If you colour your hair, the chances are your eyebrows should be coloured as well. Discuss it with your hair colourist; blondes and brunettes should go a shade or two darker on their eyebrows. Redheads look great with the same shade.


• Pluck and shape your eyebrows prior to colouring them yourself. Apply a coat of Vaseline to the surrounding skin so any dye dribbles are easily removed, and allow the dye to set on the eyebrow hair for just a few minutes.


• It’s tempting to tweeze out those annoying grey or white hairs and we’ve all done it, but it’s not a good thing. Alas, those hairs aren’t going to go away and they’ll increase in numbers as the relentless body clock ticks on. If you pluck out hair just because it’s grey you’ll end up with bare patches in your eyebrows. Instead, colour it in with an eyebrow pencil, eyebrow powder, hair dye, eyebrow gel or eyebrow mascara.


• When you find one or two annoying hairs suddenly grow too long in your eyebrows, don’t pluck them. Trim them with scissors. Sparse eyebrows can’t afford to lose even one hair.
  

Some department stores have a Brow Bar, usually located in the cosmetics area where you sit on a tall stool to have your eyebrows shaped and plucked by an expert technician. It is well worth taking the time to observe and establish which technician’s work you prefer before you leap in to have your brows done. You may need to make an appointment if you plan going during busy periods such as weekday lunch breaks or sales times.
Most eyebrows issues are caused by zealous over-plucking. Hair that has been tweezed, waxed or removed for too long (most likely in a teenage attempt to emulate a movie star or celebrity) won’t grow back. Over-plucked eyebrow gaps can be filled in with eyebrow make-up. Eyebrow pencil topped with eyebrow powder or gel is the longest lasting combination because the wax from the pencil forms a key for the powder to stick to.

• Use products specifically formulated for eyebrows. Brown eyeliner pencils or eye shadows aren’t neutral enough and black mascara is too strong - even when it’s used sparingly.


• Use a sharpened eyebrow pencil to draw in colour in where there are gaps in the eyebrow hair. Use little feathery strokes to emulate the real thing.


• Apply brow powder with a slanted eyebrow brush.


• Set the brows with brow gel or brow mascara for true wow brows!
  
  Five common brow mistakes:
  1. Shaping too thin. Skinny eyebrows are ageing and add an illusion of heaviness to the face.
  2. Zooming into the brows with a magnifying mirror when you are tweezing can cause you to obsess about every single hair and you could end up over-plucking.
  3. Matching the eyebrows exactly to the hair colour. This is a tricky one. The eyebrows should complement the skin surrounding them, not match the hair. Go a shade darker than the hair colour. Dye kits are available for the eyebrows.
  4. Snipping at your brows when you don’t need to. Being scissor-happy makes the brows uneven.
  5. Pointed tweezers can break the skin and cause scabbing and scars. Use slanted tweezers to pluck your eyebrows.

Retail details and magic products
The following prices pertain to Australia. Most brands are available world-wide.

Skin Primer
Revlon Beyond Natural Smoothing Primer $28, 1800 025488 or from Priceline and mass retailers
Australis Primer $14 from Priceline
Rimmel Antiredness Recover Perfect Skin Primer $10, veil and brightener, from supermarkets and mass retailers or call 1800 812663 for stockists


Foundation
CoverGirl TruBlend Foundation is a product that’s so smart that it adapts itself to your skin tone. By now you’ll know were your skin colour falls - light, medium or dark, so test the closest foundation colour. Supermarkets, Department stores and mass variety retailers such as K-Mart, Target and Priceline
Avon Ideal Shade Liquid Foundation $30, 1800 646000
L’Oreal Paris True Match Super-Blendable Make-up $31, 1300 659259
Max Factor Second Skin Foundation $36, 1800 181040
Tinted Moisturizer
Australis Tinted Moisturizer SPF15 $14, Priceline and mass retailers
Face of Australia Tinted moisturizer SPF25, $12 in light, medium and dark shades
Concealer
Benefit boi-ing hides everything. 3g Three shades – light medium and dark, when in doubt choose the middle one (number 02)) $35 from Myer
Benefit ‘lemon aid’ correcting cream $35 from Myer
Clinique Line Smoothing Concealer $34, 1800 061326 use after foundation to cover under-eye blemishes
Max Factor Erace Concealer $23, 1800 181 040
MAC Studio Finish Concealer NC15 – NC50, NW15 – NW50, with SPF30 $32 – full coverage concealer, 1800 061326
MAC Studio Finish Blot Powder $36 – full coverage powder, 1800 061326
Brightening powder
Laura Mercier Secret Brightening Powder, around $78 (lasts a long time) 02-9663 4277 From David Jones and Myer Department Stores


Eye Primer
Laura Mercier Eye Basics in peach, $30, 02-9663.4277 Myer, David Jones
Eye shadow
Revlon ColorStay 12 Hour Eye Shadow - smoothes on beautifully and comes in pallets containing four complementary shades, two applicators and application hints (what to put where) on the back of the pallet. Priceline $15, 1800 025 488
Eye Liner
MAC Eye Khol comes in a vast range of colours from David Jones and Myer. Try Violet Underground, or Minted $32, 1800 061326
Laura Mercier Kohl Eye Pencil in black violet, black aqua or black gold $60 (lasts forever!) 02-9663.4277
Elizabeth Arden Eye Pencil – Umber 02 is a great brown $32, 02-9409.7700
Estee Lauder Eye Defining Pencil Softsmudge Black $32, 1800.061326
Benefits eye bright pencil in pink $34, from Myer, use on the inside of your lower lid to open your eyes.
Max Factor Masterpiece Glide & Define Liquid Eyeliner $21, 1800 181040
Mascara Primer
MAC Prep + Prime Lash $35, 1800 061326
Estee Lauder Lash Primer Plus Full Treatment Formula $45, 1800 061326
Mascara
Benefits BADgal blue mascara, thick formula with a big brush 8.5g $36, from Myer
Maybelline Great Lash Mascara Soft Black $16, 1300 369327
Max Factor False Lash Effect, comes in water resistant and water proof formulas, in black and brown/black with a big fat brush to make lashes look bigger. $22 from most retailers or www.maxfactor.com for your nearest stockist

Eyelash Curlers
1000 Hour Heated Eyelash Curler $19 from K-Mart
Manicare Eyelash Curler $12, from mass retailers
Fake Eyelashes
Gorgeous Cosmetics ‘ Madam Lash Eyelashes’, choice of twenty five styles, free application and removing lesson when you purchase, $18 for a full set of lashes or set of individual lashes, $17 for a tube of Lash Grip.
Gorgeous Cosmetics – Melbourne 03-9654.9422, Sydney 02-9231.2500, & Brisbane 07-3220.1505
1000 Hour Individual Lashes Lash Extensions $9, from K-Mart
Eylure Lash Extend Individual lashes $17 from Priceline, includes adhesive and remover, and re-usable lashes
Eye drops – from pharmacies, nationally. Check the Use-By date.
Clear Eyes Redness Relief 15mls
Optive Lubricant Eye Drops, Allergen Australia

Lipsticks
MAC ‘Chic’ is a useful pink for warm skin tones $36, 1800 061326
Estee Lauder Michael Kors Lip Sheen in Bungalow Pink $44, 1800 061326, David Jones and Myer
Estee Lauder Michael Kors Lip Gloss in Hollywood Gold $42, 1800 062326, just gorgeous! From Myer and David Jones
Transfer-proof lipsticks
Max Factor Lipfinity 2 step lip colour in 22 shades www.maxfactor.com for stockists
Lip Liner
Revlon ColorStay Lipliner Pencil $23, 1800 025 488

Lip Hydrators
Chapstick 7g $4 from Coles, supermarkets, mass retailers
Blistex Lip Conditioner 7g $4 from supermarkets, mass retailers
Lip Enhancers
Sally Hansen Thin Lip Collagen Boost $15 from K-Mart
Sally Hansen Volumizing Formula $15 from K-Mart increases lip fullness

Eyebrow Stencils
Colourescience In Perfect Shape Stencil – 1 stencil $25 www.myshopping.com.au
ModelCo EYEBROWS Designer Brow Kit $48, 02-8354.6700. All you need in one chic compact kit – 4 re-usable stencils, brow wax and powder, tweezers, brushes, grooming wand and easy to follow instructions. www.modelco.com.au for your nearest stockist
Bonjela Mouth Ulcer Anaesthetic 15mls $7 from supermarkets

Brow Bars
Benefit at Myer, George St, Sydney $36 for eyebrow shaping
Eyebrow Dye Kits from Priceline and pharmacies or Price Attack around $14
Makeup pencil sharpener
Manicare $4.50 from Priceline. Dual sharpener to sharpen thick and normal size make-up pencils
Make-up Tools
Manicare foam applicators pk12 $4.50, from K-Mart, Priceline and mass retailers
Various Make-up applicator brushes at various price points from mass retailers, make-up stores and bars, department stores