Do you ever wonder how celebrities in their 40’s manage to look so good? Apart from having teams of experts to take care of their skin, their nutrition, their makeup and their hair, they tend to follow these 8 makeup tips for women in their 40’s, keeping them looking youthful and radiant.

And by the way, 40 is the new 30…

8 Makeup Tips For Women In Their 40’s

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Hydrate.

Before you even think about putting on makeup you need to think about the skin underneath. If you apply makeup to undernourished/dry skin it is going to suck any moisture out of your foundation and leave you looking both drier and older. Neither of which is the look we are going for! Make sure your skin is well moisturized and that you apply a liberal coating of eye cream, but also apply a serum or facial oil.

Color Correct.

One of the most aging things you can do is use the wrong undertoned shade of concealer and foundation. Either you are a cool tone (pink undertone) or a warm tone (olive/yellow undertone). You must use concealer and foundations with your undertone. The End. I’ve seen all kinds of nonsense out there on the interwebs telling women they need yellow toned makeup. If you are JLo, yes, if you don’t have an olive/yellow/latin toned skin, hell no!

Choose Your Texture.

The most flattering textures for women in their 40’s+ are creamy textures. I personally use Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer, I’m a cool tone, so I use the honey shade. In my pro makeup kit I use ginger on my warm toned ladies and honey on the cool toned girls.

Use A Light Touch

Heavily applied makeup doesn’t do anyone any favors. Use a light touch and aim for the sheerest application of your makeup products. Just enough to give you the coverage you need, and nothing more.

Creamy Blush

Keeping with the soft, glowy complexion, use a cream blush instead of a powder. If you are not comfortable with a cream blush then make sure your powder blush doesn’t have any sparkle or shimmer to it (super aging). Choose a blush with a soft finish that is in your color group. (Remember cool tone vs warm tone.) Blue based pinks tend to be quite aging, so if you are a cool toned girl and want something pink look for a warm pinky-nude rather than a barbie doll blue pink.

Fill In Your Brow.

As we age our brow hairs get thinner and more sparse, so gently adding back color and structure to the brow can be the fountain of youth. Most importantly, ignore everything you see on Instagram and Your Tube – don’t create heavy, squared off brows! Apply a pencil like Anastasia of Beverly Hill Brow Definer using soft hair-like strokes. Enhance the brow but don’t overwhelm it.

Ease Up On The Liner.

You are still going to use eyeliner, but you need to be aware that the heavy liner looks that are so killer on girls in their 20’s are really aging on girls in their 40’s. Use eyeliner for definition rather than drama. Instead of black eyeliner opt for a dark espresso brown. It will give the same effect but wont be quite so harsh.

Lighten The Lip.

The most aging thing you can do is wear a dark lip. Look for lighter and brighter colors instead. If you are wearing nude lips, choose a warm pinky nude. Don’t go paler than your natural lip color (super aging!) instead choose a color 2 or 3 shades deeper than your lip color, this will enhance and define your lip. Mattes can be very aging, soft satin finishes are incredibly flattering. Tom Ford MoistureCore Lip Color is both hydrating and has a satin finish.

Have you noticed that in summer your makeup doesn’t look quite so good?

Maybe your foundation looks super slimy or maybe it looks too dry, your eye shadow turns into greasy pools in the creases of your eyelids, nothing stays where its supposed to, and you look nothing like the fresh faced models in the magazines?

Photo by Brad Olson for Luca Magazine.
Makeup by Corinna Cooke

The picture I have used here is from my Summer Beauty editorial for Luca Magazine. There are definitely tricks to looking fabulous in the summer, so I am sharing some of my favorite ones with you.

This post contains affiliate links.

Here are 6 Summer Makeup Tips

**1. Less is absolutely more in the summer.**

The biggest mistake you can make is piling on too much makeup. Summer is all about looking fresh faced and healthy, which doesn’t work when you’re wearing mask-like makeup.
Aim for a gorgeous complexion. Start with a lighter weight moisturizer, next apply a dry finish facial SPF, and finally a really good primer to even out the texture of your skin.
If you need some help evening out your color, opt for a BB cream rather than a foundation.

2. Down play your eyes.

Big smokey, bold eye makeup looks stupid in the summer time. Choose a lighter, more nude look, and accent it with loads of mascara. To avoid smudgy mascara use a water resistant formula, and only ever use waterproof mascara if you’re planning on swimming or sobbing – waterproofs are so damaging to your lashes and can be difficult to remove.

3. Go easy on the bronzer.

Find a formulation that works with both your skin and your climate (pressed powder/cream/liquid), and then apply it where the sun would kiss your face if you were out and about all afternoon.
Bronzer does not take the place of blush, and regardless of what the you tubers tell you, it is not for contouring with.
Don’t make the mistake of trying to color your face in with bronzer – you will look muddy, not tanned. My favorite bronzer for the past few years has been Stila’s Aqua Glow Perfecting Bronzer. It’s a gel formulation that you can use to warm up a foundation (I cheat my way into fall…) or you can use it before or after foundation. I like wearing it on it’s own without foundation too. I never find it in stores, so I order it online. I have one in my pro makeup kit, one in my personal makeup stash, and one in my travel makeup kit.

4. Accent your brows.

Use your brows to add a little structure and polish to your look.
Without going overboard, (as in don’t do the brows you see all over Instagram) give your brows a little definition and a hint of color with a waterproof/water resistant brow product. It will frame your eyes and keep your look nicely balanced.

5. Focus on the lip.

Add a pop of color to your look with a bright summer lip. If your overall look is glowy try wearing a bold matte lip. If your skin is looking a little dry, liven your look up with a fun colorful gloss. For a bright, warm pink try Charlotte Tilbury Hot Lips in Electric Poppy

6. A little highlight goes a long way.

If you are transitioning from day to night, or if your look feels a little flat, adding a tiny amount of highlight to your upper cheek bones, under the eye if your eyes look tired, maybe a hint to the bridge of your nose if you need it, can lighten and brighten your complexion.
Just don’t overdo it. There’s a big difference between brightening your look and making yourself look glittery-shiny. My favorite highlighter is Charlotte Tilbury’s Bar Of Gold. You can use it to add dimension to eyes, lips, cheeks. It has warmth and glows instead of sparkles. It’s fabulous.

Read How To use Gold Makeup For Summer here

Photo by Isaac bailey, makeup by Corinna Cooke

Every girl who wears makeup wants tips on how to make it last longer or look better. Here are 12 essential tips you need to know.

12 Essential Makeup Tips

Timing

1.Allow a minute or two between applying your moisturizer and your sunscreen to let your moisturizer soak in, and then another couple of minutes between your sunscreen and your primer. This will help your makeup to glide on more seamlessly and last all day.

Foundation

2.Foundation is supposed to make your skin look flawless and perfect, but still actually look like skin. A thick layer of opaque, full cover foundation doesn’t look like skin, and generally looks awful. Choose the sheerest formula of foundation you can, and apply it sparingly.

3. Your foundation color choice should be based on your skin’s undertone. Warm toned girls need warm based foundations, cool toned girls need cool based foundations. Nothing will look right if you don’t get this most basic principal right!

Powder

4. Powder sets foundation. If you want your foundation to stay on all day you need to set it.

Photo by Isaac Bailey, makeup by Corinna Cooke

Eyebrows

5. Nothing changes your face more than your eyebrows! If you have a small space between your brow and your lash-line, accent the upper edge of your brow to open the eye space. If you have a large gap between lash-line and brow you can soften it by accenting the lower edge of your brow. Too much color in the inner third of the brow can make you look angry and make your eyes look too close set.

Lifting through the arch and creating a slight extra tail to the brow can make the eyes look more alert and further spaced apart.

*Heavy eyebrow makeup can collapse a face.

**There is no place in the world for Instagram eyebrows.

Learn how to get the perfect eyebrow shape for your face here

Contour

6. Contour on the cheeks should be subtle. It should create a slight shadow under the cheekbone, making the bone look a little more pronounced and lifted. If the person standing next to you can see a brown contour line it is an epic makeup fail!

Bronzer

7. Bronzer is to make you look like you have been outside in the sunshine. It is not a contour product, and it is not to correct a foundation that is too pale. Bronzer is one of the greatest makeup products ever created, and also the most abused. Keep your bronzer subtle, apply it to the high planes of the face – forehead, cheekbones, chin, and also apply to your collarbones if they will be exposed.

Liquid and gel bronzers help you look glowy instead of shimmery.

Primer

8. Eye shadow primer will make your eye shadow last longer (hopefully all day) and will boost the color.

Mascara

9. Waterproof mascara should only be worn when you are planning on swimming or crying! Daily use of waterproof can lead to lash breakage and thinning. (not based on science, but based on years of doing makeup and seeing broken lashes on girls who wear waterproof all the time!)

10. Waterproof mascara should be removed with an eye-makeup remover that is designed to dissolve waterproof makeup. This helps to minimize breakage.

Lipstick

11. Dark lipstick is incredibly aging. It also makes lips look thinner, more compressed, and angry. If you are older or have thin lips, dark lipstick is your enemy. Matte lipstick is not a great choice for an older woman. It makes the lip look deflated and dry.