Bring on ageless beauty

Looking younger doesn’t mean that your current beauty routine has to do a complete about face. But there are a few important tweaks that’ll keep you from tacking on extra years. Cosmetics can help you turn back the clock, so don’t let them age you a single day. If you haven’t switched up your style in years, or if you have the feeling that your look isn’t as flattering as it could be, take notes on these age-defying beauty tips:

• Exfoliate regularly. Cell turnover naturally slows with age, so it’s up to you to help it along. Adding an exfoliant to your regular skin care routine once or twice each week can make a noticeable difference in your skin tone and texture, helping your complexion look smooth, bright and youthful. Look for a scrub with gentle beads that won’t scratch your skin, like Peter Thomas Roth Botanical Buffing Beads, or a chemical exfoliant with lactic acid like Philosophy The Microdelivery One Minute Purifying Enzyme Peel. And regular use of a prescription or over the counter retinol product, like Topix Replenix Retinol Plus Smoothing Serum 10x, will help loosen dead skin cells, fade skin spots and unclog pores. With a more refined canvas, your makeup will glide on in a smoother, more even layer.

• Get over powder. Consider powder-based makeup (except an eyeshadow here and there) a relic of the past: it’s prone to emphasize wrinkles and make you look even older than you are. To even out your skin tone, use a liquid foundation or a tinted moisturizer with silicone, like Stila Perfect and Correct Foundation Tone or Philosophy Hope in a Tinted Moisturizer, which fills in creases and makes your skin look naturally even. If you prefer to use mineral makeup, be sure to apply with a damp brush to minimize the creasing effect of powder, or choose a liquid mineral foundation, like Jane Iredale Liquid Minerals. Swap your powder blush for a cream blend, like Illuminaire Perfect Color Blush in Florentine Fair, which goes on sheer and dewy, adding a girlish glow to your complexion.

• Be strategic with shimmer. Glitter is best left to the tweens and teens, but shimmer, that subtly reflective undertone, is a go at any age – as long as you use some strategy. Above all, use shimmer products sparingly. All-over shimmer on your eyelids is bound to settle into lines and emphasize age. Try dusting a lightly-reflective shadow, like BareMinerals Glimmer Eyeshadow in Celestine, on the inner third of your eyelid only, or draw a few dots of eye-brightening shimmer pencil, like Jane Iredale Eye Highlighter Pencil, in the inner corner of your eyes. Add a little reflection on your cheekbones with a highlighter like Jane Iredale In Touch Highlighter.

• Lighten up lips. Dark, heavy lipstick adds years to your appearance and makes your lips look smaller. Choose lighter lipstick shades – anything from a light pink like Too Faced Lip of Luxury Lipstick in Free Love to a sheer red like DuWop Iced Teas Lipstick in Strawberry Kiwi – or switch to a gloss with medium shine, like Philosophy Kiss Me Lip Balm in Red. To keep lip color from feathering into the lines around your lips, use a clear lipliner, or apply a dab of concealer over the lip line, a trick recommended by makeup artist Sonia Kashuk for Oprah.

• Get your hair moving. The right hairstyle can take years off of your look – as quickly as the wrong style can age you. There are no hard and fast rules about the appropriate length of hair; you can keep it long or short as you age. But movement is key. If you have long, lifeless locks, going short could add bounce and swing where it’s needed, but you can also choose to wear your hair in a ponytail or half-up style for an instant facelift. If you already have a short crop, style it slightly shaggy and choppy with a leave-in product like Philip B Shineade Pomade. For a burst of youth in a bottle, coloring hair a few shades lighter than your natural hue helps you avoid a washed-out complexion, not to mention covers telltale grays.

It’s clear that just a few simple beauty tweaks can shave years off your look and these tips and tricks will restore a more flattering, youthful appearance in no time. In the years ahead, use your updated beauty wisdom to show those younger ladies that aging gracefully and gorgeously go hand in hand.

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