Makeup Mistakes That Age You & How To Fix Them

Ever have one of those days when your makeup just goes on wrong and makes you look older? We’ve all done it… the makeup that was supposed to make us look flawless and younger, somehow ended up looking cakey and overdone and it accentuates every wrinkle! When it happens to me, I hate to start over from scratch and wash my face because I’ve already got a few layers of anti-aging products, moisturizers, and sunscreen under my makeup and it’s more trouble and expense to re-wash than it is just to fix what’s wrong.

For demonstration purposes, I’ve put all the aging makeup mistakes on at once, but normally you’d only have one or two of these to contend with at any given time.

Can you spot the 8 mistakes in this picture?

1. Eyebrows ~ Too dark and heavy
2. Brow Bone ~ Too shiny, accentuates wrinkles and draws attention to the heavy eyebrow, not the eye.
3. Eyeshadow ~ Too sparkly, accentuating wrinkles, and drawn out too low at the outer corners dragging the eye down.
4. Undereye Concealer ~ Applied in a thick coating over wrinkles causing settling and making wrinkles worse.
5. Face Powder ~ Heavy handed application leaving a dry powdery, cakey look.
6. Blush ~ Applied to apples of cheeks drawing attention to fronts rather than cheek bones.
7. Bronzer ~ Too dark, not blended. Makeup should look natural, not striped.
8. Lips ~ Shiny gloss accentuates wrinkles at top of lip, too bright for the very colorful eyeshadow (one should be toned down).

How To Fix It:

To fix the eyebrows, simply dampen a cotton swab with waterproof eye makeup remover and gently rub over the brow to remove about 3/4 of the brow gel being careful not to smudge it into the the surrounding skin.

Remove Brow Gel

The mascara, eyeliner and most of the eyeshadow are good… it just went off the rails with the sparkly brow bone and the dark eyeshadow extending too far out to the side. To fix that, use a pre-moistened makeup removing towlette. Wrap it tightly around your index finger and pat below the brow bone to remove the highest shadow. Continue patting until most of the upper eyeshadow is removed to just above the crease.

Pat, don’t rub to remove eyeshadow

Then, using a clean area of the same cloth, wrapped around the same finger, use firm pressure to wipe away the excess eyeshadow from the corner of the eye to the eyebrow in a clean straight line.

Add some matte tan or taupe eyeshadow above the crease to fill in where shadow was removed. Add a brow highlight using a pale matte shadow. Blend it all together using a soft crease brush.

Use a dry cotton swab to gently remove excess under eye concealer that’s settled into wrinkles and re-deposit excess at outer corner of eye where the eyeshadow was removed. Blend with Q-tip.

Dampen a washcloth with warm water and wring out (the cloth should be slightly damp, not dripping). Press the washcloth to areas of the face with too much powder like forehead, nose, and cheeks. Lifting away excess powder.

Apply a very light coating of powder foundation over blush and bronzer and blend well. Spritz face with a setting spray (I like e.l.f. mist & set) to eliminate a powdery look and set makeup.

Using a small powder brush, pat matte setting powder (IT Cosmetics HD Poreless Powder) under eyes to set concealer, and anywhere else you get shiny, but not all over the face.

Use a makeup removing towlette to wipe away the lip gloss, and if it’s a stain, use a lip exfoliator to remove the stain from the lips. Use a flesh colored pencil (NYX Wonder Pencil) to outline outside the lips to keep lipstick from spreading into wrinkles and blend in using a brush.

Apply low luster or matte lipstick or gloss (Tarte Lipsurgance in “Exposed” matte finish).

I definitely prefer the look on the right… to my eye it’s more youthful, more natural, more polished!