How much makeup to wear is a topic that fills the pages of beauty and fashion magazines. Lucy notes that most of these articles look at either young teenage girls or women over 60. The parallel track is that too much makeup can make young girls look old and too much makeup makes older women look even older. Interesting what?
There is an ongoing debate about how much makeup is too much, particularly for women over 60. How do we know what is the right amount for us?
Lucy favors lipstick and can pull off the color trend of deep red for this season and it looks good and works for her. Me not so much as dark red lips make me look much older. As a rule, color on lips lightens the face.
We both use mascara and I have tried a few eyelash enhancements. Lucy promises that she will give the new “fake better than ever lashes” a try and let us know the result. But again, the caution is not too heavy with mascara certainly for daytime. Mascara opens up the eye and brings attention to eyes. (I have to admit that I use mascara even when I go to the barn.) We both use blush because if used judiciously it gives the face a healthy glow. But too much blush and one turns into an aging beauty queen like a scene from a Joan Crawford film or worse.
Guess who?
A recent story in The Atlantic asked a similar question about whether women were wearing too much makeup:
“The researchers found that women tend to overestimate how much makeup they should wear for peak attractiveness. Men and women viewing the images were asked to pick the face or faces that they thought were most attractive—to themselves, to men, and to women. Viewers of both genders found women most attractive at around 65% of the makeup they’d applied, but they assumed that other viewers would like more makeup, especially when predicting what men would find attractive. Even that, though, topped out at about 85% of the actual makeup models had put on.
These findings build on a hopeful strain of research, which finds that the over-the-top messages about attractiveness that we get from the media and society at large aren’t true. We see very thin, very white, very made-up women—or very muscled men—and assume that that’s what people find attractive. It’s reassuring that this isn’t the case.”
Too much doesn’t work
Magazines routinely feature a celebrity with an image of her make up bag filled with a mother lode of products. Can you imagine even carrying that much stuff and how long it takes to apply?
We love this article that highlights go-to products. And they seem just about right for any age. We confess we have never considered “dewy skin mist ” but are willing to give it a try. Let us know what you think:
Ciao
Lucy and Claudia
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