Makeup with Me Using Look Fabulous Forever: and Link-Up

Over 50s blogger Gail Hanlon from Is This Mutton wearing makeup by Look Fabulous Forever

Dear friends. As you read this, I am several hundred miles from home at an exercise boot camp. Yes! Judging from the reactions of some friends, most people think I'm mad, but I wanted to do something challenging during my sabbatical month off.

I've gone under my own steam so I will hopefully write an unbiased review when I'm back. In the meantime, I bring you a make-up tutorial using products from Look Fabulous Forever. I've written about the brand before, and am an avid user of three of their products: the Hydration Hold face serum, Smooth the Day face cream, and Smooth Out Eye Prime.

Look Fabulous Forever was created by Tricia Cusden, below, in 2013, when she was 65. Tricia had struggled to find products that worked well for her skin. She felt ignored by beauty brands and retailers. So she created a range of makeup and skincare specifically for older women. The Look Fabulous Forever website is a wonderful resource as it classifies colours as cool or warm, has some very interesting blog posts, testimonials and ambassadors, and lots of beauty advice, from video tutorials to a chat function.

There's also an amazing Facebook Group, with thousands of members, who discuss many topics, not just makeup.

Shipping outside the UK is available.

Why makeup is important for older women

I've loved cosmetics and make-up since I was a young teen and am always trying new brands and products. But I know that not all mid life women share my enthusiasm or knowledge. The Is This Mutton survey earlier this year revealed that many of you don't wear make-up at all.

I think that's a shame, because as you get older, your skin tone changes; you lose radiance and that plumpness of skin, that luminescence. Just three products for a couple of minutes is enough to make a difference. For me, those essential 3 would be a concealer, a soft eye pencil for lining the eyes, and a blusher to take away my paleness. Now that I use SPF50 every day, I'm quite ghostly!

When I'm going to the office or to a social occasion, I use more than three products and I find the whole process very enjoyable. The one thing I have stopped using is eyeshadow, and I'll explain why later.

Get Started: A Smooth Canvas

So every painter needs a smooth canvas on which to start! After cleansing and applying moisturizer, serum and neck cream, I'm ready to use LFF's Eye Prime and Smooth Like Silk Face Prime. You may think: what a faff! Who needs these extra products?

Well, the eye prime is marvellous on its own. It takes away the darkness that older women often have on their eyelids. I find it lightens up the eye area so well I don't feel the need for eyeshadow. The foundation primer helps to minimise fine lines and keeps makeup fresh. It doesn't look or feel like other primers out there, which I've found tend to go bitty after a few hours. It's very smooth, like applying a thin layer of silicone. I then applied the Continuous Cover Foundation, in shade 02. This gives medium coverage but doesn't look too heavy or mask-like.

My Secret Glow Giver

Now one of the things that LFF and I disagree on is the need for a product that gives shimmer and luminosity. A few years ago, highlighters were often sparkly and the glitter crept into lines and wrinkles. But today's formulations are light years away. I can't stop raving about Laura Mercier's Translucent Loose Setting Power in Light Catcher. You can either brush this on lightly all over face (or use a puff), or, like me, you can brush it onto places that would catch the light: the top of the cheekbones, cupid's bow, centre of the nose, and middle of the chin.

Here's the difference between just using a foundation and using the Light Catcher in certain areas. In the top pic, I hadn't yet applied LFF Eye Prime, so you can see the difference that makes too.

Without Eye Prime and Light Catcher

With Light Catcher

Hopefully you can see that my face has a soft glow, as if I've been lit from within. The powder is very fine so there is no clumping or dryness.

Next step is blush, and I'm using LFF's Real Radiance Blush in Rosy Glow. The game changer here is to avoid the old advice about smiling and placing it on the apples of your cheeks. It's more flattering, and less Aunt Sally, if you take it along the cheekbones, up towards the hairline.

For the purposes of the tutorial, I'm now going to use LFF's No Shimmer Eye Shade Trio in Cool Blues.

I apply the grey shade to the eye lid and then the middle shade, a hyacinth-like blue, just above my eye socket. For those with deep set eyes, like me, this really helps to create definition and bring our eyes forward. Blend both shades very well with a good quality brush. You don't want to see any obvious lines. The eyeshadow looked quite dark when I first applied it, below, but when blended it's subtle and that makes a nice difference.

After eyeshadow, I do my "tight lining," which is pushing the eye pencil into the eyelashes, filling the gaps and giving real definition to the eyes without looking OTT. Then I curl the lashes and use a mascara.

Lipstick makes a huge difference. It's a lot easier to find the right shades if you know whether or not you're cool or warm toned, and as I mentioned, LFF makes it easy by labelling its lipsticks. I'm using LFF Fuchsia which is a perfect blue toned pink. Before applying the lippy, I apply LFF's Never Feather Lip Prime to the outsides of the lips. This stops lipstick creeping into lines.

Last step is applying lipstick, and I'm good to go. I don't believe in taking lipstick over the natural lip - you have to be so careful not to look like a caricature. But if the corners of your mouth droop, which happens to the best of us, I don't extend the lipstick right to the corners of the mouth. I dot some concealer in the corners. This helps to create a more cheerful upward flick. No resting bitch faces!

Finished look

What's your attitude towards makeup these days? Using less since lockdown? Or happy to have a full face? Do share in the comments.

Disclosure: I was gifted with a set of products from Look Fabulous Forever in return for an honest review.

Now it's time for #WowOnWednesday, the link-up where readers find new blogs to read, and bloggers find new readers.

No favourites from last week I'm afraid, I prepared this post before my trip to Devon and the link-up hadn't started, so I'm nowhere near my PC to find out which posts were the most popular. But promise to share this when I'm back, on IG.