3 Common Eye Makeup Challenges for Older Women – Solved!

Wrinkles, puffy eyes and dark shadows – we all have them. But, do we know how to take care of them? By the end of this video, you will! Professional makeup artist, Ariane Poole, is here today to give us some incredibly good ideas to help us make our eyes look even more beautiful. Enjoy the show!

Margaret Manning:

One of the things we think about in our 60’s is our changing face and overall appearance. I’ve invited an expert here today, Ariane Poole, who’s going to give us her professional advice. Welcome to the show, Ariane.

Ariane Poole:

I am really delighted to be here!

Margaret:

Ariane is a professional makeup artist. She’s been with Sixty and Me for about three years now.

Ariane:

Great times!

Margaret:

You are a celebrity makeup artist, and you’ve got your own line of fabulous products. A lot of cool things happen around you. Would you want to share what’s new with Ariane Poole?

Ariane:

We’ve launched on QBC, which was a phenomenal success. We’re really thrilled about that. We’re branching out into SPAs and salons throughout the UK. We’re also going into Australia, and we’re looking at branching out through other areas in the world as well. There are lots of nice things going on.

Margaret:

That’s wonderful! We’re very happy to have you here. Every time I tell the community, “Ariane Poole is coming for interviews,” they send me a list of questions. This time the questions were mostly about the eyes.

The eyes are one of the first things you see in a person. When you look in the mirror, you notice your own flaws. Basically, the three things people have asked about are wrinkles around the eyes, heavy lids and puffy eyes and bags. Give us some guidance about these eye challenges.

Ariane:

These are a real concern for all of us because as you said, Margaret, the eyes are the first thing we see. They are also the first area you notice ageing. If you ask a thirty-year-old what they are worried about, the answer will still be fine lines, wrinkles, puffiness, dark circles.

Things are the same in our age group. Except now maybe they are a little bit more noticeable. You look at a 30-year-old and you go, “Ah, you’ve got nothing to worry about! Wait till you get to our age.”

There are a few things you can do to make the eye area look better. First of all, don’t pile on loads of product. If you’ve got pigmentation on your lids and darkness under your eyes, your first thought is to reach for something heavy and concealing. However, after piling it on you think, “Well, I’ve concealed the darkness, but, oh my Gosh, now everything looks really creepy and wrinkly and much worse!”

That’s not what we want to do, so you have to achieve a little bit of a balance. My suggestion are the mineral illuminating pens. I use my own brand pen, but there are lots of different products that are similar to it on the market. The reason why I use these wonderful little gems is because they can be applied underneath the eyes as well as on the eyelids.

They won’t crease, but they get rid of that dark, teabag stain, the liny lids and the redness around the eyes. They’re much lighter than a conventional concealer product, and that’s another reason why they’re my go to.

The first thing I would do is apply my foundation or tinted moisturizer, followed by the concealer pen. I apply it like this: Looking ahead, I would put my chin down and turn my eyes up. I would apply it underneath the eye in straight lines, going down about an inch. This will get rid of the dark circles.

Then I would put my head back up, and using my middle finger I would do a patting motion on the entire area I covered. This puts the product onto the skin and blends it beautifully. The other big plus of this patting motion is that it helps decongest that puffiness.

You can also put it in the inner corner of the eye because as we get older, that inner corner becomes really dark. Any eyeshadow you put on suddenly makes that whole area look really heavy and deep. Then I would apply some on my eyelids, or all around the eyelid if necessary, and it will not crease. It keeps your eyeshadow on for longer. If you don’t wear any eyeshadow, the pen concealer would be enough.

If you’re someone who’s got more puffiness, I would suggest you use a slightly deeper color concealer product than your skin tone. Then follow up by putting on a very light layer of translucent powder. Make sure you don’t use sheen of shine for the puffy bags because it makes the puffiness looks worse. It actually exaggerates it. You also don’t want to use anything that is too dry and dehydrating.

Margaret:

Could you please go back for one second to the under eye so that everyone is really clear on the procedure? First, you said you’re tapping it very lightly with your middle finger. You’re not pulling the skin, you’re tapping it.

Ariane:

Exactly. It is a light tapping motion. The reason why I use my middle finger, rather than my ring finger or my index finger, is that the index finger has got too much pressure and the ring finger has not got enough. The ring finger is fantastic for putting on your eye cream, but you need to have a little bit of pressure. Almost like a massage pressure or like an acupressure type of movement, to keep that area puff free.

Margaret:

I have seen a video where the puff bag concealer was placed right underneath the darkness and in an arch-like motion. You applied yours in little downward lines. Can you do the arch-like motion under the eyes and just tap it in?

Ariane:

Yes, you can. This is why I do that chin-down-eyes-up position – it reveals how low you should go. Normally people put their concealer almost right underneath the eye.

Margaret:

Yes, they do.

Ariane:

That is way too high. When I put my chin down and my eyes up, the puffiness gets exposed, and I can clearly see where the concealer needs to go. Also, rather than use the arch-like motion, do it like little sun rays.

Margaret:

Then just tap it. You’re right. There’s a shadow there, and the concealer is getting beneath the shadow.

Ariane:

If you hear the real scientific reason behind this you’ll go, “It makes perfectly good sense!” Actually, this is where the eye socket starts. There is no bone where your eyeballs are, that’s why we get that darkness there.

Margaret:

You said we should apply the concealer pen first and then go back with a little darker color for the bags or for the dark shadows.

Ariane:

What you’re trying to do is recede the bag area. The tapping also helps with it as well, and it’s a really great way for applying the product. Putting that on your eye lid, it actually works so well, some people go, “Do you know what? I don’t need eyeshadow. I can just apply mascara or a little bit of liner on my brows, and I’m good to go.”

It’s really a good way of doing it, especially for those people who really don’t want to wear a lot of eye makeup as they have gotten older. It really works, and it makes you look awake and vibrant.

Margaret:

That is really great. I think we’ve covered the dark lids as well, since you said same thing about them—to apply a little bit of the highlighter we used for the puffy eyes and heavy bags. The other thing, of course, is if you’re 60 years old, you’ve smiled a lot in your life, right?

Ariane:

You’re right, yes.

Margaret:

So I think we have to embrace that.

Ariane:

I also wanted to say, Margaret, if you’ve got that kind of concern underneath your eyes, or around the eye area, what you don’t want to do is put your blush too high. I know this has nothing to do with eyes, in general, but it really does have to do with the eyes in our specific case.

In my many years of experience, I’ve noticed that when I’m doing someone who is 45+, if you move your blush down a little tiny bit, it takes away the emphasis from underneath the eye area. Instead of putting your blush on top of your cheek bone, what I would suggest is to go about a finger breadth lower.

This way, you allow the eye area more space so all of the focus is not just underneath the eyes. You’ve got a nice balance: eyes, cheeks and then lips. It works really beautifully, and it takes that focus off underneath the eyes.

Margaret:

I just love when we do these videos, Ariane. When we’re done, your face would look all transformed. Your advice is really great.

Ariane:

Do you see what I mean though? If you bring the blush that little bit lower, what you do is you create really nice cheekbones. It also takes away from the area underneath the eyes. I know I’ve got wrinkles underneath my eyes, and sometimes you smile and go, “Maybe I shouldn’t smile so big.” But you know what? If you’re happy—smile! They’re nice wrinkles, they’re not horrible wrinkles.

Margaret:

Exactly. I think that you’ve given us some really good ideas. I think it starts with good product and good techniques, and you do both. Thanks so much, Ariane. It’s been fantastic. Take care.

Have you tried any of these eye makeup for older women techniques before? If you haven’t, would you try them? What are some mistakes that you realized you have been making when applying your eye products?