Easy Christmas Makeup Look -for Women over 40!

Here's a quick tutorial on how to update your makeup for an easy festive holiday look that's perfect for the over 40 woman. It covers the full face using techniques designed to enhance aging skin and make us all look our best. This is a perfect look for Christmas and New Year's Eve parties. It's also easy to recreate!

One of my goals for Midlife Rambler is to remind my readers (and myself!) on a regular basis that we are still vibrant, exciting women. We deserve to be seen, to take up space! We deserve to look our best.

So, purely as a service to you, my beloved readers, I booked a makeover at Sephora to learn how to update my makeup for a festive holiday look that, as I told my makeup artist, "makes me look young and fresh, but doesn't make me look like I'm trying to look like my daughter."

My makeup artist, Domenica, instantly got what I was going for. Domenica spent over an hour with me and gave me tons of tips to share with you guys. Here are some of the highlights.

Updated makeup for a festive holiday look can help you look younger without looking like you're trying too hard. — *Makeup free and ready to go!*

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Start with the Eyes

After moisturizer and sunscreen (always a must), Domenica started with my eye makeup. I was gratified to learn that it's very hard for almost everyone to put on eyeshadow without making at least a little mess. If you start with your eyes, you can clean up any messes when you move on to foundation.

Another thing - don't be afraid of a little shimmer! You don't have to be stuck wearing matte eyeshadows for the rest of your life. Just use it judiciously. After the primer, Domenica covered my eyelid in beautiful gold shimmer.

For my hooded eyes, she gave me a dark shadow starting in my crease and rising fairly high up the brow bone.

Notice how Domenica is extending the darker color a bit above my natural crease. This helps minimize the hooded eye look that I've developed as I've gotten older.

Primer and Base

I resisted the idea of primer before foundation for years. I'm already putting on moisturizer and sunscreen and now I have to add another step before foundation! I don't think so.

But I finally realized the benefits of having a smooth base for your foundation, particularly as I get older. Smoothing out your skin before you apply foundation keeps your foundation from settling into fine lines and wrinkles and helps your foundation last longer. Sold!

For my every day looks, I often wear tinted moisturizer or BB Cream but I wanted a full coverage for my special occasion look so Domenica used Diorskin Forever Perfect Foundation Broad Spectrum SPF 35.

I usually use a beauty blender to apply foundation but she used a foundation brush and took her time making sure I had even coverage.

The foundation brush was very helpful in buffing out the foundation to a smooth finish

Eyebrows

Using a thin brow brush, Domenica applied Brow Pomade along the very top of my brows to define the edge.
Then she underlined my brow to give definition to the arch.
Using the spoolie end of the eyebrow brush, she brushed the pomade through the entire brow.
And then finally, she applied a very thin line of concealer above and below my brow to make them pop.

The result: thick, lush brows that look totally natural.

Look at the difference between my left eye (before) and my right eye (after). Game changer!

Concealer

Another thing I learned from Domenica is to apply concealer after foundation. That way you're simply smoothing out the areas that need a little extra coverage rather than applying concealer first and then covering it up with foundation which can look heavy and cause caking.

In my case, she simply applied a light coating of concealer right along the bone under my eye and then blended it upwards with a soft concealer brush.

Final Steps

Domenica finished my look by applying Nars Liquid Blush in Dolce Vita, a soft rosy cream blush. It comes with a built-in applicator and then she simply blended it with her fingers along my cheekbone. I've sworn off powder blush forever; this stuff makes it look like I'm straight-up glowing and I've added it to my daily makeup routine.

She finished with a coat of mascara (IT Cosmetics Superhero™ Elastic Stretch Volumizing Mascara, which is already my go to - best mascara ever) and the boldest red lipstick I've ever worn. I loved it! But probably won't wear this one every day. It's definitely a night out sort of lipstick.

The finishing touch was setting spray instead of powder. This made me look glowy instead of matte. Very nice. It felt a bit sticky though so I probably wouldn't do this every day.