15 Holiday Makeup Looks Over 50 That Glow

Red lipstick bleeds for one plain reason. Fine vertical lines around the mouth give the color somewhere to go.

Researchers who measured women's lips found those little lines become visible in a woman's 40s and keep deepening steadily with age. So the red you wore at 30 isn't misbehaving. It's finding new roads.

The fix is a wall. A clear wax lip liner, drawn around the edge of your lips or over the whole mouth, gives the color an edge it won't climb past. Women in over-50 makeup threads on Reddit land on the same fix, drawing a clear, waxy liner just outside the lip line. Merle Norman's Clear Lip Liner & Primer Pencil, about $21, is made of four kinds of wax, and its maker claims it holds color for up to 10 hours. It only stops what stays inside it, so keep the lipstick within the line.

Now, which red. There are two rules, and they come from opposite directions:

• A blue-based red counteracts yellow in teeth, makeup artists told Woman's World.
• If your hair has gone gray, Charlotte Tilbury's guide suggests a warm red, such as its Red Hot Susan, to offset the cooling effect gray has on a face.

If both describe you, I'd let the hair decide. Everyone sees it first, and it frames the mouth.

Several people online recall a mother or grandmother who wore one red, on lips and nails, for decades. That red was her signature, and they count a red lipstick as a holiday gift older women welcome.

Put blush higher than you were taught, and put it on with your face relaxed.

Makeup artist Cristina Pignataro made a before-and-after video of the two placements, and she doesn't soften it: the 1985 placement makes you look older, and the modern one makes you look lifted. Her point is that where contour, blush and concealer go matters more than which brand you buy. Commenters under the video admit they still do every placement she warns against, and one says she's still doing her 1980s makeup.

The old way was to smile and dab color on the apples of your cheeks. Makeup artist Shannon Spence explains why that backfires: when the smile drops, the blush drops too, and it "drags the face downward."

Here's where it goes now:

1. Keep your face still and neutral.
2. Start a little above the apples, on the upper part of the cheekbone.
3. Blend up and out toward your temples and hairline.
4. Stay away from the area beside your nose, where Ulta's guide says product settles into lines.

Makeup artist Mally Roncal gives AARP the same direction: toward the top of the cheekbone, for lift.

One note from my chair. Blend toward the hairline and stop before you reach it. Pink in the baby hairs at your temple is a giveaway I see every December.

If foundation you wore for years now looks cakey, the foundation hasn't gone bad. The skin under it has thinned.

The American Academy of Dermatology says that as estrogen falls in menopause, skin becomes thinner. Thick makeup settles into wrinkles more easily on thinner skin. That's why one woman on Reddit describes owning several foundations and none of them looking right. In my experience, the drawer full of almost-right bottles is the most common makeup story there is.

Dermatologist Dr. Joanne Jacob puts the fix plainly: "Build coverage in thin layers… Thick layers can crease easily. I love a tinted sunscreen or serum foundation for this very purpose."

A dewy base that won't settle into fine lines comes down to three moves:

• Wait for your moisturizer to sink in. Southeast Dermatology Specialists say to start only once it has completely absorbed. Foundation over a damp layer slides around and gathers in creases.
• Go lighter. A lighter foundation or a BB cream works better here, since thick foundations settle into wrinkles.
• Cover only what needs it. AGEIST advises sheer foundation "only where it's actually needed." For most of us that means the spots that are actually red or dark, and a dab of concealer there.

If you love full coverage for photos, you can still have it. Build it in thin layers instead of one thick one. That's how glowy skin is made, one layer at a time.

Brows are where I get to be bossy, because brows are hair.

When your hair goes gray or silver and your brow pencil doesn't change, the two stop looking like they belong to the same person. Makeup artist Lauren D'Amelio Ventre gives the clearest color rule I've seen: the most flattering shade is "usually slightly deeper than the hair color but softer and cooler than a traditional brunette brow."

And the shade to retire, in her words: "warm pencils that pull red or orange immediately look disconnected."

If you've kept an auburn pencil since your redhead days, that's the usual culprit. So is a dark brown that matched your hair before it went silver.

Take the pencil you're thinking about buying and hold it next to your part in daylight. If it looks like a cousin of your hair, a shade deeper and a little cooler, it's the one. If it looks like a stranger, leave it at the store.

False lashes are fine for one big night. The American Academy of Ophthalmology says to keep them for special occasions and have a professional apply them, because glued or magnetic lashes put on badly can irritate the eye or scratch its surface. If you'll be gluing them on yourself anyway, the FDA's advice is short: "Check the ingredients before using these adhesives." Lash glues often contain natural rubber latex, so if latex bothers you, that's the word to look for.

So New Year's Eve makeup starts with a booking. If a pro appointment on December 31 sounds like fighting for a dinner reservation, ask early, or skip the strips and let the liner carry the holiday glam.

On the liner, celebrity makeup artist Donna May says to take the flick upward, toward the end of your brow. A wing drawn straight out follows the lid as it softens downward. Pointed at the tail of the brow, it lifts the whole eye.

At midnight, with a glass in your hand and everybody counting down, nobody can tell whether those lashes are yours.

The morning of the party, do less.

Board-certified dermatologist Dr. Aleksandra Brown says you don't need a costly eye cream to look rested: an ordinary moisturizer patted around the eyes, plus daily sunscreen in the morning, does most of the heavy lifting. San Diego dermatologist Dr. Mitchell Goldman puts it even more simply: don't clean your skin too much.

I know it's tempting to scrub before a big night so makeup goes on smooth. It does the opposite. Dr. Jacob warns that over-exfoliating before makeup, including alcohol toners, retinoids and acids, creates dry or rough patches that make foundation go on patchy. The AAD goes further for skin in menopause: at-home exfoliation may cause more harm than good. It also wants a broad-spectrum SPF 30 or higher on exposed skin every day.

Then comes the part no party guide mentions: 11:40 at night, coat still on, too tired to do anything.

Consultant dermatologists Dr. Emma Crathorne and Dr. Ellie Rasheed say party season is when skin gets touchy, and makeup is part of why: you may be wearing more makeup than usual and not taking it off properly. Even wearing makeup every day when you normally don't can upset skin on its own.

So take it all off before bed, eye makeup included, as the AAD says, with a gentle cleanser and your fingertips, no scrubbing. For eyes, the AAO names two gentle removers you may already own: Vaseline or baby shampoo, with a clean cotton swab at the base of the lashes.

A jar of Vaseline and a cup of swabs by the sink make that last step quick and easy.

Makeup artists call it underpainting, and the whole trick is the order: warm color goes on before foundation, not after.

Makeup artist Saffron Hughes calls it "creating shape and glow before you apply your foundation," and says it suits mature skin because "it adds subtle definition and glow without emphasizing texture." Celebrity makeup artist Mary Phillips says it "creates the structure of the face before you lay the rest of the makeup down."

Kim Weimer, who teaches makeup to women over 50, explains why it works so well for us. Foundation from hairline to jaw settles into fine lines and flattens the face, so she flips the routine: start with bronzer to add warmth and shape where you need it, then build foundation around it.

How it goes:

1. Cream bronzer first, where your face wants warmth and shape.
2. A sheer foundation over it, only where you need coverage. Hughes recommends cream formulas under a sheer base.
3. Concealer and blush last, in their spots.

Weimer's point is the one I'd tape inside a cabinet door: you don't need to cover your entire face, just the right products in the right places, in the right colors. For a family dinner, when you'd rather be at the table than getting ready, this is the face that takes the least time.

Powder sits on top of skin. Cream melts into it.

Makeup artist Gregory Arlt told Grazia that cream is "more forgiving to wrinkles, crepey skin or textured lids." Spence says cream blush gives a "lit from within flush without sitting in fine lines," and she puts hers on with her fingers, then softens it with a face brush. She names MERIT Flush Balm, about $30.

A 61-year-old woman on Reddit's r/over60 is blunter:

"You have to say goodbye to powders. Creams look so much better on mature skin and blend blend blend!" (r/over60)

What about under the eyes, where powder used to set concealer? Here's how a 62-year-old who wears foundation daily does it, on r/Makeup: she sprays her concealer brush and pats the spray over her under-eye concealer instead of setting it with powder.

Cosmetic chemist Michelle Wong explains why a setting spray holds. The holding kind is film-forming ingredients dissolved in a solvent, usually alcohol. The alcohol evaporates and leaves a thin, clear film over your makeup, a little like a top coat on nails. A second kind only moisturizes and blends, with no film. If staying power is what you want, look for PVP or acrylates copolymer on the ingredient list.

Mist from arm's length with your eyes closed, and let it dry before mascara.

If you still love powder, keep it, and use it the way Dr. Jacob says: in light, thin layers.

Shimmer isn't the problem. Where it lands is.

Makeup artists in Grazia lay out both sides of the argument. Renée Loiz describes what changes: "Crepey lids have lost their collagen and elasticity, have more fine lines and are looser." Elaina Badro says shimmer and frost "have the tendency to accentuate texture." Then Tonya Riner gives the reason not to give it up: "shimmer brings light to the center of the lid and inner corners."

They're both right, and RMS Beauty founder Rose-Marie Swift settles it: "a matte base with a touch of light-reflecting shadow in the center of the lid."

Matte everywhere, sparkle in two small places. That's the rule. A matte shadow across the lid and crease, then a fingertip of gold eyeshadow pressed only onto the center of the lid, where the eye curves forward and catches light.

For the inner corner highlight, Charlotte Tilbury's guide matches the gold to your skin: light gold for fair to medium skin, a warmer orange-gold or bronze for medium to deep. To keep it from looking chalky, gently pat the brush into the corner instead of sweeping.

Skip the cool silvers and harsh metallics for this look. Swift warns they highlight texture after 50.

This is my pick for the office party, for its understated, matte-forward finish.

The mascara from last year's parties is about a year old. That's four times the three-month life the AAD gives it, because a dermatologist quoted on its page about when to toss makeup says staph bacteria have been found in mascara after that point. The FDA's range is similar: manufacturers usually recommend tossing mascara two to four months after purchase.

The good news is that the timing works out. One new tube, opened at Thanksgiving, covers the whole season.

Brushes are the other half. The AAD calls dirty ones "a breeding ground for bacteria" and the wash is easy: rinse just the tips, swirl them in lukewarm water with about a tablespoon of gentle shampoo, rinse until the water runs clear, then lay them flat with the bristles hanging off the edge of a counter to dry.

AAD dermatologist Dara Spearman's warning covers everything else in the drawer: "Instead of having the desired effect, old makeup may irritate your skin."

Yes, you can wear glitter. Makeup artist Donni Davy says it with no hedging: "People of any age can and should wear shimmer/glitter formulas."

I hear the old rule in my chair every December, usually as a question: am I too old for sparkle? A woman almost 60 who wears makeup daily answered it on r/Makeup: she wears sparkles and glitter whenever she feels like it, rules for older women or not.

The method is what makes it look good. Makeup artist Vincent Ford's tip is to press it along the lash line with a flat brush instead of sweeping it across the whole lid. A thin glittering line right at the lashes catches the candlelight and leaves the lid itself alone.

There's one real caution. The AAO says glitter flakes can fall into the eye, get into the tear film and irritate it, and it's a common cause of irritation for contact lens wearers.

One more thing that isn't on the box: color additives can't be used on the brows, lids and lashes unless a regulation specifically permits it, so check that any glitter you wear there is formulated for eye use.

If your lid has started to fold down over itself, your crease color is probably disappearing the moment you open your eyes. Move it up.

Laura Mercier's guide for hooded eyes puts the crease shade slightly above the natural fold, not in it: "By lifting the shadow placement, your eyes will appear bigger and more defined, even when they're open!" That last part is the whole point. Shadow placed in the fold looks lovely with your eyes closed and vanishes when you look up. Look straight ahead, find where the fold sits, and blend just above it.

You'll hear a popular second trick: tightlining, which means running liner along the waterline right inside the lashes. Mally Roncal recommends it for hooded and deep-set eyes. The AAO advises the opposite, keeping cosmetics outside the lash line so they don't block the eye's protective oil glands. I'd follow the eye doctors and keep liner on the skin.

What you can change with no debate at all is the color. Donna May calls black liner harsh as we age and suggests navy, brown or dark plum. Women in over-50 threads on Reddit say switching to brown, used thinner and softer, made their eyes look softer. On a hooded eye, where a thick black line can disappear into the fold and reappear as a smudge, brown or plum just looks like shadow you meant to put there.

Here the pros flatly disagree, so here are the two positions and my vote.

Makeup artist Ashleigh Ciucci advises: "Line all the way up to the lip ridge and fully fill in your lips." Filling in means the liner wears evenly when the lipstick fades.

Merle Norman's guide, for corners that turn down: "Stop short of lining the corners to take emphasis away from drooping edges."

My vote: decide by your mouth. If your corners have started to turn down, stop short of them. If they haven't, line all the way and fill in.

Your makeup can be perfect at home and wrong at the party, because the light changed.

Warm light adds gold to skin, which fools people into piling on more foundation. It shifts lips too, says Michelle Louise Armstrong, a makeup artist who plans makeup for venue lighting: pink turns coral, and blue-based reds "can turn muddy." That's the red from #15 that looked perfect by the window.

The flash does something different. Trahan Studio Photography, which photographs weddings, warns that makeup with "silica, titanium dioxide or zinc oxide (think SPF makeup)" can show up white in flash photos. If your base is the tinted sunscreen from #13, this is the check that matters most.

Nobody at the party will notice a white cast. They'll see it later, in the group photo.

Here's the problem I hear more than any other, and the one almost nobody answers. A woman in a Reddit thread on makeup for women over 65 put it plainly: she can't put on eyeliner without wearing glasses, and doing it with glasses on is close to impossible.

Of course it's impossible. Your readers sit right where the pencil needs to go.

The fix costs about $10. Flip-lens makeup glasses put a magnifying lens over one eye. IF USA's pair has a suggested price of about $9.99. You do one eye, then "flip the magnifying lens over to the other eye and do it all again." The maker says they work for mascara and false lashes too.

What could stop it working: the pair comes in one magnification only. If one strength doesn't suit your eyes, women in the same Reddit thread say a lighted magnifying mirror, on a table or the wall, made eye makeup possible for them again.

And if you'd rather skip gadgets altogether, the workaround women in that thread land on is the one I'd suggest first anyway. Drop the hard line. Take a dark shadow on a small brush and smudge it along your upper lash line. It doesn't need a steady hand or perfect sight, because it isn't supposed to be precise. AGEIST says it outright: "Smudging often looks better than a hard graphic line."

A slightly wobbly smudge reads as smoky. A slightly wobbly line reads as a wobbly line.