Makeup For All Ages

By Chava Rosenbaum

Chava is a 26 year old mother of two girls living in Kensington, NY.  She has been a practicing makeup artist for nearly seven years and recently began doing makeup for the exploding field of religious women's theater...in which she also loves to perform! Chava offers lessons to women, teaching them how to apply their own makeup like a professional. In addition to makeup, her passions are singing, comedy and keeping her kids out of her shoe rack. Chava is available to do makeup for simchas and productions in New York. You can contact her to book a consultation of job by e-mailing beautybychava@rocketmail.com


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"Many women at this age find their eyelids heavily wrinkled or droopy. 

If this is the case, eyeshadow is not your friend!"

Makeup For All Ages 

How to use the right makeup to look good at every age! 

Greetings! I am so excited and honored to be blogging about beauty for LadyMama! I'll be sharing all sorts of makeup and beauty related information, but before we get into individual looks and tips I want to go over what makeup can and can't do. I have had alot of clients who are past their twenties by a stretch and when I'm done and they look in the mirror, they are crushed. "You can see my wrinkles" they say. "Why does my skin look so rough?" "All those lines by my eyes, you can't do anything?"

Folks, you have to be realistic about your makeup. If you have wrinkles, a good primer can diminish the appearance but makeup won't make them go away. Same for lines under the eyes. If you're skin is rough, dry or scaly when you sit in my chair than the makeup will be applied to rough, dry, scaly skin. You have to exfoliate weekly and moisturize daily for some time prior if you don't want that to show. If you have acne, I can cover the redness...but not the bumps. In short, makeup can correct and enhance color, but not texture. lines, bumps, scales and wrinkles.

Now let's get down to business...

One of the biggest mistakes I see women make is not adjusting their makeup palette with age. And this can actually make you look older! People think that with time they need more makeup to cover up their age but this in fact draws attention to it. Lets go through different ages in a woman's life and talk about what kind of makeup is appropriate and enhancing.

Teens: Teens need very little makeup.  While its tempting when you first start out with makeup to go crazy with the colors, it really does look silly. Teens still have a freshness to their look that requires very little enhancing. I stick to one shade of eye shadow (as opposed to blending different colors and effects) applied lightly, with scarce eyeliner, mascara, blush and lip gloss.

Twenties: Now is the decade of makeup fun! Enjoy it while it lasts. You are mature enough to not look like you're playing dress up and your skin and face are youthful and firm enough to carry most looks and colors. Experiment now (within reason of course!), but remember the ironclad rule of not looking raunchy. Eyes or lips, not both. Either be playful with your eyes or your lip color. Whichever you choose to enhance, keep the other light and simple. Go for rich, buildable mascaras. Use powder compacts to control shine and play with highlights and contours on the face.


Thirties: Alas, you're a grownup now! But you have to start acting like it. Your first lines may have begun to show. While you still look youthful, the picked-peach freshness may be fading. You're makeup can still have color and you can try out new looks but you need to go for more polish and sophistication. Well defined eyebrows are a must even as you get older; they add structure and polish instantly. You don't have to go completely neutral, but your eye colors should be more muted. Avoid makeup that's too sparkly, although a subtle shimmer or metalic finish can be okay. Lipstick can vary in color but avoid loud colors or frosted finishes. The bubblegum peach or frosted pink you may have favored in your twenties will look silly now. You can find sophisticated shades in every color family. Lipliner is a must too.

Forties: This is the time when less really does start to be more. From the forties on, avoid powder foundations. They make your skin look dry and settle in lines and creases. At this age, you probably don't have pimples or too many skin blemishes so use a more sheer liquid foundation to give your skin evenness and glow. Use pink concealer to brighten under eyes. Black eyeliner may start to look to heavy on your eye lids as the skin starts to lose firmness. Go for softer shades like browns, grays and navy blue! Your eye shadow can still have some drama but stay in the neutral color families. If you do choose colors, go for ones that are near the neutrals. For example, soft brownish greens instead of lime green, blue-gray instead of sky blue, a dusty pink instead of a bright pink. Lip colors should also be neutral and lip liner becomes more essential as you get older and the lips become less defined. At this point, stick to soft peach and muted pink blushes - no browns or red. Sweep them on the cheekbones rather than the apples. Using an eyelash curler will help your look, since mascara shouldn't be too heavy.

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Fifties-Sixties: Subtlety is everything now. Eyebrows which may have grown sparse should be filled in and well shaped. This alone takes year off! Many women at this age find their eyelids heavily wrinkled or droopy. If this is the case, eyeshadow is not your friend! Instead, apply your sheer foundation to the eyelids too to make them look less dry, then put a sheer highlighter under the browbones. Skip eyeshadow. If your eyelids are still firm enough to carry eye shadow, keep it light and very neutral. Stick with matte and satin finishes. Shimmer of any kind will accentuate wrinkles. Put a sheer hilighter under the browbone. Use a soft eyeliner pencil in brown, dark gray or navy...but never black! Use a waterproof, smear-proof formula. Raccoon eyes on wrinkled lids make for a bad combo. You want that liner staying where you put it. Apply it after your foundation has dried. In most cases, I recommend using it on the upper lid only. Mascara is a must, but use light, defining formulas - nothing heavy that builds thickness. This will weight your thin lashes down and give your eyes a tarantula look! And since many women have short lashes by this age, a lash curler will go a long way! Stick to cream blushes which replenish the supple look to the skin. Avoid powders, since they can make the skin look dry and aged. Very soft pink, nude, or peach lip colors should be used with lip pencil. Use moisturizing formulas; dry lipstick on mature lips can have a very aging effect!

Now ladies....go get prettyfied!