This article was written for Annabel & Grace, which is now part of Rest Less.
Is it worth bothering with make up when you are old? Surely it’s too much trouble if you are just tramping across a field on a muddy dog walk or popping to the village post office? Tricia Cusden, the founder of Look Fabulous Forever, gives us both sides of the story. What’s your viewpoint?
Some time ago I posted a video showing me applying my eye makeup. One comment on Facebook bothered me because the gist of it was: “what a waste of time and effort when you’re too old to go clubbing and the people in the Co-Op (supermarket) don’t care what you look like!” The reason it bothered me was because the implied sentiment behind it was “you’re too old to be caring what you look like and nobody cares about you anyway”.
So I thought I’d write about the pro’s and con’s of wearing makeup beyond the age of (say) 60 years of age.
The Reasons I Bother to Wear Makeup:
It finishes off my overall appearance. I make an effort to wear nice clothes, and makeup is the final touch which I feel makes me look that bit extra soigné and sophisticated.
It makes me feel better. I’d rather apply makeup than take Prozac – and it has exactly the same effect. Make-up is a daily mood booster. Once I have applied my ‘face’ I can face up to things, face the world and face down any problems I might encounter.
It makes other people treat me better. We live in a strongly visual world surrounded by colour and contrast. Makeup restores those two things to my ageing face and means that I don’t fade into the background and become invisible.
It makes me look prettier and more attractive. Yes – I know that sounds vain – but I know what I look like without it ( see the video of me without face makeup!) The words ‘pretty’ and ‘attractive’ are not often associated with 67 year old women but I believe that my makeup substantially improves the way I look.
It’s something that gives me pleasure every day. I am actually talking about the creative process of painting a face. I trained as a makeup artist two years ago before launching Look Fabulous Forever and realised just how much I love the ritual associated with applying beautiful cosmetics and the transformational result.
Now I am going to give the other side of the case I have made (I do realise that not everyone believes or behaves as I do!)
Life is too short to bother with that palaver every day. Really? I am awake for about 14 hours a day – that’s 840 minutes. It takes (at most) 20 minutes to do a really professional makeup on myself. I NEVER retouch it. That leaves 820 minutes to live a very full and satisfying life.
Vanity and pride are sins – you should be ashamed of being so obsessed with the superficiality of appearance. If I was under holy orders I would readily agree with you but I am a female who likes to look nice. I don’t see why I can’t be a bit vain and take some pride in my appearance despite being ‘over the hill.’
It’s expensive to buy makeup. Yes – the initial outlay is not cheap, but a friend remarked recently that her LFF Eye Prime had lasted for a whole year and she’d used it every day. It costs £16 – so that’s around 4p a day. I reckon my makeup works out at about 50p a day outlay. Which is brilliant value for all the benefits it gives me!
It’s bad for your skin to wear all that gunk every day. I have worn makeup (pretty much) every day of my life for the past 50 years and have therefore cleansed, toned and moisturised every day too. And used exfoliators regularly. I have very few wrinkles on my face and part of the reason must be the daily care it has had.
Older women shouldn’t wear makeup – it’s for the young and beautiful. I know we live in a youth obsessed culture but I have earned the right to do what I like! I am not trying to look younger or compete – I am just determined to look as fabulous as I can!!
