If you enjoy wearing make-up daily or want to start, then it can help to find a reliable everyday make-up routine. Not only can this save you time – but it can also help to make sure that you start your day off on the right foot.
One of the drawbacks of wearing make-up is that it can add too much time to your morning routine, causing you to feel rushed. Plus, if you’re not particularly confident putting make-up looks together, it can be tricky to know where to start. For example, eyeliner or no eyeliner? Bronzer or blush – or both?
Our skin also changes with age so sometimes we may need to make adjustments to our make-up routine to reflect this, such as switching to more hydrating products or using a lighter-weight foundation.
To help, here’s a list of nine steps that you can use to create an easy-everyday makeup routine. For those who feel unsure about how quickly this makeup look can come together, we’ve also included a five-minute video tutorial from Look Fabulous Forever – an award-winning make-up brand for mature women – to show you just how easy it really is!
1. Use a good primer
Primer can act as a helpful base for an easy, everyday make-up routine whether you’re someone who likes to wear foundation or not. It’s applied before your make-up and after your moisturiser, and its job is to even out your skin texture so your make-up applies more smoothly. Primer also helps make-up to stay in place for longer.
Primers should be applied liberally and can be blended into the skin with your fingers or a brush, just like foundation.
For mature skin, which can be prone to dryness, beauty experts recommend choosing a primer that has brightening, hydrating properties as this will help to give skin a fresh, dewy finish. Ingredients like hyaluronic acids, ceramides, and peptides are great for locking in moisture – so keep an eye out for these.
If you’re not sure where to start with choosing a primer, you might want to try The Ordinary’s High-Spreadability Fluid Primer, Laura Mercier’s Pure Canvas Primer, or Ole Henriksen’s Banana Bright Face Primer.
2. Apply a quick base layer of foundation
When applying make-up to mature skin, it’s nearly always better to apply a single, lightweight layer. Foundation that’s applied in thick layers can settle into creases in the skin, making it look cakey and less natural.
To keep things light, simply add a dab of foundation to your primed chin, cheeks, nose, and forehead, and spend a couple of minutes blending it in (with a foundation brush) from the centre of your face outwards, to create an even base for the rest of your makeup.
When choosing a foundation, it’s worth looking out for those that are specifically designed to target dark spots; leave skin looking smooth and hydrated; and act as a barrier against pollution and sun damage.
If you want to keep things really light and dewy, you might also want to choose a complexion corrector (CC) cream, serum, or balm over a standard foundation. These tend to offer lighter coverage and double up as a moisturiser.
Some foundation products that are worth a try include Charlotte Tilbury’s Airbrush Flawless Longwear Foundation, IT Cosmetics’ Your Skin But Better CC+ Cream with SPF 50+, or No7’s Protect & Perfect Intense Advanced All-In-One Foundation.
You can find more foundation recommendations in our article; 8 of the best foundations for mature skin.
3. Use a hydrating, lightweight concealer under the eyes
Once you’ve got your foundation base, you can add concealer in areas that you feel could use more coverage.
Unless you have dark blemishes that you want to even out, you can usually limit concealer to use under your eyes, to minimise dark circles and make eyes look wider and brighter. Using a smaller brush than your foundation brush (such as Look Fabulous Forever’s brush here) to blend your concealer will also help to give you more control.
Just like your foundation, it’s best to choose concealers that are hydrating and lightweight, so that they don’t settle into fine lines in your skin – which is especially important around the eyes where the skin is thinner and more prone to creases.
A couple of examples are By Terry’s Hyaluronic Hydra-Concealer and Trinny London’s BFF Eye Serum-Concealer.
4. Add a touch of highlighter
A small amount of highlighter can also be added under your brows and on your cheekbones to attract light, enhance your bone structure and skin tone, and achieve a natural, glowy look.
We’d recommend using a cream or liquid highlighter over a powder one as they’re more subtle and can give you greater control while applying them (many come with a built-in brush and can be blended further using your fingers) – plus they won’t dry the skin out. Beauty experts also advise that you pick a highlighter shade that’s about two shades lighter than your skin tone.
A couple of highlighters that come highly recommended for creating a natural dewy finish are Charlotte Tilbury’s Beauty Light Wand and L’Oreal Paris’ Glow Mon Amour Highlighting Drops.
5. Use eyeshadow like a liner
While using a pencil or liquid eyeliner can be an effective way to frame eyes, it can sometimes look too harsh and heavy for a daytime look — plus, it can be tricky and time-consuming to apply.
To enhance your eyes in a softer, more natural-looking way, why not use eyeshadow as a liner instead? Using a moistened, angled make-up brush, you can simply sweep a little bit of charcoal grey or brown eyeshadow across the base of your lashes (top and bottom) to make them look thicker and add depth to your eyes.
For mature skin, Look Fabulous Forever recommends choosing matte eyeshadows over shimmery or glittery ones, which are more likely to highlight the skin’s texture and create a slightly messy, uneven finish. Their No Shimmer eyeshadow range is completely matte for this reason. You might want to try the chocolate or pewter shades.
6. Combine blusher and bronzer for a warm, sunkissed glow
Blush and bronzer have similar jobs and many believe that we should choose one over the other but they actually work well when combined, as each has their own role to play.
Blusher adds a hint of natural face flush to cheeks, while bronzer offers a sunkissed warmth – and blended together they can create a healthy, natural-looking skin tone.
The key is to stick to using a blush that’s as close to your natural skin tone as possible (when your cheeks are flushed) and a bronzer that’s one or two shades darker than your foundation. Also, remember that less is more; anything that’s too dark and heavy for your skin tone won’t be as effective.
The warmth or coolness of your skin tone can influence your blush and bronzer choices too. There are a couple of tests you can use to determine whether you’re warmer or cooler…
If you think that gold jewellery suits you best your skin is more likely to have warm undertones, and if silver is more you, then you probably have a cooler undertone. You can also tell more about your skin’s undertone by throwing on something neutral like white, black, or brown – warm undertones tend to look better in off-white and brown while cool undertones look better in true white and black.
Warmer-toned people might want to try a bronzer with a golden hue and a blush with a warm apricot tone, and cooler-toned people could try a bronzer with peachy tones and a soft pink blush.
A powder bronzer can be swept over the face generously with a large, plush brush to give a subtle sun-kissed look all over. If you’re not sure where to start when it comes to blushers, then check out Juvia’s Place Bronzed Duo Bronzer or Charlotte Tilbury’s Airbrush Bronzer.
In contrast, blending cream blush into the skin with your finger or a smaller, tapered brush can allow for a smoother, more natural look. You might want to try this Lip and Cheek Tint from No.7 or this Sheer Shimmer Lip To Cheek from Trinny London.
There’s plenty of controversy over whether to apply blush or bronzer first. But there seems to be a greater preference for bronzer first and blusher second, the reason being that bronzer can act as a base for the blusher, diffusing its pigment so it doesn’t look so harsh against the skin.
7. Add a layer of nourishing mascara
Nearly all of us would agree that mascara is an essential part of any great make-up look – both day and night – as it really helps to open up the eyes and make them pop.
Our eyelashes can also become thinner with age, and while this is completely normal and usually nothing to worry about, you may find that you become much more conscious of the quality and finish of your mascara.
There are plenty of mascaras that promise to create big, beautiful lashes so choosing one can sometimes be tricky. However, some that come highly recommended for mature lashes because of their volumising, nourishing, and softening properties are L’Oreal Age Perfect Lash Magnifying Mascara, Maybelline Full ‘N Soft Washable Mascara, and Neutrogena Healthy Lengths Mascara.
Some people prefer to add mascara to the top lashes only – and this is really down to personal preference. Though, adding a layer to both the top and bottom lashes can help to open up the eyes and make you look more awake.
8. Fill in brows with eyeshadow
Like using eyeliner, filling in eyebrows with liquid products and pencils can cause them to look harsh and is the kind of thing that’s easy to mess up when working quickly. Therefore, another option for those who like to fill in their brows is to fill in brows with an eyeshadow (using a small, angled make-up brush again, like for your eyeshadow liner). Not only is this far quicker but it also tends to be more convincing.
When choosing a suitable eyeshadow for this, it’s best to go for something matte that’s the same hue as your roots and undertone as your skin tone (which will be warm, cool, or neutral). While selecting this colour might sound tricky, it’s often far easier to find an eye shadow in the same shade as your eyebrows than to find the perfect brow product.
For example, this eyeshadow palette from Urban Decay Naked 2 Basics Eyeshadow Palette has a range of colours that might be suitable, as does this Nude Matte 9 Colour Palette from Beauty Bay.
If you’re looking to save money and space on make-up products then colour palettes like these are ideal, as they have the potential to double up as an eyeliner, eyeshadow, and eyebrow product.
9. Finish with a hydrating lipstick
The final step is to finish with a lipstick of your choice – or no lipstick at all depending on your preference.
However, adding lipstick can make lips look fuller and teeth appear white, and many women say that it has a real confidence-boosting effect, helping them to feel ready to face the day. Not only that but a great lipstick will also contain a moisturising formula (such as hyaluronic acid, jojoba oil, avocado oil, or shea butter) to help lips stay hydrated.
Some of the best ones include Soap & Glory’s Completely Balmy Lipstick, Charlotte Tilbury’s Hyaluronic Happikiss, and Glossier’s Ultralip.
If you have a warmer skin tone, then you might want to try lipsticks in shades that have yellow or orange undertones like coral pink, peach, brick red, and terracotta brown. Or if your skin is cooler in tone, you could try choosing shades that have blue or purple undertones like plum, cherry, or cranberry.
Other shades that look flattering and natural on all skin tones are pink-based or brown-based nudes.
Extra tip: Apply a layer of lip balm underneath lipstick for added hydration.
Interested in seeing how this easy, everyday make-up look can come together?
Check out the video below to see how Sally from Look Fabulous Forever uses the steps above to complete a fresh, everyday make-up look in just five minutes – ideal for when you’re looking for a hassle-free beauty routine.
Final thoughts…
The world of make-up can be a little overwhelming at times – particularly when they’re such a huge range of choices. So we hope that by narrowing down some of the steps and products above, we’ve helped to make things a little easier.
While using make-up is by no means a necessity, it can help us to feel more confident, add a little extra sparkle to our day, and act as a form of self-care.
For more beauty and skincare tips, you might want to check out our articles; 4 common skin changes during menopause and how to manage them and 8 make-up tips for mature women.