How you’re accidentally making yourself look older

I've been applying my makeup all wrong.

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I was happy with the way my makeup used to look and go on quickly, but after chatting with beauty expert Erica Taylor, I realized it was time to give my routine a facelift.

“They repeat the same tasks for years without altering their approach. However, our faces are constantly changing. So, how can the same routine work on a different face?”

Sorry, buddy, it's impossible to do so.

With over 25 years of experience in the field, Taylor has far surpassed the expertise of those who gained their skills solely from online tutorials. The 48 year old, with more than 1.1 million followers on Instagram, made a name by transforming her personal practice into training with top industry professionals at MAC Cosmetics, culminating in being named one of L'Oréal Paris' League of Experts. Recently, she's tapped into her own journey of revamping her makeup routine to offer guidance to women looking to simplify their beauty rituals.

In one highly popular online video, Taylor shows the "common errors" many women have made over time that make them appear older — by painting half her face with outdated makeup styles, and the other half with modern techniques.

The "problem" side of her face showed her eyebrows and eyeliner done too small, her contouring and blush applied incorrectly, and her lip liner appearing fseeked in a way that many people wouldn’t notice.

Taylor let out a plethora of beauty secrets for rejuvenating your makeup routine and steering clear of products that might have the opposite effect, ultimately causing you to lose years.

Eyebrows

Who remembers the fake eyebrow trend where eyebrows were carved into shape? Or perhaps the era when everyone had super bushy brows, reminiscent of a soap opera diva? Well, according to Taylor, both styles are “out.”

We're seeing more of a finer line versus that older, powdery arch," she admitted, pointing out the most crucial thing that people often get wrong: "You're not making the McDonald's arch anymore.

You want to lightly fill in your brows and sweep the ends upwards slightly to create a lifted appearance.

When you point the ends of your eyebrows down when smiling, you're actually squashing the structure of your face rather than elongating it.

Skin Prep

Making sure your skin is ready for makeup is an important step. “Back in the 1990s, taking care of your skin before applying makeup wasn't a priority at all,” Taylor said to me. “To be honest, I don't even recall people using skincare products back then. I remember just slapping on some foundation in the morning and going about my day.”

Skincare helps guard your skin shield, prevents your makeup from getting wrinkles, calms uncomfortably dry or damaged patches, and allows your makeup to glide on more smoothly, giving you a fresher, more radiant appearance.

It's a good idea to apply moisturizer or serums to your skin before using a primer and continuing with your makeup routine.

It doesn't matter if your makeup is light and natural-looking or elaborate and heavily applied — it shouldn't be the first thing to come into contact with your skin.

Foundation

According to Taylor, using one pump of your foundation on each side of your face should provide an even skin tone.

You should be able to slap on your foundation and head out the door without looking silly, and not like a blank canvas.

Tinted moisturizers are suitable alternatives to foundation for a more natural makeup look. If your aim is to achieve a more complete coverage base, though, you'll want to use foundation, but start with a light layer to begin with.

Applying it gradually, layer by layer, to provide comprehensive coverage.

A visibily prominent and dense foundation.

Blush

With a hint of embarrassment, Taylor said you should aim to avoid having a "Neapolitan dessert" appearance with distinct layers of colour. The blush and bronzer should merge seamlessly without any visible demarcation between the two.

The blush colour you choose should match the shade that your face blushes naturally to, and apply it to your cheek bones for a lifted appearance. Taylor suggests using a small amount of cream blush, as it is more vibrant than most powder blushes and only needs a tiny dot on each side.

Apply the cream blush and blend it evenly across the areas just above your cheekbones.

Signing on to only the tops of your cheeks with powder.

Concealer and brightening

Similar to how you get your skin around your eyes ready to protect its delicate base, the area under your eyes needs to be prepped and plumped up with a nourishing eye balm.

"You have to prime your eyes if you're not 20 anymore so your concealer won't crease," Taylor noted.

Beauty trends used to feature a more noticeable hollow under-eye area, which was accentuated by a pale concealer. "However, nowadays, the goal is to blend in, not stand out," the trend expert said. "The under-eye area should match your skin, rather than looking significantly lighter."

For millennial skin types, focusing on brightening the inner corner of the eyes is key. However, for someone with mature skin like myself, I prioritise illuminating the areas around the nose and lips, as these are the locations where the skin tends to naturally sag and hollow out. By applying highlighters to these depressed areas, I aim to create a more youthful and radiant appearance.

A concealer that both corrects blemishes and brightens up your complexion.

Apply concealer that's a shade too light under your eyes, just like the makeup style of a Kardashian.

Contour and Bronzer

The right placement of contours can make all the difference in a makeup look, Taylor says, and the traditional "C" contouring technique of dragging product down the cheek to create definition isn't as effective as you might think, says Taylor.

"I think the C-cut silhouette has a puppet-like quality, it's like a marionette," she admitted.

Instead, Taylor recommended using a cream concealer on the cheekbones, gently sweeping it up and around the hairline to add warmth to the face. You can also apply a light dusting of concealer along the jawline to make it more defined.

Once you've got your contour on, add a thin layer of bronzer on top. Taylor likes to use a cream bronzer, but if you're looking to dust it all over, a powder formula can also do the trick.

You should define your facial features with facial lifts.

Drawing a C from your temples down to your cheekbones.

Eyeliner

For your eyeliner, Taylor advises against cutting off the colour too abruptly and recommends avoiding the waterline. Painting too much dark liner along the top and bottom of your eyelid can make your eyes appear smaller and more compact. You should instead follow the shape of your lash line with a slight curving from the outer corner, similar to a lash lift.

“Lower eyebrow, lower eye; higher eyebrow, higher eye,” Taylor explained. “If your eyeliner is short and too thick, it can detract from the eye shape. You want to create a natural looking eyeliner that emphasizes the length of your eye. To do that, angle your pencil upwards from the inner corner of your eye and towards the lash line, like you're lifting it above the cheekbone, and shaping around the outer corner to create a more lifted and elongated look.”

Applying your eyeliner to create the illusion of lengthening your eyes and thereby framing your entire face.

Filling in the waterline.

Lips

This could be the most difficult adjustment for a lot of people: figuring out how to

“Uh, I didn't line up to the very end of the lip,” Taylor said. That’s because if you line up exactly to the very end of the lip then, as Taylor explains, gravity takes over visually and "she's going down, she's dropping".

To achieve this look, start by drawing your top lip slightly wider than your natural shape. Then, when applying your lip liner or lipstick, be sure not to extend it to the very edges of your lips.

Smile by curling your lips in only three-quarters of the way.

Lips entirely covered in lipstick and lip liner.

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