10 years younger in two hours?
Most make-up ranges are aimed at women under 35; most women over 40 get stuck in a rut with their makeup, don’t know what to do and give up. They have bags full of make-up that costs a fortune and which they never use. They’d like to rejoin the cosmetic world, but think make-up’s no longer for them – they’re too old.
Paolozzi had 20 years’ experience working as a make-up artist on film and magazine shoots and has now launched a website providing information on make-up for the over-40s.
So what made her want to help the cosmetically-challenged older woman? ‘I got older,’ she says simply. ‘I wanted to do something more worthwhile; to do some good. And there is nothing out there for older women in terms of make-up, either advice or actual products. Are we supposed to have just disappeared by 40?’
Since then, she’s worked with people such as Anna Massey, Arlene Phillips, Emma Thompson and Joanna Lumley and is evangelical in her belief that growing old shouldn’t mean the end of looking good. ‘There are very few role models for older women,’ she says.
‘The popular belief is that if you’re an older woman, you either put on make-up and look like Joan Collins, or wear nothing at all. I try to make women see that that’s not true.’
She has not only spent the last few years putting all the experience she’s gained on film sets into working with ordinary people over 40, she also teaches those who have been ill how to use make-up to look and feel better.
‘Many people think that surgery or expensive creams are the answer to looking younger,’ Paolozzi says. ‘But lots of the time they only need the right make-up and beauty advice.’
So, spurred on by my own total ignorance when it comes to make-up for skin, let’s not say old, but no longer in the first flush of youth, I decided to test out Ms Paolozzi’s contention that a make-up makeover would be like a dose of HRT in cosmetic form – it’d take 10 years off me and give me a new lease of life.
We meet in the studio of photographer Emily Andersen, who had kindly agreed to record the results of this, to me radical, experiment. Since it’s freezing outside, the minute I step into the warmth, I turn the rude colour of a boiled beetroot. ‘Oh good,’ notes Emily, ‘we like them rough for the “before” picture’.
Prospective embarrassment had forced me to spend the morning getting rid of the many shortcomings that beset the ageing female face. I had looked at my eyebrows and thought they were ‘not too bad considering’ and plucked the stray hair from the chin, remembering the horrified shock of a friend of mine who had been approached at a dinner party by a fellow female guest who had told her in a piercing whisper, ‘I know where you can get something done about your tache and mono-brow…’
Actually, I wished I hadn’t remembered that, because the first thing Paolozzi does is have a go at the eyebrows. ‘Do you mind if I pluck them?’ she asks.
‘As you get older,’ Paolozzi explains, ‘eyebrow grooming becomes more important. Find a really good eyebrow person – you can tell if they’re good by their own eyebrows – and get them done regularly. A good eyebrow shape means an in-stant face uplift. A woolly eyebrow looks masculine – think of Denis Healey. Trimming the eyebrows and getting rid of any grey or extraneous hairs is like going back to how you were in your 20s.’
‘Grooming is your first line of defence against getting older,’ Paolozzi tells me sternly.
Now what? Well, blemish control. She starts by stroking on concealer under the eyes and up into the outer corners. ‘The corners of the eyes get darker as you get older,’ she explains.
How do you find the right shade?
‘It’s difficult,’ she admits, ‘but go to a good beauty counter and get them to tell you which shade is going to suit you.’
Concealer is applied to reduce dark circles, then a powder foundation, which doesn’t sink into the wrinkles, is brushed on. Now the eyebrows are defined with a shade of pencil that is paler than the brows, and the eye crayon chosen complements the eye and hair colour. A chocolate-brown mascara softens the look, with a natural lipstick to finish
Paolozzi uses concealer to reduce dark circles, and camouflage broken veins and spots. Next, it’s a layer of foundation. ‘But how do you put on foundation so that it doesn’t sink into wrinkles?’ I ask.
‘Use a powder,’ she advises. ‘I’ve researched it so you don’t have to… and I don’t believe in posh make-up products,’ she adds. ‘Just pure products that work.’
She puts the powder foundation on with a brush and gets rid of any excess with a powder puff although, she carries on, ‘the powdery effect will disappear as the day goes on, leaving you with a glow. Powder is better than liquid because it doesn’t sink into the skin and holds eye make-up better.’
By now I think I’m ready for my close-up. But hang on, there’s the blusher to apply (an apricot/pink shade that will give me a ‘slight teenage glow’), and a little more work on the eyebrows, which Paolozzi shapes with a self-sharpening eyebrow pencil, getting rid of any greys and stroking in each hair.
‘Use a shade that’s paler than your eyebrow,’ she advises. The result is astonishing. My eyebrows are now a triumph and it makes an enormous difference. ‘Many people lose their eyebrows as they grow older,’ says Paolozzi. ‘Restoring them makes you feel better, which in turn changes how you look.’
And I had forgotten about the eyes. Paolozzi is using an eye crayon in a colour that should ‘complement your hair and eye colour.’ In my case, that’s chestnut.
‘It’ll make your hazel eyes look greener. If you’d been a blonde, I’d have used greys or smoky aubergine, but never green or blue, even if the shops are full of them. When you’re older you can’t follow fashion trends. You’ve got to be classic. Earth colours are best but that doesn’t mean that your lipstick has to be earthy.
‘You only need one good look’, she adds, ‘then you can adapt it for different events. For instance, I’ve done women over 60 with dark kohl round the eyes for parties – and it looks fab.
‘I do the best eyes,’ she says happily. ‘The biggest mistake older women make is putting on a heavy pigment lipstick, thinking it is going to make you look healthy,’ she says. ‘It doesn’t. At this age, concentrate on the eyes. Make them come to the fore.’
I’m done, ready for the ‘after’ shot. The session has been enormously good fun and very informative. I look younger, brighter, fresher and better-groomed. What’s more, I have been empowered to do it myself.
In fact, even when I took my makeover off to visit a friend, the appeal lasted. ‘You look terrific,’ she said.’ Have you been on holiday?'
60s Greying, lifeless skin. Use blusher to make the difference between looking washed out and glowing. Blusher gives the face a bloom.
70s Eyes begin to lose definition; you need to redefine them using eye crayon in smoky/earthy colours, and a chocolate brown, rather than black mascara.
80s Your features and colour start to fade. Redefine your face by emphasising the eyes, and replace lost colouring with blusher and a naturalcoloured lipstick.
Anna does make-up for women aged 40 to 100. She can do your make-up or give you a proper lesson. She’ll come to you, or you can go to her. She will also help you do a make-up de-clutter, and advises on a capsule make-up bag using good products that are not necessarily the most expensive: 07956-257850, www.annapaolozzi.co.uk or makeup@annapaolozzi.co.uk – £250 for up to two hours.
Photography by Emily Andersen: www.andersenphotographic.org
Makeover masterclass
If you muttered ‘yes, tell me something I don’t know’, to any of the above, then you could probably do with a session with Anna Paolozzi.Paolozzi had 20 years’ experience working as a make-up artist on film and magazine shoots and has now launched a website providing information on make-up for the over-40s.
So what made her want to help the cosmetically-challenged older woman? ‘I got older,’ she says simply. ‘I wanted to do something more worthwhile; to do some good. And there is nothing out there for older women in terms of make-up, either advice or actual products. Are we supposed to have just disappeared by 40?’
Since then, she’s worked with people such as Anna Massey, Arlene Phillips, Emma Thompson and Joanna Lumley and is evangelical in her belief that growing old shouldn’t mean the end of looking good. ‘There are very few role models for older women,’ she says.
‘The popular belief is that if you’re an older woman, you either put on make-up and look like Joan Collins, or wear nothing at all. I try to make women see that that’s not true.’
She has not only spent the last few years putting all the experience she’s gained on film sets into working with ordinary people over 40, she also teaches those who have been ill how to use make-up to look and feel better.
‘Many people think that surgery or expensive creams are the answer to looking younger,’ Paolozzi says. ‘But lots of the time they only need the right make-up and beauty advice.’
So, spurred on by my own total ignorance when it comes to make-up for skin, let’s not say old, but no longer in the first flush of youth, I decided to test out Ms Paolozzi’s contention that a make-up makeover would be like a dose of HRT in cosmetic form – it’d take 10 years off me and give me a new lease of life.
We meet in the studio of photographer Emily Andersen, who had kindly agreed to record the results of this, to me radical, experiment. Since it’s freezing outside, the minute I step into the warmth, I turn the rude colour of a boiled beetroot. ‘Oh good,’ notes Emily, ‘we like them rough for the “before” picture’.
Prospective embarrassment had forced me to spend the morning getting rid of the many shortcomings that beset the ageing female face. I had looked at my eyebrows and thought they were ‘not too bad considering’ and plucked the stray hair from the chin, remembering the horrified shock of a friend of mine who had been approached at a dinner party by a fellow female guest who had told her in a piercing whisper, ‘I know where you can get something done about your tache and mono-brow…’
Actually, I wished I hadn’t remembered that, because the first thing Paolozzi does is have a go at the eyebrows. ‘Do you mind if I pluck them?’ she asks.
‘As you get older,’ Paolozzi explains, ‘eyebrow grooming becomes more important. Find a really good eyebrow person – you can tell if they’re good by their own eyebrows – and get them done regularly. A good eyebrow shape means an in-stant face uplift. A woolly eyebrow looks masculine – think of Denis Healey. Trimming the eyebrows and getting rid of any grey or extraneous hairs is like going back to how you were in your 20s.’
Grooming essentials
After five minutes, she lets me look in the mirror. It’s astonishing – about 10 years have dropped off, or at least the look that implies I mislaid a pair of tweezers 10 years ago and haven’t found them since, has dropped off.‘Grooming is your first line of defence against getting older,’ Paolozzi tells me sternly.
Now what? Well, blemish control. She starts by stroking on concealer under the eyes and up into the outer corners. ‘The corners of the eyes get darker as you get older,’ she explains.
How do you find the right shade?
‘It’s difficult,’ she admits, ‘but go to a good beauty counter and get them to tell you which shade is going to suit you.’
Concealer is applied to reduce dark circles, then a powder foundation, which doesn’t sink into the wrinkles, is brushed on. Now the eyebrows are defined with a shade of pencil that is paler than the brows, and the eye crayon chosen complements the eye and hair colour. A chocolate-brown mascara softens the look, with a natural lipstick to finishPaolozzi uses concealer to reduce dark circles, and camouflage broken veins and spots. Next, it’s a layer of foundation. ‘But how do you put on foundation so that it doesn’t sink into wrinkles?’ I ask.
‘Use a powder,’ she advises. ‘I’ve researched it so you don’t have to… and I don’t believe in posh make-up products,’ she adds. ‘Just pure products that work.’
She puts the powder foundation on with a brush and gets rid of any excess with a powder puff although, she carries on, ‘the powdery effect will disappear as the day goes on, leaving you with a glow. Powder is better than liquid because it doesn’t sink into the skin and holds eye make-up better.’
By now I think I’m ready for my close-up. But hang on, there’s the blusher to apply (an apricot/pink shade that will give me a ‘slight teenage glow’), and a little more work on the eyebrows, which Paolozzi shapes with a self-sharpening eyebrow pencil, getting rid of any greys and stroking in each hair.
‘Use a shade that’s paler than your eyebrow,’ she advises. The result is astonishing. My eyebrows are now a triumph and it makes an enormous difference. ‘Many people lose their eyebrows as they grow older,’ says Paolozzi. ‘Restoring them makes you feel better, which in turn changes how you look.’
And I had forgotten about the eyes. Paolozzi is using an eye crayon in a colour that should ‘complement your hair and eye colour.’ In my case, that’s chestnut.
‘It’ll make your hazel eyes look greener. If you’d been a blonde, I’d have used greys or smoky aubergine, but never green or blue, even if the shops are full of them. When you’re older you can’t follow fashion trends. You’ve got to be classic. Earth colours are best but that doesn’t mean that your lipstick has to be earthy.
‘You only need one good look’, she adds, ‘then you can adapt it for different events. For instance, I’ve done women over 60 with dark kohl round the eyes for parties – and it looks fab.
The eyes have it
She adds some mascara – using chocolate brown to ‘get some softness’ – and steps back to take a look.‘I do the best eyes,’ she says happily. ‘The biggest mistake older women make is putting on a heavy pigment lipstick, thinking it is going to make you look healthy,’ she says. ‘It doesn’t. At this age, concentrate on the eyes. Make them come to the fore.’
I’m done, ready for the ‘after’ shot. The session has been enormously good fun and very informative. I look younger, brighter, fresher and better-groomed. What’s more, I have been empowered to do it myself.
In fact, even when I took my makeover off to visit a friend, the appeal lasted. ‘You look terrific,’ she said.’ Have you been on holiday?'
Signs of ageing and what to do about them
50s Your eyebrows can grow wild, go grey or get wiry. Managing them gives you the equivalent of a face lift, opens up your eyes and helps you to look groomed.60s Greying, lifeless skin. Use blusher to make the difference between looking washed out and glowing. Blusher gives the face a bloom.
70s Eyes begin to lose definition; you need to redefine them using eye crayon in smoky/earthy colours, and a chocolate brown, rather than black mascara.
80s Your features and colour start to fade. Redefine your face by emphasising the eyes, and replace lost colouring with blusher and a naturalcoloured lipstick.
Anna does make-up for women aged 40 to 100. She can do your make-up or give you a proper lesson. She’ll come to you, or you can go to her. She will also help you do a make-up de-clutter, and advises on a capsule make-up bag using good products that are not necessarily the most expensive: 07956-257850, www.annapaolozzi.co.uk or makeup@annapaolozzi.co.uk – £250 for up to two hours.
Photography by Emily Andersen: www.andersenphotographic.org