10 Makeup Mistakes and How to Correct Them | Over 50 Tips and Tricks!

Do you find yourself struggling with makeup? Do you watch loads of content creators on YouTube and try to follow along with their techniques but they just don't seem to look right on you? Or do you use the same techniques you've been using for years but suddenly since you've passed 50 they just don't look the same? Well in this video I'm going to show you 10 makeup mistakes that I've been making until recently, in fact very recently actually, and how to correct them. Hello and welcome or welcome back. Now just before we get into the makeup mistakes I just want to show you this picture of my mum. This was taken in about 1985-86 I would think and as you can see she's rimmed her eyes with black eyeliner which was her signature look and that was a signature look of mine until quite recently but as you'll see in the makeup mistakes it probably isn't a good look for me going forward. Anyway without further ado let's get into the 10 makeup mistakes that you could be making and then we'll follow on with how to correct them. The first makeup mistake is not applying primer before we apply foundation. Not only should we be applying moisturiser and SPF but we should also be applying primer as we age because the primer is going to help smooth out the lines and the open pores and other skin texture concerns. It's going to improve application and potentially extend the wear of the foundation so that it stays in place throughout the day. The second makeup mistake is applying too much concealer under our eyes. Now if we apply too much concealer instead of brightening them and smoothing out the fine lines and wrinkles under our eyes the makeup is then going to just look cakey and clumpy and it's going to draw attention to our under eyes in a way that we don't want rather than just enhancing them and brightening them. The third makeup mistake is applying too much powder and applying it all over the face instead of just where it's needed which is usually the T-zone and under the eyes. Now if you apply too much powder your skin is going to look cakey, it's going to accentuate any dryness and it's going to accentuate your fine lines and your texture. The fourth makeup mistake is making our brows too dark and this is something I've been doing for quite some time and actually some of my lovely subscribers have told me so. Brows are an important part of our complexion however they are there to frame our eyes and our eyes should be the focus of our face particularly as we age rather than our brows. So although it's important to have groomed brows it's kinder to our faces to stick to a shade that's closer to our hairline. The fifth makeup mistake is applying a pale colour on our eyelids and then following that with black eyeliner on the upper lid and the lower lid. That was very much a look of the early 70s and I think I also picked it up from watching Greta Garbo movies back in the day. But if you apply black eyeliner in the waterline as well as on the mobile lid you will be closing up your eye rather than enhancing it. The sixth makeup mistake is applying mascara without having curled your lashes and just applying it in a slapdash way with one coat. The seventh makeup mistake is applying blusher to the apples of our cheeks. Now the apples of our cheeks are not a good guide to where to place blusher because as we age our skin has sagged and our cheeks are not where they were and so when we stop smiling the blusher is going to be in the wrong place. The eighth makeup mistake is applying contour stick to our cheeks where I would suggest as we age we don't need it and overdoing the bronzer so that we look like we've been tangoed rather than sun-kissed. The ninth makeup mistake is using too dark a pencil to outline our lips and to add insult to injury coming in at number 10 in the makeup mistakes charts is to use a much paler lipstick on the lips which is going to make me look like I've just stepped off the stage of the Royal Ballet and forgotten to take my makeup off. So we're going to start with primer and I'm going to be using the Elf Liquid Poreless Putty Primer. Now this is the liquid one rather than the one that's in the jar. I think this is better for me because it's slightly more liquidy but I do think it helps particularly in the under eye area because those of you who watch my channel before will know that I struggled with congealed, isn't that a lovely word, congealed? It's so descriptive of its definition and I struggled with congealed concealer and I find that now I'm using a primer under my eyes as well as on the rest of my skin. My concealer goes on a lot better as well as my foundation. Okay we've got the primer on, the next thing we're going to do is apply foundation. Now in my makeup mistakes I applied the foundation with my fingers and that's fine if you want to do that but I personally prefer to use a brush. Now one of my lovely friends on YouTube, Tamara, who I've actually met in person and I've got a video about that which I can link down below for you, she started to apply her foundation from the palm of her hand. So I'm going to try that today. This is the e.l.f Soft Glam Foundation which everybody's raving about and I think justifiably it's a really good foundation at an amazingly low price, I think it's only six or eight quid. So what I'm going to do is I've got this brush which I've rediscovered, it's an old IT Cosmetics brush and I'm just going to mix the foundation in my hand and onto the brush like this. Now back in the day people used to talk about not doing it this way but anyway this is what we're doing now, this is the new technique or at least probably a new old technique, nothing's new under the sun is it? And we're going to pounce, this is what we're doing, we're pouncing the brush onto the skin. So we're going to do this, get the product all over this complexion except on the under eyes, I'm not going to put it there and then what I will do is get my damp beauty sponge and blend because blending is very important, we don't want any smearing or tide marks. As I mentioned the other day in a video, my lovely friend Cindy, another mate from YouTube who I've met in person said, what is a tide mark? And I think it's a very old expression, I think we used to talk about it in washing didn't we? When men's collars, I never washed a man's shirt, I think I might have done actually in my second marriage but anyway, blokes used to get tide marks as they called it on their shirt collars didn't they? Where the grubby stains didn't come out so easily. Then I think we used to have to get soap, oh my gosh, am I going back in time? Right, so we've got a damp beauty sponge and we're just going to, and we're just going to blend, blend, blend, just make sure we haven't got any dry patches. The only problem I sometimes have is settling around the nose, I'm sure we all have that but actually it's not looking too bad, so that's all good. Right, the next thing we're going to do is apply concealer and I am using this exorbitantly expensive concealer by Westman Atelier but really you do not have to spend this kind of money on concealer at all, it's just that I need to get to grips with it because I've spent a lot of money on it and I want to see how it wears and I'm trying it out in different situations to see how we get on. I am going to be doing a wear test at some point, there are so many great affordable concealers on the market, including NYX which I was going to use but I realised I haven't got the right shade, I need to get the right shade. Anyway, I'm just going to be very careful with our application, we're not going to put too much on. I'm just going to bring it down here and then I'm going to pat it, see, so I'm not putting too much on, I'm just going to let that settle for a sec and then I'm going to get my little fingers and I'm just going to shear it out a bit and then I'm going to go in with my sponge. Concealer I think is the bane of our lives, even glam girl Gabby has said so, so she's saying it and she's about late 30s, I think 40 and she struggles with it, so if she's struggling with it, no wonder we are. Can you see I've sheared it out a bit with my fingers but now I'm going to go in with my damp beauty sponge and just finish it off. I don't usually use an eyelid primer, partly because I forget and partly because I'm not always convinced that they actually make any difference and why wouldn't one just use the concealer, which of course I haven't applied on my lids today, but I'm kind of now semi-applying it with the sponge, the residue from the sponge. There we are, I think that looks a lot better. It has actually settled a little bit here, this concealer, so I don't know whether it's quite right for me, but given that I've paid an inordinate amount of money for it, I'm going to give it a good old go. But anyway, as you can see, I haven't applied too much, I haven't gone onto my cheeks like I had in the makeup mistakes part of the video, so I think it's looking pretty good. And then the next thing we're going to do is apply powder, which is going to mattify it. So the concealer has brightened the under eye and the powder is now going to mattify it a little bit, but we're just going to be really careful with the powder and not overdo it. And my absolute favourite powder, as you can see, incredibly well used, is the Charlotte Tilbury Hollywood Flawless Finish, so that's what we're going to use. And I think today, rather than use a powder puff, I'm going to use this Real Techniques brush, which I do really like. I'm just going to swirl this around. Oh gosh, do you know, I can see what's happened here. The powder has started to come away from the casing, so I'm going to have to keep this flat, otherwise it's all going to fall out, I can see, because it's virtually come to the end of its life. And then just very gently, in fact, what I'm going to do is I'm going to start on the eyelid, just to make sure that I haven't got too much on. Do you know, as I get older, I see so much more texture in my skin. I've never really noticed it before, but I think as I've turned 70, everything seems to have gone downhill a bit in the skin front. Ah well, not to worry, as long as we look after it and we don't sit out in the sun for too long, we don't end up with more of these. I'm going to get that removed at some point, I think. Now, can you see, that's looking so much better, even than it did, even after I'd applied the concealer. It's now better that I've mattified it a bit and powdered it down. It doesn't look quite as wrinkled and crinkled as it did a couple of minutes ago. So a little Judicious powdering is a good idea, and actually let's just do our T-zone as well, a little bit just here. There's something quite good about using a brush, actually, even with a pressed powder, because you're not going to go in too heavy-handed, which is what I tend to do with all my makeup. I have to be learned to be gentle with my makeup and not go in all guns blazing. Right, we've done the powder. The next thing we're going to do is brows. Now, as I mentioned earlier, we don't want too heavy a brow, and I'm absolutely loving this pencil, which I think is in the shade Taupe. It is a, is it Nyx? I think it is Nyx. Yes, it is. I'll put the details down below for you. And it's a really great pencil. It gives the Laura Mercier, which is about three times as expensive, a really good run for its money. And you can see the colour's not too dark. It's not exactly my, well, it is kind of my hairline colour, actually, isn't it? What do you think? Pretty good, I would say. Pretty close. And I like it because it's not too waxy, because a waxy pencil, I find, is much more difficult to apply because it doesn't stay on the skin, whereas this one does. Right, so we're doing the left side now, and this little pencil is so good because it's got the spoolie on the other end, which is ideal. I don't find I need any kind of gel on my brows because, really, there's not a lot of hair there anyway. And what there is tends to stay in place. And I think that's fine because, to be honest, I've got a fringe anyway, so it's not like people notice my brows that much. But the good thing is they're not too dark. They're just the right colour and tone for my complexion. Now, what I thought we'd do as a counterbalance to the makeup mistakes part of the video is use one eye pencil. I'm not going to use an eyeshadow because I've already put a little bit of concealer on my eyelids anyway. And we're going to use this gorgeous pencil. Oh my gosh, if you ever want to invest in anything by Victoria Beckham, this is the product to go for. It's her Satin Kajal Pencil in Cinnamon. And at one end, you've got the pencil, and at the other end, you've got a little sponge, which you can use to blend the pencil out. So what we're going to do, so that I don't deviate too much from the mistakes and show you how you can ring your eyes with eye pencil without it looking ageing, this is what we're going to do. So, first thing I'm going to do is very carefully apply the pencil to just above my top lashes, but not too thickly, just gently, and also not with such a dark shade as I used in the makeup mistakes part of the video. So there it goes. It's just lovely and creamy and easy to apply, like so. And then I'm going to get the sponge and just blend it across like that, just to smoke it out a bit. And then I'll do the same on the other eye, and then get the sponge and just sheer it out a little and smoke it out, like so. So we're just giving a little bit of definition to the eye, but we're not going over the top. But then we are going to do the lower lash line, not the waterline, but the lower lash line, very, very gently. Sorry for all the silly faces I make, by the way. This is what happens when you apply eye makeup, I find, is I do silly things with my mouth. Okay, there we are. Now, I'm not going to curl my lashes because they are lifted, but what I am going to do is use the lash primer, which I didn't use in the makeup mistakes part of the video, and I think it's an absolute game changer. Again, you don't need to spend a lot of money. I use either the L'Oreal Lash Paradise Primer, or in this instance, I'm going to use the Dior. The only difference is that the Dior brush is finer and doesn't have that sort of Christmas tree brush thing going on, and so it's less likely to deposit lots of white on your lashes, which is fine because it does come off anyway when you put the black on top. But I honestly think it makes a big difference to how the mascara applies on top. I really do. Right, the next thing is mascara, and today I'm going to be using the Exaggerized by Charlotte Tilbury. This is her latest mascara. It's a mega bottle, very solid, and an angled brush, but to be honest, you could use any mascara that you like. Anything that you enjoy using is absolutely fine. But I do really like this one. Now, there are various ways of applying mascara. I think it does partly depend on your lashes. My lashes are quite spindly. I mean, I do use a lash growth serum, but I think... Do I mean spindly? I mean spindly and sparse. They're quite long, so that's good. But can you see, I have little gaps here and here, and to be honest, I'm not sure what you can do about that. Key thing is, if you can, try and deposit the colour at the base of the lashes, which is something I do struggle with a bit, but this brush should be helping, because it's angled, or rather it's curved. It's not angled, it's curved. Dez, come on. What's the matter with you? I'm going to be applying two coats. Okay, the mascara is on. The next thing we're going to do is blusher, and I'm going to use this afternoon tea palette that was gifted to me about a year ago from Stylevayna, one of the few PR packages I've ever received, and I absolutely love it, because it's kind of like a blusher and a bronzer in one, because you've got this sort of more bronzy, pale bronzy shade, a very pale pink, and then a sort of corally colour, and I like swirling the brush across the colours, and then applying it, because I just think it gives a really nice hue to the skin. So I'm going to use this BK Beauty brush, which is quite a small head, because I know if I go in with a bigger brush, like I did in the mistakes video, I'm just going to deposit too much colour on. Now, what we're going to do is make sure that we don't come beyond the iris, so we're not going to be coming... If I go here, it means the colour's going to come down here, but we don't want that. We want the colour to stop around here, and you see it does look quite high up, I know, but once it's blended, you'll see that it will look exactly as it should. Blend, blend, blend. This is a Kabuki brush from Sephora, which I absolutely love. I bought it a couple of years ago, and it's the best Kabuki brush I have owned. There, how about that? That's much better, isn't it? So it's still come to about here, but it hasn't come to down here, if you can. Now, one thing I didn't talk about in the makeup mistakes video is using a highlighter. Now, I'm going to use the e.l.f. highlighter here, and I think a highlighter can really light up an older complexion. I think it makes a huge difference. I absolutely love using highlighter, and it's something I tend to use on a daily basis, and all you need is a tiny bit. I mean, honestly, look at the size of this thing, but actually what you can do, I mean, I don't know if I'm ever going to use it up. You can actually use this as a primer, so that's a tip. If you do decide to buy this, try it as a primer as well instead of using an actual primer, and it really does give a lovely glow to the skin, and it doesn't overdo it, I don't think. In fact, it worked really well with the Laura Geller powder foundation, which I used recently, and actually, by the way, I have bought a new Laura Geller. I've got the Balance and Brighten. It's not a new. It's new to me, though. It's a Balance and Glow, I think it's called, foundation. I'm going to be trialling that in a video very soon. Now, we're just going to be very gentle here. I'm just going to use my sponge to pat it in like so. I may have removed too much of it now, actually. Let me just pop a little bit more on because we want to show it off, don't we? But really, we just need to be careful. We don't want to overdo. Let's put a blob, actually. Maybe that's easier. And then just very gently like so. We literally just want it below our eyes and going up into our temples. There we are. That's better, isn't it? Right, now we come to lip, and we're going to be using as a lip liner the Lisa Eldridge Sculpt and Shade Lip Pencil in 1N, which is my absolute go-to lip liner because it's a nice neutral colour and not that far away from my actual lip colour. It's just going to give a bit of definition. And then I'm going to use the NARS lipstick in... I can't remember the shade. It's a really beautiful pinky shade, and I think although the pencil is brown, it's nice and neutral, and I think this will complement it very well. Right, there we are. Makeup done. So there you have it. Let me know in the comments, have you made any of these mistakes? Do you make them? I know I do. I know I have, and I still carry on doing them sometimes if I'm not careful. I hope you've enjoyed the video anyway, and it is just a bit of fun and not intended to be any criticism of anyone who loves to rim their eyes with kohl or wear blusher on the apples of their cheeks or wear bronzer or any of that. It's just a bit of fun and I would love to know what you think and whether you think I've made mistakes applying this makeup, never mind the previous one. And if you've enjoyed this video, I would be so grateful if you'd consider subscribing to my channel and of course, give me a thumbs up if you've enjoyed it. And if you'd like to hear more from me, I have a monthly newsletter, and in fact, the latest edition is about to drop this very Friday and it will be full of not just beauty, fashion and lifestyle, but in this edition, which is coming out a week earlier, it's going to have loads of ideas for Christmas and holiday gifts. And the link to subscribe will be in the description box below. And thank you so much for watching. It means the absolute world to me. I know I always say this at the end of every video, but I honestly mean it so much. I'm at over 18,000 subscribers and I was hoping to get to 20 by the end of November, but that might be a bit of a stretch. But it means so much to me to know that you are watching my videos and interacting with me as well. I absolutely love the comment section. Oh, and by the way, apparently the comment section is going to change so that you not only can comment on videos and talk to each other, but it's going to be more of a forum, so I understand. And you'll be able to post stuff as well. It's going to be perhaps a little bit more like Facebook forums. Anyway, watch this space and as soon as I find out more, I will let you know. And I hope you're all doing really well and I look forward to seeing you on my next video. Bye.