How to get that polished look

[DrHarleenFrancesQuinzel]

How do I look good all day? Ive got my hair sorted, but my face. uggh. Im 37 and dont like looking in the mirror. I dont like what looks back at me.

Ive never been very good at make-up so dont really know what Im doing. I dont want to look like a clown and certainly dont want it to look like Ive tried too hard. It like to look nice, but natural.

Please can you help? What products (a few cheap or one or two more pricey, but worthwhile) should I look to getting? Any tips or tricks would be appreciated too.

I like BB cream for the daytime, it's much lighter than foundation. Make sure your eyebrows are groomed, nails polished and natural makeup all help towards looking polished I think.

There are some really good make up tutorials on YouTube to help you learn how to apply make up?

Devote some time to finding a foundation that matches your skin tone perfectly, has a natural coverage etc, nothing worse than a tide mark where the foundation stops.

Make sure eyebrows are groomed, no excess facial hair, skin exfoliated regularly, teeth flossed daily and polished/whitened regularly. Also nails polished with cuticles pushed back/removed & moisturised.

I was in the same position as you a year or so back and found that devoting time every single day, without fail, to skin care/general grooming/makeup is the only way to look polished -and avoid frights when looking in the mirror-I'm mid 40s and find just a few days without taking off makeup/not drinking enough water etc and things start to slide very quickly!!

Also, as pp said, youtube is fabulous for makeup tutorials.

Drink loads of water, reduce your sugar/caffeine intake and increase your fruit and fibre intake. This will make your skin glow and good skin is vital with or without makeup.

Good hair cut, eyebrows threaded, excess facial hair removed, regular exfoliation and good supportive underwear.

Thanks for the suggestions.

I drink plenty of water while at work, but do realise I should up this at the weekends too. I think I need to look at my general skincare routine then too. So make sure I exfoliate, always take off make-up (not that I wear much) and start to look at teeth whitening (am thinking of getting a kit)

I will have a closer look at youTube later. Ive looked before at eye make-up, but that was for more of a night time smoky eye look (which I never mastered anyway), but will have a look at natural make-up tutorials.

I think the polished look depends a bit on your colouring. For some people it takes a bit more work than others - for example I'm really pale with blonde eyebrows and lashes. So minimum I need to not scare strangers is BB cream, a bit of cream blusher, quick eyebrow pencil, mascara and tinted lip balm. I've got it down to less than 5 mins now. Seems a bit of a faff but I feel much more polished/put together than when I go make up free..

I agree with bettybio, and have a similar make-up routine, except I don't use eyebrow pencil (my eye brows are dark) but I use grey eye liner under my eyes. It takes me less than 10 mins, but it's sufficient to pass muster throughout the day!

I should add that the polished look is a strange phenomena: people always tell me I look very polished, but I generally feel like a bit of a mess (despite best efforts!) which is a shame because I would love to FEEL polished! Heaven knows how I achieve that!

Have a good facial at least once a month - either a peel or a microdermabrasion. I've been doing this for years now. I would also recommend Elemis recovery capsules.

Personally, I'd not bother with facials. For £45-ish a time you could be buying yourself a load of high quality products and do it at home once a week.
All you need at your young age is something to exfoliate _ I love Balance Me face mask which cleanses and moisturises and exfoliates all at the same time - and a nice oil or serum, and massage in.

Peels and microdermabrasion are really harsh for skin and can cause more problems.

If you can get to a dept sore, why not have a make over from either Bobbi Brown, Mac, Nars and see what you like and but a few products, or at least one good basic like foundation then buy colours like eye shadows and lippie from cheaper brands?

I disagree that they're harsh for the skin. I'm a beauty therapist. You should only have a treatment that is suitable for your age and they differ according to how are. The whole point about aging is that if you start young then you don't age as much. Waiting for wrinkles to appear before you do anything is not the way to go IMO.

The treatments that I've recommended are basically very deep exfoliation which firstly improves the rate of cell renewal and will make your skin glow and secondly your skin is then more receptive to decent products that will make a difference. I'm 35 but people guess my age as 25.

And if you spend £45 a month on facials you spend a lot less on loads of products IMO...

It's sad that 'beauty therapy' doesn't actually teach science.
If cells were renewed as you say and improves the rate of cell renewal this then no one would ever age. Secondly, cancer starts with cells dividing in an uncontrolled way so any 'treatment' that supposedly makes cell turnover happen faster would increase this risk.
Also, starting beauty treatments early does not delay ageing. How can it possibly? All dermatologist will tell you is that the only things that stop ageing is avoiding UV rays. And no beauty treatment can erase wrinkles or prevent them.
They also caution against harsh abrasion. I've never had a facial in my life and people think I am 15 years younger than I am.

Try some of these:

Effaclar BB blur - apply with hands, no need to powder. V natural and pretty.
Bourgeois cream blush in 01 - see above
Benefit Gimme Brow in the light shade - foolproof, natural and super fast
Benebalm in Posie

This article tell you the risks.

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2133583/The-facials-ruin-skin-They-promise-leave-looking-peachy--expensive-anti-ageing-facials-wreck-looks.html

There is no need to be so rude PollyPerky But it's common sense that prevention is better than cure. The main things that cause aging are sun damage (all year round) and smoking. But you certainly can do things to get your skin to turnover cells and you definitely can do things to prevent premature aging. Dead skin cells stay on top of your skin and make it look dull if you don't find a good way to remove them. Putting loads of products on but not effectively removing dead skin cells certainly won't help.

If you want to talk about science can you please show me the study which suggests microdermabrasion and peels cause skin cancer?

That Daily Mail article is talking about women who have peels once a week or more! Of course that's not a good idea and will think your skin. Apparently this is the sort of thing observed in America where people have paper thin skin due to over treatment. You should have a treatment once a month, or once every other month.

Thin your skin*

The problem is that there is a lot of misinformation out there about these sorts of treatments. You certainly do need to make sure you have a practitioner who knows exactly what they're doing - mine has 25 years experience. You should avoid cosmetic clinics because they are just after as much money as they can get and will sometimes recommend too many treatments.

lottie you clearly have a vested interest in pushing treatments as it's your employment. Sadly, the beauty industry is full of myths and half-truths.

I didn't say that treatments caused cancer. I said any treatment that 'supposedly' (ie 'might be able to') made cells turn over faster (which means dying and being replaced faster) could be dangerous. So the more turnover cells have, the more the risk of DNA undergoing changing and those cells become cancer cells. Uncontrolled growth of a cell is a tumour- so no beauty treatment ought to be aiming to increase cell division and multiplication.

All a dermoabrasion does is remove the top layer of the epidermis. The new cells underneath that haven't gone dull and horny are exposed, which makes the skin look 'fresh'.

You can't prevent ageing with products other than sunscreens and a healthy lifestyle. The kind of treatments you are talking about do not prevent ageing. In fact some people will go further than me and say that facials where the skin is massaged and pulled actually cause more sagging & ageing than leaving it alone.

Nobody should be pulling or stretching the skin during a treatment. If they are then they don't know how to do a treatment properly. I don't see how you are so anti facials when you've never even had one?

I would agree that actually the main factor with regards to aging is genetics and collagen and elastin network. You can't stop yourself from aging. But if you don't allow your skin to be effectively moisturised then drying it out will encourage the appearance of lines.

I don't have a vested interest at the moment I'm a carer for a disabled child.

^I don't see how you are so anti facials when you've never even had one?>

It's quite easy to understand...
I don't have facials because I believe my own skin care routine works well. Paying someone £45 to apply a face mask and a few products that I can do myself is, imo, a waste of money. Obviously you don't as it's your employment.

Have you read some of the information around by dermatologists as opposed to beauticians? many say that all we need is a thick barrier like Vaseline to prevent moisture evaporating, plus a sunscreen. Obviously, we don't want to go around with shiny faces from Vaseline, but you take the point...

I'm not going to carry on arguing LL- you said upthread you were a beauty therapist which implied you were working as one.

Yes, I'm a trained beauty therapist - that's what I do when I work. However, just because you don't have facials thats not a reason to be rude about my original post or make condescending remarks to suggest I'm stupid.

We should all be able to give our ideas without someone else having a go. I would never recommend a treatment for someone which I didn't genuinely think was right for them, or that I wouldn't have myself. It's true that some places are unethical and will try to push inappropriate treatments. So you do need to find someone who is passionate about what they do and who will give you advice based upon your individual situation.

Your view is based on your skin care routine and mine is based on mine. Neither is necessarily wrong. Facials aren't necessarily for everyone - my mum doesn't really like them. But for me I spend far less on products than I used to. I also rarely get any break outs which I did before.

Can I bring it back to the original post? I need help on this issue too, but I don't even know what BB cream is - please tell me someone!