Other than a bit of clear mascara and clear lip gloss in my early twenties, I’ve never worn make-up. I’ve never had the confidence and whenever I’ve tried I just think I look ridiculous/like a pantomime dame/not like me at all. This isn’t just because I can’t apply make-up well - though that may also be true. But whenever I’ve had make-up applied at Bobbi Brown/Mac or similar I have the same feeling, that it’s just not me and I can’t carry it off.
I’m Autistic (long standing secure diagnosis) and I think that’s part of the problem - I’m highly colour sensitive & that means that no foundation looks right on my skin to me.
However, at almost 48 I’ve decided this is the next thing in my life that I want to conquer. When I’ve been out for a day recently I’ve looked at myself in the mirror and despite the fact that I’m wearing well cut clothes, have good classic accessories, my hair nicely coloured and my skin properly looked after, my non-made up face lets me down, and I set off out of the house feeling unfinished.
One make-up artist told me years ago that I needed to get used to seeing myself in make-up, and I think she was right. So I’ve bought some ludicrously cheap stuff and have just been having a play around with it at home, hoping I might hone a technique. I don’t think it’s looking too bad, and my good friends seem to think it looks great. So now I’m looking at investing some money in products and whilst I appreciate there will be a significant element of trial and error and I do have money to spend to get it right, it all seems rather too expensive to make too many mistakes.
To complicate things, one quality beauty line told me I’m a cool and one told me I’m neutral to warm…to me the cooler shades look better, anything too warm and it appears to me at least to be too orangey. My wrist veins are fairly blue, and I think I look better with yellow gold (which I never wear) than the platinum that I do. Hair is dark blonde made lighter thanks to Aveda, eyes are greeny/hazel, I look good in browns and moss greens (which is why I always wear black, white and navy 🙄)
One issue I’ve found is that foundation and concealer & foundation cake around my nose and under my eyes. The skin under my eyes is very saggy and has been since I was a child. I’d say my skin is quite dry at this stage of my life, but it’s well looked after with good products. I moisturise well and exfoliate regularly. Would I be best looking for a good primer? I’m not a Clinique fan but I tried their new Even Better Pore Defying Primer in a store recently having seen people recommend it online and that seemed good. I wasn’t impressed with the Benefit one that also came out top in online reviews (though I appreciate I’ve only tried them in stores.)
I think I’m looking for something like: a good primer, concealer, foundation. I have a brown mascara which even I can see looks good, the same with a Bobbi Brown lip tint so I’m not looking for lipstick. I think I’ll leave blush/eyeshadow and so on for when I’m more confident. At this stage it’s about getting the basics right.
Apologies for the long post - I didn’t want to miss anything that might lead to the wrong advice being given. This is something that has bothered me and brought me down for over 30 years. if anyone can give me the benefit of their expertise I’d be very grateful 🙂