Makeup shopping in London with 70 plus year old

[ithappenedtomeagain]

For her Birthday, my Mum has asked we go to London for the day and she would like to visit a makeup counter and get foundation advice and purchase some new make up (my treat).
She would like a natural look and specifically is looking for foundation / base. I suspect her expectations about a wonder product may not quite be realistic, but does anyone have any advice about which brands to go to, taking into account her age.

We are planning on going to Liberty and I was thinking Jones Road, but does anyone have any suggestions?
Thank you

I found the Jones Road staff spectacularly unhelpful. Honestly, was so disappointed.
You could try Bobbi Brown or if you’re near the King’s Road Cosmetics a la Carte are good. Any of the counters at Peter Jones are worth a look too and will be less manic than the likes of Liberty.

i know it is probably not the glamorous experience you may be looking for but my experience of boots colour matching for foundation is brilliant!
And they have a variety of formulations which are great for different skin types!

Even if you don’t actually buy one there you could have a sample on a card which you could use as a colour guide elsewhere?

I think maybe Trinny London.

Liberty can be really hectic and a bit claustrophobic - well at weekends anyway. Somewhere not round Oxford street might be better

I think Lisa Eldridge is supposed to be good and targeted for older skin.

Lisa Eldridge at liberty, The counter staff were fantastic and shade matched me perfectly with the skin tint (which I would highly recommend)
I felt the lady was a wee bit pushy for upselling but I’m pretty good at saying no nowadays.

Book an appointment at Trinny London flagship store on the King’s Road - I’ve not been but it looks fab!

trinnylondon.com/uk/store/kings-road-london

i know it is probably not the glamorous experience you may be looking for but my experience of boots colour matching for foundation is brilliant! And they have a variety of formulations which are great for different skin types!

I second this. The Boots make up consultant matched me with No 7 Stay Perfect with is perfect for my 61 year old skin.

Avoid powder!

If you want to try "luxury" brands you could get a lipstick from Charlotte Tilbury.

I found liberty to be overcrowded, staff weren’t great and almost claustrophobic at times. I would avoid a Saturday if possible in general.

Trinny London on the Kings Road was light, airy and the staff were friendly. Have a look on their insta page as the make up seems to be good on older skin.

I’ve been impressed by the beauty consultants in John Lewis-had a couple of consultations (the latest was last year) You do need to book in advance though.

The advantage of this service is that they will trawl through all the brands offered in store to find the right product for you and you get a glass of fizz!

Honestly you can’t beat a decent sized boots. Their own brand no 7 is good and they often have older make up counter staff who do understand older skin. Not sure where you live but the Oxford branch lady was particularly helpful to me (if you are on Mumsnet, thanks for all your advice applying my wedding makeup!)

When are you going?

I second Peter Jones (any counter, but Charlotte Tilbury is good). Trinny London is right there also, so an alternative.

If you are going before May 5th, you could go to the fab Flowers exhibition at Saatchi gallery, and have lunch at somewhere like Ottolenghi down the pretty Pavillion Rd.

Duke of York Sq is also pleasant with independent shops.

You could wander down Pimlico Rd and look at the all the beautiful interior and design shops like Colefax and Fowler. Or eat posho at Daylesford or Wildflowers

A lovely day!

Another vote for Lisa Eldridge (there’s also a counter at Selfridges) - the ethos is very “less is more” and the bases are light and flattering. She often demos looks on older models in her excellent online tutorials.

I love that area of London @redcord
Ottolenghi for lunch a good shout.
Can’t wait to go back.
Enjoy the trip with your Mum @ithappenedtomeagain

This is all so helpful. Thank you so much.
We are going in the week (this coming week) and I was going to get into London for 9.30 ish so I was thinking Liberty would not be too busy (and she does want to pop in there to relive her youth and see it again).
But the kings road / trinny / peter jones suggestions sound wonderful, thank you.

I'm going to have a plan this evening and will let you know how it goes.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

This. Liberty is hell on a weekend. I was in selfridges on a Friday morning recently and it was lovely and quiet!

I'd also be thinking about how she will order more in future, if she finds a product she likes. Some have minimum spends to get free postage, and unless there is a local store near her, it might be more of a PITA than say a boots product.

I hardly ever wear make up these days so can't give much practical advice but I feel moved to say please don't take her to Boots on her birthday! She has asked for a day out in London and I assume going somewhere swanky will be part of the treat for her. And if it turns out that Boots are just as good if not better then fine but you can go there any other time.

The first thing I saw when I visited Lisa Eldridge's website was a big photo of an older (I imagine 70+) woman on the home page - that would be a big selling point for me.

I’d head for the nicest department store that has Estée Lauder and colour match her for Futurist foundation. It’s lovely. They also do a really nice concealer now, if she might want that too- lovely texture, very light.

Surely an appointment with a Selfridges Beauty Concierge would be much better than random browsing?

https://bookings.selfridges.com/selfridges-beauty/new_booking.html?companyId=37332#/multi_service_select

They show you things from any and every brand that might suit you and the consultation price is redeemable against products.

I don't want to go to selfridges as she is very very hard of hearing and the acoustics in selfridges are awful.

Regarding future orders I can easily pick things up for her as I am 40 minutes from London. She is coming to stay with me (she lives a few hours away) for a few days and we are going to London for the day.

I take the point about Boots but she wants the special experience

Thank you again for all the suggestions

Liberty is mobbed! I really like NARS in Covent Garden. The staff are lovely, it’s never packed and because it’s a small shop it doesn’t get as hot as Liberty.
Jones Road is odd stuff - sticky and the colours didn’t suit me.

Covent Garden has a few make up shops - which are nice without the department store strange light.

I would go to John Lewis (or Peter Jones) but early, preferably on a weekday rather than the weekend.
11am on a weekday, followed by cake and coffee in the café would be really nice. Whereas at the weekend it would be heaving and stressful.
It's a shame Fenwicks has closed. That would have been perfect.

Sorry to hear about your mother’s hearing problem.

Somewhere completely opposite in scale to a big department store would be

Tom Ford Beauty in Covent Garden.

Tiny space - and you’d get one to one attention even if you didn’t book ahead. Though an appointment would be more relaxing and efficient. Their cosmetics are completely superb, and would certainly make a generous gift.