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There is an artist who lives in my neighborhood named Elizabeth Sweetheart, better known as the “Green Lady of Brooklyn.” Sweetheart, now in her early 80s, earned the name because for the past 30-odd years she has dressed in green from head to toe. Literally: Her clothes and bags and shoes and even wire-rimmed glasses are all varying shades of green, as are her hair, nails, and eyeshadow. Asked in interviews, and in-person (if you’re lucky enough to cross her path—and really you can’t miss her!), she will say that the motivation for her choice to go constantly and completely green is a simple one. The color makes her happy.
As we age, society often wants to dictate what works and what doesn’t for women. Not to mention a barrage of often contradictory cultural messaging about what our aging appearance should look like—do we try to blur all signs, or do we lean into it?
Makeup plays a significant role here. “I think it’s interesting to see that your face changes as you age,” says makeup artist Fiona Stiles, whose clients include 50-year-old Gabrielle Union and 49-year-old Elizabeth Banks. “Things are different, so you just need to adapt and change your makeup accordingly.”
For many women over 40 (myself very much included), that often means wearing far less of it: long gone is the foundation of my twenties and thirties, when the goal was transforming skin into an airbrushed canvas. And that airbrushed look has, with the increasing popularity of filters, become that much more ubiquitous. “I use as little foundation on skin over 40 as possible,” says Stiles, adding that she’s also mindful of the formula, staying away from anything matte or heavy because it tends to sink into any lines.
Makeup artist Jo Baker suggests focusing on reinvigorating your complexion instead of covering it up. For both herself and her clients, that means starting a mini lymphatic massage before makeup application—downward strokes from ear to collarbone; then sculpting the jawline moving from the chin outwards; and the cheekbones working from the sides of the nose out and going all the way down the neck—to flush out any puffiness and boost radiance. Then she plunges her face in and out of an icy bath a few times to calm redness and get circulation going. “After that your skin will only need a smear of tint,” says Baker who likes Ilia’s Serum Skin Tint in one shade deeper than what you normally use for a more sunkissed look.
The same light-touch goes for blush: Stiles most often favors creams or liquid versions, and if she’s using a powder, she taps moisturizer on top for a skin-like finish and adds highlight to the high points of the face for a bit of glow. Both Stiles and Baker agree that, particularly for women as we age and naturally lose structure and volume, the eyes matter. “It’s all about brightening the eye area,” says Baker. Finding an under-eye brightener and concealer that works for you is paramount, says Stiles, who loves Fenty’s Bright Fix Brightener for addressing any discoloration that comes naturally with hollowing, and Sisley’s Stylo Lumiere, for its luminosity and resistance to settling into fine lines.
A light-handed—sometimes so much so that I eschew makeup entirely—luminosity for skin (my favorite conduit currently is Saie’s Slip Tint) has been my choice for some time. But as I’ve been wearing less makeup on my face to blur these so-called flaws and telltale signs of aging, I’ve simultaneously been pushing the envelope in ways that I didn’t in my younger years. Suddenly loud mascaras (TooD Beauty makes a truly excellent electric blue and green, and there is a lovely Bordeaux by YSL and Dior’s Diorshow in red), painterly eyeshadow (Violette’s Yeux Paint in Nuage de Lilas and and BAKEUP Beauty’s Micro Palm Palettes in neon, primary, and pastel, which are, by design, meant for coloring outside the lines) and a rainbow of eye pencils (19/99’s colour pencil in Zold, a grassy green, and Meleg, a reddish orange; and Addiction Tokyo’s pencils in bright purple and yellow), all hold new sway in my beauty routine. “Vibrant shadows and colored eye pencils and mascaras are a great way to incorporate a playful feeling into your makeup routine,” adds Stiles.
One doesn’t have to be part of the Euphoria generation to embrace a similar approach to makeup; Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna and her dedication to graphic colorful eyeshadow continue to provide a wellspring of inspiration for my own beauty moodboard. “Expressive beauty looks are not just for Gen Z,” emphasizes Baker. “It truly is the new way we all look at self-presentation no matter what age you are and it’s a look that oozes confidence.” And one that, as the green lady of Brooklyn says, just makes me happy.
