We recently found ourselves in the back of a taxi (a Green Tomato Cars taxi, as this was after the Timberland event) with the style and beauty writer Sonia Juttla. Sonia is a complete beauty geek and has been obsessing about beauty products and make up since she was small. She is also wise beyond her years when it comes to make up tips, having spent her youth working behind make up counters and offered up her services to TWR without me even having to twist her arm behind her back. Honestly.
In fact, Sonia was so incredibly knowledgable about what products to use and tips to try with older skin, that the blog is going to have to be divided into two (or even three) posts, one today and one Thursday, to cover all her advice. We're starting with skin care.
Sonia's advice on skin care is simple, she thinks you should keep to a minimum spend on clensers -don't splash out on anything expensive, too perfumed or excessively drying, use a good moisturiser (she thinks the Olay range is excellent) and our investment should be in serums, the new magic product to help repair skin.
Those of us stuck in a cleanse/tone /moisturise or soap and water routine we learnt at twenty, often with the same old products may have missed the advent of serums, which when used at night, can work hard to soften and plump…well within reason of course, but every little helps. The one Sonia has been wear testing -along with her mum, is Estée Lauder's advance night repair and both of them reckon it's very good. I bought some to try and it is fab. Not cheap (about £50 a bottle but you don't need much) but after two weeks I have noticed my skin is much softer and vaguely nicer looking.
Sonia's tips on using are as follows….cleanse, then gently rub five drops of the serum into your skin and leave for five minutes to dry. The put your moisturiser on top to seal in the goodness and sleep tight. Once a week (no more on our age of skin) exfoliate, and the serum will work even better.
Then we all need to get a highlighter cream…..I had to confess to Sonia that I had no idea what this was, which she says it not that surprising as women our age often get stuck in our old make-up routine ruts, stop learning about new products and miss out on whole categories of new things, like highlighter creams.
Older skin often struggles to look bright and fresh, and learning how to apply highlighter cream can be a really useful trick to liven up tired skin, it's a great tool for adding definition to the face, another problem as we get older and our skin softens.
According to Sonia, there are two ways to use this (and we are using MAC's Strobe Cream £21, here…..), firstly, if your skin is looking like death warmed up after a late night, or is just generally hideously dull, put a small blob on your fingers and smooth well into the cheeks, forehead and nose before applying your foundation. Sonia says it can look a little scary at this point, but keep going…..apply your foundation as normal and viola! perked-up skin!. Try not to get too addicted to this (easy once you've seen the results), try sleeping a bit more too.
Secondly, it works as a general skin pick-me-up, AFTER you have applied your foundation, apply a wee bit to your finger and run a line down your nose -smooth in slightly -and put a small touch on your cupid bow above your top lip. Then, another tiny blob on your finger and run a V shape from just above your eyebrow (the outer edge, away from your nose) to the centre of your temple and back down above your cheek bone, finishing just a smidge in from the start of the eye….I hope that makes sense. It makes everything look a little more awake, and I now find myself doing this every day….which is amazing since I'm very lazy.
So go practise ladies and tell us how you get on. On Thursday we'll be covering what on earth you do with a bronzer and how you probably need to re look at the way you are applying your kohl……
