30 Days to 10 years younger--10 minute tips. Tip 18: Grow

You're thinking I've gone mental, right? How can you grow? OK, you can't. But you can give the impression of being taller very easily. How?

Stand up straight.

I know, I know. Boring. But it's true. After all, what do we associate with old lady-dom? Dowager's hump--you know, that situation when a woman's neck sticks out instead of up. I'm sure you don't have dowager's hump. But why would you want to look like you do?

Then there's debutante slouch--where the chest is concave and the pelvis juts forward. It doesn't look so hot on girls who are young enough to be debutantes, like Miley Cyrus. And, guess what? It looks even worse on women old enough to be Editor in Chief of Vogue magazine.

Here's the real problem with posture. If your posture's really crummy, standing and sitting up straight is going to seem like a lot of work. And it will take a lot of effort to maintain. After five minutes to perfect posture, you'll be exhausted.

There are two reasons for this. The first is poor muscle tone in the upper back and shoulders. If you're spending all your time typing at a laptop, those muscles aren't being used, and they start to atrophy. Standing and sitting up straight becomes too tiring. It's easier to slump.

The best cure for this is swimming, dance, yoga, and fencing--any activity that uses the entire body and stresses good body mechanics will help your posture. (I mean, have you ever really looked at the women on the stair machine? They may have buns of steel, but they have the worst posture ever. Don't let that be you.)

Unfortunately, I don't get to the gym very often. I tend to walk or use our home treadmill, which means only the bottom half of my body is getting used. And this means I need to add some weight lifting to my regime.

The second thing that helps improve my posture is stretching, particularly my lower back. I find two things really help loosen my lower back muscles and decompress my spine: yoga positions like the Child and Downward Dog, or dance stretches on a mat on the floor.

Strengthening and stretching the muscles of the neck, shoulders and back makes it easier to stand with good posture habits: stomach in, butt up, knees soft, and a straight line from the ear/shoulder/knees.

If you find it hard to keep your body properly aligned for longer than five minutes at a time, you've got your work cut out for you. But in the mean time, remember: standing tall is the fastest way to grow an inch, lose ten pounds, and take 10 years off your age.

30 Days to 10 years younger--10 minute tips. Tip 17: Be a brownie

You might be wondering why on earth Pamela Anderson is doing in a blog post aimed at beauty and style for women of a certain age. Well, duh, I'm using her as an example of what not to do. And I'm not going after her super-thin eyebrows and super-obvious implants. I'm going after her eyelashes.

Mascara has become like a Model T Ford--you can have any color you want, as long as it's black. Which is OK, as long as you think everyone looks best in black mascara. Unfortunately, I don't.

Black mascara is lovely at night, but for broad daylight, I find it a bit stark and artificial looking. If you're blonde, redhead, or like me, an aging brunette, you'll probably look better in a softer shade of brown/black or brown. In fact, if you're a redhead, you'll probably look best in auburn--if you can find it anywhere.

Unfortunately, most drugstore mascaras only come in black, super-plus-blackest-black, and black/brown. I checked L'Oreal, CoverGirl, Maybelline, and Revlon, and the story was almost always the same.

There are drugstore brands that offer brown mascara, but you have to dig pretty deep. Almay has at least one mascara available in brown.

For years, Max Factor was the only line with a mascara for redheads; unfortunately they're leaving the States. The mascara is still available at Drugstore.com, though. And Revlon's DoubleTwist line includes a shade called Blackened Ruby that looks auburn.

Fortunately, the latest fad in drugstore mascaras appears to be ones that emphasize the color of your eyes. Physician's Formula sells a brown mascara, and in addition, their intensive i-color mascara and intense i-color mascara with light interplay both claim to intensify eye-color. They're available in four shades. CoverGirl sells a similar line.

Department store lines offer a wider variety of mascara shades: Estee Lauder has several formulas that come in brown and and even navy blue; MAC has some browns, and so does Lancôme. (Lancôme also sells specialty mascaras, like gold and silver. But that's not the point of this post.)

Boutique brands like Jane Iredale, BeneFit, and Sephora offer mascaras in a variety of interesting shades. In fact, if you go to the Sephora website and do a search for "brown mascara," you'll discover that there are plenty of options.

The trick is to not go crazy. Colored mascara can be fun, but it's not something to wear if you want to be taken seriously. For proof, remember Princess Diana and her blue eyeliner and matching eyelashes. I'll confess to having developed a certain degree of fascination with colored mascaras, and I'm trying like crazy not to succumb to Yves St. Laurent Fascinating Violet or the Benefit BadGAL in Plum.

I remember the 80s and I don't think the world has yet recovered from my experiments with Princess Di-style cobalt blue.

Or my Two-Faced glitter lashes in the 90s when seriously? I was old enough to know better.

But while I busy myself locking up my credit cards and backing away from the Sephora website, I urge you to think about whether the black mascara you've been wearing for years and years is actually doing you any favors. Or could you, like the women pictured here, benefit from a softer look around the eyes?

Elsewhere:

The Beauty Blog has a great post on mascaras for redheads here.

Did you know that there is a beauty blog devoted to mascara? There is. It's called Clumps of Mascara. Currently on hiatus, but still packed with useful reviews. Click here.

30 Days to 10 years younger--10 minute tips. Tip 16: Rethink your hair products

From time to time I see a woman who colors her hair, and it's a dull, frizzy mess. You probably know what I mean: dead-looking highlights or beat-up, frizzy dark hair. My first thought is to think "ugh--bad dye job!" But that's probably not it.

Obviously damaged hair is every bit as aging as gray. Now, hair dye manufacturers frequently claim that their hair color "conditions" the hair and adds body. Insofar as coating unruly gray hairs with dye weighs them down and makes them more manageable, that's true. But if you're using demi-permanent or permanent hair dye, dyeing your hair damages it.

For your color to look convincing and natural, you're going to have to bite the bullet and pamper your hair a lot more.

Your hair is covered with rows of thin, clear scales called the cuticle--that's what makes the hair shine. It's like the clear top coat on your gorgeous nail polish color; the clear coat enhances the effect of the color.

But when we dye our hair, the cuticle is lifted so that the color can penetrate. This leaves our hair fragile and prone to damage. Blow-drying, back-combing, flat-ironing, sunlight, and chlorinated swimming pools only compound the problem.

For years I had long, thick, almost-completely straight hair. I had the second toughest, least damage-prone hair on the planet--it was like a horse's tail. And I didn't do much to it that damaged it--no color, no back-combing, and minimal blow-drying.

Then I started coloring my hair. I started with semi-permanent, and now, 15 years later, I get a permanent base color with highlights, low-lights, and a clear glaze to bump up the shine. Basically, I'm my colorist's bitch.

Well, guess what, children. Even if all you're doing is "restoring" your hair's original color, if you dye it, you're beating it up. Before I colored my hair, if I traveled to Florida or any place incredibly hot and humid, and the only change in my hair was that it got a bit more body. Now, my hair swells up like a sponge when it's dropped into a sink of water. Why? Because all that color has damaged my hair's cuticle.

I don't know why this took me by surprise, but it did. I would have expected it had I gone platinum blonde or flaming red, but I was dyeing my hair the color it had always been. It was kind of a shock when the texture of my hair changed.

I'll get into the specifics of what you should do later on. For right now, if you color your hair, I'd like you to think about the care you give it. I can't get away with treating my hair as cavalierly as I could 30 years ago, when it was approximately the same color. And neither can you.

So remember--you can color your hair like crazy and still have it look natural--it'll just cost you a lot of time and product.

30 Days to 10 years younger--10 minute tips. Tip 15: Bump up your nails

This is not a post about good grooming, per se. But I do have a question for you. What's worse than ungroomed hands? That's easy. Aging ungroomed hands.

So, OK. Age doesn't do our hands any favors. We don't have the soft, sweet hands we had when we were 17. And you might feel that the less attention paid to them, the better. I get that, I really do.

But even if you don't want to make a big show of your hands, they're going to be on display all the time. You should keep them as presentable as possible.

In addition to that, you should keep them as hip as you are comfortable with. Maybe you've never liked calling attention to your hands. But if you have, maybe you're wondering whether you're too old to wear the latest nail polish colors.

My philosophy on that is simple. Nail polish won't make your hands look younger, but the right color will certainly make your hands look hipper.

So as long as your hands are tended and your polish is perfect, go for it. The most fashion-forward society ladies I know wear dark polish. If it's good enough for women 15 years older and 40 years younger than I am, it's good enough for me.

So find out where you score on Poppy's Nail Scale. Then bump it up to the next level.

Level One: You keep things clean. You clip and file. You slap on a little lotion when your hands feel rough.

Level Two: You shape your nails into the most flattering shape for your hands. You keep your nails a uniform length, and you put on lotion pretty much every time you wash your hands.

Level Three: You buff your nails to get rid of ridges. Or you wear clear polish. You might get a salon manicure for a special occasion.

Level Four: You regularly wear a sheer baby-pink shade of polish, like Essie's Ballet Slippers or Mademoiselle. Maybe you splash out for a pedicure in the summer months. You go a little crazier on your toes.

Level Five: You frequently get professional manicures. Your toes are pedicured all year round. You also keep abreast of nail polish color trends. You spent the fall wearing dark shades like OPI's Lincoln Park After Dark; for winter you switched to Chanel's Particuliere or OPI's You Don't Know Jacques.







Now that's it's spring, you're ready to move on to pale grey-lilacs.






Except that this week, you're wearing a lovely shade of green to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

Nail tools, nail care supplies, and nail polish are about the most cost-effective way you can update your look. And after all, it's only polish. I'm not telling you to dye your hair purple.

I say it's time you got more fashion-forward and did something adventuresome with your nails. Think about it; your nails can help you look dowdy, or they can help you look hip. Which will it be?

30 Days to 10 years younger--10 minute tips. Tip 14: Wear blusher

Whose idea was it to stop wearing blusher? It's been about 10 years now, and it's making me a little crazy.

I read an article once about Evelyn Lauder (maybe Estée herself!) that said she was always trying to talk women into putting on a little more blush. So hey--you might not care that I think you look better with some color in your cheeks, but when the first lady of cosmetics is begging you to wear a little blusher, I hope you pay attention.

Think about it. Pink cheeks are youthful and pretty. Where do you think the expression "the first flush of youth" came from in the first place? This is what makeup is for.

Sure, there are all kinds of more sophisticated looks, but when it comes to your cheeks, I hope you will leave sophistication to 14-year-old supermodels with naturally pink cheeks. We need some color.

The thing is, it has to be the right kind of color. And you have to apply it properly. But honestly, it's not that complicated. Here's what to do:

Pick the right color. At the moment, I'm talking about a powder or cream blusher with some opacity, not one of those super-intense gel blushes. For powder and cream blushes, the correct color isn't a crazy shade of fuschia, red, or brown. The perfect shade will be a nice version of my-cheeks-but-better pink.

And you don't want to pick too icy or unnatural a pink. Even if you're very fair-skinned and used to wear pinks that were almost fuschia or lavender in tone, you don't want to do that anymore. As we age, our skin becomes more yellow toned, so a very icy cool pink will look unnatural. You want to use a nice fleshy pink, one with some coral or brown in it to warm it up a bit.

Find the shade your cheeks turn when you've gone for a nice brisk walk. (Not the beet-red you become when you've been doing wind-sprints.) Or give them a pinch. Or use your MLBB shade of lipstick as a guide.

Wear your blusher on the right part of your face. Maybe you've seen this picture of Maggie Gyllenhaal already.



It's a perfect illustration of what not to do. Her blush is too dark; it's too red, and it goes too far down her cheeks.

Your blush should go on the apples of your cheeks (mind you, Maggie's got a bushel of apples there, which might explain it.)

Madonna got it right.


The cheeks themselves look a bit off, but the blush is perfect

If you don't know where the apples of your cheeks are, imagine a line running across your face under the tip of your nose. Your blush needs to stay above that line. Then imagine a second line going down from the arch of your eyebrow. The center of the blush should be along that line. Blend it out from there.

Want to see some more pictures of blush done right? Check out these pictures of Winona Ryder. God bless her, she gets it right every single time, whether she's on the red carpet or doing something much more casual.



See how her blush is strongest in the center of her cheek? That's how it's done.



Ready for some don'ts? Don't use blush all the way up to the hairline. Do not sweep it up towards your temple. You'll get lamb chop cheeks like the late Pat Buckley.



Also, most celebs apply their blush too far away from their noses and too close to the sides of their faces, creating a pair of pink parentheses (or in this case, orange.)



This is probably supposed to highlight the cheekbones, but it looks unnatural, and is probably the reason blush got such a bad name in the first place.

Also, don't even think using blush to contour hollows. Blusher is not contour powder.

I'll go into the specifics of brands, powder or cream, best brushes, etc., at some later date. For now, I just want you to think pink!

30 Days to 10 years younger--10 minute tips. Tip 13: Wear a camisole

I just realized something. There are probably kids out there who don't know what a girdle is. "What is this 'girdle' of which you speak, oh wise one?" asks the teenager of today.

But you probably remember girdles. And you know that they no longer exist, because it's all "shapewear" these days, right? You're hip to Spanx. Right?

Confession time: I have some Spanx in my shapewear drawer, but I don't wear them much. Mostly I wear jeans. And Spanx under jeans? Who would bother to do that? If you want to wear Spandex on the bottom half of your body, you can buy jeans with Spandex already in them. More would be redundant.

But I can't get enough camisoles.

Not the ones like a slip cut in half--the ones with up to 14 percent Spandex, like this:

Maidenform Everyday Control Microfiber and Lace Camisole

I'm a late adapter. So sue me. When shapewear camisoles like Sassybax and Yummie Tummies first came out, they were being marketed to be worn instead of a bra. So I ignored them. I'm sorry, but my girls need more cantilevering than a camisole can provide.

Even if I didn't need more in the way of lift-and-separate, I wouldn't have gone near Sassybax, because they're fugly. They're the lingerie equivalent of an orthopedic shoe. Seriously, check it out:

You wouldn't catch me dead in a Sassybax camisole

My grandmother wore better looking underwear.

See, here's what I had to figure out all by myself: the manufacturers of Sassybax and Yummie Tummies forgot to mention that you can wear shapewear camisoles with a bra. It works fine--actually, the camisole helps your bra get the job done. And they're comfortable. Even with 14 percent Spandex, they're more like a tankini then a tourniquet.

And there are plenty of attractive ones out there. Some, like this one, are marketed to be worn instead a blouse, as well as under one.

Flexees Shapewear Chic Lace Bodice camisole

Yes, the lightbulb finally went off over my head, and I'm now the proud owner of about ten camisoles. Some are merely frivolous, but many serve a serious function. Think of the problems they solve:

Midriff bulge/muffin top/back pudge Tops are cut very fitted these days, and nobody wants to look like the Pillsbury Dough Girl.

Yummie Tummie Freedom T is a great waist cincher and layering piece.

Yummie Tummies look kind of plain, but that disguises their amazing ability to whittle your middle. Slip into one of these and you won't believe your waist. I also highly recommend the Maidenform camisoles. They're amazingly comfortable and as for firming--these things are like a personal trainer you can hand-wash and drip dry.

Excessive see-through. Have you noticed how crazily see-through a lot of clothes have gotten? Even t-shirts. But wear a camisole as your first layer, and you can wear something pretty daring on top. And daring is younger and more fun than stodgy.

Excessive cleavage. If you've got a lot on your balcony (as the French would say, if they spoke English) you probably shy away from certain tops because they're inappropriate in broad daylight--or maybe at all.

I give all my tops the cleavage test by placing my hand at the base of my throat. I hold my pointer finger at the base of my throat and check to see whether my shirt reaches the outside of my little finger. If skin shows under my little finger, I wear a camisole. Again, it's easier, younger, and more fun to wear a camisole than shop and shop for something high-necked enough to cover up the girls.

Shopping for camisoles. OK, here's the bad news. The retail prices on these things are insane. It's easy to spend up to $70 on a single camisole, which is madness. This is where discount stores are your friend. I've got a Yummie Tummie I bought at Loehman's for $16.99. I picked up a black Flexees Lace Bodice camisole at Macy's for $9.99 at an after-Christmas sale. (I probably save a lot of money because I don't feel the need to have my camisole match the rest of my underwear.)

Don't forget the cute factor. I'm a big fan of nude bras and panties, but there's something kind of Ace bandage about nude camisoles. I prefer white, black, and colors. This is something you can have fun with, so why not splash out on cheetah-print chiffon with purple lace trim?

30 Days to 10 years younger--10 minute tips. Tip 12: But keep the old

Some things are perfect. Eternal. And you never want them to change. Like diamonds. Ballerina flats. And my favorite fashion magazines.

To ward off the eternal creeping dread of middle-aged frumpiness, I need refreshment and inspiration. These magazines inspire me:

1. Town & Country's website is useless, but the magazine itself is gorgeous. The layout is flawless. The photography makes me want to lick the page. And they edit down the fashion journalism blather to terms the average woman can understand. For example, when they tell us about the trends for spring, they devote a page each to: black and white; florals; feminine flourishes. Simple and clear. And it doesn't matter that I can't afford what they show me. I'm looking for inspiration.
2. 
3. Harper's Bazaar isn't quite what it used to be under Liz Tilberis. (And the editorial pages can be that fashion magazine-specific brand of crazy--out of focus sepia-toned photographs of an homage to Bonnie & Clyde are lovely, but I'd like to see the clothes, please.) Still, I'd say it's America's best all-around fashion monthly. The website is good, too. (P.S. Do yourself a favor, and don't copy Kate's eye makeup.)
4. More is the one magazine where you know you won't see 14 year olds dressed and made up to look 35. That alone is worth the price of admission. Like most magazines, they expect you to be rich, but at least they don't expect you to be young. The website is good, but if I see Sandra Bullock at the Oscar's one more time, I'm going to shut down my laptop.
5. I pick up People's StyleWatch all the time. It's too celebrity-focused, but it's a fast read, and it makes the trends crystal clear. Unlike Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, and Town & Country, it also focuses primarily on the things you'll actually find in stores. The website bears too much resemblance to the regular People web site. I give it a meh.
6. Allure is the one magazine devoted to cosmetics and skin care. I read it to keep up with new products. And the annual cosmetics "Best-Of-Beauty" awards are a must-read. The website is informative but extremely cluttered. Someone needs to give it a makeover. Hee!

Conspicuous in their absence:

1. Lucky, which I secretly call Sucky, except not out loud, because that would be vulgar, and God knows I don't need my daughter becoming a pottymouth like some people we know.
2. Vogue because ... I don't know ... is it the print size? The annoyingly long columns? The inflated sense of self-importance on the part of people like Andre Leon Talley? You tell me.
3. You'd think I'd be all over InStyle, but honestly, I get better fashion reporting from the other glossies. InStyle magazine is what would happen if People magazine married Town and Country and they had a baby.

Which magazines inspire you? Am I missing something crucial? Because those Amazon magazine subscription prices are really pretty amazing ...

30 Days to 10 years younger--10 minute tips. Tip 10: Lighten up, Francis

When you get to be our age, everyone has one piece of advice about makeup: wear less.

Well, I disagree. I wear much more makeup now than I did in my 20s, 30s, and 40s. For one thing, I wear foundation pretty much every day--I never bothered before. I wear concealer, eye shadow, eyeliner, and eyebrow color pretty frequently, too. But it's not obvious, because I 1) pick the right shades and 2) blend like crazy. I also retouch, check for shine, and fix smears.

These ladies don't. Here's Maggie Gyllenhaal in need of some foundation, but with too much smeary black eyeliner, a startling amount of very pink blusher placed too low on her cheeks, and very bright lipstick.


She looks better here. Her eye makeup is great, and her skin looks beautiful. There's still way too much blusher, though. And it should stop at the bottom of her nose, not go all the way down to her lips.


This is Catherine Zeta-Jones promoting Elizabeth Arden's new Red Door Red lipstick. Where do I start? Too much eyeliner, too much blusher, and basically too harsh a look. Let's just call her Cruella de Lipstick and move on, shall we?

To a different picture of Catherine Zeta-Jones, this time demonstrating that when it comes to bronzers, a little dab'll do you.

Would it be over the top to call her Cruella de Oompa Loompa?

In conclusion, wear as much makeup as you want. But please, emphasize either your eyes or your lips. Limit your blush to a healthy flush. That goes for bronzer, too. And for heaven's sake, keep the eye shadow above the eye.

This advice is for everyone, of course. A 23-year-old needs to guard against a tendency to ladle on the spackle. Makeup is fun, after all. Whee! But you get older, you really need to be careful. Constant vigilance.


Be Joan. Not Bette.

30 Days to 10 years younger--10 minute tips. Tip 9: Loop on a scarf

You do realize that big square silk twill print scarves (read: the classic Hermès carré) are out of style and very lady-who-lunches, right? Which means that even if you've coveted one of these iconic scarves for years, this is not the year to buy one.

Mind you, this is not to knock Hermes scarves. I love them. I own some. But they're not the current look. So for the moment, mine are staying in their iconic orange boxes, except for when I take them out and gloat over them like Gollum with his ring.

In case you haven't noticed, the current scarf look is:

• long and narrow, while the classic Hermes is square
• textured, while Hermes is smooth
• interestingly woven, where Hermes is a tight even twill
• gauzy, while Hermes is opaque
• arty/bohemian, while Hermes is traditional and bourgeois

These long, gauzy scarves are not only young and hip, they'll cover your neck, which, if you're over 40, might not be your best feature. So. Somewhere in your collection of scarves you should have something long enough to wrap around your neck a couple of times.

If you don't, I'd advise you to get one. In fact, get two. One for all of your winter clothes, and one to bring you into spring. Say, a dark to medium toned one with an interesting texture, and a livelier one featuring a lovely color or two, maybe some metallic fiber in the weave, some sheerness, some interesting trim--in short, something novel.

The great part of this suggestion is that picking up a couple of scarves really will take you ten minutes. These scarves are available all over the place, from Barney's to the guy with a pushcart on the sidewalk selling scarves for ten dollars.

Right now I'm wearing the heck out of a purple scarf with silver lame threads that I bought for my daughter. It cost $20. It reminds me of this Tara Matthews $550 number from Net-a-porter.

Yes, that's $550. See? If you want to go nuts, you can buy a scarf that's even more expensive than an Hermes--which will just show the people at Hermes, won't it?

Just for fun, let's have a look at some insanely expensive scarves. It'll give you a feel for the best that's out there.

Barney's is showing some beautiful double-layered silk chiffon scarves. They're also massive--52 inches square--with gorgeous prints.



This is the Swash 26 "Fruits de Mer" scarf. At $410, it'll have Hermes sitting up and paying attention. This little thumbnail doesn't do it justice, so click here to see the print up close.


Another Barney's scarf I love is this multi-shade scarf in a palette of neutrals. This kind of print would be a fantastic way to get through the last couple of months of dreary slush--a wonderfuly transitional piece, because of its lightness and texture. Handmade in Nepal for Arman Diradourian, it's $225.


Saks has Alexander McQueen's purple leopard print chiffon scarf.

I don't really need to say anything here, do I?

After all,

purple
leopard print
chiffon

pretty much says it all.

Unfortunately, it costs $380.

So. Onwards.


Banana Republic has this wool/silk ombre scarf in a gorgeous shade of green for $59.50. It also comes in shades of yellow and a nice neutral putty shade.














Bluefly has everything from $189 silks from Diane Von Furstenburg to this interesting silver chevron knit fringe scarf from Sayami for $27.







Anthropologie has a great selection of scarves, and, for a piquant change of pace, their prices are better than I thought they'd be.


The "Shadowed Vine" scarf on the left is $28. I love how they show it on top of the ruffled, textured blouse.



Their "Sky Rockets" scarf on the right is $38. I love the pink mixed with coral. It also comes in purple.


Now that you've seen some high-end scarves currently in stores for spring, you have an idea of what to look for at the affordable store of your choice. The Gap, Old Navy, and Target all have scarves, not to mention the huge selection availabe at T. J. Maxx, Marshall's, and Nordstrom Rack. Not to mention the kiosks at the airport, and the aforementioned guy with a cart on the sidewalk.

Trust me--there's a scarf out there you can afford. Just don't make it a printed silk square.

Because no matter how classic, ladies-who-lunch, French, or Grace Kelly you might think you look in it ...








You'll probably just end up looking like an old queen.









Elsewhere:

Audi of Fashion for Nerds uploaded a video on how to tie long scarves. To see it, click here.

Bloggers discussing Hermes scarves include Meg Fairfax Fielding at Pigtown Design and Natural History of Passementerie.

30 Days to 10 years younger--10 minute tips. Tip 8: Make friends with concealer

If you can remember when concealer was pretty much limited to that lipstick-shaped "Erase" stuff you get at the drug store, you're old enough to have the kinds of problems a good concealer is designed to correct, such as under-eye circles, broken capillaries, and age spots.

The right concealer banishes all of these problems. It can also work as an eye shadow base, improving the wear and appearance of your eye shadow. And you can use it instead of, or in addition to foundation.


Right now, I'm using one of two concealers. I keep a tube of Cargo's OneBase in my purse. It's a tube with a sponge-tipped wand. The formula is very versatile. You can apply it with the sponge tip as a concealer, or squeeze the product out of the tube and apply it as a foundation. You can even mix it with your regular day-time moisturizer to make a tinted moisturizer.

It's handy for travel or trips to the gym, and for putting on makeup in the car. (Shut up! At red lights, duh.)



When I'm at home, I use Maybelline Age Rewind. It's very highly pigmented, which means it gives excellent coverage. It also means it's easy to use too much, so a lot of the time, I take the cap off and only use what I find on the end of the tube.

However, I'm having a lemming attack over Revlon's Age Defying Moisturizing Concealer. It's brand-new, and it's supposed to be great for older skin. It's received rave reviews from Makeup Alley. And it has SPF 25, which is fabulous. What better place to have high SPF than a product that is used around the eyes?



I'm super-tempted to pick up a tube of the Revlon, but I don't know that I need to add to my concealer collection. Yet.

Apply concealer here to take ten years off your face:

• To cover under eye circles, apply both below and above the eyes in the inner corners, near the nose. Don't use it on the outside corners; this will emphasize lines.
• Neutralize and brighten your eyelids by applying it across the eyelids, too.
• Pat on a bit to conceal age spots, red marks from healed blemishes, and burst capillaries.