6 Make-Up Tricks To Make You Look Younger

1. Lighten Your Lips

As we age, our lips tend to lose volume – and dark colours can often make lips appear even thinner and accentuate wrinkles. Swap red and berry shades for pink and rosy hues for a softer look and to add fullness. Don’t discard lip liner either – it can help to define lips, prevent colour from feathering and give extra staying power. Opt for a nude or rose tone that matches your natural lip colour and finish with a slick of gloss to add the illusion of added volume.

2. Remember Less Is More

Take a less-is-more approach when it comes to foundation application. Use a full-coverage formula only where needed to cover redness, dark circles and broken capillaries, rather than your whole face. While letting your skin show through may seem counterintuitive, the more skin you can see, the better and more youthful the result. Avoid heavy foundations, which can sit in wrinkles and fine lines, opting instead for a serum-based formula such as Bare Minerals’ BareSkin Serum Foundation.

3. Go Bold With Your Brows

Brows tend to thin out with the years, especially at the ends, so take the time to fill them in and your eyes and facial features will look instantly refreshed. To contour thinning brows, use a pencil that’s slightly lighter than your hair colour (we love Anastasia Beverly Hill’s Brow Wiz); fill in sparse areas with light, feathery strokes and blend well before setting with a brow gel. For bonus points, dab highlighter under your arches.

4. Boost Your Lashes

An eyelash curler and a hard-working mascara can turn back the clock, at least temporarily. Our top tip? Look for the blackest black mascara you can find (it’ll make the whites of your eyes look clearer and whiter) and always use a lash curler before applying. As you age, both brows and lashes can thin, so taking the time to boost volume will instantly open up your facial features for a more youthful look.

5. Try Reverse Contouring

Contouring may be a trend, but it’s one worth skipping if you’re after a more youthful look. As you age, you lose volume in your face and contouring can further accentuate this by enhancing hollows and narrowness in your complexion. To combat this, highlight and contour in reverse by applying highlighter on the temples, tip of the nose, eyes, upper lip and chin. We love Givenchy’s Mister Light Concealer.

6. Get Rosy

Countless make-up artists will tell you the key to looking fresh is using a cream blush – not only is a cream formula more blendable than its powdery cousins, but it won’t dry out the complexion; instantly creating the illusion of more plumped-up skin. Warm shades with a hint of pink or rose gold work best for the majority of skin tones – to give your face a lift, apply a cream formula to the apples of your cheeks before adding a touch of highlighter to the centre of the cheekbones and blending it up to the temples.