There’s a beautiful shift that happens as our birthdays accumulate. It’s pretty subtle at first, but one day I realised that my trusted eyeliner pencil suddenly felt too harsh, and the foundation that I’d worn since my 20s seemed to be setting into lines that made me look older. My beauty regime changed entirely and I began to avoid wearing makeup.
But this is something that all women go through as our skin changes texture, our hair colour evolves and our facial structure shifts. Shockingly, many women are still using the same makeup techniques, products and colour palettes that they learned, and felt comfortable with, decades ago despite their appearance being so different. This leads to a makeup look that is outdated, unsuitable and no longer flattering to new features throughout life.
When I realised that the makeup from my youth no longer looked right on me, I simply stopped wearing it and embraced natural beauty instead. But for special events and occasions, when it’s nice to feel glam, I wanted to understand what works for me now, in my late thirties without making me feel overwhelmed by choices and over-done with poor and outdated makeup techniques. And so, I booked in for a makeup masterclass with celebrity makeup artist, Jana Jurakova.
This ageless beauty makeup masterclass allows all women to reclaim their sparkle, from diverse to dynamic, we can rewrite our beauty narratives. The energy was so uplifting, fun and informative, far more profound than watching a beauty tutorial online or copying somebody else’s ideas and styles. It’s not an activity about covering up my skin, but a masterclass in the revelation of individual beauty.
Realising How Outdated Makeup Can Age Us
Ladies, let’s talk about the elephant in the powder room: wearing the wrong makeup and clinging to outdated techniques can inadvertently make us look older, more tired, washed out and dull our sense of femininity and glamour.
It happens to so many, as the Instagram-glam heavy contour and baking technique on mature skin can look less sculpted and more like a cracked desert. The dark, matte lipstick that we loved in the 90s now emphasises all of the fine lines around the mouth, highlighting ageing, rather than reawakening our youthfulness.
When we cling to the makeup that our younger selves loved, it’s like wearing a dress that no longer fits us. We stand out like a sore thumb because the balance is off; rather than complimenting our present features, we fight against them and try to hide them, which leaves us looking like we don’t belong in our own body. We either become super visible to others for all of the wrong reasons, or worse, completely invisible and irrelevant to modern beauty. Something so outdated is not the same as timeless elegance.
Wearing the wrong foundation shade can totally wash us out, and the wrong eyebrow shape can make us look angry. We must never forget that makeup must evolve with us throughout life.
The Power Of Seeking Professional Guidance
Being the gym bunny that I am, a little light-coverage tinted serum is all that I use in my daily routine when leaving the house, otherwise I’m bare-faced for 80% of my life when working from home, because I dislike how makeup dries out my skin, cracks and cakes into fine lines and it always look like a toddler has scribbled my eyes on for me.
After having my two children, getting glam simply became less of a priority for me, and as the years passed by, I eventually forgot how to keep up with trends and experiment, let alone understand my own unique beauty style. So this masterclass has been ground breaking for me as it’s less of a generic tutorial and more of a beauty excavation.
Under professional guidance, I was able to learn how true glamour at any age comes from understanding why specific things work for our unique faces, right now in life. Think colour matching, but a million times better. Forget the department store fluorescent lights and daunting cabinets of endless products, this is a far less overwhelming. This class allows women to find what day-to-night colours work best for them without bias or sales commissions.
With our own unique undertones from warm to cool and neutral, we’re able to see how colours and textures appear on our skin today. From the tanned skin in my teens and twenties, when sunbeds were on every street corner, to the pale and protected complexion that I have today, my beauty goal posts have moved so far that they’re almost unrecognisable! The perfect shade of red lipstick is still out there for me, but as our skin brightens and our hair starts to sparkle, the tone of the red lip needs to change to prevent it from looking too severe on me now.
We explored how my eye colour, hair colour and skin tone causes certain earthy and warm tones to pop more than the harsh black eyeliner and smokey lids that ruled my entire youth. Seeing how warm-toned shadows directly complement golden-blonde hair, while cooler tones enhance silver or dark locks, felt like speaking an entirely new language and I’m so excited to explore this new chapter of life.
The technique of applying makeup is everything, as I learned that the lift of light prevents faces from looking tired or droopy. Instead of applying blush to the apples of the cheeks, which can drag the face down with age, I learned how to place it higher up on the cheekbones, blending it up and out. And those heavy, cakey, matte foundation days? Banished in favour of sheer, hydrating formulas that feel like I’m bare-faced rather than buried beneath inches of powder. What a relief!
Celebrate Natural Beauty By Enhancing, Not Masking
The mantra of todays class was clear: Enhance and celebrate you, don’t hide. I truly believe this is the key to feeling authentic and naturally beautiful. For such a long time, makeup for mature women has been marketed as anti-ageing, implying that the goal is to erase the beautiful life that we’ve lived, but this masterclass flipped that script entirwly.
True natural beauty is celebrated when we use makeup as a tool to spotlight our best features. The swipe of a brush highlights beautiful cheekbones. A carefully placed natural eyeliner opens and brightens the eyes. And a tint of colour on the lips brings vitality to the entire face.
When we simply cover every inch of skin in makeup, we lose the essence of ourselves. But if we focus in enhancing our features our vibrancy can shine through. The lines around our eyes show that you’ve laughed and loved, whilst the contour of our jawline shows our strength. We’re not erasing our identity, but proudly framing it.
It’s Time To Re-Explore Beauty
As a model, I’ve had my makeup professionally applied hundreds of times over the past two decades, sitting in a chair with my eyes closed until I’m totally transformed. But today, my eyes were wide open. Everything that Jana did to one side of my face, I repeated on the other. They say if you give a man a fish then you feed him for a day, but if you teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime. Today I learned every aspect of how to achieve, maintain and recreate todays looks so that I can enjoy getting glam whenever I choose to, rather than dreading the discomfort of no longer feeling like myself whenever I wear makeup.
The finished look? I still look and feel like myself with the beautiful makeup on, only brighter, fresher and more confident when being glam. I don’t think that I’d ever have experimented with these colours, techniques and products by myself, as I’ve purchased so many expensive must-have beauty trends over the years, applied it once, it’s looked wonky or entirely out of place on me, and been banished to the back of the drawer, never to see the light of day again.
Now I have a capsule makeup bag of just the products that I need, that I know will suit me as an individual and compliment my natural features, hair, eyes and skin tone. I’ve had the experience of applying them all myself, I have photos of the finished look to refer back to, and I know techniques and tricks to use to get my eyeliner straight and my lips looking flawless. No more wonky, uneven and woefully outdated mishaps. It’s invigorating to be back in control as I prepare to step into the next decade of my life.
There is a distinct kind of attractiveness that comes with knowing who you are now and presenting that self to the world with intention. A makeup masterclass is more than a lesson in product application; it’s an invitation to take up space, explore new looks and fall back in love with your reflection at every single stage of your incredible life.
If you feel stuck in a makeup rut, or feel like your routine just isn’t doing you justice anymore, I cannot recommend a personalised masterclass more highly. Whether you attend one-on-one as I did, or grab a few girlfriends, spending an afternoon rediscovering your beauty is such an uplifting experience.
