As a make-up artist and confidence coach I am always asked for my top feel good tips and my top tips for make-up and skincare. Whilst I am not a dermatologist, I do know a fair bit about having good skin and I have a few tricks up my sleeve for making your skin look gorgeous without too much hassle. I am ALL about the non-hassle quick fixes (I’m a busy mum of 3) and below I am sharing 5 things that I do and that I recommend to women that I work with. (products mentioned are my personal recommendations)
- Skincare routine – as we age our skin needs much more attention. Top tips are to use a facial SPF50 daily, to keep age-spots, unwanted pigmentation and fine lines to a minimum. Apply to the backs of your hands and the neck and chest area, too. Ditch the make-up wipes (most are too scratchy and harsh) and use a gentle micellar water to remove make-up and a creamy cleanser to cleanse and gently exfoliate the skin. Do a home face-steam once a week to cleanse out the pores and hydrate the skin. Look for products that are hydrating – dry skin can look extra ageing so make an extra effort to add hydration back in, and that doesn’t just mean an extra blob of moisturiser!
- Sunglasses – you might not have time to do any kid of make-up first thing, especially if you are organising the school run – so my top tip is to buy a fab pair of sunnies and wear them as much as you can. Sunglasses, even in winter, hide tired eyes and can really zhoosh up an outfit (jeans, trainers, long cardi standard here) and make you feel a little bit more pulled together. Team the glasses with a bright lipstick and you will look as though you have had all the time in the world to get ready – when actually it has been a chaotic 3-mins tops.
- Yoga and Strrrrretch – at the end of a day my back and hips are often a bit stiff, my muscles are achey and I realise I feel tense – that’s 3 kids and working for myself for ya! My top tip for you is to stretch every single night and do some yoga. 30-mins stretching is all you need to do to ease muscles, lengthen the spine and wave goodbye to any tension from the day. You will need 1 x yoga mat – which gives a bit of grip, your smart phone – to play some relaxation music*, a dark room – so you can start to get sleepy and 30-mins of your time. I pretty much make up a ‘routine’ as I go along – I do some simple yoga poses and stretches (downward facing dog, child, cat – have I confused you? If so, google them) and then I just stretch out the areas that feel a bit tight and sore, usually my hips, neck and shoulders – understandable after having 3 babies and carrying kids around, right? Oh, remember to get fully ready for bed before you do this mini-chill session, so that when you are finished you can climb straight into bed whilst crossing your fingers and toes and praying that non of your kids wake up! *Choose any 30-min relaxation music and play softly next to the mat.
- Hand Cream – do your hands look like sand-paper? As I typed that I just looked at my rough hands and ran for my hand cream. Top tip – apply lots of hand cream throughout the day and even more at night. As a new mum (again) I remember what a state my hands got into with the girls and here I am again. It is the constant washing after nappy changes, baths, bottle prep etc and they do get dry, like reeeeally dry. My fave hand products are 1) pharmacy olive oil for an overnight treatment (rub into nails too) 2) Aveda Hand Relief which smells incredible and is not greasy 3) For extra dry hands, I recommend Udder Cream – yes! you read that correctly, and it really works – the brand I use is Battles and I buy it online 4) a pair of cotton gloves – you might look like the queen, but wearing these at night will help your dry hands if you apply a thick layer of moisturiser before on popping them on
- I have to get a make-up one in here so my last top tip is a liquid highlighter. Before you panic, I am not talking about instagram style tin-man frosting all over your face, ohhhh no. I am talking about a subtley highlighted face that gives you a youthful glow. I love 1) Benefit High Beam 2) Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector, but do shop around and look for one that is sheer yet sheeny, almost dewy. Apply to the high points of the face – cheek bones, bridge of nose, upper lip and chin – and also on any frown lines to help the area look hydrated and to bounce the light away. You must blend it in very well.
I have a load more tips to share, but there is absolutely NO point writing down 20+ tips in one blog post. The reason being that you are less likely to attempt even one of them and I want to inspire you to feel good and try these things out, so I’ve just shared 5.
The reason I added yoga and stretching to my list and not ‘exercise’ in general, is because we all know we should be exercising, but we don’t all like it and one-size definitely doesn’t fit all. I wanted to suggest something that I have found to make a big difference to my sleep, my mood and my body and something that anyone of any size, ability and strength can really benefit from.
So, here’s to getting older and not feeling quite as creaky and dry-skinned as maybe we once did.
Lucy (aka Geriatric Mum)
If you want to join my facebook group We Are Geriatric Mums (for mums, want-to-be mums, pregnant women over the age of 35) click here
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