Are Cosmetics the Secret to Looking Younger ?

There’s a lot of confusion about whether makeup makes us look older or younger, and often the conventional wisdom of makeup tends to contradict itself. For example: did you pile on the eyeshadow as a teenager, hoping not to get carded? Or, do you think that a woman of “a certain age” shouldn’t wear dark lipstick because it’s too harsh?

Psychology professor Richard Russell and CERIES (an independent research foundation established by Chanel in 1991) published a study in March of this year assessing 289 faces ranging from 20 to 70 years old. According to the study, redness of the lips, definition of the eye, and the luminance contrast between the brows and forehead are all subconscious cues for assessing a person’s age. They found that the color and depth of eyebrows, eyes, and lips contrasted less and less with the surrounding skin as age increased. In other words, as age increased, contrast decreased. And contrast, it turns out, is important in visually determining how we age.

What does this mean for you, besides that you should turn up the “contrast” feature in Photoshop before uploading pics to Facebook? It means that you can use these four subtle makeup tricks to your advantage. Here's how

Fill in the brows :

Well-groomed and shaped brows will keep your face looking youthful and polished. We love Anastasia’s Brow Wiz for its user-friendly superfine tip; here we used it in Brunette. Fill in brows with light, feathery strokes in the direction of hair growth, and use the spoolie on the end to soften harsh edges and brush hairs into place. We also used a highlighter (such as Too Faced Absolutely Invisible in Candlelight) along the brow line to create more contrast between the skin and the brow.
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