TIME TO GLOW-UP! Re-thinking special occasion makeup for mature women!.

Hello everyone, I'm Kerry Lu and welcome to Silver Style Studio. The title says it all, we're rethinking special occasion makeup for mature women. So why rethink special occasion makeup? Well, sometimes makeup becomes a habit. We just do what we've been used to doing for years, even though it no longer serves us well. Which is a great metaphor for life sometimes, but that's a whole nother video. For instance, maybe when you were younger, you would use a liquid liner for going out. But now the eyelids just aren't as smooth as they once were. So it no longer looks great. Perhaps those sparkly eyeshadows that were great for a special night out aren't working for you anymore. So today, I want to show you one of my favorite red carpet makeup looks. It's a fresh, vibrant look that works great for date night, a special occasion, or any time you want to look the best version of yourself. I'm so excited to make this video because I have so many new items to share with you in this full face tutorial. I recently went to a Madonna concert with my husband Joe. And you know, you have to dress up a bit for her majesty. I think about the outfit that I'm going to wear first. I decided on my Dolce & Gabbana tuxedo jacket that I got from a consignment shop in Manhattan about five years ago. I paid $125 for it. It was in perfect condition and it fit me perfectly. I wore a sheer blouse underneath. Don't worry, the jacket did not come off. I wouldn't want to start a stampede for the exits. At first, when I thought of this outfit, I was going to do a smoky eye. You know, bold, sexy makeup. But somehow, I just wasn't feeling it. I'll probably revisit the smoky eye, but I just wasn't in the mood for it that night. And I know that many people can't take too much eye makeup as they age. I know my eyes tend to get irritated very easily these days with a lot of black eyeliner. So as we age, our coloring tends to fade, our skin thins out, and well, so many other things, right? So makeup that was great for us in the past can look a bit overwhelming and harsh. What I strive to achieve with this look is a look that is skin-centric, which means that first and foremost, we take care of our skin. So a good skincare routine is a must. Second, we apply makeup that shows off and continues to care for our skin while we wear it. Gone are the days of foundation that looks and feels like a mask. One big change that's happened since I first became a makeup artist 45 years ago is that these days, makeup artists will often give a mini facial before applying makeup. They'll give a quick massage with serum and moisturizer or apply under eye patches. Many professional makeup artists will use a microcurrent device before applying makeup on a client for a special event because it has such an immediate waking up effect of the skin. And great skin requires less makeup. A couple of months ago, I showed you the zip device that I've been using for a while now. Many celebrity makeup artists will use this on their clients before a red carpet event. The nice people from zip are kindly sponsoring this video today. Thanks so much, guys. I really appreciate it. A friend of mine purchased a zip device after seeing my video and she sent me her before and after pictures. The first photo is when she started using it and the second was just two weeks later. She was thrilled and said I could share these results with you. Do you see the difference around the jowl area? I think that's quite amazing. So let me show you how I got ready for this event from start to finish. So let's go. Before any special event, I give myself a zip facial. Today, I chose their silver conductive gel. This facial will get my blood flowing and add radiance to my skin. Which is great for this makeup look we're about to do. I just follow along with one of zip's guided facials that you can find on their app. Zip have added a new guided lip treatment to their smartphone app. This one is just what I need. It targets the lips, the surrounding skin, soft microcurrents, boost circulation, increase volume and minimize fine lines. No getting ready glam routine is complete without our under eye patches. These ones are from Dermatology and they really help take away puffiness. This next product has been a game changer for me. It's appropriately called the beautiful primer. And it is. This is the second time I've purchased it. I'm really not a big fan of super illuminated faces over a certain age. But this formula offers a very refined luminous finish. It gives a lit from within glow that I love. I'll do one half first so that you can see the difference. Do you see the difference this made? I love it. I think of this as my anchor for this whole look. A little goes a long way. I'm applying it all over my face. I often use this product alone for my everyday look. Because I don't want to cover up this lovely glow, we need a foundation that's super sheer. So, I've been testing a new product from CoverGirl. It's Simply Ageless Skin Perfector Essence. Word is, it's a dupe of Chanel's Les Beiges Water Fresh Complexion Touch. Which sells for $70. Now, I paid $23 for the CoverGirl version. Which is expensive for a drugstore brand. It's actually the most that CoverGirl has ever charged for a foundation. But it's a lot easier to swallow than $70. Here's one side. And here's the other. What do you think? It's definitely giving me the coverage I was looking for without blocking out my natural skin texture. I think I'll give this a thumbs up. Because that's such a sheer coverage, you can always cover up small areas with a perfectly matching cover-up just in the areas you need it. This is Conceal and Perfect Longwear Concealer by Milani. I wanted to try a longwear medium to full coverage for this special evening. But here's what I've found. This did give me more coverage. But there's no getting around the fact that longwearing medium to full coverage concealer does mean showing more lines. So it's back to my NYX Bear With Me Concealer Serum. It's light coverage. But I'd rather have that than have my concealer settle into my wrinkles making them look worse. I'm going to pat the same concealer on my eyelids as a lid primer also. I've been enjoying this Wonder Stick from NYX which I showed on a video a few months back. I was going to use a different contour stick today but I like this one better because it's a true contour colour. It's not a bronzer. Plus it has a highlighter on the end. I'm sculpting out my cheekbones giving my face an instant lift. I like to place my contour on the underside of my cheekbones. If I was to place it higher, I would flatten my cheekbones and thin out my face. I say that because there are a lot of videos showing placement quite high up on the cheekbone which works great for some but not for me. I will do a video on this subject because everyone's face shape is different. So why would we all be shaping our face the same way? I'm using this gorgeous blush from Kia Weiss Beauty. What I like about this blush, in fact many of their items, is that the beautiful packaging is refillable. I'm just patting it on starting at the apples of my cheeks and sweeping upwards. Such a gorgeous colour. I wish you could feel how luxurious this compact is. It's like a jewel. And when it's used up, you just order a refill. The ingredients are organic which is also a big plus to me. And now just a light dusting of my favourite Ilia Soft Focus Finishing Powder. Don't apply it to your cheekbones though because you want to keep them looking lovely and glowy. We can take the other end of my contour stick to add a little highlighter right here. See that? Just a little touch. You don't need much. Ah, so many things to show you today. Look what I found at Ulta. They're nude sticks. The collection is called Bright Nude Eyes. There are three chunky pencils. They come in this cute tin together with their own sharpener. You can wear each colour alone or combine them however you like. I thought they would work great for today's look. I'll start with this colour, Nudity, which has a luminosity to it. It's not sparkly. Next, this colour is called Taupe. I'm applying it above my iris in the contour area. I'm not winging it out. I don't want the eyeshadow to be star of the show. This is the perfect colour to go under the eye too. It's not even going to look like liner, but it will give my eyes a bigger look. Now for just a touch of Illya's Clean Gel Liner. Another new product for you today is L'Oreal's new Panorama Mascara. They proclaim fanned out lashes, a multi-level bristle brush suitable for sensitive eyes and contact lens wearers. They claim it's washable. I used it a few days ago and I'll use it again today so you can see how it looks. But I wasn't that happy with it. I found it didn't add much volume to my lashes, although it did lengthen them. So it gave the look of long, thin lashes. I found it very difficult to remove even though I used eye makeup remover and a makeup removing towelette. I was finding chunks of it the next day which irritated my eyes. I'm doing the other eye with the regular L'Oreal Voluminous Formula, which I like. It makes my lashes look much thicker. So the L'Oreal Panoramic Mascara is a thumbs down for me. Which is a shame because I wanted to love it. Now let's move on to eyebrows. I have an exciting item to show you. It's this eyebrow pencil from e.l.f. Instant Lift Waterproof Brow Pencil. The colour is simply grey. Hallelujah! You know that I'm always on the hunt for great brow products and I like to bring you different ways of enhancing your brows. This is a great colour grey, which can be hard to find as many of you know. It is so easy to apply. It just glides on, has a little brush on the end to give a soft finish and then it just dries to a waterproof finish. I'm brushing my eyebrows giving them an upswept feathered look. Then I'll set them in place using Anastasia of Beverly Hills Brow Freeze. I'm also using a spatula to flatten them against my skin. Now this is one of the elements that makes this look special occasion. Because we've kept the eyes natural looking today, we can really play up the lips and have fun with colour. I'm lining the lips using MAC Red. Going over the lip line very slightly. Then I'm going to soften it using a lip brush. Now when it came to lipstick choice for this Madonna concert, I felt obligated to wear the iconic MAC Russian Red that Madonna made famous 40 years ago. Oh how time flies. Because I want to make it last all night, I'm blotting it. Then let's add another coat. Not using as much by the lip line. We don't want it to feather. What a difference these glamorous red lips make. Please stay tuned to see the complete look. My talented husband Joe took the following fun shots. I hope you like them. I'll see you next time. Bye!