Quote:Originally Posted by
liba
I am really not sure what route I'm going to take when I go grey. If I stay naturally grey, that's probably going to look authoritative but also a little bit like a poodle or poorly sheered sheep with the curliness. It'll probably be the most flattering to the rest of my coloring, though. When I was a kid, I always wished I could have lavender hair, but I'd never allow myself the insane bleaching that'd need to be done to get it prepped for that, so maybe when it's all white I can do my lavender and periwinkle dreams on it.
The one picture I remember of you posting your whole face, your hair was very very light - platinum blonde or very pale white grey? I thought that looked super striking and awesome with the red lips. All this hair dying is only worth it if you have the time for it plus the inclination to enjoy the pampering feeling of spending the day at the salon. Still, I could picture you looking faaaabooo with deep scarlet henna red hair. Trying for a naturalistic hair color is sort of an unnecessary bother if you already have a striking style and attitude - just go all the way blatant is what I say. At least scarlet will be more generally flattering to your skin tone than trying to get just that right shade of brunette, brown or blonde.
Most internet "gurus" are 25 years too young to be able to have an informed opinion about what works best for older women, lol. It's not your age that determines what you should wear on your lips as much as it's your lip shape. If you are young but have thin lips like you go around clenching your teeth all day, do yourself a favor and avoid dark colors, unless you want to play up the witchy-poo effect to scare people with. If you have full lips, especially when you're getting older, by all that is holy, play them the hell up with every kind of lipstick humanly possible (although you'll need to be careful to apply with a carefully rounded edge to capture the entire lip contour with color). To me, the only thing that's changed is with some colors and textures, they look best if I use foundation to perfect my skin tone so that there's no blotchiness around the nose, chin or mouth area that would detract from the strong, perfect lips. I have to do this with a variety of different colors, though, not just brights or darks.
I have been finding myself wearing much lighter colors comfortably in the past couple of years, but I think that's primarily the whims of fashion and my own tastes changing a bit. I would probably have looked equally good in them years ago, although there's something to be said for the fact that today's new technology allows for much more natural, skin-like textures and less of that heavy white pigmented ingredient list that made pastels much harder to pull off for everyone.
I can 100% vouch for the fact that the women my age and older who I know who still wear makeup of any kind are much more in tune with their beauty and youthfulness than the ladies who decided it was too frivolous to wear makeup anymore. Also, beyond that, the women I know who still wear dramatic makeup are mostly the most artistic ones who will love color, drama and and exciting aura about them until the last day. The only women I know who do wear makeup who aren't happier are the ones who mostly wear it because they never felt happy with their natural looks in the first place, and that's sort of sad to see in a 50 year old woman - by that age, you should know that it's the real you that makes life the most fun and beautiful!
I'm in the same boat - I've always looked best keeping that high contrast effect accentuated. I do great with just the right MLBB shade (like MEHR!!!!! I know everyone's been going on about that one lately in this thread. It's definitely a miracle color), but that's frankly a pretty new development. When I was younger, there was zero need for MLBB lipsticks because I could just skip lipstick entirely and still look very put together. Now, it pays to have a little lipstick going on, if only to conform to society's definition of what a well-turned out woman of a certain age should look like. I don't have anything against that concept, btw, if it helps me get what I need out of the world with a little extra advantage. Machiavellian Makeup Team, assemble!
Since you're NC, you should try light shades that are much more yellow than you'd expect would be flattering. I've been loving these really warm but light pinks like Sweet Experience and kooky apricots like Sweet & Sour or Sushi Kiss or even crazy Playland, which I've been wearing at night to go out to really super sexy and dramatic effect, are what it takes for me to pull off the pale lip look. I get lots of male attention with this sort of look - a surprising amount, compared to just the plain old everyday amount…it was actually very unexpected. I avoid any blush with these yellowish colors unless it's almost colorless tan or gives the bronzer look. On the eyes, these lip colors are so retro, I think they look best with a 60's cat eye and maybe a bright color on the lid only to go with it. The standard smokey eye looks overdone with these pale lips nowadays. I only do an eye look like that if I'm wearing red lips or vampy lips (I actually despise a sharp cat eye with red lips - that's one thing that not only looks aging to me, but also sort of over the hill, fashion wise. It looks good on young rockabilly girls and that's about it, lol)
Makeup rules are meant to be broken, if only for variety and fashion. Not to mention, every time there's a new leap in technology, that throws the old rules out the window right there, too. Whee, makeup is fun!
Totally love your hair Liba!!!! Lighter colors tend to wash me out.
In July I will celebrate the 1st anniversary of my 60th birthday. I tossed the rule book that says you have to chop your hair off and wear light colored lipstick. I say phooey!!!
Peachstock
Snob
Ruby Woo
Quick Sizzle
Fixed On Drama
Hot Chocolate
Naughty Saute
Sounds Like Noise
ompom: 
when you said 60...how? You look young
