Thanks to Walgreens for underwriting this post. I was paid as a member of the Clever Girls Collective, but the content is all mine. Visit http://moms.dailybuzz.com/channel/style.
Soon after my son was born, I hated my tired face and sought help in cosmetics to hide the dark circles. It was smart decision because even if it only helped my tired skin a little, it gave me a huge moral boost. My son turned five this summer and during the same week, while on vacation, my under eye concealer tube cracked wide open. The tube was tired from being used years beyond its prime. My makeup was old. The colors were wrong. I did replace my mascara regularly, but the rest of the stuff dated back to just after my son's birth, which is both gross and embarrassing.
I confided in a friend, who flat out told me that now that I'm 40 (sigh), I need new makeup designed to help an aging face. All of this bad news at once: my makeup was old and so was I. My friend used a cream and powder combo that she raved about so much, she wrote down the name for me to take to the makeup counter. Once there, sitting on a stool under a bright light, the 20-something cosmetics employee kindly told me the same product would not work for me because my eyes have too much...(she paused while carefully picking a word)...texture. I have wrinkles! So much for laugh lines, these are deep crevasses. I imagined James Franco as a mountain climber with no chance of escape, getting trapped in the deep, dark, scary texture under my eyes. The cream and powered may highlight the wrinkles/texture, rather than conceal them, she said as she went to work, showing me a different product and how to apply it, and sure enough, I looked much more awake and less textured than before. Tinted eye brightener is my new hero.
Unfortunately, I never outgrew my combination skin. I still have oily and dry skin, just like when I was a teenager, but sadly, that doesn't mean I have teenage skin. During the fall, I can feel my skin tighten if I don't moisturize, and while I like not having an oily summer sheen, if I don't moisturize, the texture will win. During the summer, I moisturize for sunscreen, but in the fall, even though my moisturizer still has sunscreen in it, I moisturize so that my fact doesn't crack open like the old concealer bottle.
I left the store with a bag full of new cosmetics, all in flattering shades of brown that will give me a more natural autumn look. No more cakey cream to blot on my face. My new program goes on fast (my request as a mom) and is light enough that I don't feel it. Gone are all the dark colored eye shadows of my 30s (where was I going with the sparkly green eye shadow anyway? Oz?) and in is the more natural colored look of my 40s, with plenty of eye brightening tricks to make me look like I came close to eight hours of sleep. I promise myself that this time around, I'll replace the makeup before the packaging breaks open from age. I need to stay on top of the texture as it slowly takes over my face.
Thank you to Walgreens for sponsoring this blog post. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. All opinions are my own.
