The Over-40 Makeup Revolution Is Long Overdue

Jenkins says she changed her routine because she became more confident in her skin. “I naturally started seeking out makeup that wasn’t necessarily covering my skin, just perfecting it, making it more even,” she explains. “I don’t want to look covered, I still want to see my skin. I have a lot of moles, I’m going to see my moles. Loving my skin made me back off of makeup being heavy.” 

“Why Does Makeup Make Me Look Bad?”

Jones Road Beauty is another brand that wasn’t tailor-made for the 40-plus demo but includes products that work well for mature skin. In 2020, Bobbi Brown — yes, the Bobbi — launched the brand with a variety of simple, easy-to-use, creamy makeup products. Brown, 65, has always championed the ethos of enhancing one’s natural beauty. Her impetus for launching Jones Road, she recalls, was the question she asked herself after getting her makeup professionally done: “Why does makeup make [me] look bad? And why did I look better when I [wore] less makeup?” 

Because of her busy schedule when she was running her eponymous brand, Brown often had professionals do her makeup for work. After they were done, though, she would try to take off the finished look to make it less obvious on her face. “My aesthetic is that you look better, and yes, if you want to say younger — you look better with less makeup,” Brown says. “You certainly look better without badly formulated makeup. I personally don’t like traditional makeup.” 

To Brown, traditional makeup involves products like foundation, which may be packaged in cool bottles but deliver a heavy, full-coverage look. She notes that concealers, in particular, can expose the things people are trying to hide. “Most concealers, when you put them on under your eyes, don’t cover and just accentuate the lines,” says Brown. “If it does have any kind of coverage, often it’s very flat and dense and just sits on the skin. It doesn’t look good. It doesn’t make me look better. I think I look worse.”

For concealers, Arlt prefers liquids that are water-based because of their tendency to be moisturizing around the eye area versus pots or sticks. While he does lean toward creamier formulas, he adds, sometimes they have too much luminosity and can highlight certain lines or wrinkles, which is where selective powder-setting can help. Picking the right option is key, though: Talc-based powders often leave a heaviness on the skin that accentuates texture, but there are mineral-based powders that work to set makeup and don’t leave the face looking dry. Arlt also suggests working with translucent powders because, he says, “if [powders] have more pigment in them, they tend to be heavier on the skin. They can add texture that we don’t necessarily want to see on our skin.” 

How Brands Can Do Better

Although Jones Road Beauty wasn’t developed specifically to meet the needs of older skin, Brown was in her 60s when she created the brand, so when she said she was “thinking of what will enhance everyone’s skin,” it’s reasonable to assume she was including women near her age in that description. This is also clear from the brand’s imagery, which features models who have lines, creases, jowls, and gray hair.