It’s clear that beauty is outperforming fashion in Big Business — especially in the anti-aging aspect. Aging well is the new luxe — not buying oversized YSL Zoot Suits (a la Billie Eilish). It seems the Gen X contingent (over the age of 45) have muscle to spend on skin products. And those of us 65 to 80 now account for a quarter of the beauty buys – and this is not just about “the power of the older women” or the “pro-aging movement.”
After all, we learned a lot from 89-year-old actress Maggie Smith when she became a luxe Loewe brand model (at 88) with her heavy huge eyelids, and her high forehead looking slightly “sardonic, confrontational and bemused.” As New York Times Rhonda Garelick commented in her Face Forward column: “Her features so easily and clearly conveyed wit, intelligence and self-possession.” No glamour shot here. Just the privilege of age on display … “her deeply lined, world-weary, expressive, seemingly makeup-free, magnificent face.” Smith reminds us that it’s not about how you feel or look — it’s how you live your life that counts.
But nowadays skin care and especially makeup still rules, and you may have to work till you’re 90 to afford it all. “Age Appropriate” has become demeaning. Cue the social media “influencers” to show us how it’s done. They are everywhere — producing their own beauty lines (Jessica Chastain, Jennifer Aniston, and Dolly Parton) or hard selling for others (Martha Stewart, Jenna Lyons). Becoming an “ambassador” means you are an aging beauty with the capacity for a lot of online “clicks.” Bethenny Frankel has become a perpetual “hawker” for everything from lip balm to chicken salad. Her credibility is now dubious as too much hustling wears thin. As does too much online face time.
As a customer it feels better looking online than working a deadly department stores cosmetic sections located on the first floor or basement. The aisles are filled with “consultants” who are basically seducing you to drop $650 on brushes and potions that you end up returning in a week.
Ulta and Sephora and even Blue Mercury have now taken over that merchandising market and are more fun to go to. They have become the “Disneyland” of cosmetics and skincare. Talk about “experiential” shopping. Having a whole store (warehouse sized in some cases) and a staff dedicated to beauty actually wearing the product themselves is the best “makeover” environment for any age.
With all due respect to online celebrities strong-arming sales, there is nothing better than person to person interaction to get us offline and back into stores. And older women appreciate elegant contemporaries in sales when it comes to their faces — not just a teenage twit or a know-it-all product pusher. At Sephora, I actually had a salesperson sell me the best eyeliner because “they” were in complete “face” themselves, having already tried out the entire store. Not just a specific brand.
The whole approach for the older beauty market is ease and speed. I don’t have the eyesight or patience anymore to spend hours in front of a mirror layering serums and primers, to iron out my wrinkles, or to brown out the shape of my jaw line. I leave all that to the Kylie Jenner generation.
The other day Martha Stewart did a one-minute video for Merit Beauty performing her “morning makeup regime.” She stated, “This is as easy as making a pot of soup.” A concealer, eyeliner, shadow and a lipstick. It was an instant attention grabber for old bags like me looking for a “Cup-a-Soup” face routine.
The new beauty lines are called “minimal” (everything is in a kit — less shades, less product) and “clean,” “consciously formulated” ingredients (no silicone and coconut oils) and of course “wellness” awareness (the overused meaningless buzzword) with no landfill toxicity and total “sustainability.” Many beauty lines are making makeup that has skin care properties, though I have yet to find an SPF 40 foundation that doesn’t leave my skin dry with a kabuki white face.
Makeup artist Gucci Westman arrived in 2018 to rave reviews for her Westman Atelier line of “second skin finishers” via a giant blush stick, a foundation stick, bronzer compact and natural blush suede matte lipstick that can double as a rouge stick. Her lipsticks are $50, and the foundation stick is $68. It’s expensive to look natural.
I get that big Crayon “sticks” are taking the place of bottled or tube liquid concealers and powders. But on some aging skin, the sticky consistency can still make you look like Bozo the Clown. And a lot of the lip and cheek sticks feel like chapstick. Crayola application has its good and bad sides, and we all have to rely on those YouTube tutorials.
Beauty and food have gotten a giant boom from “how-to” videos. Which is why it was so brilliant for Martha to tag her makeup lesson as easier than making a pot of soup. It should be that easy, but mostly it isn’t.
Leave it to tried-and-true makeup artist Bobbi Brown to grab all age markets with her savvy new Jones Road line. She just produced her “Cheers to 4 years!” (anniversary of Jones Road) kit that covers the essentials in an easy way. It features her new exclusive gel eyeliner and brush in a shade of brown, a Just A Sec eye shadow, Mini Miracle Balm for cheek color, and a Lippy Stick in neutral. All for $88 in a fun brown paper bag — very “curbside takeout.”
The Bobbi Kit 4.0 is limited edition with headlines of being “clean” and “cruelty free” and most of all being an “effortless statement.” Sure we can get all this at CVS, but having it all curated and ready to go with the promise of doing it all in a 5-minute stress test.
The concept is great. The presentation is perfect. She stayed away from foundation which is way too complicated despite for her aptly named WTF (What The Foundation — $44). And let’s face it, everyone over 65 has drawers filled with $5 – $85 foundation. I learned a long time ago there is no concealer that doesn’t get caught in your wrinkles or actually covers your regrettable tattoo like age-spots.
And all mascaras are the same formula with a different brush. It’s interesting that Marilyn Monroe just used vaseline as a primer and Albolene Petroleum cream to take off her makeup. I think the most important makeup product is a good makeup remover that doesn’t rip your face off. That is hard to find.
40 years ago, Andy Warhol’s drag star Jackie Curtis gave me the best make up lesson in his Lower East Side mouse-infested bathroom. He used all drugstore products and Cetaphil as a moisturizer. His tips still stand. “Don’t layer your face… just cover the blotches, use only grey or brown eyeliner as black is too severely aging, flick a small wing at the end of your droopy eyelid to lift your face. And no dark red lips unless you are under 25 or a drag queen” (or Taylor Swift!). And keep eye shadow to eyelids, no white sparkle or frost on any eyebrow bone (again unless you are in the drag business).
It dawned on me that without Andy stating, “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes,” we wouldn’t have the social media onslaught of influencers and the podcasting talking heads. He would have loved all of this. He is the grandfather of social media.
In fact, in the late ’80s Andy Warhol himself got in drag for photographer Christopher Makos. Andy always wanted to do it and was intrigued with drag queens all his life. There were about 15 “self-portrait” photos of Andy in all sorts of wigs and “slap” (as drag makeup was called). As critic Ted Mann wrote about the drag self-portrait series; “he was less interested in revealing himself than in presenting a mask, just as he carefully cultivated a superficial, depthless celebrity persona in life. Nevertheless, in this image, his masculine features are barely disguised behind his wig and make-up, resulting in a poignant testament to vulnerability and exposure.”
Ironically, Andy’s lips were overly stained, painted a deep red. It gave him all away at age 55. Not one of his better works of art.
