11 Essential Eye-Makeup Tips for Women Over 40 in 2022

by Coco Lee March 11, 2022

It’s time that you give your beautifully matured face the right tint of colors making it shine out even in a crowd of younger faces! Going over 40 does not mean that you give up wearing makeup, you just need to switch to a more majestic mode of doing it. There’s so much those eyes have to tell with their subtly batting lids, do it with the best eye makeup tips for women over 40. Bring them alive with a hint of color in the right places, and you’ll fall in love yourself like never before!

List of 11 Essential Eye-Makeup Tips for Women Over 40

Always start with a primer
Reduce dark circles with foundation and concealer
Choosing the eyeshadow shade well
Opt for matte base
Keep within the crease line
Work with cream-based eyeshadow formulae
Light shimmer shines well
Don’t ditch the eyeliner
Highlight the brows
Opt for a volumnizing mascara
Use the right tools

So here we go with the tip details…

1. Always start with a primer

Less is more when it comes to wearing makeup – anyplace, anytime. But, prepping your eyes is the key to it all. Even if you don’t want to wear any color on the eyelids, it’s absolutely necessary that they are prepped well. Primer smoothes, and corrects the dull color of the lids making them look fresh and lovely in a matter of seconds. The smoothing of the skin helps prevent showing up of the natural crease lines when you apply eyeshadow color on them. Here is the detailed blog on how to apply eyeshadow palette to create any look you want.

2. Reduce dark circles with foundation and concealer

Dark spots and circles around the eyes, water retention marks are all normal as we keep priming with age. You can easily give them a backseat using a well-blended layer of foundation, and an application of concealer on top of it. Also, applying foundation, and conclear around the eyes will help in further prepping the area to bring out well the hint of colors that you wear on the lids. If not wearing any eyeshadow, the attention will focus on the smooth skin canvas around the eyes and not on any spots around them. Choose a shade that has a yellow undertone and will also act as a highlighter so that it catches the light, and brightens up.

3. Choosing the eyeshadow shade well

Weather you’ve been a fan of bright shades, or cool nudes, it’s time to make some changes in choosing the color of your eyeshadow now. Stay away from hues like grays and browns, these tend to make the eyes look older and tired. In our run-up on how to wear eye makeup over 40 we suggest that you go for warm tones that create a feeling of light, and warmth. As per WikiHow, these colors create the illusion of the eyes being well-rested. Look more radiant by choosing the right shades according to your skin tone; for light skin tone, opt for a light mocha or vanilla colored bases, and for darker skin tones, stick to shades like peachy orange or yellow gold.

4. Opt for a matte base

When choosing the base colors for your eyeshadow, pick those that come with a matte finish. The logic is simple; matte eyeshadow colors will spread out evenly along the crease without letting them show up, but just the opposite happens with shimmer colors. Shimmer colors are meant to shine out wherever they are applied, and so they do not settle down well between the crease lines. This makes them bring out the creases and fine lines easily. As a primary eyeshadow, it’s time that you ditch shimmer, and apply those gorgeous bright matte colors for that crease-free stunning look.

5. Keep within the crease line

Dry textured skin is best left alone with some natural priming, and foundation covering. The area above the eyes lid where the crease cuts is among the most vulnerable and has to be dealt with extreme caution when applying eyeshadow colors. If you wish to wear dark and smoky eyes look, keep the colors restricted to the crease of the lids. Even matte colors above the crease line tend to bring out to prominence the textured skin above it. It’s crucial that you go by these eye makeup tips for women over 40 religiously!

6. Work with pressed formulae

As the skin has more lines now, your makeup should not define them. Moreover, powder formulas are dry, and they tend to make the skin drier, bringing out those fine lines in and around the eye areas. Pressed powder formulas are better than those loose flakes, and powders that don’t tend to settle well on uneven skin giving a patchy finish. Also, make sure that you apply as little product as possible at a time, and blend in subsequent layers instead to taking too much that is difficult to even out. It’s time that you wear eyeshadow colors in a minimalistic way to bring out maximum effect!

7. Light shimmer shines well

Working with matte does not mean that the best eye makeup for over 40 has to go without shimmery eyeshadow. You just need to restrict applying them beneath the crease and blend well so that it doesn’t accentuate the skin texture. Shimmer colors tend to highlight the fine lines and wrinkles on the skin, and thus show up its age. The best way to apply them is to keep them as close to the lashline as possible for that softly shinning effect attracting instant attention to those beautiful eyes.

The other way to wear shimmer eyeshadow is to apply them lightly at the center of the eyelids and blend them really, really well for that crease-free finish to the lightly shimmering eyes. Another good way of wearing shimmer past the 40s is to tap them on the inner corner of the eyes, making them bright and radiant.

8. Don’t give up the eyeliner

Those glasses sure make it difficult to wear eyeliners when you’re over 40! But, don’t give them up; use a magnifying mirror, and apply eyeliner to define those lovely eyes. You can also opt to use eyeshadow as a liner applying it with a brush close to the lashline, and then smudge it slightly for a soft and subtle look. As best eye makeup tips over 40, we’d suggest that you stick to dark colors for eyeliner like black, or dark brown. The darker colors will help define the eyes better bringing them alive. For the bottom lashline, make sure that you apply only on the outer third, and not the full eye. If you’re still a fan of wearing wings, bring down the size of the wings to stop attracting attention to the outer crease around the eyes.

9. Take care of the brows

Part of the game to wearing strikingly simple, yet astonishingly beautiful looking eye makeup is to bump up the brows! In fact, a crucial eye makeup tips for women over 40 is that you need to do all it takes to emphasize your brows. It’s natural that you have less tweaking to do to your eyebrows as they have started thinning, but you need to shape them well – always. Make sure that you do away with those stray hairs to have a defined eyebrow shape. If they are really thin, you have the option of filling in with a pencil or using an eyeshadow that matches your eyebrow color. This is a better way of filling in the brow according to top makeup experts as it gives them a tint of fullness, and not any harsh unnatural filling in. Just take a bit of the eyeshadow powder on a small fluffy brush and run it through the brow for that look of fullness.

10. Opt for a volumizing mascara

Those beautiful thick lashes do need some touchup now, and the best way to keep them looking ever-gorgeous is to use a volumizing mascara. Make sure that you focus on the top lashes, and apply minimum product on the lower lashes. The logic is that you’re trying to create an upward-looking makeup look that will make you look fresh and young. Too much color on the lower part of the eyes is sure to make them look droopy and tired. Also, colors on the lower lashes are likely to flake and add darken the area under the eyes undoing the effect of the foundation, and concealer. When applying mascara on the upper lashes, make sure that there are no lumps. Ease the lashes out using a brush for a natural thick finish.

11. Use the right tools

Using the right tools make all the difference to wearing makeup at any age, but more so when the skin is more lined and textured. Eye makeup tips for women over 40 suggest that you use eyeshadow application brushes with straight edges for fine application of the colors. If you’re going to use shimmer colors, you need to pick a pointed brush so that the color does not spread around too much, and needs to be blended. This will invariably bring out the underlying fine lines of the skin. Pick a professional eyeshadow brush set, and keep handy fluffy brushes to blend in all products for the hint of the color minimalist finish.

Wrapping it up

There’s no age to stop looking good, and wearing makeup lets you enhance your already gorgeous natural features. Over the years, you just need to tweak the ways you would apply colors a few years back for that amazingly stunning look. You need not shelf the shimmers, or the cat eyes you wore; you just need to do it other ways following our tips for natural eye makeup for 40 year old. Make your pick of colors from among the high-quality, super-pigmented eyeshadow palettes by De’Lanci along with the amazing makeup brush set, and you’ll never go wrong with your makeup at any age!