How My Makeup and Skin Care Changed after Menopause | Sixty and Me

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I never used moisturizer. Then menopause passed me by, and my skin had other ideas. I always loved a good eyeliner. I had that cat eye down. And then my eyelids started to droop, and I might as well have been painting downward arrows on my face, alerting the world to how gravity works.

Gradually, through my 50s I started to realize that the makeup and skin care routines I used all the way through my 40s just weren’t going to cut it anymore.

That was a hard thing to accept for me, but accept it I did. And then I did the only thing I could. I made changes to my routine to celebrate the woman I am today – not to hide anything, but to highlight the strength, wisdom, and beauty of this chapter. Here’s how I changed it up after menopause, and how it helped me find confidence in my vanity mirror once again.

Skin Shifts After Menopause

I had oily skin most of my life. I mean oil slicks by lunchtime kind of oily. So, I never, and I mean never, would have thought of adding to that by using moisturizer. But after menopause, all that changed, and I have to admit, I wasn’t prepared for it. Now my skin drinks up anything I feed it like a thirsty animal.

Lack of estrogen causes a variety of issues after our 50s. One of them is changes in our skin. We all probably have experienced:

Crepey skin and wrinkles
Dry skin
Sagging skin, especially around the eyes and jawline
Sun damage becoming more obvious due to thinning skin
More sensitivity

How to Change Your Skin Care Routine After Menopause

For me, it was all about finding the products that made me feel confident, healthy, and vibrant. I wasn’t looking for miracle creams to make me look 29 again. (Seriously, who wants that!) The changes I made? I went from…

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Washing my face with body wash to using a gentle face wash with antioxidants.
No moisturizer to rich lotions with lots of antioxidants and emollients.
From chemical sunscreen to physical sunscreens. (Chemical sunscreens can cause reactions.)
Added an eye cream with hyaluronic acid. (It holds 1000 times its weight in water, so naturally plumps up skin tissue.)
Added an antioxidant nighttime routine before bed, including serums and rich eye creams. I also use peptide products to help long-term with crepey skin. I tried retinol products but found them too harsh.

These changes helped me see skin that was replenished, protected, and felt more youthful.

How My Makeup Routine Changed After Menopause

My makeup routine in my 20s-40s seemed tried and true. I loved my look, and I felt it expressed my personality well. But when I started to see changes in my skin, my eyes, even the shape of my nose, I knew it was time to change some things up here, too. I went from…

Using no primer, to using primer for smoothness and sunscreen religiously.

Heavy full coverage foundation to tinted moisturizers that don’t cake and make pores more noticeable. You can check out my post Best Foundation for Mature Skin for what I use.
Using harsh black eyeliner and a cat eye technique that visually drew down my eye and made it look smaller and droopy to creating a natural lash line with eyeshadow and a wet brush.
Using no contour and highlighter to using a subtle contour under my cheekbones, around the edges of my face, and on the side of my nose, and a light highlighter just above my cheekbones for more radiance.
Using thick lipstick that looked outdated, to lighter lip stains and gloss to add color and shine.
From a full, made-up look every day, to a natural look that brought out the youthfulness in my face, and saving heavier makeup for special nighttime events.

How It Changed My Confidence

Let’s face it, ladies, none of us wants to be seen as the older woman with too much makeup, trying to hang on to the past. Sometimes it’s hard to see that changes need to be made when you’ve had the same routine for so long. But finding a way to roll with the changes aging offers us helps us to actually bring out the best of who we are right now. And that woman is pretty awesome.

Don’t let aging be a dirty word. Offer yourself some grace and kindness and look into that mirror with confidence and empowerment. And when you are done at the makeup table, jump into your closet and check out Flattering Summer Dresses for Women Over 50+. I mean, why stop the routine shake-up with just your face, right?