Sparkling whatever your age.............

It's hard to believe I've been blogging nearly 2 years already. I started out by secretly entering Mizz Worthy's, Think outside the Box, Illamasqua competition. All that year I'd been thinking about doing some sort of makeup course, and decided it was time I 'put my money where my mouth is' so to speak and go for it. I had builders on the roof at the time and seriously hoped they wouldn't knock on the door whilst I played. I'd face painted the kids but done nothing like this on my own face before. Through the competition I discovered the whole world of blogging and it struck me as great way of pushing myself creatively. At the time I kept my age to myself, very self conscious and aware that painting my face in mad random ways was not the occupation of your average 40 year old. But growing old gracefully has never been my plan.

In an early blog post I recounted the experience of going to a reunion gig of the band My Life Story. A crowd who had worn wings and tiaras, glitter and boas before they became common place on hen nights looked like any other reunion gig crowd, and the front man proclaimed this was his last outing in a gold lame suit as he was too old for these things. The words of their song 'you don't sparkle you don't shine' struck a nerve with me. This lot may not want to sparkle any more, but I sure as hell don't intend to go that way. Thinking about it now, I'm also struck by the difference in parts of their set. This was/is a band who combined pop with a chamber orchestra. As Jake performed some of his newer stuff with a more low key acoustic sound, the energy and vibrancy was lost. Like the heart had been ripped out, what was left was mediocre and dull.

So often as we grow older we feel we have to leave things behind. Kids and commitments get in the way. Life very easily gets sapped out of us. Funnily enough that gig was also my introduction to promo makeup samples. I was tied down to 3 trips to school a day and shopping just didn't happen. I wanted glitter makeup but where to start - and a lady at my kids drama group said she had some bits at home. She gave me three bits to play with - the blue gel glitter who's name I knew but can't remember has long since been thrown away, but the other 2 I've just searched out. 17 Eye Dazzle in Over the Rainbow and green loose powder from a brand I couldn't have told you anything about at the time and am amazed on digging it out to find is a Sleek Eye Dust - Jet Set. It was the Jet set that won. Now through blogging I'm aware of press samples, but then to be given 3 brand new pieces of make up to play with by an acquaintance who only briefly mentioned an editorial  magazine newspaper connection, I was pretty overwhelmed. I continue to be grateful to her for that kick out of post pregnancy wilderness that I can now see I was in. Oh and to my brother for taking me to the gig ;)

Whilst I now enjoy sparkling at any opportunity, what really set me off wanting to do makeup on other people was my 40th birthday. One thing about getting away for a weekend without your kids when the opportunity arises maybe only once every couple of years, is you really don't want someone else's screaming brat sitting next to you whilst you're having dinner. So we went to Warner's Thoresby Hall. The Adult's only chain does have a tendency to make you feel young even when hitting 40 and I spent my breakfasts observing the ladies. Who's makeup suited their age, who was stuck in a lower lash line black liner time rut and not doing themselves any favours, who looked confident in their looks and who could benefit from just a few touches of colour here and there. The years of QVC lessons whilst breast feeding coalesced and really focused me on wanting to study makeup some more. 

So what inspired me to this rambling retrospective was an email I received yesterday about video makeup master classes for women of 50+. Looking at my face closely as I do for blogging I can see the difference over the last year acutely. My jaw line has started to lose it's firmness followed by the areas just below my eyes. Yes I'm well aware that I'm blessed to have lines arriving comparatively late but it does show me how quickly your skin can change. What worked one month may not work the next as we age, making it so easy to feel lost and unprepared. To lose confidence in make-up quickly or to feel stuck in that rut. Today normal women are held up the mirror of cosmetically enhanced celebrities and retouched photos. Where to turn to find help? 

Magazines with 'enhanced' 60 year olds are always going to make you feel like you don't measure up. Beauty blogging is still dominated by the young. Aside from the technical challenges (I did O level computing as an after school extra, taught by an English Teacher - mostly what I remember is drawing charts of the structure of the CPU and programming in Basic for my project work - a route finding programme to 5  UK cities where I had to calculate and enter all the coordinates for the routes and the map itself by hand - and take photos of the screen to show what I'd done - I feel like a dinosaur when people talk about Html tags) putting your face up for an FOTD when you know it will be seen in comparison to the gorgeously skinned 20's - well anybody younger than the age you've reached really - and the synthetic celebrity images is a huge hurdle and leap of courage.

Which is why it was great to hear about this series of five master class videos produced by High50 with makeup artist Mary Greenwell and beauty writer Jo Fairley.

In a career spanning 25 years, Greenwell has worked as a make-up artist for everyone from Diana Princess of Wales, Gwyneth Paltrowand a whole host of supermodels. She passionately believes that once you reach ‘a certain age’ make-up becomes even more important while, at just the same moment, becoming more challenging and is on a one woman mission to share her expertise.

The first video was released yesterday, with new instalments posted weekly. I'm looking forward to checking them out, because to me sparkling isn't just about the sparklz but looking good and feeling confident and fabulous!

high50 make-up masterclass from Beta London on Vimeo.

And now I'm hopping around like a 5 year old because I've just discovered the sparkly ones have an anniversary gig lined up for next year.