A veteran magazine beauty editor/writer (and a member of the 40+ club), Genevieve Monsma created MediumBlonde to help Gen Xers and Baby Boomers age the way they want.
All in Skin
As part of a regular series, I’ll be asking inspiring, in-the-know women (all 40+, of course) to share their best tips and favorite products. The point? As always, to find out what works. This week's beauty insider: Lisa Price, founder of Carol's Daughter
I’m finally emerging from the crazy rush-crush of the holidays, my little brother’s New Year’s Eve wedding, and a pile of freelance projects that proved to be more time (and brain) consuming than I’d anticipated. Caffeine is to be largely credited for helping me hold it together. But so is my new Urban Decay Quick Fix.
My cuticles are a mess this time of year. They grow thick and dry—and then they tear and bleed. Regular hand creams don’t even begin to soothe them. And cuticle oils help but are often inconvenient and messy to apply. I find most don’t absorb quickly enough, and then they drip all over my keyboard or iPhone.
My skin is not sensitive, but it is prone to becoming seasonally sensitized (my own term for the red, rosacea-like blotchiness I battle come winter).
As part of a regular series, I’ll be asking inspiring, in-the-know women (all 40+, of course) to share their best tips and favorite products. The point? As always, to find out what works. This week's beauty insider: Natasha Cornstein, the CEO of Blushington makeup studios.
For most of the month of December, my motto is: Stay warm. As I write this, it’s 39 degrees, raining sideways and I’m wearing a turtleneck sweater and my thickest ski socks. The only skin showing? My face—and only barely, thanks to my high neckline. Thus, bronzed legs and décolletage are not high on my priority list. (Neither is shaving, if I'm being honest.) But, by next week when the parade of holiday parties (and cocktail dresses) commences, they will be.
As part of a regular series, I’ll be asking inspiring, in-the-know women (all 40+, of course) to share their best tips and favorite products. The point? As always, to find out what works. This week's beauty insider: Tiffany Masterson, founder of Drunk Elephant Skincare
Raise your hand if you owned MAC Spice Lip Liner in the 1990s. Me too. I also had pencils in pink, peach, red and plum—a rainbow of colors to match whatever lipstick I was wearing. Then, around the turn of the millennium, we all stopped wearing lipstick and started swiping on gloss. Which rendered lip liner kind of obsolete—unless you wanted that ring-around-your-lips look when your gloss faded. (P.S. No one I knew wanted that look.)
I’m generally not a fan of skin highlighters (e.g. glimmery creams and powders that claim to boost radiance). And just last Friday I posted that anyone 50+ should consider steering clear of them. But I’ve decided to amend that statement.
As part of a regular series, I’ll be asking inspiring, in-the-know women (all 40+, of course) to share their best tips and favorite products. The point? As always, to find out what works. First up: Sharon Dorram, NYC colorist extraordinaire
As we age and gain a stronger sense of self (one of many upsides to being 40+), we're often encouraged to select a signature scent, a fragrance that promises to project to the world our best traits: confidence, complexity, spontaneity, wit, warmth, elegance, [or whatever describes you].
For years, I wrote in magazine articles to avoid powder after 40—unless you wanted to resemble a beignet.
We’ve all read about choosing foundation or lipcolor formulas that are flattering to aging skin. But I discovered, while researching a More story that never made it to print (RIP More), that you might want to take skin texture (crepeyness, laxity) into account when picking an eye pencil too. Here, experts weigh in on which products will work best for you right now.
When we lived in New York, I was regimented about my Botox injections. In my thirties, I started getting them every six months. I believe in Botox’s wrinkle-prevention power, thus my early start. Once I entered my forties, I upped the frequency to every four months. However, since we’ve moved to Ann Arbor, but I’ve refused to give up my NYC dermatologist Neal Schultz, M.D, I’ve sdopted a whenever-I’m-in-New-York schedule. For most of the two years we’ve lived in Michigan, that’s allowed me to still get injected every four to five months. However, thanks to a busy summer and a hockey-filled fall, I’m now looking at seven months since I’ve seen Dr. Schultz—and forehead lines that are threatening to set up shop permanently.
Many makeup artists wax poetic about eyelid primer because it helps eye-shadow go on smoothly and stay put. I agree; those are good things. But the main reason I can’t live without lid primer is that it camouflages red, puffy eyes (today’s swollen, mottled lids are courtesy of staying up past my bedtime to watch last night's debate).
