Perhaps it’s not having offspring, or maybe it’s the eternal 14-year-old in me, but I love Gen Z — those currently under 26.
Millennials are less the ‘me generation’ than the ‘me, me, me generation’, springing forth in a (brief) era of economic prosperity and focused on themselves.
Like boomers, they are a pushy, idealistic and rather irritating cohort. Gen Z-ers are edgier, more knowing and less egotistical, schooled in chaos and the pandemic.
Gen Z-ers also love their slap. As a posse of digital natives, they have spent the past three years on TikTok creating beauty hacks, at an age at which the rest of us were forced to learn about maths.
Gen Z-ers are edgier, more knowing and less egotistical than millennials. Hannah Betts says that Gen Z-ers, as a posse of digital natives, also love make up
My 14-year-old friend Cicely knows far more about the science of skincare than I ever will, despite having the complexion of a Thomas Hardy heroine.
Do these hacks work for those of us who are crepier and more mottled? The answer is some do, some might, and others should be avoided at all costs.
I would file the instant facelift concealer trend under ‘Open your mind to this’. Contouring obsessives had taken to doing that heavy-handed-inverted-triangle-under-the-eye thing.
Instead, TikToker Megha Singh recommends applying it up and angled as a means of drawing everything north. Think a small triangle at the outer corner of the eye, rather than under it.
I’ve been roughly following this principle with the help of Nars’s Soft Matte Complete Concealer (£24, narscosmetics.co.uk), brushed on with Mac’s 242S Shader (£12.60, maccosmetics.co.uk) and it works.
You use less product, and, for a fifty-something face, upwards is always the best direction.
Hannah Betts (pictured) describes the best Gen Z beauty and make up hacks on TikTok including using less foundation and not washing your brows with soap
The same theory applies to #soapbrows — those modishly erect eyebrows achieved by brushing them north with the sudsy stuff.
I’d skip soap (it gives you brow dandruff) and use Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Freeze Styling Wax (£23, boots.com) with a clean mascara wand.
Even if you are reluctant to go full bog-brush mode, some eyebrow uplift counteracts droop and opens the eyes — a must for those of us seeking to defy gravity. We oldsters, rather than Gen Z, invented ‘no make-up’ make-up. But the products used to achieve it have greatly improved.
Rose Inc’s Skin Enhance Luminous Tinted Serum (£36, spacenk.com), applied with its Number 3 Foundation Brush (£28), proves a revelation on older faces. And the brand has just released ten ravishing bitten-lip Satin Lipcolours (£22).
When a Gen Z favourite goes viral, it’s always worth a look. NYX’s snog-proof Shine Loud Lip Gloss (£12, superdrug.com ), CeraVe’s brilliant cleansers (from £9.99, super drug.com) and the return of the claw clip are ones to note.
Some Gen Z obsessions fall into the category ‘Depends on your colouring’. The mushroom-brown hair look sounded grim until I started spotting it on people and realised the silvery taupe shade can look gorgeous.
The 1980s eyeshadows in violent blues, purples and greens are great on my cool colouring, whereas brown 1990s glam-grunge does not. I can sport the craze for black blush (basically a kind of grey contour, where warm-toned types use tan).
However, I’ll leave ombre lips — graduated colour, evolving from light in the centre to dark around the edges, giving the illusion of a fuller pout — to those girls whose lips already have tonal hues.
Some of these crazes will require a hard ‘No’ from those of us who won’t see 40 again. Avoid anything that involves applying layer-on-layer of slap. Coy faux freckles added with a nude lip liner look more like fake age spots, while complicated kohl on the eyes — all lines and angles — won’t stay put on wrinkled, hooded lids.
The ‘glass skin’ cheat of mixing liquid highlighter with your foundation can also end up blotchy. Better to layer.
On anyone over 35, applying blusher to the top of the nose so it looks as if you’ve caught the sun will make you appear drunk.
As for skinny and/or bleached brows, I won’t begin to insult you by going there.
RACE YOU TO IT
Rimmel London, still the UK’s No1 make-up brand, is causing a sensation on social media, as in real life, with its new Thrill Seeker mascara (£8.99, superdrug.com). Smudge-proof, with an hourglass-shaped brush, it promises outlandish length while strengthening and softening lashes with its creamy formula rich in vitamin B5.
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MY ICON OF THE WEEK
GRACE JONES
Grace Jones, 74, (pictured) is striking with her sculptural hair, perfect skin and bold make-up
The 74-year-old icon performed in London earlier this month, hula-hooping topless for 15 minutes. Jones’s style is striking, with her sculptural hair, perfect skin and bold make-up. Check out French Vogue (vogue.fr), where Charlotte Tilbury recreates Jones’s looks using her Icon Palette of eyeshadows (£55, charlottetilbury.com).
FESTIVAL FAVOURITES
Emulate Kate Moss with these travel-sized Lazy Girl (dry shampoo), Cool Girl (texture mist) and Lazy Girl Biodegradable Hair Cleanse Cloths.
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Freshens breath when brushing isn’t possible.
amazon.co.uk
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This beautiful, multi-purpose lip and cheek (and eye) colour also nourishes parched skin.
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Sixteen eyeshadows in rainbow shades, from mattes and satins to shimmers and metallics.
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A great SPF and face cream with 49per cent less plastic packaging.
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COSMETIC CRAVING
At their worst, summer scents can be pretty ghastly — sickly, saccharine florals or unsubtle citrus storms.
At their best, they are like Annick Goutal’s Eau d’Hadrien (£110 for 100ml eau de toilette, johnlewis.com): suave, subtle, nuanced.
A cult classic, it was created in 1981, in tribute to Rome’s most refined emperor. Its blend of Sicilian lemon, grapefruit and cypress evokes the sense of hiding from the heat of the Mediterranean under a lemon tree.
It has been sported by everyone from Prince to Prince Charles, Madonna to President Mitterrand, Catherine Deneuve to Leonardo DiCaprio.
It was a forerunner of the fresh, unisex perfume fever that took hold in the 1990s, only more cerebrally sexy. Pricey, yes, but so worth it.
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