Backstage at the L’Oreal show on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, a swirling mass of black-clad minions tote cameras, phones and clipboards and mill about the long, narrow tent lined with make-up stations, each one covered in enough cosmetics to stock a small shop.
I’m here for the launch of L’Oreal’s new Age Perfect make-up range which, the brand promises, is going to be a game-changer for women over 50.
But to be honest I’m completely distracted by the fact that Dutch supermodel Doutzen Kroes is having her eyeliner done over here, former Girls Aloud singer Cheryl is submitting to blue lipstick on her lower lip over there and . . . oh my goodness! ‘Is that . . ?’ I hiss to the girl standing next to me. ‘Yes,’ she says. ‘That’s Jane Fonda.’
I am utterly starstruck. The face of Seventies feminism. The workout queen of the Eighties. The ultimate Hollywood A-lister. She’s right there — and looks stunning. At 79 she appears, well, flawless. She half-turns her head in my direction and, losing my nerve, I move away. But later I get to put questions to her.
Jane Fonda (pictured), 79, shared that she was wearing L’Oreal’s new Age Perfect foundation at Paris Fashion Week. The brands new range of make-up is specifically aimed at women over 50
Are there any make-up tricks she swears by? ‘Concealer under my eyes and, also, no shine,’ she tells me. ‘Older skin should not glisten!’ Anti-ageing secrets? ‘The most important anti-ageing thing is to do with what is inside, your attitude, how you feel. Is there love in your life? All of this will make you feel and look younger.’
Right. But it’s not just that, is it? She has been perfectly open about the fact she has had work done — in 2010, she said her looks were due ‘30 per cent to genes, 30 per cent to good sex, 30 per cent to exercise and, for the remaining 10 per cent, I have to thank my plastic surgeon’ — but, damn, she looks spectacular.
What may be helping is what she’s wearing on her face — L’Oreal’s new Age Perfect Foundation, which is also being used on Helen Mirren, who is also sitting demurely nearby, her white-blonde fringe clipped neatly away from her face.
‘Do you mind?’ I ask Dame Helen as I point my phone towards her for a quick snap. ‘Go ahead, no one else is asking,’ she says with a smile.
I tell her I haven’t been backstage at a fashion show before and don’t know the etiquette. ‘Neither have I!’ she laughs. This is, in fact, her first ever catwalk appearance.
She reveals she’s already a big fan of the new foundation. ‘For the best part of my later life I have been looking for a foundation that suits the kind of skin you have as you get older. Having one that doesn’t settle into the wrong places, that has great staying power, and at the same time doesn’t look heavy, is just wonderful.’ Her do’s and don’t’s for make-up are sensible. ‘Don’t overdo it,’ she says. ‘I am not such a fashionista, but have always been a make-up-ista! Make-up is the one thing that isn’t too expensive to buy and can immediately make you feel better.’
That she and Jane Fonda are here at all is testament to the major revolution in our approach to ageing.
Helen Mirren (pictured) revealed that she is a big fan of L’Oreal’s new foundation
Over the past five years, the way older women view their looks has changed dramatically, from fearful to fierce. What is wrong with ageing they ask? We, too, can look fabulous — just give us the right make-up and don’t patronise us by advertising it on young girls!
And the beauty industry has paid attention — not surprising given fifty-something women are the biggest buyers of beauty products in Britain.
Today, L’Oreal’s global make-up director, Val Garland, is putting the finishing touches to a model’s looks. Val is a big fan of make-up for the older face: ‘As we age we need make-up because everything softens,’ she explains. ‘Everything seems to move into the background, so you need make-up to bring your features back into definition.
‘Make-up can be your armour and your confidence. You can use it just to give yourself a lovely complexion, or you can put on a great colour lipstick and then people say: ‘Don’t you look well!’
But many women become reluctant to use make-up as they get older, hating the way eye shadow vanishes into crepey eyelids, foundation sits in wrinkles and lipstick bleeds into the myriad tiny wrinkle lines around the mouth.
L’Oreal’s global make-up director, Val Garland (pictured) shared her beauty tips
So, here Val gives her no-nonsense guide to regaining your confidence in midlife and beyond . . .
THE RULES
Skin
Hydration, hydration, hydration! Your skin needs moisture. What you want is to capture a youthful glow and the suppleness that is often missing from older skin. Once you’ve got the skin right, you’ve won 70 per cent of the battle.
Use a BB cream or a lighter foundation for a gentle covering. These don’t look cakey because they have special blurring particles in them, so they don’t stick in the lines.
I like to powder down the forehead and the centre of the face, and where the light hits by the side of the nose, but don’t powder your cheeks — you want a nice shine on them.
Beware highlighters. Powder highlighters look great on the catwalk or red carpet, but if you have an older face and want to create that illusion, I would get a tiny bit of moisturiser on your finger- tips and tap it along the top of the cheekbones. That will give you that glow-from-within look. I hate a shiny powdered stripe on a wrinkle.
Cheeks
One rule here: sink the pink. You do not want to be the older lady with the pink blush. You will look as if you have rosacea, or like a bit of an alcoholic.
What you are looking for is a very soft blush in a peachy apricot or bronze colour, or something earthy. I like to take a foundation colour that’s more peachy or bronze, and work that over the cheek so that it gives a pinched-cheek effect.
Val says her top tip for eye make-up is mascara as it instantly opens up eyes. She recommends applying to the roots of lower lashes to add definition
Eyes
You need a good concealer to disguise any hollows or bags under the eyes. But my main rule for eye make-up is: mascara! Use an eyelash curler to curl lashes because that will instantly open up your eyes.
It’s nice to get a bit of mascara into the root of the lower lashes, but just touch it to the roots to get definition rather than coating them all over, otherwise it can drift. Older eyes can look a bit pink along the waterline [the inner rim of the eyelid], so you could try a cream-coloured eyeliner here to make your eyes appear brighter.
If you have crepey eyelids that fold down on themselves, don’t fret about using eye shadow, but use a brown or grey eye pencil and work it into the lash line and onto the outer corner of the eyelid because that will help open up the eyes.
To avoid the appearance of smaller lips, Val suggests blending lip liner in with lipstick. Despite sharing the rules she says they can also be broken
Brows
Eyebrows fade and get thinner with age and it’s fantastic that these days we have so many tools to bring them back to life.
There are great brow pencils, pomades and gels that you can draw on or work through your brows. Don’t draw a solid line, keep it soft and gentle and use tiny fine strokes — it will make your brows appear thicker. If you’re not confident doing your own brows, go and get them tinted. You don’t have to have them tattooed or microbladed.
You get a softer look if you just tint them a few shades darker. It doesn’t stain the skin and now, all of a sudden, you have recreated that frame for your eyes.
Lips
Ditch the beige! You can wear gentle colours like apricot or rose pink — but you need colour. I’ve seen gorgeous, glamorous women who are over 60 rocking a really dark eye, but they’ve paired it with a beige lip. On young girls that looks cool, but do that on someone over 65 and they look like a cadaver.
The difficulty with older lips is they become paler and shrunken and there are more tiny lines around the edges of them, which lipstick can bleed into.
I think it’s really nice to get a soft edge on a mature lip, so blend your lip liner in. If you use it to draw a hard line around your lips it will technically stop the lip colour from bleeding, but it will also make the whole lip area look contained and make it appear smaller.
I’m hanging on Val’s every word, but finally she winks and says: ‘I think you should know the rules, then break them anyway.
‘When you are older, why should you have to stick to the rules? We can do what the hell we want!’
L’Oreal Age Perfect make-up is now available at Boots nationwide.