Ageing with attitude: Ageing with beauty is not about looking young

Older women are often ignored by the beauty industry. Margaret Jennings reports on an innovative website and make-up range that aims to put things right.

THOSE working in the beauty industry are so youth-obsessed they just don’t ‘get’ older women; they think that “showing Helen Mirren in a leather jacket is the answer”, but it isn’t.

That’s the view of 68-year-old Tricia Cusden who three years ago invested a chunk of her savings to create a make-up line called Look Fabulous Forever, because she was “feeling increasingly insulted by being sold products with an ‘anti-ageing’ label attached.

“I didn’t want to look younger and saw no reason for the beauty industry to assume that I did,” she tells Feelgood.

“So I decided when I set up a website to promote my make-up that I would use language that would be entirely upbeat, positive and celebratory, so that we see getting older as a good experience — which it often is — and not something to be feared and dreaded.”

As a result, the Look Fabulous Forever products use the term ‘pro-age’, which is more than a subtle difference to the ‘anti-age’ message that beauty corporations continually bombard us with, suggesting that we should be battling, rather than enhancing, our ageing process.

It’s no surprise that British-based Tricia’s venture has been a huge success.

With the tagline ‘Celebrating the Beauty in Older Faces’ she uses videos of ‘real’ women such as friends, to show how the make-up is applied and why it is specifically geared towards the more mature woman because of how we age.

“Our videos play an important role in helping women to create better effects with make-up. They are often fearful of over-doing it and looking ridiculous, so we show them how to do it appropriately. This gives them enormous confidence,” she says.

“We often get testimonials and emails thanking us for ‘giving them their mojo back’.”

Her website has expanded to include a blog which gives voice to her own opinions on far-reaching themes, including sharing how important her role as a grandmother of five is to her, as well as having started a mini beauty empire.

“Because I talk about my experience of being a woman of 68 I often get the response ‘thank you — you are reflecting my own experience perfectly’. The implication is that I am validating them in some way and making them feel relieved that it’s not just they who feel that way.”

She has also recently added a Street Style monthly feature to the website — taking inspirational pictures of stylishly dressed older women out and about.

“I definitely think there is a link between taking care of your appearance and feeling good about how you look. In our ageist society, women become invisible after the menopause and it’s all too easy to think ‘who cares what I look like?’

"Our customers love ‘Street Style’. They often say “you have given me ideas about how I can look better and brighter.”

And of course, our lovely make-up is helping them too!”

In all this process she is capturing the zeitgeist of the older independent woman who is fed up with the beauty industry’s obsession with artificiality.

“I really do believe we are ahead of the curve in our approach - others will eventually catch up as the proportion of older people in the population becomes undeniable. I think our huge success has been down to authenticity in everything we do,” she says.

“We are not trying to have our cake and eat it. We state openly that our make-up is for women aged over 55.”

Aside from using her make-up line to give women back their mojo, Tricia is a truly positive role model for older women herself, having started the business at age 65. Where does her drive come from?

“I love new challenges and always have done. They energise me and make me feel slightly scared and fully alive. This hasn’t changed in any way as I have aged,” she says.

“I saw no reason whatsoever not to start LFF — I had enough money to take the risk (savings I could afford to gamble with) and I thought ‘Why not?’ I was terrified that someone else would do it before me but I shouldn’t have worried — the beauty industry is so youth obsessed.”

To any despairing post-menopausal woman she would say: “You will probably live for another 30 to 40 years, so see it as an opportunity to put all your experience and wisdom to good use.

"I truly believe that LFF is the culmination of all the things I have learnt in my previous 65 years. I intend to continually challenge myself so that I keep living fully right up to the moment I draw my last breath.”

She also says with a rapidly growing business she has learnt to pace herself and has just appointed her daughter Anna as managing director.

“She has worked with me for three years and will take the day-to-day concerns from me. I will then be free to speak, write and generally represent the brand — which is the best fun.”

See www.lookfabulousforever.com 

Heart-to-heart

The Hot Topic, by Christa D’Souza, €8.24 British journalist Christa D’Souza, who has written regularly for Vogue among other publications, has a conversational style that draws women in, so it’s not surprising that having written this book, four years short of 60, she has some heart-to-heart tales to tell about her menopausal experience and what women might expect.

In addition, she asks questions that range from what is the point of women if we “are officially biologically irrelevant” to the safety of taking hormones, even if you’ve had cancer, to whether your sense of style change?

We are told that in the process she meets some menopausal nuns in San Francisco, goes hunter-gathering with the Hadza tribe in Tanzania, interviews experts around the world to get the latest science and discovers along the way “some surprising silver linings to this key milestone of maturity”.

A glass too many

That glass of red wine you have been drinking because it’s good for your heart may be doing damage.

We’ve been told for years that antioxidants in red wine, in particular resveratrol, protect the lining of blood vessels in our heart.

But long-term drinking of even moderate amounts, including beer or spirits, can harm the heart, according to a new study from the University of California.

Heavy drinking has been known to cause heart failure by enlarging the lower chambers of the heart, known as the ventricles.

But even long-term moderate drinking can cause the heart’s left atrium to increase, contributing to atrial fibrillation, or irregular heart beat, thus raising risk of stroke, in particular if someone has a genetic predisposition for atrial fibrillation.

Ageing quote

“One keeps forgetting old age, right up to the very brink of the grave — French novelist Colette

Silver surfer

How to challenge yourself with new technology http://bit.ly/2dgr4dm