How To Improve The Appearance Of Mature Eyes

Step 1: You will need:

Step 2: The base

Apply the eye shadow after you have applied liquid foundation to your whole face, including the eye area. Julia recommends using liquid foundation rather than powder foundation on mature skin as powder foundation can sit in eyelid creases and weigh them down. For more on this watch VideoJug's 'How to apply foundation to mature skin'. Applying a base gives the eye shadow something to cling onto.

Set the foundation with a little base powder.

Step 3: Highlighter

Choose a fine light reflecting highlighter powder that is not too sparkly. Use a large sponge applicator to dust the powder over the whole eyelid from lash to brow bone. This will have an immediate smoothing effect.

Step 4: Eye liner

To really bring out the eyes use a soft eyeliner pencil to line the top and bottom lids. Soft colours like brown flatter mature skin, whereas bright colours can be too dominating.

Start on the inside of the top eye lid and draw a fine line as close to the lashes as possible.

Top tip: When you reach the outer edge of the eye, continue the line for a few millimeters in an upward direction. This adds further lift.

Now draw a light line below the bottom eyelashes starting half way across and finishing at the outer corner of the eye.

Step 5: Set the eyeliner

Set the eyeliner with an eye shadow. Choose a colour that compliments the eye pencil. Keep blending over the pencil lines so it won't smudge.

Use a cotton bud to soften any harsh lines and cleanse away any fallen eye shadow.

Step 6: Eye shadow

Dark, heavy eye make-up accentuates lines and wrinkles and can make mature eyelids droop so choose a soft colour and apply it lightly. We're going to use brown because it suits most people and compliments the brown eyeliner pencil which we have used.

Run the brush along the eye shadow to pick up some powder, and tap off the excess. Apply the colour to the eye lid at the lash line, fading it away to just above the brow bone.

Open your eyes and look in the mirror. Check that you have shaded the droopy bits of your eyelid.

Use a sponge applicator to apply the eye shadow to the socket. Use a lighter brown than the eye pencil in the socket because dark brown all over is too overbearing.

Step 7: Blend

Go over the whole application with a clean eye shadow brush, blending and smoothing away any harsh edges.

Step 8: Curl

Use a clean pair of eye lash curlers to curl your lashes and open up your eyes. For more on this see Video Jug 'How to curl your eyelashes'.

Step 9: Mascara

Finish the look by applying mascara straight away- it will help to set the curl. We're using brown as it is less harsh than black. Dip the wand into the mascara and scrape any excess onto the edge of the tube. Start with your top lashes and run the wand from base to tip. Repeat this until you are happy with the look.

You can also apply a light coat of mascara to the lower lashes to really open up your eyes.

Step 10: Curl once more