- Laura Geller reveals her top makeup tips for women over 40 and common age-related skin concerns.
- The 65-year-old makeup pro and founder of Laura Geller Beauty shares her go-to foundation, blush, mascara, and more.
- You can shop all her recommended products on Amazon or LauraGeller.com—which are currently on sale for Presidents’ Day.
Laura Geller has been a beauty industry leader for decades. The 65-year-old makeup pro and beauty brand founder (Laura Geller Beauty) made a career of creating top-rated products formulated with mature skin in mind. And she recently shared her best makeup tips for women over 40 with us.
The makeup mogul sat down with Prevention in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Baked Balance-n-Brighten Color Correcting Foundation—a best-selling, cult-favorite pick that’s received numerous awards as a great product for sensitive and mature skin. The foundation, along with some of her other product recommendations, is currently on sale for Presidents’ Day weekend: From now until February 26, take up to 55% off Laura Geller Beauty products and an extra 10% off with code P10.
Ahead, Geller shares her best face-transforming tips (and product recs!) for mature skin.
Always apply primer
Geller’s number one advice for mature skin? Don’t skip out on primer. She says it not only “adds hydration to your skin,” but also provides “adherence” for your makeup. “That’s what primer really does—it marries your foundation to the primer so that it really clings and holds up better and doesn’t disappear as quickly,” she explains.
LG’s pick: Geller likes the Spackle Skin Perfecting Primer from her brand, noting that it contains ingredients that are great for mature skin—like white tea extract and Centella Asiatica, which work to soothe and brighten your complexion, per the brand.
Use a gentle foundation
Powders generally tend to be more drying, notes Geller, but that’s not the case for the Baked Balance-n-Brighten Color Correcting Foundation, which is the first-ever foundation to be awarded seals from the National Psoriasis Foundation and the National Rosacea Society. “This product was formulated to act as a powder with the ease of a powder, but is not a typical powder,” the makeup pro explains. While traditional powdered compacts contain fillers and binders to press the product together, this foundation “is pressed with pure antioxidants—that’s it,” she says. “And there’s no minerals in here, there’s no parabens in here, so it’s so gentle.”
Add color to cheeks
“So many women still don’t put on enough blush,” notes Geller, which she says is a big mistake for women over 40. “[Women in my age category] eat our color quicker. We have less pigment in our skin, so you may have to compensate a little more and add a little bit more to the apples of your cheek,” she explains. “Adding blush equates to youth, the look of youth.”
LG’s pick: The Serum Blush Cheek Tint. “Put a little on the apple of the cheek, just rub it in with your finger. It’s not a stain, but it gives a beautiful flush. And that may be all you need,” she says. But, if you find your blush fading, she recommends adding a second to your routine. “Our Pink Buttercream Baked Blush-n-Brighten Marbleized Blush is our number one selling blush,” she shares. “It just somehow works on porcelain skin, but it also works on a very deep complexion. And it’s like this kiss of radiance,” she says. “It has six different pigments in it so it doesn’t look like a block of color.”
Emphasize eyebrows
Geller has a “three E” rule when it comes to makeup essentials: Eyebrows, eyeliner, and eyelashes. “I think as we get older, we tend to lose the strength of an eyebrow,” she notes. “I find that for most women, their eyebrows become a little softer, weaker. So [I recommend] just adding a little bit of filler into it with a pencil or powder.”
LG’s pick: She says the Bravo Brows Soft Pencil + Brush is her quick, “lazy girl” hack if you typically like filling in brows with an eyeshadow and angled brush. “This is like putting eyeshadow on and filling in your eyebrow but it’s in a pencil form,” she says. “So when you put it on, it’s soft-looking—it’s not waxy-looking, creamy-looking like a lot of traditional pencils would be. So you get a very soft finish and it has a spoolie brush on the other side so that when you comb through it, you get the look of a mimicked brow.”
Line the eyes—no matter your eye shape
The second E that’s “critically important” to your look, according to Geller, is eyeliner. “I think a lot of women who have experienced a hooded eyelid as they get older think that maybe they shouldn’t wear eyeliner across the top because it won’t show,” she says. “But in fact, doing a very tight line across the top is what puts back the strength and shape to the eye.”
LG’s pick: The eyeliner that Geller says is always flying off her brand’s shelves is the Kajal Longwear Eyeliner, which contains vitamin E and caffeine extract to help reduce puffiness and redness. “A lot of mature eyes have problems with watery eyes or sensitivity—this is so gentle,” says Geller. “It’s the richest pigmented pencil we’ve ever created. One swipe is all you need to get the pigment to lay down—and it’s just indestructible, it doesn’t move.”
Swipe on a volumizing mascara
Geller says that mascara—or even false lashes—makes “the world of difference” when it comes to your look. “[Women over 40] tend to lose our eyelashes, they’re not as strong as they used to be,” she notes. When choosing a mascara, she says one thing is key: “Volume, volume, volume,” she stresses. “It’s less about length. You’re trying to thicken your lashes.”
LG’s pick: If you struggle with watery eyes, Geller recommends a waterproof mascara like the Always There Waterproof Mascara.
Hannah Jeon is an Associate Commerce Editor at Prevention, where she covers expert-driven commerce content for all things health, beauty, and wellness. Previously the Editorial Assistant at Good Housekeeping, she earned her bachelor’s degree in creative writing and psychology from Johns Hopkins University. When she’s not on the hunt for all the best products online, you can often find her trying out new food spots in New York City or clicking away behind a camera.
