How to Age Your Face with Makeup

Co-authored by Nini Efia Yang

Last Updated: February 14, 2023

If you are young, then old age makeup can enhance a costume or theater production by making you look more convincing as an elderly person. Old age makeup may seem complicated, but it is quite easy. You only need a few makeup products and tools to create an older looking face and you can complete a basic old age look in just a few minutes.

Part 1

Part 1 of 3:

Sharpening Your Features and Adding Wrinkles

1
Gather your materials. Before you get started, you will need to gather some special items. You will need:^{[1]
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- Foundation
- Dark brown eyeshadow
- Medium brown eyeshadow
- Light brown eyeshadow
- Makeup brushes and sponges
- Matte pink or nude color lipstick or lip liner
- Highlighter
2
Apply a layer of foundation. Start with a clean, dry face and then apply a layer of foundation to your entire face.^{[2]
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- Use a makeup sponge to apply the liquid makeup to your entire face. Then, use the sponge to blend the makeup.
- Follow up the foundation layer with a dusting of translucent powder.
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3
Highlight the most prominent areas of your face. Next, identify the most prominent areas of your face and then apply some highlighter to sharpen those areas. Use a highlighter that is a couple of shades lighter than your natural skin tone. Apply the highlighter using a makeup sponge.^{[4]
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- For example, you can highlight your forehead, cheekbones, chin, jaw, and the outer corners of your lower lip.
- Try looking at yourself in the mirror with a bright light shining at your face. This can help you to identify the most prominent areas of your face. Since you want to sharpen these areas, apply highlighter to these prominent areas.
4
Apply brown eyeshadow or liner around your mouth. To begin creating the appearance of wrinkles on your face, start tracing over the natural lines and folds of your face with a dark brown eyeshadow or eyeliner. The idea is to identify the areas of your face that are the most recessed and then darken them so they look even more recessed. Looking at the mirror will also help you to identify these areas.^{[5]
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- Draw lines extending down from your nostrils. The folds that extend down from your nostrils to the area just below and outside of your chin will become deeper as you age. To create this effect, go over these lines with a dark brown eyeshadow or liner.
- Create lines extending down from the corners of your lips. The area below the outer corners of your lower lip will also deepen as you age. Draw lines extending down to your chin from the outer corners of your lips.
- Deepen the fold between your chin and lower lip. The fold between your lower lip and chin will also deepen as you age. Line this area with the dark brown eye shadow or liner.
- Make sure that you blend the lines you have created to make them seem more subtle and natural.
EXPERT TIP

Nini Efia Yang
Makeup Artist
Nini Efia Yang is the Owner of Nini's Epiphany, a San Francisco Bay Area makeup and hair studio. Specializing in bridal makeup with almost 10 years of experience, her work has been featured in Ceremony Magazine, They So Loved, and Wedding Window.

Nini Efia Yang
Makeup Artist

Try liquid latex if you want even more realistic-looking wrinkles. Spread the liquid latex over your skin, then lightly pick at it as it dries to create wrinkles. Then, just go over the latex with your foundation!
5
Line the areas around your eyes. Creating older looking eyes requires adding lines to mimic the effects of aging. You can do this by lining the areas around your eyes with a bit of dark brown eye shadow.^{[6]
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- Start by creating pockets under your eyes. Draw lines that trace over the lower part of your eye sockets and above your cheek bones. This will help to create the appearance of sagging eyes.
- Draw lines extending from the inner part of your upper eye socket as well and out past the edge of your eyelids.
- Add lines between your eyebrows. You can also add a few lines between your eyebrows to create the appearance of wrinkles in the ridge of your nose.
- Blend these lines gently by smudging them with the brush or with your fingers.

Part 2

Part 2 of 3:

Aging Your Eyes and Nose

1
Create crow’s feet. After you finish creating some basic wrinkles on your face, you can begin to intensify the wrinkles around your eyes and nose. Begin by creating some crow’s feet. You can do this by adding a few lines extending out from the outer edges of your eyes.^{[7]
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- Use the eyeshadow or eyeliner to create these lines. Extend the lines out and away from the eyes.
- Squinting your eyes may help you to identify the natural folds in your skin next to your eyes. Then, you can just fill in these lines with the eyeshadow or liner.
- Blend the lines gently.
2
Add medium brown eyeshadow to the inner eyelid. Next, you will need to deepen the color of your eyelids to give the appearance of sunken eyes, which is common with old age. Use some brown eyeshadow to fill in the inner part of the eyelid with some medium brown eyeshadow.^{[8]
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- Try to make the inner eyelid look darker than the outer eyelid. This will help to give the appearance of sunken eyes and harsher features.
- You can also highlight the outer edge of the upper eyelid to help intensify the sunken eye look and to give the appearance of sagging. Just make sure that you do not apply thy highlighter over the dark lines you have already created.
3
Intensify the features of your nose. As you age, your nose will begin to look sharper and harsher. To intensify the features of your nose using makeup, line or shade in the sides of your nose. This will help to make the nose look somewhat pointy and narrow.^{[9]
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- Darken the sides of your nose to make it seem sharper and longer. Draw a line extending down from the ridge of your nose near your inner eye to the nostril. Then, smudge and blend this line to make it seem more natural
- You can also add a few lines extending between your inner eye and the ridge of your nose. This will help to create the appearance of wrinkles on your nose.
- For even more definition, try drawing lines extending from your nostrils to your upper lip, just alongside the natural ridges between your nose and upper lip.

Part 3

Part 3 of 3:

Creating Older Looking Lips

1
Create fine lines around your lips. To create the appearance of fine lines on your lips, purse your lips and use a dark brown eyeliner or eyeshadow to fill in a few lines above your lips. Don’t make them very big. Just draw lines that are about a centimeter (1/4 inch) long.^{[10]
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- After you relax your lips, you should have some lines above your lips that look like wrinkles.
- You can also blend the lines to make them seem more natural. Use your fingers to gently smudge them.
2
Apply a layer of matte pink lipstick or liner. Next, you will need to apply a layer of matte pink or nude lip color. This will create a canvas for creating a wrinkled look on your lips. Apply a layer of the lipstick or liner of your choice.^{[11]
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- Don’t go outside the lines of your lips. It is okay if your lips look a bit thin.
3
Create wrinkles on your lips using highlighter. To complete your lip look, you will need to apply some highlighter to your lips while you are pursing them. Purse your lips and then apply some highlighter just to the prominent areas of your lips. Dab the highlighter onto these areas using a brush or makeup sponge.^{[12]
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- After you relax your lips, they should appear to have a wrinkled appearance.

Community Q&A

Question

Why would someone want to look so old?

Community Answer

Most likely someone would do this for theater, cosplay, or Halloween, or even just for fun.
Question

Do I use cream or powder eye shadow?

Community Answer

Whichever which suits your skin type and tone will be good, though cream eye shadow will be better to make your skin look more aged.