Sure, little girls have rosy, taut, cutie pie cheeks that flaunt little circles of color that light up their entire faces. But, as your formerly firm cheeks begin to sag, it's not a great idea to highlight the situation -- which is precisely what happens when you apply circular blush strokes to the apples of your cheeks after a certain age.
Try this instead: A big shift in how you look can result from a simple blush application tweak. Seek out the highest point of your cheekbones and apply the blush there instead of on your apples. Be sure to employ a sweeping back and forth motion using a wide, fluffy brush so you don't end up with Grace Jones war paint-type stripes. It's also a good idea to glom on to a flattering hue. Leave the daisy pinks and lilac purples for the mall set and pick up a becoming peachy-pink shade, which flatters most skin tones.
We are a nation obsessed. Oh, not just with the comings, goings and bikini-bod barings of C-list celebrities. Not just with dancing and singing and bad behavior-condoning reality shows. But with aging, wrinkles and sagging -- and, of course, with how to undo all of it.
For centuries, countless cultures have honored and revered their elders (wrinkles and all) but, these days, we worship and kowtow to youth. Think that's all just media hype? Think again.
In 2010 we doled out a mind-boggling $10.7 billion for cosmetic procedures. And, according to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, 2,437,165 of us got Botox injected into our wrinkles while another 1.3 million had fillers injected into theirs.
Then there's the $115.5 billion we spend annually on anti-aging skin care products -- those topical creams and potions and lotions that we hope will undo the toll time has taken on our faces and bodies. Not to mention the vast array of anti-aging supplements (resveratrol, collagen boosters, oral hyaluronic acid) that now pepper the shelves of both vitamin shops and beauty aisles alike.
Yes, we women (though last year men had 750,000 cosmetic procedures done -- some for anti-aging purposes) want to recapture our youth and will, it seems, stop at nothing to do it. But here's the irony; there are seven egregious everyday errors that women make with their hair, makeup and other aspects of their physical appearance that make them look older than they are. That's right, seven relatively simple-to-fix things that you can start doing today to take years off your looks.
