Do You Look Like You are Living Your Best Life?

Maybe you wore business suits everyday, maybe you were a jeans and T-shirt mom. Living Your Best Life means—now is the time you get to choose what you wear and how you look. But it shouldn’t mean that you don’t care how you look.

When you see a woman whose clothes are put together, hair is done and makeup is lovely, you know she cares about how she presents herself and she takes pride in her appearance. 

When we reach this sweet spot in life, we get to choose how we want to look and what effort we wish to expend to get there. We will have additional blogs with more specifics, but for now, I offer a general overview of what Looking Our Best at 60+ might mean for you.

Face

Looking our Best at 60+ means good skin care and natural looking make-up that enhances our overall beauty. An Anti-Aging routine is imperative and moisturizer is at the top of the list! If finances are an issue, Oil of Olay and L’Oréal both have good products. You should choose a product line you like, at a price point you are comfortable with. Gentle Cleanser, Retinol, Vitamin C Serum, and finish with a moisturizer. Monthly facials are a huge contributor to healthy looking skin including a variety of microderm abrasion, chemical peels, laser treatments and collagen builders.

Makeup

As our skin matures, our skin tone changes. Makeup that looked good at 35, is no longer the right look for us. Observe women you are drawn to and see how they are doing their makeup. First, we need a light coverage foundation or a finishing power to smooth out our color. Next would be a minimal blush or bronzer which adds a healthy glow to our cheeks. I need under-eye cover for which I use a very light eye shadow. My sister needs more coverup and she likes a full coverage concealer. I complete my eye shadow with soft beige on the lid, mid-brown in my crease and a cream color under my eyebrow. By this age, our eyebrows are either extra bushy or thinning. The fuller, bushier brows should be waxed and the thinner brows need a little color added to them. I use a brown eye shadow and lightly brush in some color. Eyes can have a softer bronze, blue or gray eyeliner, followed with mascara. I prefer a brown-black mascara as it is a little less harsh than a true black. What about eyelashes you ask? I literally cut off my eyelashes as a child and never had beautiful lashes since then. My sister discovered a fantastic product that I have been using for four months and it has made a significant improvement. While I can’t get Revitalash in California, you can be creative and find a way to purchase it.

Hair

Do you have beautiful gray hair? Embrace it! Go with it! But make sure your make-up colors correspond. Do you prefer to color your gray? Do so. What I don’t prefer in hair color is one solid dark black that looks like you just opened a bottle of Lady Clairol and poured it on your hair. Spend some time and money with a good stylist and colorist. Maybe do a reverse frost which adds some darker tones back in. You might consider a weave of at least three shades which will look more natural. I have always had very dark brown hair, so I am happy with the light my gray provides. I use a “cellophane” color which livens my brown and gives my gray a gold cast. Even as children, our hair was never all one color. When considering a hairstyle, look at newscasters you like, what is trending right now in catalogues of clothes you would wear. I encourage you to have a well-maintained hairstyle that looks current and contemporary, but doesn’t look like you are trying to be a punk rocker or someone you are not.

Clothes 

Comfort becomes an important element, but that doesn’t mean our clothes can’t be cute, current, hip, and fun. I tend to prefer a classic look, but I love spicing it up with a statement piece of jewelry, a scarf, a wrap, or a sweater. While, my sister rarely wears blue jeans, she has lots of colorful fashion jeans and loves dressing them up with cute tops. I’ve found that clothing services such as Stitch Fix help you think outside the box and send some clothes that you normally wouldn’t try on. You might be really surprised with what works for you.

Health

The bottom line is we want to be as healthy as we can be, so we can enjoy this sweet spot in our lives. We want to be able to work in the garden, get on the floor with our grandchildren, and hike to magnificent locations on our travels. Maintaining our health is how we do that.

Exercise: There is such a wide variety of options, from Gyms, to Silver Sneakers, to Yoga Online—even walking with friends. You can choose whatever works for you. The bottom line is DO SOMETHING! The standard thinking for heart health is a total of 150 minutes a week of some activity which raises your heart rate. It doesn’t matter what it is or how the 150 minutes breaks out. 30 minutes 5 X a week, two hours twice a week plus one smaller activity.

Diet: With all the options out there, choose something that is manageable for you. Make one simple change to start. Eat a piece of fruit, add a vegetable to your dinner, don’t eat dessert. By this point in your life, you know what works and what helps for you. Just DO IT!

Every once in a while, I make an exception. Yesterday, I rushed out to lunch because if I didn’t eat something soon, I would be Hangry! No hair, no makeup and wearing jeans. Of course, I saw three people I know. It never fails!

Our men, while complimentary of us and say we don’t need make-up, still notice when we have spent the time to take care of ourselves physically and have a nice presentation of hair, make-up and clothing. I asked my husband about women’s physical appearance and he said, “I’m attracted to a woman who looks nice, spent time on hair and make-up and looks put together.” I heard a husband say, “If the barn needs painting, paint it!”

These are just ideas that will show that you still care. What have you discovered that works for you in this phase of Living your Best Life? 

---

Through her speaking and writing, Lauren encourages people with her heartfelt messages and practical presentations. She is the author of The Art of Helping – What to say and Do When Someone is Hurting.  Lauren and her family are active in both church and community choral groups. She lives in Redlands, CA.