Buy 1 Get 1 Free on Luma Linea

02HRS

:

47MIN

:

33SEC

BUY 1 GET 1 FREE TODAY →

The Beauty Desk

AGING WELL MAKEUP OVER 50

Why Your Eyeliner Makes You Look Angry After 50 (It's Not Your Age)

If people keep asking whether you're upset, don't blame your face. Look at the pencil first.

Claire Whitman

Senior Beauty Editor

Someone asks if you're mad at them. You're not. You were having a perfectly nice afternoon.

Or you walk past a store window, and for a second you don't recognize the stern woman looking back at you.

Or a friend posts a picture from lunch. You laughed the whole time.

And in the picture you look tired and a little cross, like somebody kept you waiting.

If any of that sounds familiar, you've probably blamed the usual suspects. Your age. Your eyes. Maybe your face "just does that now."

It's none of those. Most of the time, it's the eyeliner pencil you've been buying for years.

And once you see why, it's an easy thing to change.

That pencil was made for a 25-year-old lid

Illustration

Almost every eyeliner pencil out there was designed for a smooth, firm, twenty-five-year-old lid. That's the skin it was made to glide on.

After fifty, the skin on your lid gets softer. It moves a little when the pencil touches it.

So the same stiff pencil doesn't glide anymore. It catches, it drags, and it skips.

And here's what almost every woman does next, without even noticing. She presses harder.

Pressing harder gets the color on. But the line comes out thicker and darker than you meant it to.

That thick line settles into the tiny creases at the corners of your eyes. And it leaves a hard black edge sitting on soft skin.

That edge is the whole problem.

When people look at you, they read that hard edge the way they'd read a frown. So you look stern when you're relaxed, and tired when you slept fine.

That's why the stranger in the window looks so serious. That's why people ask if everything's okay.

So it's not your eyes, and it's not your age. It's the pencil.

Why the usual fixes don't work

If you've noticed it, you've probably tried a few things already. Most women do. Here's why they don't stick.

Pressing lighter. It sounds right. But a stiff pencil on a soft lid skips when you go easy on it. So you go back over the gaps, and by the time you're done, the line is just as thick as before.

Switching to brown. It's the first thing the internet tells you. But it's the same pencil, so it's the same pressing and the same hard edge, just in brown. A lot of women find they look washed out on top of it.

Giving up eyeliner. Your eyes stop looking hard, sure. But they also stop looking like anything. That's usually the week somebody asks if you're feeling well.

Liquid liner. It feels like an upgrade, but it draws an even sharper edge. And on a lid that moves under the brush, keeping that line steady is a fight every morning.

Every one of these fixes goes after the color or the amount. None of them fixes the edge.

What makeup artists do for clients over 50

Sit in a makeup artist's chair after fifty and watch what they actually do. It's not what most of us do at home.

They don't press. They reach for a soft, creamy liner that goes on with almost no pressure at all.

They keep it to one thin line, right at the root of the lashes, instead of drawing a stripe across the lid.

And then they soften the top edge, so there's no hard border left. Your eyes look defined, but nothing looks drawn on.

That last step is the one that takes years off a face. And it's exactly the step a drugstore pencil can't do, because there's nothing to soften it with.

The trouble is, none of us has a makeup artist in the bathroom at seven in the morning.

The pencil that does the makeup artist's part for you

That's the idea behind Luma Linea. It's an eyeliner made specifically for women over fifty, by LUMA Cosmetics.

The difference starts with the formula. It's a gel-cream that glides on without pulling your skin. So you don't have to press, and the line stays as thin as you draw it.

You draw one thin line right along your lashes. That's it.

Then there's a built-in smudger. One sweep over the line softens the edge, the same way a makeup artist would. So there's no hard border left for anybody to read as a frown.

And because the line is thin and soft instead of thick and pressed in, it doesn't settle into your creases by the afternoon.

The way it looks when you leave the house is how it still looks at dinner.

It has a built-in sharpener too, so there's nothing else to carry around.

It's hypoallergenic, ophthalmologist-tested, and contact lens-friendly, which matters if most liners have made your eyes water.

It comes in 8 shades: Kohl, Wood, Sapphire, Smoky, Emerald, Mocha, Gold and Copper. So you can keep a deep color if you love one, without the hard look that used to come with it.

Find your shade →

Buy 1 Get 1 Free · 60-day money-back guarantee

What women are saying

Luma Linea is rated 4.8 out of 5 by more than 2,500 customers.

"At 55, I was looking for an eyeliner that wouldn't smudge and would be easy to apply despite my slightly wrinkled eyelids. Luma Linea Eyeliner is a real game-changer! It glides on perfectly!"
Diane F., verified customer

"The texture is soft, and the line stays clean all day, even in humid weather."
Janet W., verified customer

"At 60, I've finally found an eyeliner that stays flawless all day."
Susan T., verified customer

Buy 1 Get 1 FREE Sale : Today Only

Try it for yourself

Right now, LUMA Cosmetics is running a buy one, get one free on Luma Linea. So you can keep one in your bag and one by the mirror, or give the second one to a friend who keeps getting asked if she's upset.

Shipping is free on orders over $40.

And it comes with a 60-day money-back guarantee. If you're not completely satisfied within 60 days, you get a full refund. No conditions, no questions asked.

Find your shade →

The next time someone asks if you're mad at them, you'll be able to say no. And this time, your face will say it too.

Privacy Policy - Terms of Service