10 TikTok Beauty Hacks for Women Over 40 That Actually Work
These tricks from social media aren't just for Gen Z!
You may think that TikTok, the social media platform that’s popular with Gen Z, doesn’t have content that’s relevant to someone over 40. However, it’s full of clever, creative beauty hacks that work for women of any age created by content creators with mature skin and hair. Here, we’ve gathered the 10 best viral TikTok beauty hacks, including makeup tricks, hair tips and skincare secrets that can help you solve your most aggravating beauty issues. Most important, these tips will help you feel confident, so you can feel beautiful from the inside out.
5 viral TikTok makeup hacks you should try
1. This eyeliner trick ‘lifts’ droopy lids
To give eyes a youthful boost, Rose-Marie Swift, makeup artist and founder of RMS Beauty, shared her liner trick in a video on her brand’s YouTube channel: Use a black pencil on the upper lash line, then at the outer corners, use your ring fingers to smudge the liner up toward the temples. This creates a soft wing that optically lifts eyes.
Related: Celebrity Makeup Artist: Winged Eyeliner Takes Years off Your Look in Seconds
2. Underpainting with highlighter boosts radiance
We love adding highlighter to the top of our cheekbones to bounce light onto skin and perk up our features. But beauty YouTubers like Angela Mashelle are sweeping highlighter onto cheekbones before applying foundation on top. This technique, called “underpainting,” gives skin a radiant, lit-from-within glow. “Plus, applying it under the foundation makes it look more seamless when you are completely done with all of your makeup application,” she says.
3. Apply blush upwards
Applying blush starting slightly to the side of the apples of the cheeks, then blending upward like in the demonstration above by @TheBeautyProtocole on YouTube, directs focus up to give cheeks a youthful look in seconds!
Related: Makeup Artists: The Strategic Way to Apply Blush to Accentuate Your Best Features
4. Overlining plumps thin lips
This lip-lining hack from makeup artist and educator Erica Taylor helps lips look voluminous in a flash. To do: Apply lip liner pencil (in a hue sightly darker than your natural lips) outside the lip line, leaving the inner corners of your lips unlined. Fill in the lips with a clear gloss and gently blend the line with your ring finger for a soft look. The subtle, unfinished line combined with the light-reflecting gloss tricks the eye into seeing a fuller pout.
Related: Having *This* Feature Makes Lips Look Two Times Plumper — And If You Don’t, Here’s How to Fake It
5. A dab of shimmery shadow awakens eyes
For brighter eyes, take a cue from Becky Lovric and sweep a light-hued shimmery eyeshadow on the area of your lid just above your upper lash line. The shadow subtly enhances the color of your eyes to make them pop, and the shimmer catches the light to make the whites of eyes look even brighter. Tip: Avoid applying shimmery shadow up onto the hood of your lid, as it can emphasize any loose skin.
Related: 6 Natural Eye Makeup Looks for Women Over 50 That Prove That Less Is More
5 bonus TikTok hair + skincare hacks
1. Thinning Hair? Reverse it with “slugging”
The latest trend in boosting hair health, “slugging” involves saturating the scalp with a nourishing oil and leaving it on overnight. To spur growth, try it using grapeseed oil. Its polyphenols, linolenic acid and vitamin E increase blood flow to the scalp to put follicles in an active growth phase and fortify roots to thwart shedding.
Try it: Massage 2 tablespoons of warm grapeseed oil onto the scalp, cover with a shower cap and wash with shampoo in the morning.
2. Nail ridges? Mask them with a “glazed” mani
A quick scroll through beauty TikToks and you’ll be inundated with “donut-glazed” everything. Why it works for nails? Painting them the shimmery white hue that resembles the donut icing reflects light onto nails to camouflage ridges. We like the Sally Hansen Color Therapy Nail Color in Well, Well, Well.
3. Double chin? Slim it with “tantouring”
This camera-ready technique visible on TikTok feeds uses self-tanner to create a shadow that makes a double chin recede. To do: Dip a makeup brush into self-tanning mousse, like The Fox Tan Dark Tropical Self-Tan Mousse, and apply along the jawline; wait two hours for results. To take things even further, contour your entire face with self tan by applying along the cheekbones and around the temples. Another one of our favorite self tanners for contouring the face is the Bondi Sands Self Tanning Foam in Dark.
Related: How to Contour With Self Tanner for a Youthful, Sculpted Face — No Makeup Needed
4. Forehead lines? Smooth them with “face taping”
The modern spin on the “facelift” tape trick abuzz on TikTok? Applying sticky patches, like Frownies Forehead and Between Eyes Wrinkle Patches, onto the forehead before bed. It holds skin and muscles taut overnight to limit forehead movement, while “ironing out” deeper-set creases.
5. Rough patches? This softens them stat
To rehydrate super-dry skin, women on TikTok are applying body lotion onto damp skin immediately after showering. This viral technique known as “wet skincare” allows the hydrating ingredients to better penetrate skin since pores are most open post-shower, locking moisture deep into skin’s layers to alleviate the parched patches. Tip: Apply moisturizer to your face immediately after cleansing for a glowy, hydrated complexion.
For more viral beauty trends, click through these stories:
Purple Blush Is the Makeup Artists’ Secret to More Radiant Skin — Here’s How to Use It
Why Side Swept Bangs Are the Hot New Trend for Women Over 50 + How They Make Hair Look Thicker
Are Flaxseed Masks the New Botox? Dermatologists Weigh In on the Viral Trend
