Most beauty hacks are universal, like using baby powder instead of dry shampoo in a pinch or (safely) heating your eyelash curler for mega-volume. But there are some elements of beauty that become more apparent as we get older, and therefore require entirely new hacks of their own. Ah, what blessings.
The good news? Age is just as number. The even more good news? We’ve got some hacks that will temporarily send these beauty bugbears packing.
These are the best beauty hacks for women over 40.
#1 Mind the facial hair
Isn’t it a cruel joke that the moment you need glasses extra hairs (that you can’t see) begin popping up on your chin and upper lip? Well, rather than flying blind with a pair of tweezers, there are facial hair removal options that will take care of an entire area in one foul swoop. Not to mention, painlessly so – hurrah! Just pop a reminder in your calendar once a month and you and your moustache will never be caught off guard again.
bh loves:Nair Sensitive Hair Removal Cream Face and Body, Schick Hydro Silk® Perfect Finish™, Andrea Gentle Hair Remover for the Face and Finishing Touch Flawless®.
#2 Mask spider veins
Whether you’ve got red ones, purple ones or blue ones, spider veins sure make the stretch marks you worried about at age 15 seem insignificant. Thankfully they should cause no harm or discomfort, but only professional treatments like laser can actually rid you of them. However, if it’s a special occasion and you’d rather them look less spidery, a layer of budge-proof body makeup provides the perfect camouflage. For even, smooth coverage, we recommend applying with a kabuki brush or mitt.
bh loves:Sally Hansen Airbrush Legs Makeup, Elle Effect The Tint ($44.95, elleeffect.com) and La Mav® Vegan Kabuki Brush
#3 Fake fuller hair
Hair thinning can be caused by a number of things (and actually, it can affect all ages), though female pattern hair loss does often coincide with menopause. If you’re experiencing hair loss, there are some hair treatments that can restore hair density and stimulate better growth over time. But if it’s instant fullness you’re after, hair fibres provide a temporary albeit terrific solution, filling in the hairline and any gaps to conceal sparse areas.
bh loves:Viviscal Gorgeous Growth Densifying Elixir, Women’s REGAINE® Foam and Toppik Hairbuilding Fibres
#4 Disguise greys
Whether it’s been a while between appointments or you haven’t got round to using that box dye yet, there are plenty of ways to disguise greys in seconds. Admittedly, these techniques are easier to pull of for dark hair colours, but they’re also the ones to suffer from contrast the most! If you’re dealing with a hefty amount of regrowth, reach for a coloured dry shampoo and lightly spray before brushing through. Only have a few rogue strands to hide? Sweep over them with your tinted brow gel or (colour pending) your mascara.
bh loves: Batiste Dry Shampoo – Hint of Colour, Mavala Switzerland Creamy Mascara and L’Oréal Paris Magic Retouch – Instant Root Concealer Spray
#5 Embrace tint
If you haven’t already become acquainted with brow tint during lockdown, the DIY hack is worth the know-how. Not only will it help sparse brows look fuller, but if you find your mascara constantly ends up on your eyelids, tinting them will provide a semi-permanent solution. And those greys we were talking about earlier? Any leftover mixture can provide a cheeky top-up.
bh loves:1000 Hour Brush-In Lash & Brow Dye Kit
Main image credit: @traceeellisross
What’s the best beauty hack you know? Have you tried any of the above?
Great tips. I can relate to the stray hairs. Fortunately my hair is still quite thick and full.
Great tips. Go mature people!
would love to try the Mavala hair colour with the cool wand by the looks…..keeping this one on my list!
I don’t have grey in my eyebrows but I have recently started tinting them and it makes them look a lot fuller, they have always been thin but are more sparse now.
Yes, I’ve got a few facial hairs. I’ve used IPL on the dark hairs, but the white ones keep growing back – I pluck or epilate them.
I also use Magic Retouch & 1000Hr Lash & Brow tint: I’ve got one white brow hair on each brow – Eek!
Another good ageing hack is to ditch black mascara & eyeliner: brown or charcoal doesn’t look as harsh. Sometimes I wear navy because it makes my bleary scleras look their whitest: I mostly wear navy after a migraine.
Thank you especially for the facial hair tips.
I’ve got a Schick Hydro Silk Perfect Finish. It’s fantastic!
Don’t have any of the ‘issues’ listed, thanks genetics xD
Still love putting on my makeup great tips. But I have already embraced my Grey Hair and my Wrinkles that I cannot get rid of. But I still try my darndest to make the Wrinkles less prominent.
I’m already finding grey hair, eek!
I need to fake fuller hair thats for sure
Great stocking stuffer ideas
Always something new to learn and look forward too 😀
I’m hitting 40 next yr so these tips are going to come in handy
The spray hair colours are useful for when you don’t get around to the dye – time to dye (sorry Blade Runner) tomorrow. I’ve also got to see how to disguise a patch of pesky spider veins on my legs, it looks like a bruise!
I’m definitely into a fuller head of hair and getting rid of the facial hair.
Great tips!
Sad that I relate to most of these. Thanks for the tips
I relate to a lot of these things as well but like you S-P I have thick full hair. Very lucky as I know its often not the case
Oh the joys of being a female and some of those challenges arise before 40
I can relate to the hairy face unfortunately
Greys I think of as silver highlights and I have thick hair; lucky
I’m really trying to lean into aging and not fight it so hard. That said, I’m keen to try eyebrow dying.
Interesting – getting older sounds like so much fun, doesn’t it.
Ha, I’m under 40 & I’m dealing with most of these already, some of them for a long time lol. (With the exception of thinning hair. Might have fine hair, but I also have a lot of it.)
Great tips for us women over 40. 🙂
OR just embrace it all!!!
Great tips, I’m now closer to 50 than 40 but don’t look it.
I would think that these tips are for more than just ladies in their 40’s, I have some of these issues and I am in my 30s.
keep my hair and skin in good nic
I have bad spider veins around my ankles, and find them impossible to cover.
It never occurred to me to tiny my eyebrows. Lashes, sure, but eyebrows?
This is very useful and handy.I am nearly there.
Duly noted! This is useful.
This is handy, though regrowth tends to be a problem at any age.
No. 1- yep. I suddenly have one random thick, dark hair that likes to pop up on my side jawline. But if that’s all that’s troubling me, I think I’m doing ok 🙂
I’ve always had peach fuzz on my face and when in the mood I shave it off so my skin looks even glossier (extra shiny). The rest, no issues with those thanks universe. My hair did get so much thicker last decade. But that is due to the diet change.
All good tips!
I have one weird white hair that’s kinda thick that grows out of my cheek. Like some cat’s whisker!!
I am interested in your comment about your hair growing thicker due to a change in your diet. Are you able to provide some more detail about this.
Hi Retro , happy new year!
Early 20s diagnosed with a few things and had bad health. Nothing was helping and things going really bad. So I went early 30s wild literally. Thought to follow instincts and consume only what my raw instinct would dictate. Ate kilos of raw fruit daily, fruit veg, nuts…only things I liked as they were, without any transformation (i.e. cooking, baking, mixing together to be edible. If not edible as is and I could not eat plenty of it at once…like onions for example…I didn’t eat it. etc) So 3 months on this human diet my biggest health issue gone! Other one later on gone (took a while to heal lungs eeek) Slowly body started healing….I never went back. Though you could consider if we were to label my consumption of stuffs as: whole food vegan. I do not mind some olive oil for roasting and cooked foods at all now! Since health is now pristine, I eat roasted , cooked veg, root veg (mmm, potatoes), at times grains, beans…but bulk of diet is raw (fruit mostly) and a lot daily (a lot for average “omnivore”, 6 kg plus). For fats I eat at times nuts/seeds and smash them for dressings at times for salads and make nut/seed mylks for beverages…etc. “Cosmetic” side-effects of this were: cellulite gone (was never overweight, but had the stuff), thicker hair and growth that could not happen all life until my mid 30s. Now early 40s I have thickest , longest hair than ever in my life. It was until early 30s very thin and never could grow past mid back. And have no grey. And never supplemented. And I do eat seaweed from time to time (nori, wakame, kelp) whole dried.
Thanks! Found this article interesting and informative. Some tips I already do, some I won’t, and some I’ll try.
Great tips BH. I use the Sally Hansen leg magic occasionally for my spider veins. It works a treat! Definitely worth it.
It’s “one fell swoop” not “foul swoop”! Anyhoo…
Eyelash and eyebrow tinting are great tips.
That’s positive. Nice way to look at it.
Interesting what a change in diet can do to improve health. Glad you are benefitting Yohanna.
That’s good to know Jodie. Thanks.
Celebrate ageing! You have earned those silver strands. Those stretch-marks are tiger stripes. I am a few days from 42 and I swear I have never, ever felt so good about myself, nor have I felt so comfortable in my own skin. If someone offered to take me back in time I would refuse. Screw that noise, I like me!
This does not mean that I don’t take pride in how I look, it doesn’t mean that I don’t love beauty products. I am just not trying to ‘look younger’. I am looking like the best (nearly) 42 year old me 🙂
HELL YESSSS! The nanosecond I saw silver peeking through I stopped dying my hair!! (And I used to be a hair colour fanatic, you name the colour and I have had it. Even as a kid I played with my hair colour)
I am about to turn 42 and I literally get a bit sad when I brush my hair and I see a gorgeous silver strand appear in the brush!! NOOOOO!!
But I do admit to using the Flawless thingie to get rid of blonde ‘stash! It annoyed me because of how it effed up my make-up 😛