How to actually do it

The product pages on this site exist because people search for products. These guides exist because, in practice, technique accounts for more of the result than the contents of the bottle. A good foundation applied by dragging a dry brush across a creased cheek looks worse than a mediocre one pressed on with a damp sponge, and no amount of money closes that gap.

Three technique changes account for most of the difference, and all three are free. Press, do not drag. A crease in the skin is a channel, and any sideways motion across it pushes product into it, while a downward motion deposits product on the surface either side. Wait after moisturizer. Foundation on half-absorbed moisturizer pills into little rolls; foundation on bare dry skin grabs. Two minutes is the whole difference. Use less. Most people over 50 are wearing two or three times the product their face needs, and the excess is exactly what settles.

The guides divide into three kinds. Explainers take apart why something happens — why foundation settles into wrinkles, why primer pills, why mascara smudges under the eye — because once you know the mechanism the fix is usually obvious and you stop buying products to solve it. How-tos are sequential: shade matching, applying foundation over 50, filling sparse brows, lining a hooded eye. Decision guides answer a question you have to settle before you buy anything: whether you need primer, whether to set concealer, what belongs in a starter kit.

Every guide that describes a physical technique carries an accessibility note — how to do that same thing with limited dexterity, a tremor or poor close vision. This is not a disclaimer at the bottom of the page; it is a section with specific instructions, and it is on every technique guide on this site. The reason is simple: the publishers most obligated to provide that information do not. AARP writes extensively for this audience and publishes nothing on applying makeup with arthritis or low vision.

Each guide also links to the commercial page that solves the problem with a product, where one exists, because sometimes the honest answer to 'how do I stop this happening' is a different formula rather than a better technique. The reverse is true too, and more often: a lot of people arrive looking for a product when the fix is three minutes of method.

The guides are free of any requirement to recommend something. Where a step needs no product, it says so, and several of these pages end by telling you to use less of what you already own.