Glam at 50?

Sure, you can be glamorous at age 50. Personally, I just don't think the glitzy, glittery look is becoming on a female over the age of 36. Forgive me, but a woman in the fifty-plus age range sporting the "glam" look appears to me as if she's trying too hard to look thirty years younger. Accept your age and work with it.

Call me conservative. I won't argue. I will tell you that what looks great on my 20-year-old niece - smokey blue eye shadow with black liner and thick black mascara set off by sparkling blush and neon red lipstick - would make me look like I'd been in a fist fight in a hobby shop. Trust me: The glam look on a fifty-plus woman only looks good from a distance. A LONG distance.

The makeup that you wear shouldn't scream your age, frighten little children and grown men alike or cause the eyebrows of passers-by to shoot halfway up their foreheads. If you've got wrinkles, creases and/or waffley (crepey) skin, avoid the glam look and aim for glamorous instead.

Black eye liner and mascara tend to make your eyelids look heavier, especially when your eyelids are crinkled and painted with a thick layer of color. Wow, talk about making you look old. At 50 (and then some), LESS is more. Try eye liners and mascaras in shades of brown or gray. These colors give your eyes definition without adding weight.

Shimmery eye shadow can still provide a great "after-5" look (read that "in low light conditions") but I wouldn't recommend shiny, glittery eye shadow for 9-to-5. That's the time for a professional look that doesn't draw the wrong kind of attention. Avoid bold colors like blues and greens on your eyelids and opt for lighter shades in natural tones: Lighter shades (like sand or peach) will help "open" your eyes. Use darker shades in brown and slate - blue or green or violet, if you must - in the crease and/or the outer edges ONLY. When I say, "outer edges," I mean stop the color at least a quarter inch from inside the end of your eyebrow nearest the temple.

Dark lip color on older women draws more attention to the those pruney lines that surround the lips than the lips themselves. Opt for lighter shades in nudes, mauves and peaches - depending on your skin tone - with lots of gloss.  Tinted glosses will give your mouth that pouty look you're hoping to achieve without the thick, heavy vampirish color that red and russets provide. Furthermore, if and when those darker colors "bleed," they bleed into those wrinkles around your lips, accentuating them even more.

The decision in how to stand out in a crowd is up to you. As for me, I'm going to follow Bette Davis' example, not Mae West's.