If, like me, you like to start the new year doing something differently, how about rebooting your makeup? Maybe you’ve been wearing the same old same old for – well, forever – or you’ve hit pan, as the beauty editors say, or you’ve neglected wearing makeup for a while and have decided to dip your little toesies back in! Well, if any of those sound like you, read on.

All these products are, as our American cousins would say, drugstore, or in our case, high street – reasonably priced, not over-priced, and relatively easily available.

FOUNDATION

L’Oréal Paris True Match liquid foundation SPF 17, not to be confused with the L’Oréal True Match plumping nude tinted serum which is a more recent arrival. Not sure why L’Oréal decided to bring out what is my view an inferior foundation to the brilliant, and similarly-named True Match liquid foundation, but hey ho. The original is soooo good – it is a gorgeous skin like foundation that goes on absolutely beautifully and gives a really flawless finish or as flawless as you can get when you’re 67. Interestingly this one does also contain hyaluronic acid as does the tinted serum version so there’s not much to choose between them as far as I can tell from the ingredients. This one also has glycerine which is great for gliding smoothly on the skin in, and it says it is suitable for the sensitive skin which is great for me as I’m allergic to any scented or perfume products, and I think it gives a really smooth finish.

CONCEALER

E.L.F is a relatively new brand for me, although I believe they’ve been around for some time. E.L.F stands for Eyes Lips Face, and they have a great range of products for all those bits of your fizzog, especially reasonably priced palettes, but we’ll come to those later. E.L.F camo concealer is full coverage liquid concealer and contains avocado oil and which helps to moisturise the under-eyes and it doesn’t settle into my fine (what a misnomer that is, they’re not fine, they’re a pain!) lines. Also the doe foot applicator is large and you can find yourself dumping far too much product as I’ve done several so just be sparing with it. It comes in 16 shades.

SETTING POWDER

I have L’Oréal True match powder which for some weird reason at the moment I’m struggling to find on drugstore sites but it is available on Amazon. I think this is a really great powder is very reasonably priced at £6.99 in the UK and what I use it for as I say is to prime my eyelids under set my concealer under my eyes and you don’t need very much what’s really good as it comes in a very good compact with a little powderpuff underneath and a mirror and all for £6.99 which I think it’s really good price and it will last you forever if you’re like me I die really only use pressed powder on my eyelids under my eyes.

BRONZER

The next two products you might need in your starter kit as a mature over 50 woman are bronzer and blusher. No you don’t need a bronzer to be honest I’ve only started using it a bronzer over the last few years but I do like using it I use it sparingly. I know some mature women on YouTube use quite a dark colour which I used to do but I’ve gone lighter in the last few months and I absolutely love the Milani silky matte bronzer in Sunkissed. Milani is only a brand that I became aware of after watching YouTube and it’s not as readily available in the UK as it is in the States. You can find it in the UK but you have to order it online or you have to hunt around in a Boots store and it’s usually hidden away somewhere and not easy to find. However I am really delighted to have found it and it’s my everyday go-to bronzer at the moment. Now although it is a drugstore product it isn’t cheap and in the UK is £14. But I think it will last you for some considerable time. I like to say I wouldn’t call a bronzer and I must have a product but if you feel you want to give your face a little more depth so a little more definition than a bronzer will help to do that.

BLUSHER

The blusher I’ve gone back to elf and I’ve chosen a which is a recent purchase. No it says it’s a shimmer blush but actually I must admit I cannot find a lot of shimmer in it. But I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I don’t love shimmer on my skin and actually one of the things I’ve left off the starter kit is a highlighter because I’ve just never really got on with highlighters that well and struggled to find the best place to put them. But it is a great shade and can really give you the pick me up and the glow that you might need particularly in the winter. And it’s only £6.

BROW PENCIL

 I was so delighted to a found this amazing pencil which I can actually use and that is smooth and waxy and really easy to apply. And it is the XX Revolution xx fine micro brow pencil. I have always struggled with eyebrow pencils because I’m not artistic and I find it difficult to apply  thin strokes with a thin nib pencil that looks natural. But I tried this out in the store and I have to say immediately it does glide beautifully . It’s waxy . It’s quite slim but it’s retractable which is always good and it’s just beautifully easy to apply.  It’s cruelty free and vegan and it’s the absolute business. And it’s now replaced my Bobby Brown equivalent. Which costs at least three times as much.

EYE SHADOW

Now onto eyeshadow. But I do think these little eyeshadow palettes from E.L.F are so gorgeous and reasonably priced that I think it’s worth mentioning them. I have two they called bite-size eyeshadow I’ve got very bad and rosewater and they are both extremely well pigmented and beautiful to use and they have shimmers so you can have a daytime look as well as go full glam for a night out – well, a girl can dream! .

EYE PENCIL

Now you can skip this step this product but I absolutely love my L’Oréal le liner eyeliner pencil in Kashmir Noir or Noir Kashmir. I think this is really great for over 50 mature skins mature makeup look because you can type line or if you don’t want to tight line you can just use it as a straightforward eyeliner but it really does make your eyes pop it just give that extra a standout strengthening the lashes look which we really need as we get older because our features start to fade everything thinks in a bit gravity pulls things down I’ll features don’t stand out as much so being able to enhance our eyes with a strong but beautifully slim and easy-to-use retractable pencil I think really works well.

MASCARA

If you were only going to pick a couple of products, say lipstick and mascara, this this is the mascara to pick.  It’s the L’Oréal Bambi eyes full mascara. It’s not your traditional brush. In fact it’s very much like the push-up mascara from Charlotte Tilbury. The only difference is it doesn’t have a sort of shelf for applying the product before you then brush it through, but it has a similar effect, in that you you will achieve the va va voom lashes most of us desire.

LIPSTICK

Wet N Wild are a new brand to me,  and not the easiest to find in the UK. However I am absolutely delighted to have found this gorgeous lipstick and it’s called  Megalast Liquid Catsuit matte lipstick – love that name, makes me think of the late Diana Rigg in The Avengers! I have it in the colour Rebel Rose. A liquid lipstick is a little bit of a misnomer because when you look at it you think it will be a lip gloss when you take it out of the applicator while in the bottle. So as you can see it is liquid-y but then you put it on and within a couple of minutes it dries down and it gives you a gorgeous mat look. Now this might not be for everyone and I do agree that there are some women who look absolutely gorgeous with non-matte lipsticks and lipsticks that glisten. I’m just not one of those women. And that’s why I love these types of lipsticks, these so-called liquid lipsticks that dry down to a matte finish. I also shy away generally speaking from a strong lip but that’s because I like to make up my eyes to make them pop and therefore I want my lip colour to be more muted. Well you could absolutely go the other way and have a strong lip and a muted I. I just don’t think mature women suit both of them. I understand lip at the same time. Anyway this lipstick is the business and I absolutely love it and I’m so delighted to discover this brand. 

Let me know what you think about all or any of these over on Instagram @thisisbeautybydez or on my YouTube channel. 

 P.S I use affiliate links where possible, which help support my blog. Absolutely no obligation on your part to click and buy this way, but if you do, I’m very grateful.