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Living The Life More Fabulous

TRICIA CUSDEN is 70 and a grandma.

But you’d never have guessed it. The “Speed Freak Granny” marked her 65th year with the launch of her own niche beauty business, Look Fabulous Forever, along with a blog and Youtube make-up tutorials for older women.

It is going down a storm globally with those who are sick of the cosmetics industry’s bias towards the young – including Dame Judi Dench, who is a fan.

Now Tricia has penned her first book, Living The Life More Fabulous, a bible for women who want more out of their advancing years.

They have put their trust in an author who not only talks the talk, but walks the walk.

Tricia is adamant she is not about “anti-ageing”. Instead, she is embracing all that is good about her stage in life and making the most of it – both in the looks and opportunity departments.

Her products were in the goodie bags at this year’s Oscars ceremony and she flew out to LA for the occasion.

Tucking her classically-cut, highlighted hair behind one ear to reveal funky earrings, and sporting bright lipstick, she tells in10: “I am the ‘Speed Freak Granny’.

“I love fast cars. I was dithering over buying my new car – a grey Mercedes sports – for fear of looking ridiculous ‘at my age’ but I had hundreds of comments from women online, every single one urging me to buy it. So I did!” London-based Tricia’s va va voom is clearly shared by kindred spirits north of the border, many of whom turned out to hear her speak this spring at Glasgow’s Aye Write festival.

She says: “The queue for the book signing afterwards was extremely smart. There are a lot of glamorous ladies in Glasgow.”

She is keen for others to stand up to ageism.

“The thing that shows we live in an ageist society is that we don’t see ourselves reflected back at us very often,” she explains.

“If you get an advertisement for anti-ageing it is invariably shown on a much younger face.

“A lot of the images we do see of older people are around some kind of medicalisation, like selling them a stairlift, or something that will cure an age-associated problem, rather than celebrating the fact that this person is older.

“I have my hair done in a large, well-known salon in London where a lot of the clientele are my age. But there is not a single photograph in there of an older woman. There is nothing there that tells me I am acceptable or welcome.

“It is the same in beauty halls. There are no girls or women selling the make-up who are an appropriate age. They are invariably extremely young.”

Tricia wants to see beauty, and the pursuit of beauty, linked to older faces.

“We associate beauty with youth and therefore everything about the beauty industry is focused on the younger clientele,” she says. “It’s all about fashion and novelty, and you feel very excluded from it at a certain age.

“I have always loved make-up. I have always wanted to engage with that world and have. I found it to be OK until I hit my 60s and things started to change.

“It was difficult to find make-up that worked on my face. I would spend a lot of money on a foundation and it wouldn’t look very good. And I couldn’t find make-up that would work on my crepe-y eyelids.

“I was frustrated that the beauty industry didn’t seem to show me anything that resonated with me and that I couldn’t source products. “I kept thinking I can do better than that. Why don’t I do something about it? So I just decided I would.” Tricia, who had already retired as a management consultant, ran the idea by her daughters Anna, an Edinburgh University graduate, and Suzy.

With their enthusiastic encouragement, she took the plunge and invested her life savings into the new beauty brand, with her daughters now working in the company.

The book was the natural progression. It covers everything from make-up application, style advice, and going grey, to fabulous food, fitness, health and developing confidence.

Tricia beams: “There has never been a better time to be an older woman. We are fitter, healthier and living longer than any time in history.

“So this book is designed to show how to live your extra bonus time as fabulously as possible.”