Revealed: Clever age busting tricks that only the young know

PERHAPS it’s not having offspring, or maybe it’s the eternal 14-year-old in me, but I love Gen Z — those currently under 26. Millennials are less the ‘ me generation’ than the ‘ me, me, me generation’, springing forth in a (brief) era of economic prosperity and focused on themselves.

Like boomers, they are a pushy, idealistic and rather irritating cohort. Gen Z-ers are edgier, more knowing and less egotistical, schooled in chaos and the pandemic.

Gen Z-ers also love their slap. As a posse of digital natives, they have spent the past three years on TikTok creating beauty hacks, at an age at which the rest of us were forced to learn about maths.

My 14-year-old friend Cicely knows far more about the science of skincare than I ever will, despite having the complexion of a Thomas Hardy heroine.

Do these hacks work for those of us who are crepier and more mottled? The answer is some do, some might, and others should be avoided at all costs.

I would file the instant facelift concealer trend under ‘ open your mind to this’. Contouring obsessives had taken to doing that heavyhanded-inverted-triangle-under-theeye thing.

Instead, TikToker Megha Singh recommends applying it up and angled as a means of drawing everything north. Think a small triangle at the outer corner of the eye, rather than under it.

I’ve been roughly following this principle with the help of Nars’s Soft Matte Complete Concealer (£ 24, narscosmetics. co. uk), brushed on with Mac’s 242S Shader (£12.60, maccosmetics. co.uk) and it works.

You use less product, and, for a fiftysomething face, upwards is always the best direction.

The same theory applies to #soapbrows — those modishly erect eyebrows achieved by brushing them north with the sudsy stuff.

I’d skip soap (it gives you brow dandruff) and use Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Freeze Styling Wax (£23, boots.com) with a clean mascara wand.

Even if you are reluctant to go full bog- brush mode, some eyebrow uplift counteracts droop and opens the eyes — a must for those of us seeking to defy gravity. We oldsters, rather than Gen Z, invented ‘no make-up’ make-up. But the products used to achieve it have greatly improved.

Rose Inc’s Skin Enhance Luminous Tinted Serum (£36, spacenk.com), applied with its Number 3 Foundation Brush (£28), proves a revelation on older faces. And the brand has just released ten ravishing bitten- lip Satin Lip colours (£22).

When a Gen Z favourite goes viral, it’s always worth a look. NYX’s snog proof Shine Loud Lip Gloss (£12, superdrug. com), CeraVe ’ s brilliant cleansers ( from £ 9.99, super drug. com) and the return of the claw clip are ones to note.

Some Gen Z obsessions fall into the category ‘Depends on your colouring’. The mushroom-brown hair look sounded grim until I started spotting it on people and realised the silvery taupe shade can look gorgeous.

The 1980s eyeshadows in violent blues, purples and greens are great on my cool colouring, whereas brown 1990s glamgrunge does not. I can sport the craze for black blush (basically a kind of grey contour, where warm-toned types use tan).

However, I’ll leave ombre lips — graduated colour, evolving from light in the centre to dark around the edges, giving the illusion of a fuller pout — to those girls whose lips already have tonal hues.

Some of these crazes will require a hard ‘No’ from those of us who won’t see 40 again. Avoid anything that involves applying layer-onlayer of slap. Coy faux freckles added with a nude lip liner look more like fake age spots, while complicated kohl on the eyes — all lines and angles — won’t stay put on wrinkled, hooded lids.

The ‘glass skin’ cheat of mixing liquid highlighter with your foundation can also end up blotchy. Better to layer.

on anyone over 35, applying blusher to the top of the nose so it looks as if you’ve caught the sun will make you appear drunk.

As for skinny and/or bleached brows, I won’t begin to insult you by going there.