Pro-age Beauty and Brilliance Part II with Pilar Gerasimo
Pro-age Beauty and Brilliance Part II
About two minutes.
That’s how long it takes Pilar Gerasimo to finish her natural-looking makeup.
In this episode of Face-to-Face, Pilar demonstrates exactly how she applies her makeup for both everyday life and fancier occasions.
She’s also sharing how Cindy Joseph first inspired this pro-age look years ago.
Watch the video or read on for the full story...
P.S. This is part two of this episode of Face-to-Face. If you missed part one, you can check it out here.
Welcome back to Face-to-Face. I'm Pilar Gerasimo.
This is the second in a two-part episode on pro-age beauty and brilliance. I’m coming to you barefaced to share wisdom from Cindy Joseph on the art of being beautiful at every age, and what it means to embrace your beauty at each and every age and each part of your life that you pass through.
In the last episode, I shared a little bit about Cindy Joseph's pro-age beauty philosophy and how it had affected my own.
In this episode, I want to share some of the specific tactics and techniques that Cindy taught me, as well as some of the ways she challenged some of my ingrained assumptions that had led me to do my makeup in certain ways, including ways that I don't think were serving me.
She observed that, based on what I had said were my stated goals with my makeup, there were things that I was doing that were actually working against those goals.
Cindy would often ask, “What are your goals with your makeup?” for example, or, "with your appearance," before she would give you any counsel.
I’ve always really respected that because what is a good or not good makeup technique depends entirely on what you want the outcome to be.
“I want to look in the mirror and be happy with the person I see there, myself. I want to recognize myself.”
In my case, I was going for a pretty natural look. Truly, on most days, I don't wear any makeup or very little makeup. I look more or less like this.
When I do put on makeup, it’s usually because I want to look a little different. I want to look a little fancier, or I want to look more professional, or I want to present myself in a way that I know will be media-friendly, as that standard is today in our culture. Which, as noted, is somewhat limited.
So, I do have reasons for putting on makeup, and they're different on different days. But most days I’m going for a pretty natural look.
I want to look good to the people that are seeing me up close and personal. I want to look in the mirror and be happy with the person I see there: myself. I want to recognize myself.
“Cindy challenged whether I really needed any foundation at all…”
So, one of the things that I was doing that Cindy made me aware was working against that stated goal had to do with the way I was using foundations and concealers.
At the time, this was probably my late 30s, I was still using foundations to create a kind of perfected or flawless look. But by the time I was in my 30s, like everybody, I had some natural small fine lines, some little wrinkles, and the foundation was tending to kind of cake up and fall into those, creating an effect that was not the one that I wanted.
I’d ask Cindy about whether I should be using a different foundation or a different powder product. She challenged whether I really needed any foundation at all, based on my stated goals.
She encouraged me to simply use a moisturizer that revealed the best of my skin’s natural texture. She also encouraged me to rethink the way I was using concealers.
“The products I was using drew more attention to the fact that I had as Cindy said ‘a bunch of goop under my eyes.’”
Namely, I was using some pretty heavy concealers to cover up what I saw as two dark circles underneath my eyes. Those circles, by the way, were because I was exhausted, underslept, undernourished, and generally freaked out and my life was out of balance.
And my body was trying to tell me that.
Now, I could cover up the dark circles, but the truth was the products, the way I was using them, all just drew more attention to the fact that I had, as she said it, “a bunch of goop under my eyes,” and that that was really not producing the effect I was after.
So, instead, Cindy encouraged me to think about why I had those circles in the first place and whether they were really wrong or they were a signal from my body that was out of balance and wanting to be rebalanced.
In the meantime, there were certainly strategies I could use to minimize the appearance of dark circles, but ultimately, she encouraged me to address the fundamental reason that I had them in the first place.
“She showed me a way of emboldening my brows… without overdoing it.”
Another place that Cindy encouraged me to rethink my beauty routine had to do with my eyebrows. Specifically, I was drawing my eyebrows in in ways that she noticed weren't really working toward my natural-look goal.
I had come to the conclusion, I think by reading a magazine article when I was in my 20s, that eyebrows should begin in a line directly in accordance with where your nose and the inside corner of your eye is, and that they should extend to the place that that line would meet if you went to the outside corner of your eye.
Well, as you can see, in my case, that would bring my eyebrow way out here.
While I wasn’t going quite that far, I was definitely pursuing that look. Cindy noted that it required me to draw in eyebrows where there was no hair, and that that was a fairly obvious piece of artifice.
One that, again, was drawing attention to itself rather than flattering my face.
She showed me a way of emboldening my brows a little and amplifying what I liked best about their shape without overdoing it to the extent that it was a costume effect.
Specifically, she encouraged me to simply brush them into place and to fill in any spots that I felt were really sparse or just not in alignment with the rest of the brow. More like that.
Well, I can’t really even see. I don’t normally put my makeup on on a camera. But, you know, it was a more feathery look, short strokes, and it allowed my brows to end before this point that, in my imagination, they should be.
So, breaking up whatever it was I had put on with the brush was another step that she encouraged me to take. And I do really think that that works a lot better.
“I put Boomstick Glo under my eyes, where people might put concealer…”
So, now I want to share what I ended up embracing as my own Boomstick Trio routine.
To this day, Boomsticks remain some of my favorite cosmetics, and the ones that are my go-to solutions on busy days, and particularly no-makeup-type days where I just wanna look a little bit more polished than my completely plain face.
I think of Boomstick Glo as the basis for everything else and I use it kind of like a perfectly sheer foundation.
I put it under my eyes, where people might put concealer, as a way of refreshing the skin there and of letting the reflection from the clear beeswax and olive-oil mixture to just brighten things a little bit there.
I also use it on my brows to keep them in place, sometimes applying a little bit of the Glo, and then brushing them back in. Again, I might do this and then apply a little bit of eyebrow pencil just to give my brows a little bit more power and emphasis. I don't need it on all the time, I don’t wear it all the time. I like myself without it, too.
I use Glo, again, any of the places I’m gonna be putting Color later because I really like having a sheer effect. And I put it wherever I’m gonna be putting Glimmer later because, again, I find it just lays on with a little bit more sheerness. And the moisture and the protection are wonderful. So I’ll put it on my throat, on my neck where I’m going to put Color later, and also on my décolleté.
I really like adding this as a form of protective moisturizer, as well as adding a little sheen to my skin, which healthy skin naturally has.
And then, of course, I add Glo to my lips for moisture and for shine. Often, I do this several times a day. When I'm at it, I often add a little to my cuticles or any other little dry or rough patches that I happen to notice.
“Then I go with Boomstick Color… the basis of my no-makeup makeup look.”
Then I go with Boomstick Color.
Typically, I do a dot on my cheeks, on the apples of my cheeks where Cindy encouraged me to put it, rather than striping it along my face.
So I might do a little dab there, a little dab there, and a few dabs across my forehead, as well as a little bit on my neck, and sometimes along this lighter part of my décolleté where I want to even out the skin tone.
Naturally, I look like a crazy person before it’s rubbed in. And as Cindy noted, when you first rub Color in, there is a tendency for it to rev up your natural circulation. So it can appear more red or pink than it naturally would.
Once I’ve got that rubbed in—and again, having a base of the Glo on there really helps it smooth out well—I take a close look in the mirror and just see if it’s even, you know, if I’ve left any war-paint stripes on my face.
I don’t normally wear eyeshadow, but if I’m going to be using color as a shadow, I do it pretty sparingly. I typically put a little bit on my ring finger, and then just apply it to the outer corner, the little point of the curve of my brow bone and blend it in.
That just brings my face I think a little bit of warmth, maybe a little bit of contour. But for me, this is the basis of my no-makeup makeup look. I might add some mascara and a little lip gloss and I’m good to go.
“I add Boomstick Glimmer if I want to dress up my face for a special occasion.”
For a fancier look, I’ll add Boomstick Glimmer. Glimmer is one of my favorite multi-purpose makeup products, and I generally add it if I’m going out or if I want to dress up my face for a special occasion. Or on camera, I find it works really well to just add a little bit of sparkle.
I use it mostly on my brow bones where, you can see, it just adds the slightest bit of luster. And I like it, too, on my eyelids. Here, I tend to focus mostly on the center and bottom of my lid, just bringing a little bit of curve. But nothing too crazy. Sometimes I’ll add a little bit on the outer corner, a taut on the inner corner. But again, very faint.
Cindy pointed out that people tend to overdo that and it can look kind of obvious and overdone. So again, my goal was natural. And I always keep that in mind.
If I want more sparkle still, or to create a kind of mystery, I’ll add a little bit at the very bottom of my lash line, just underneath where my irises are. I think it just kind of draws a little light and adds a little bit more spark. Not something I do every day but sometimes.
“For lipstick, I’ll use Boomstick Color as a base color. Then I’ll add an additional tone on top.”
Then, for lipstick, I go back to Boomstick Color.
This is a pretty cool shade for me and I tend to like a pretty warm, more tawny, peachy glow. So I don’t tend to use this as a full-on lipstick, I’ll use it as a base of color.
Then, I often will add an additional tone over the top, a lighter pink or peachy or coral color sometimes, depending on what I’m wearing, and the skin tone, based on the season, if I have a tan or not. Sometimes I’ll put a little bit of gloss on the top of it.
Sometimes, in a rush, I’ll just put it on my face and go on camera. And that looks fine too.
Today, I’m gonna go for a pretty light look. So I’m just going to dot it on my bottom lip and I’m gonna then spread it with my finger. Let’s have a little more precision.
“For mascara, the goal is just a little bit of accent. I don’t prefer the false eyelash look.”
Then, if I wanna be super fancy, I’ll curl my eyelashes and I’ll add a little mascara.
Unfortunately, the Boom mascara sold out so fast—apparently, you guys got it all, I had to go and backorder—so I’ll just use another mascara I like.
Typically, I just put one coat, maybe two on. I’m doing this without the benefit of a good mirror. So wish me luck. The goal here for me is really, again, just a little bit of accent. I don’t prefer a fake or false eyelash look. I don’t love the look of extensions, they’re not for me anyway. So I kinda just go with that.
That’s pretty much my look. That would be my typical look on a typical day. It takes me less than two minutes to do it in real life when I can see what I’m doing. The only other thing that I might add is a pair of sparkly earrings like these.
Oftentimes, when Cindy and I would go out together, she would go into the bathroom to get ready for dinner. She’d come out like literally two minutes later with a little bit of the Boom stuff on and she’d added earrings. And that was it. She’d throw on a scarf. And I was like, "Oh my gosh, this woman looks so elegant."
So I’ve become a fan of sparkly and dangly earrings, mostly as the result of witnessing how beautiful that was on Cindy and how it just communicated her desire to be a little bit fancy and a little bit sparkly, in part for my benefit.
“Beautifying ourselves, in whatever ways work for us, is a beautiful thing to do.”
The last thing that I want to say about pro-age beauty and brilliance is that beautifying ourselves, in whatever ways work for us and are in accordance with our goals, that is a beautiful thing to do.
It's a fun thing to do and a friendly thing to do. And there's nothing to be ashamed of in wanting to be beautiful or to bring out the best in our own features.
So, however you practice pro-age beauty and brilliance, however you go about creating the look that works for you, I encourage you to celebrate your own beauty and to celebrate your own strategies, while staying open to adjusting them as time goes by and as your goals change.
For right now, this is my look. Little hair fluff. I might put on some clothes instead of my bathrobe. And then, I’m pretty much ready to go.
Let us know what you think about this approach to beauty and the strategies that you’re using to make your own pro-age beauty and brilliance shine.
What do you think of this approach to beauty? What strategies do you use?
This is part two of a special two-part episode of Face-to-Face. If you missed part one, you can check it out right here.
New to this series? You can also catch up on all the past episodes right here.
For now, we’d love to know… what do you think of this pro-age approach to beauty?
What strategies do you use in your own makeup? Do you use any of the techniques that Pilar uses?
Let us know in the comments. As always, we’d love to hear from you.
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