Five For Friday

Here are my Five Favorite Tips From the Book

"How Not To Look Old" by Charla Krupp

This is a book I jokingly picked up at Barnes and Noble a couple of months ago. When I started flipping through the pages, I was secretly intrigued and quickly whisked the book to the checkout. After all, my 20 year high school reunion was coming up and I didn't want to look ....you know....old. I have to say, there are some great tips in the book. It's a quick read with lots of illustrations. So here are my 5 favorites:

1) "Nothing ages you like....dark lipstick." Ladies, the Vampira look is so harsh and besides, it always ends up on your teeth. Yuk. Look how much more youthful this woman looks with a peachy pink gloss.

2) "Nothing ages you like fake dragon-lady nails." Krupp says that if you insist on having artificial nails, "keep nails no longer than a quarter inch beyond your fingertips, which is to say, ever so slightly longer than your finger." She goes further to say that she loves "fun, outrageous nail polish colors", but saves them for her toes.

Here's a personal opinion.....so don't hate....but I think the 'liquid paper' air brushed tips are more aging than bright, trendy colors. I wore those to my wedding in 1997.....I repeat 1997. They were thick, got food caught under them and were just gross after week one.

I recently tried to get the acrylic overlays, because nail polish just won't stay on my natural nails. BIG MISTAKE.....huge white tips, thick as a quarter, and too long. So not much progress has been made on the fake nails, at least here where I live.

If you have artificial nails, and have any suggestions or tips (pardon the pun), let me know. Maybe there's an alternative to chunky iceberg nails.

3) "Nothing ages you like.....exposing too much skin or showing excessive cleavage.

Let's face it, as women we want to feel attractive and at times, sexy. But there comes a point, where trying too hard looks desperate. I heard a great saying, "Older ladies, don't try to compete physically with a 20 year old. Those bitches win everytime." In other words, nothing ages you like DESPERATION. When you show all the toys in the toy chest, you come off as desperate for attention, desperate for approval, and worst of all, just flat out desperate. Cue the Eagles' song, "Desperado".

The lovely Linda Hogan

4) "Nothing ages you like thick, heavy eyeliner and frosty eyeshadow." See picture above.

5) "Nothing ages you like Mom jeans." Throw them away right now. There are a bazillion jean companies out there that make jeans to flatter figures of every age AND size.

So what things do you think make women look older than their real age?