Does makeup really help, or is it just my imagination?

I have enjoyed wearing makeup since I was old enough to start (maybe 14? We weren't as precocious in those days.) I'm not as glam as daughter LeeAnn or niece Carole, but my "natural beauty" has needed some "enhancement," and that's even more true since I "matured," (Euphemism for "got old.") There used to be a saying about old barn and new paint, but I don't remember how it went. That's pretty much my answer for everything these days: "I don't remember."

(Before)
No makeup

(After)
With makeup

There are old women who wear no makeup who look really old and don't care. There are old women who wear too much makeup and think they look gorgeous. There are old women who wear no makeup who have natural beauty and are beautiful, but obviously old, women. There are old women who wear just the right carefully chosen and applied makeup who don't look too young, but don't look too old, and like Goldilocks, find it "just right." 

There are young women who wear no makeup and look old. There are young women who wear too much makeup and look old (and hard.) There are young women who wear no makeup and look beautiful. There are young women who carefully choose and apply makeup, and the Goldilocks rule kicks in again.

I have to mention the (usually) over-40 women who still do their makeup the way they learned in high school. Yes, I see darkly lined lips with lighter lipstick; bright pink gloss; heavy blue eye shadow; eyebrows penciled out to the hair line; fuzzy female mullets (I think there's a name for them?) Fortunately, these are not usually all the same person. And my dear aunt, who, in her senile years, confused her red lip liner with her eyebrow pencil and had bright red brows, telling us she had no idea how they got that way!

And I now totally understand the little old ladies with the bright pink cheeks, bright red over-drawn lips, and heavy white powdered forehead. Because:

1. They can't see they have any color anywhere unless it's really heavy. 
2. They can't see they have any color anywhere unless the light is spotlight bright.
3. They can't ask their husband how they look because he isn't there any more. (And even if he were, he wouldn't be able to see any better than she can. That is, if he even hears her ask the question. And he probably wouldn't know the difference anyway, if he's a typical male.) 

OK. I WILL BE MAKING SEXIST, AGEIST, NON-PC comments and observations, and if you are offended, refer to my earlier post. I'm old. I grew up in a different time, I have managed to be politically correct most of the time up until now. I am not a mean person. Get over it.