30 Days to 10 years younger--10 minute tips. Tip 28: Move on

I've been doing the internet beauty thing for a long time, and one thing remains constant; people always find a way to whine about their favorite products being discontinued.

Sometimes a company pulls a line before giving it enough time to find its market segment. Firefly and Dollhouse fans have nothing on the women I know who keened, wailed, and gnashed their teeth when Oil of Olay decided to pull their line of drugstore makeup.

I'm going to sound like Pollyanna here, but honestly, things change incredibly quickly in the realm of cosmetics and skincare. If you take the time to remain informed about what's out there, you'll realize that formulations change. And it's not just due to business reasons. And a lot of the time, a new and improved formula actually is an improvement.

I urge you not to stockpile huge amounts of a favorite product. One of my invisible internet friends did just that with Oil of Olay's discontinued powder foundation. She was convinced that it was the perfect color match and the perfect consistency for her skin. But long before she had depleted her stockpile, fashion and her skin had moved on. What had once seemed perfect now appeared too heavy and matte.

That's because the finish and consistency of makeup changes as fashions change. The foundation that worked perfectly for you in 2003 might be way too matte and too opaque now that sheerer, light-diffusing formulas are in style.

If you're reaching the end of a product that you like, don't automatically repurchase the same thing. Do a little research to see what's new.

For example, there's an exciting-sounding partnership between CoverGirl and Olay that combines the color expertise of CoverGirl with the anti-aging formulas of Oil of Olay.

And I just discovered the world's most amazing foundation (for real, and don't let the other nine tubes and bottles in my bathroom tell you any different) by buying a ridiculous iPod train case from Stila. Stila's One Step foundation is primer, foundation, powder, true love, and fresh-baked cookies in one easy to use pump bottle. A tiny pea-sized bit of this miracle product erases my circles and broken capillaries and leaves me poreless and glowing.

And I'd never know about it if I'd been on auto-pilot and repurchased my third tube of Estee Lauder tinted moisturizer. So do your skin a favor and branch out. If you're wearing a foundation that's been out for 10 years or more, you really owe it to yourself to try something new. You won't believe the difference in the new stuff.

Elsewhere:

To see The Beauty Alchemist's review of Stila One Step foundation, click here.

To see About.com's Top Five Foundations for Women Over 40 click here

For more suggested foundations for mature skin on About.com, click here

If you haven't joined MakeupAlley, I urge you to do so.

30 Days to 10 years younger--10 minute tips. Tip 17: Be a brownie

You might be wondering why on earth Pamela Anderson is doing in a blog post aimed at beauty and style for women of a certain age. Well, duh, I'm using her as an example of what not to do. And I'm not going after her super-thin eyebrows and super-obvious implants. I'm going after her eyelashes.

Mascara has become like a Model T Ford--you can have any color you want, as long as it's black. Which is OK, as long as you think everyone looks best in black mascara. Unfortunately, I don't.

Black mascara is lovely at night, but for broad daylight, I find it a bit stark and artificial looking. If you're blonde, redhead, or like me, an aging brunette, you'll probably look better in a softer shade of brown/black or brown. In fact, if you're a redhead, you'll probably look best in auburn--if you can find it anywhere.

Unfortunately, most drugstore mascaras only come in black, super-plus-blackest-black, and black/brown. I checked L'Oreal, CoverGirl, Maybelline, and Revlon, and the story was almost always the same.

There are drugstore brands that offer brown mascara, but you have to dig pretty deep. Almay has at least one mascara available in brown.

For years, Max Factor was the only line with a mascara for redheads; unfortunately they're leaving the States. The mascara is still available at Drugstore.com, though. And Revlon's DoubleTwist line includes a shade called Blackened Ruby that looks auburn.

Fortunately, the latest fad in drugstore mascaras appears to be ones that emphasize the color of your eyes. Physician's Formula sells a brown mascara, and in addition, their intensive i-color mascara and intense i-color mascara with light interplay both claim to intensify eye-color. They're available in four shades. CoverGirl sells a similar line.

Department store lines offer a wider variety of mascara shades: Estee Lauder has several formulas that come in brown and and even navy blue; MAC has some browns, and so does Lancôme. (Lancôme also sells specialty mascaras, like gold and silver. But that's not the point of this post.)

Boutique brands like Jane Iredale, BeneFit, and Sephora offer mascaras in a variety of interesting shades. In fact, if you go to the Sephora website and do a search for "brown mascara," you'll discover that there are plenty of options.

The trick is to not go crazy. Colored mascara can be fun, but it's not something to wear if you want to be taken seriously. For proof, remember Princess Diana and her blue eyeliner and matching eyelashes. I'll confess to having developed a certain degree of fascination with colored mascaras, and I'm trying like crazy not to succumb to Yves St. Laurent Fascinating Violet or the Benefit BadGAL in Plum.

I remember the 80s and I don't think the world has yet recovered from my experiments with Princess Di-style cobalt blue.

Or my Two-Faced glitter lashes in the 90s when seriously? I was old enough to know better.

But while I busy myself locking up my credit cards and backing away from the Sephora website, I urge you to think about whether the black mascara you've been wearing for years and years is actually doing you any favors. Or could you, like the women pictured here, benefit from a softer look around the eyes?

Elsewhere:

The Beauty Blog has a great post on mascaras for redheads here.

Did you know that there is a beauty blog devoted to mascara? There is. It's called Clumps of Mascara. Currently on hiatus, but still packed with useful reviews. Click here.