Remember when we used to add iodine to cooking oil and use that as a “tanning” lotion? Eeek! One of my friends in high school, a natural snow blonde, used to drench herself in Wesson oil and then lay out in the Southern California summer sun. She claimed she could actually feel it bubbling in the heat. Her skin was dark, dark brown against her spectacular blonde hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes. Heaven help her: she must look even worse than I do by now!

One thing I haven’t seen lately in the drugstores is pancake makeup. Do they still manufacture it? It came in a compact, and you applied it with a moist sponge. Nothing, but nothing covered better. I think some of these mineral makeups work similarly: they create quite a geisha-like finish on your face, if you use enough.

I also discovered that you can apply ordinary Maybelline face powder using the same technique that you’re supposed to use with mineral makeup. The effect is very similar, and plain un-hyped face powder is much less pricey.

I am in my late 50′s and have tons of sun damage from overexposure. (What was I thinking? Red hair, blue eyes. I was never going to tan.) (Aside: Back then sunscreen didn’t even exist. These days no one has any excuses.) Anyway, I have found that plain old fashioned cover stick works well; I use it over my liquid foundation, powder over the top, and Voila! not too bad! Not the type with a dauber, the kind like lipstick.

Also, for a quick makeup application, try a powder (not cream) compact foundation. Cover Girl is good. I toss the enclosed sponge and use a powder puff. Pretty good coverage, buildable, and can be used as powder over foundation on Really Bad Skin days.

Yes, you are a very brave lady. And funny, too. My kind of gal.

Interestingly, once you’ve applied the stuff in those two steps, you can lightly “buff” it with the soft brush without rubbing it off, and that seems to create a more translucent-looking finish that still is opaque enough to blend discoloration and cover the worst of one’s various spots, stripes, and speckles. What happens, I think, is that you end up with a fairly heavy coat of paint, but because it’s neither wet nor oily, the EFFECT is translucent and light.

If you believe the photos (always a question, no?), the effect in the center and left photos on the bottom row, which show the mineral powders, seems a little more polished. It seems to cover the spots and smooth blotchiness as well as the L’Oreal but without accentuating the wrinkles. Nothing’s going to make the wrinkles go away, but there’s no need to draw little arrows pointing to the damn things!

If the L’Oreal foundation looks better later in theday, than that’s gotta be the winner ultimately although it does the creasing drawback. Hmmm.