Celebrity-Inspired Makeup Looks for Women Over 50

makeup - pamela anderson, iman — (Image credit: Getty Images)

Some of the most talked-about and coveted beauty looks on recent red carpets have been worn proudly by women over 50. The celebrities on this list, many of whom have spent decades in the business, have learned over time what works for them and aren't afraid to highlight their strongest features. The key? Not overdoing it, and knowing exactly what you want to accentuate. Below, the ultimate hair and makeup inspiration for women over 50.

Lily Tomlin

Lily Tomlin has always had a beautifully long, slender, ovular face. With a gentle application of blush on her whole cheek and a touch of color on her lips (with a glossy finish to look soft and shiny), she looks wholly like herself without very much makeup.

Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep has mastered the art of refinement as she's aged, dipping into minimalist but striking silhouettes (including those cool glasses frames). With a gentle smudged cat-eye and no liner on the bottom of her eye, the effect is to make her eyes wider and more luminous.

Kathy Bates

Kathy Bates continues to look stunning, in part because she embraces her gray hair in a stylish way. By keeping things light—a pretty nude lip and blush—with plenty of upper eyeliner and mascara to highlight her eyes, the colors on her face complement the silver in her hair.

Helena Bonham Carter

Helena Bonham Carter has always had an impressively unique style, which has only gotten cooler and more refined with age. You can still experiment with vivid colors over 50, like this soft berry lipstick, silvery eyeshadow to highlight her inner corners and mobile lid, and a touch of blush.

Halle Berry

Halle Berry has looked incredible for decades at this point, and the model-actor has an extremely enviable natural look. But, genetics aside, this is also a good case for soft and natural makeup, with complementary nude lipstick and blush with a strong black eyeliner on the top lid to define her eyes.

Patricia Arquette

Patricia Arquette is giving us a warm, gorgeous glow—bronzer isn't off-limits when you're 50+, it's just about doing a gentle application to make your skin look healthy. Having a flush, like this, on forehead, cheeks, and chin, helps the skin look lit from within.

Helen Mirren

Helen Mirren is a masterclass of aging gracefully (in part due to her sense of humor and general irreverence about the whole thing). A pretty red with yellow undertones is a nice match for lighter skin, carefully applied so that it doesn't bleed onto the skin around the mouth.

Allison Janney

Allison Janney, icon, always looks so polished because her beauty look has been strikingly consistent. She favors a bold eye, with liner on top and bottom with plenty of mascara, and either goes for a vivid color on cheeks or lips (in this case, it's lips with a pretty matte pink).

Lucy Liu

Lucy Liu has a sophisticated but still playful beauty style, often gracing us with a pink or red lip to dial up the vibrancy without ever looking over the top. With her lashes and upper eyelid a deep, dark black, your eyes are drawn to her eyes and mouth.

Vanessa Williams

The former Miss America is now in her 60s and still serving up incredible beauty looks. The eyeliner on the upper lid here is much thicker than others on this list, but the softer gray-black color (with some thick, short lashes) allow the eyes to "pop."

Jane Fonda

Jane Fonda has never shied away from a glamorous look, and a bright red color (with yellow undertones) is the perfect complement to her skin. Add deep eyeshadow and thick eyelashes—plus gorgeous gray hair—and the whole look is maximalist in an amazing way.

Regina King

Regina King is just so inherently cool that she can pull off any manner of looks. When you're going for a stronger eye with darker colors, it helps to have clearly defined brows like this. Light peach is an amazing alternative to nude on lips and cheeks.

Laura Linney

Truly, peach is a lovely choice if plain pink isn't doing it for you anymore. Here the focal point on Laura Linnery is the lips, with a softer hue echoed in the cheeks and forehead, and a pretty taupe eyeshadow on the lid. Linney loves a minimal look, and this is pretty perfect.

Sandra Oh

A deeper red lipstick is gorgeous, depending on skin tone and lip shape. Sandra Oh uses a soft color with a bit of shine, and her lips are carefully lined (including a clearly defined cupid's bow at the top of her mouth), creating a beautiful but very emulatable shape.

Laura Dern

When you have longer hair, like Laura Dern, you'll want a makeup look that complements your haircut but also highlights your face. With lots of blush and a matching lip color, Dern uses a strong liner on top and bottom lid to also highlight her eyes.

Viola Davis

Viola Davis proves that a dark, dramatic, glittery eyeshadow is great at any age. She's wisely keeping the focus all on her eyes, with a softer blush and glossy nude lip. And her brows are shaped and lined to perfection—a must with this kind of look.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Julia Louis-Dreyfus has darker hair and lighter skin, which she often plays up to her advantage. Her lipstick is soft but bright, and her blush has a touch of red to it to match the color perfectly. Her brows have a gentle, sloping shape, which helps the look from feeling too graphic.

Jennifer Coolidge

Jennifer Coolidge, bombshell for the ages, doesn't give up her signature style even as she gets older. The bouffant hair is a major moment, obviously, but those dramatic smokey eyes and thick, overlined pink lips feel dramatic without ever looking silly.

Jennifer Lopez

Honestly, we're not even sure how J Lo does it—going into her 50s and beyond while looking just as luminous. This particular look probably relies on some bronzer and highlighter to bring out the depth and dimension in her face, and echoing the shine in her eyeliner and glossy lips.

Glenn Close

May we all have hair as cool as Glenn Close's as we age (this is at the 2024 Governors Awards and it's one of the coolest looks Close has ever given us). She uses eyeliner on top and bottom lid but draws the eye outward by putting more eyeshadow towards the outer corner.

Michelle Yeoh

This look draws from some modern trends: carefully shaped, stenciled brows, a bright color on the lips, and a swath of blush from the apples of her cheek to the hairline. And, as such, Michelle Yeoh looks extremely youthful without seeming too "young," if you know what I mean.

Tracee Ellis Ross

Tracee Ellis Ross has big, bold style, both in terms of her clothing and in her hair and makeup. (If you like a bold look, she's one to follow.) This gorgeous plum-colored eyeshadow is smudged but still precisely applied, allowing for a bit of drama without looking messy.

Cate Blanchett

Cate Blanchett has kept things pretty consistent over the course of her illustrious career, routinely showing up on the red carpet in a great dress and neutral makeup. That kind of regularity keeps her recognizably herself and always incredibly chic.

Aunjanue Ellis

It is wild how much Aunjanue Ellis still looks like the younger version of herself. A brighter hair color deserves a deeper lip and a more substantial version of eye makeup, but the whole thing still looks holistic and even subtle, thanks to Ellis' gorgeous and healthy glow.

Naomi Watts

Naomi Watts rarely, if ever, looks too "done": her makeup is usually made up of softer lines that enhance her features. Case in point: this pretty pink lipstick that isn't heavily lined at the edges and some smudgy eyeshadow that doesn't have a single sharp edge.

Demi Moore

Demi Moore's makeup is as cool now as it was in the '90s when she was still an up-and-coming star. Actually, now she's refined her look and keeps things pretty neutral on her face (with full coverage on her full, angular cheeks) and a bold, beautiful eye.

Angela Bassett

Angela Bassett can really favor a bold color on the red carpet, but when she keeps things classic, she looks just as awesome. This is a full application of blush to highlight her cheekbones, and the deep black mascara and eyeliner complement her curls.

Michelle Pfeiffer

Michelle Pfeiffer looks stunning here, and she's even diving into some "modern" makeup trends with some lip gloss. What's amazing is she was around the first time lip gloss was popular (in the '90s) so that consistency is a nice way to return to the classic styling that's always worked for her.

Iman

Iman is always stunning, but particularly when she dials up the capital-D Drama. That pretty teal color on her lids is perfectly complementary to those emerald drop earrings, and should inspire anyone over 50 to try a bold color for a night-out look.

Salma Hayek

What I have always loved about Salma Hayek is her acceptance of aging: see also the fact that she's allowed her gray hairs to grow out and act as "highlights" in her dark hair. As such, her matte makeup complements that softer hair color and feels very coherent.

Gabrielle Union

Gabrielle Union looks utterly stunning, both in general and also when you consider that she's essentially looked the same for more than three decades. She uses a deeper color on eyes and lips, brightening things up just a touch on her cheeks, and giving us a nearly monochromatic look.

Pamela Anderson

In Pamela Anderson's 2020s resurgence, she has walked the red carpet wearing minimal and even no makeup to challenge conventional beauty standards. This is such a soft and subtle look, with a little pink on the eyes and lips and keeping everything else minimal. Gorgeous!

Katherine’s a contributing syndications editor at Marie Claire who covers fashion, culture, and lifestyle. In her role, she writes stories that are syndicated by MSN and other outlets. She’s been a full-time freelancer for over a decade and has had roles with Cosmopolitan (where she covered lifestyle, culture, and fashion SEO content) and Bustle (where she was their movies and culture writer). She has bylines in New York Times, Parents, InStyle, Refinery29, and elsewhere. Her work has also been syndicated by ELLE, Harper’s Bazaar, Seventeen, Good Housekeeping, and Women’s Health, among others. In addition to her stories reaching millions of readers, content she's written and edited has qualified for a Bell Ringer Award and received a Communicator Award.

Katherine has a BA in English and art history from the University of Notre Dame and an MA in art business from the Sotheby's Institute of Art (with a focus on marketing/communications). She covers a wide breadth of topics: she's written about how to find the very best petite jeans, how sustainable travel has found its footing on Instagram, and what it's like to be a professional advice-giver in the modern world. Her personal essays have run the gamut from learning to dress as a queer woman to navigating food allergies as a mom. She also has deep knowledge of SEO/EATT, affiliate revenue, commerce, and social media; she regularly edits the work of other writers. She speaks at writing-related events and podcasts about freelancing and journalism, mentors students and other new writers, and consults on coursework. Currently, Katherine lives in Boston with her husband and two kids, and you can follow her on Instagram. If you're wondering about her last name, it’s “I go to dinner,” not “Her huge ego,” but she responds to both.