There is a belief that has been passed around as fact for years: after a certain age, matte powders are not for you. They emphasise your wrinkles, they age you, end of story.

Makeup artist Javier Rodríguez, a national artist for MAC Cosmetics, says the problem is not the product but where you put it. And his recommendation lasts about one sentence: matte powders go only on the middle of the face.

Why the middle specifically

Mature skin usually tends toward dryness. When matte powder settles on it, every movement of the face makes the product migrate toward the expression lines and emphasise them more than they were. That is the mechanics of it - makeup does not sit still, it travels all day.

"Makeup evolves over the course of the day," Rodríguez says. Applying it only to the middle of the face keeps the day from ending with product gathered around the eyes and the mouth. Forehead, chin and the sides of the nose - there it makes sense. The rest, no.

Rodríguez adds another detail rarely mentioned in the ads: expression lines can also be emphasised by too much hydration, not just by dryness. So "slather on more cream" is not the universal answer either.

The sentence the industry does not like

Makeup artist Paula Aroca agrees with him and puts it even more bluntly: "Beautiful makeup is skin that breathes."

Her recommendations are a list of things to take away, not to add. Swap overly thick creams for light serums. Choose liquid bases. Powder only on strategic zones. "I prefer to let the contours and the natural warmth of the face stand out, instead of darkening everything with a layer of product," she says.

Notice what is missing from that list - not a single new product. This is advice that generates revenue for nobody, which explains why there is no campaign behind it.

Bronzer has a rule too

In summer, sun-effect powders get used alongside the mattifying ones, and they too can add years if they are not applied properly. Rodríguez recommends evening out the tone naturally first - better a concealer only where it is needed than a full-coverage base across the entire face.

Then you work the cheekbone: "We start contouring from the lower part of the cheekbone and move upward to create that sun-scorched effect." His personal move is to connect the outer corner of the eye with the hollow of the temple, to get that lifted, upward effect.

The whole point, boiled down, is that no product is banned after a certain number on a birthday card. The only thing banned is the habit of applying it everywhere because that is what the box says.