Age brilliantly

Seven successful Australian women aged from their 30s to their 60s share their style and beauty secrets, and reveal what makes a woman fabulous.

What makes a woman fabulous? If you knew the answer and could bottle it, you’d make a mint. Some women seem to have an intrinsic supply of it and yet, if you studied them, you’d be hard-pressed to put your finger on the secret ingredient. Fabulous is a quality that transcends physical beauty or extravagant clothes. In fact, having the world’s couturiers and cosmetic surgeons at your feet is no guarantee of fabulousness, as photo after photo from the Hollywood red carpet will attest.

Fabulousness comes from within, from an inner spark, an intelligence, a hunger to be in the world, not merely observing it. Fabulousness is character. Which is not to say that fabulous women don’t know how to enhance themselves. “There are no ugly women, only lazy ones,” said Helena Rubinstein – we might add “and time-starved ones”. For many women, that inner fabulousness is buried under the heavy commitment of modern family life, where time to spend on ourselves is as rare as a perfectly behaved teenager.

Yet help is at hand. We asked seven of Australia’s most fabulous women, aged from their 30s to their 60s, what they believe makes a woman fabulous and how they organise their wardrobes and their daily regimens to work for them, not the other way around. Each has developed a strong sense of personal style, which they carry through every aspect of their lives.

The buzz word we hear from all of them is simplicity. Simplicity in having a regular health and beauty routine that’s not necessarily about luxury products and treatments. Simplicity in a pared-down wardrobe of a few key items that are comfortable and flattering. And lastly but most importantly, the simple confidence to carry it off. Is fabulousness all about confidence? Absolutely!