Giving Older Women Makeup and Connections

Liz Catullo founded Lipstick Connection while she healed from the grief of losing her own grandmother. Now, she organizes events that provide opportunities for elderly women to embrace their beauty and connect with the younger women in their community.

Video Transcript

Liz Catullo: Most ladies, when they have a hot date or they want to go out on the town, they put on their red lips and they feel like a different woman. They feel energetic, they feel excited.

Lipstick Connection

Lipstick Connection volunteers host free pop-up events with elderly women. Volunteers offer free manicures and makeovers at social events and build connections across generations in the process.

Liz: At the social events, we try to bring together people from different generations to meet each other and connect. We use lipstick as a tool to start the conversation.

Liz to participants: So, you’re gonna put your hands in and then just get to know each other. Do you speak English?

Participant: A little.

Liz to participants: ‘Only a little,’ okay. So that will be fun.

Liz: I’m running the organization by myself. I have lovely volunteers. There’s a lot of caring people in the community and they just need someone to give them an easy way to give back to others.

Liz was inspired by her grandmother to start Lipstick Connection.

Liz: The biggest inspiration for Lipstick Connection is definitely my Gram. I think we were so close, because she loved me unconditionally, she played a very large role in raising me. So, I lost my grandmother last June; it was deeply painful and as I was healing, I thought about the Lipstick Connection, and I wondered if I could continue doing it.

I think the thing that keeps me motivated to put on these events is the feeling that is present during the events. It feels good to feel connected to other humans. We leave behind our memories and our legacy and I want my legacy to be a positive one.