it definitley takes some getting used to...
and i agree that telling someone she looks younger is an odd compliment...i hear it all the time...and i never know how i'm supposed to respond...looking younger wasn't so great early on when i was trying to get people to pay attention to me from a professional point of view, you know...?
anyway...there is one look that i think is hard to pull off when you are older...and that is the whole gothic lolita thing...you can do gothic or lolita...but not both...
you look great! ...that IS a great compliment...