Beauty through the decades

Fight the signs of ageing and make sure your skin looks its very best – whether you’re in your 20s or your 50s

As with fashion, so with beauty. In other words: the must-haves – and the must-nots – change with the decades. (Hot pants at 60? Heaven forbid!) So the skincare regime that worked for you at 25 won’t be right at 35 – let alone 45. The truth is that subtle shifts in how we approach our beauty ritual as we move from one decade to another are essential. (Give or take a year or two – and depending on how well you’ve avoided the sun, principally!) More than ever, skincare (and make-up) offer tremendous benefits, to boost radiance, fight wrinkles, or just up the glamour quota. But it can be baffling to decipher what’s best to use when – so here’s a decade-by-decade guide, to help you look great for your age – whatever it may be…

Teens

Should my 16-year-old daughter be using an anti-wrinkle cream?
According to consultant dermatologist Dr Rosemary Coleman, ‘Yes: the best and cheapest anti-wrinkle cream of all – sunblock. You are literally never too young to protect skin from photo-ageing.’ Bobbi Brown, the leading make-up pro, echoes that wisdom: ‘It’s never too early to begin thinking about your skin. Like brushing your teeth, your skincare routine should become automatic.’  But creams for mature skin (what we traditionally think of as ‘anti-ageing creams’) should be avoided, in favour of lightweight moisturisers featuring an SPF – and, if skin is prone to breakouts, use products with ingredients like tea tree or lavender oil. Sun protection now will leave you smiling later. (With infinitely fewer ‘laugh lines’…)

20s

What’s the best age to introduce a cleanse/tone/moisturise regime?
As we’ve just heard, good habits should begin during the teen years. In theory, 20-something skin has everything going for it: adequate production of sebum to hydrate and protect; cell turnover that’s still at optimum levels;  skin that’s largely wrinkle-free. But the legacy of over-active sebaceous glands (which characterise the teens) can be blocked and enlarged pores. So beauty insiders emphasise the importance of cleansing as the foundation for your beauty regime: try double-cleansing at night and once in the morning, to rid skin of debris. (Even more important if you live in a smog-prone city.) As for creams, look for those with light-reflecting particles, as well as seaweed (right) and caffeine, which can awaken even the most partied-out skin! But avoid harsh toners:  over-stripping skin can send sebaceous glands whirring into overdrive, and actually make skin greasier, sooner.  (And instead of caking on powder to blot shine, slip a mattifying product in your make-up kit.)

Is this the right stage to introduce a scrub?
A twice-a-week exfoliation – with a gentle product – will help keep those pores unclogged, and brighten skin. In fact at this age, you can get away with three times a week (provided you don’t have active acne), then slow the frequency down with the decades. (In your 30s, twice a week is definitely enough – and as skin thins, from 40 onwards, a once-a-week buff is enough to keep skin vibrant.) Removing the dead surface cells ensures that treatments can penetrate properly, too – otherwise you’re basically ‘putting polish on a dirty floor’, as celebrated dermatologist Dr Patricia Wexler has observed.

Do I need daily sun protection?
Absolutely. If you haven’t got into the habit yet of wearing an SPF15 moisturiser every day, from April to November at the very least (with a higher factor during the hottest summer months), Do It Now. Not yet convinced? One skin survey carried out by a big
French skincare name discovered that 78 per cent of French women between the ages of 20 and 35 have visible signs of ageing. You’ll need a separate, probably lightweight cream for night, though, because you don’t need to overload your skin with SPFs at night. (And as yet, nobody has established a need for Moon Protection Factor. Though it’s probably only a matter of time, knowing the beauty industry…!)

30s

I don’t see wrinkles yet. Should I be bothering with an anti-ageing cream?
‘As you get to 30, your collagen and elastin start to be depleted,’ warns top facialist Amanda Lacey. ‘So you have to address this: it’s still more about prevention than anti-ageing.’ (Think of it as storing up skin savings.) A lot depends on your lifestyle, but skin can start to thin and dry out now. Many anti-ageing creams may feel too rich; consider a serum, instead (these tend to be packed with age-defying ingredients), and then layer on additional moisture as needed. And keep up that SPF, above all…

Someone told me I should start using a neck cream now. Yikes – are they right?
Fact: the skin on the neck poses one of the biggest skincare challenges of all. Women often forget about the neck area when they moisturise and the reality is that the neck is one of the first places to show your true age. You wouldn’t go far wrong if you got in the habit of using a cream on your neck from your 20s onwards – applying in a firm, downward motion from the jaw, to exercise the neck muscle, and applying all the way to the bra-line. But from the 30s onwards, a specific neck cream can be a big help, as these tend to feature specific ingredients that help fight the breakdown of collagen and elastin – which kicks in around now, leading to neck ‘sag’ over time.

I’m lazy about hand care. What should I be doing?
Fact: you are never too young to start using hand cream, to keep hands smooth and velvety and protect against drying from hand-washing – even from contact with paper, which ‘wicks’ moisture from the skin when you touch it. Better still – and definitely by your mid-30s – seek out hand creams which (like your daily moisturiser) should include an SPF15, at least. Defence against age spots, lines and wrinkles is infinitely easier than cure.

I’ve started to notice fine lines around the eyes. H-e-l-p!
By now, expression lines – particularly around the eyes, where skin is thinner – tend to become visible, because skin elasticity is diminishing. Stress and fatigue can show up, too, as dark circles. Add an anti-ageing eye product into your regime which offers a double-whammy: ingredients like caffeine to step up circulation (and help banish shadows), together with others that target those emerging fine lines. From now on, eye care needs to become part of your beauty ritual.

40s

Can I still wear shimmery eyeshadows?
Yes and no. You want to steer clear of anything which is disco-glittery, but a little shimmer can be flattering on the lid and the brow-bone (but not in the socket where it will accentuate lines). There’s a little test you can do to see if a glimmery shadow will work, after un certain age: apply to your hand. When you angle your hand one way, you should observe a more matte colour;  when you angle your hand differently, it’ll shimmer. If it looks shiny and glimmery whichever way you hold your hand, it’s too sparkly. Leave it to the next generation…

Should I start to use a separate night cream?
If you’re not already doing so, start now. It’s a fact: skin tends to become drier, as we age, and night-time is the best time to introduce richer, more deeply moisturising ingredients or even facial oils – which aren’t practical for day use (they’re not great under make-up). The 40s throw up a whole host of new skin concerns:  changes in hormones and the first signs of the menopause, which has an effect on oestrogen levels and the very structure of the skin. A loss of firmness – especially in the lower face – can betray signs of age, so you may want to check out creams which boast a specific ‘firming’ action. (Though nothing works as well as yoga, for keeping a chin and neck firm) But anyone who avoided the sun in and before their 20s and 30s can now cash in on their conscientiousness – showing up far less damage than those who soaked up the rays…

I’ve noticed feathering around the lip zone.What can I do…?
Lines around the lips are rooted both in genetics – nothing you can do about that – and lifestyle. For instance, smoking not only dehydrates the skin around the mouth but also exposes the lip area to high concentrations of free radicals (unstable molecules which damage the skin). Quitting smoking is the No 1 favour you can do your lips (and your entire complexion) at any age, but you’d be wise to add a specific anti-ageing lip product into your skincare regime from 40 onwards, to keep the area soft, supple and plumped up. You could also look for one of the special ‘anti-feathering’ lip pencils on the market, which create an invisible barrier around lips that prevents lipstick ‘travelling’ into lines.

50+

Help – do I need a serum?
Serums tend to be concentrated – which means they can pack a real anti-ageing punch: antioxidants, peptides, marine extracts. On 50-something skin, though, they’re rarely likely to do enough of a moisturising job on their own: ‘layering’ is the key – applying first a serum, allowing it a minute or two to sink in, then nourishing skin with a richer cream.

Should I still be using toner?
If you’re cleansing properly, a toner may be excessive to requirements at any age, but in your 50s you want to be absolutely sure that any freshener you’re using does not have alcohol in the formulation, as this will exacerbate dryness. Look for the words ‘gentle’ on the bottle – or use good old rosewater. You should be avoiding exfoliating cleansers (once a week buffing is enough), water-based cream and gel cleansers (too drying) and ‘re-texturising’ facials like peels (skin is already too delicate for these).  Skincare needn’t become more complicated; our complexion’s needs simply change through the decades.

What can be done about age spots?
This is when age spots – aka sun spots (because sun exposure is generally the trigger) – tend to appear, and can cause great misery. (More so than wrinkles, actually, one piece of recent research has established.) Ingredients like kojic acid (gentler than it sounds) and licorice have some age-spot-fading action, but at the same time your best bet is to step up your SPF: shielding against ongoing damage (wearing a big hat in summer and massive sunglasses, if you’ve got pigmentation in the eye zone) will almost certainly do as much to fade age spots and dark spots as any product.

Can I still wear red lipstick?
The watchword for lipstick shopping from 50 onwards should be ‘sheer’: there are some beautiful reds out there, but in more translucent textures, which have all of the glamour of a scarlet lipstick, but look subtler and more flattering. One thing is certain: with the technological advances in make-up, and eating an omega-3 rich diet, there is never any reason to give up on glamour – whether you’re 50-something, 60-something or more. And if you need proof? Just think of Susan Sarandon, Jane Fonda, Meryl Streep. All over 60 – and yet in the prime of their lives. Not least, because they’ve taken good care of their skin. (Enough said…!)