What can I do about my aging mid-40s face?

[ThatNimblePeer]

Just been on a long Zoom call with a friend, which was lovely, but I do find it a bit hard to confront the reality of my mid-40s face on screen. Mainly neck lines, under-eye circles which I hate, and some forehead lines. I use moisturiser, I have some under-eye concealer, but there are limits to the difference it makes. I don’t really want to do Botox. I could try tretinoin but I’m nervous about upping my risk of skin cancer. Do I basically just have to accept that this is it now? I feel as if there ought to be some kind of expert I could go see, maybe a dermatologist or similar, who could give me advice on at least how to make the most of what I’ve got, the best products to use, whether stuff like gua sha really makes any difference. Someone I could actually trust to be objective, rather than trying to sell me something. Am I kidding myself? What do people do?

You can try my Skin + Me link for personalised tretinoin

Collagen, as an injested supplement or topical cream/serum is completely pointless. Applying it to your skin won’t replace or add to the collagen in your skin, and ingesting it won’t either as it’s broken down into amino acids by your digestive system and then used to build what ever proteins your body is in need of. The only reason collagen creams/serums might improve the appearance of wrinkles is it might ‘tighten’ as it dries, like the old egg white trick, but if that’s the case the effect is very temporary and will literally wash off.

Which is kinda what I suspected.

So the reality is then, be rid of wrinkles it’s Botox etc

Yep, or just relax and don’t see them as a flaw….

Can I ask a question about tretinoin please. I started using the cream ( lowest strength ) and recently moved to 0.1%. My skin has become very dry and peeling. I stopped using tretinoin and only moisturised with the generic cream. So now all of the ‘dead’ skin gone, do I go back to using 0.1%? My skin looks and feels smooth but I’m not sure where do I go from here

How often were you using it? Start just twice a week for two weeks, moisturising after applying, then add an extra evening for a couple of weeks, always using moisturiser after, and go from there.

Thank you, I can see where I went wrong. I used it every single day! I’m going to start again but slowly

Teams blur function.
Or you can pay someone a fortune to recommend things that might make no difference, might cause harm, or might make you look frozen/permanently surprised.

Cerave eye cream
hydrates under my eyes do makes the dark circles less in your face if you know what I mean, Nars eye concealer over this makes me look more alive. It is hard op, I look better with primer and make up (rimmel perfect match) but at times I think ‘oof!’