RashOfBees I agree, there seems to be this line of thought that with all of these creams, treatments, minor tweaks to full on surgery that there is absolutely no excuse for looking your age. To do so must mean that you are lazy and not trying hard enough, or poor and not trying hard enough. There is this snarky moral judgement.
Like you I have seen women my own age who look, well this age. I am 50, look 50, and they look it too. But some of had the tweaks and have the botox but somehow despite not having creases when they smile, or furrows because they can not move their eyebrows they still look their age. Similarly I have a friend who I met up with some years after we had finished school. We were both in our twenties and she had very deep lines around her eyes, but she looked like a young person who had deep lines around her eyes not an older person. I think there are far too many subtle, and well as not so subtle signs of aging and when we "survey" someone's face we are taking in more than just the obvious lines and wrinkles. There is also a lot of bias in how we see others. OP has been told she has sun damage. I can't see the sun damage, I can only see pretty freckles because I like freckles.