How do you keep looking young ?

[doriangraybutimthepaintingintheattic]

I have seen my mum for Christmas and although she is on the tip of 60, she looks 100. Her personality is golden, the kindest woman you would ever meet. Her face wears the years of love, happiness and wisdom like jewellery. She is beauty and kindness personified. However, The only liquid to pass her lips is tea or wine. I don't think skin care or moisturisers are in her vocabulary and she's blind but refuses to wear glasses so her face is permanently scrunched up in a squint (when it isn't her skin seems to think it still is) I hope that doesn't sound too harsh.

I'm am noticing the same thing happen to my face, the problem areas appear to be the same. Under my eyes is flat and crinkled. Despite a reasonable water intake, day moisturiser and smotherings at night, if you were to lift that skin it would just stay there. My forehead is ravaged with thick lines where I spend my day in disdain and the usual crows feet.

So my question, what the hell can I do to keep me looking young? I'm 38 and I need to reduce the speed at which this is coming at me!

I'm thinking
Water
Eat healthy
No 7 creams
Face rollers
Botox?

1. tretinoin (I use skin + me)
2. silk pillowcase
3. I scrunch my face up in the night, making me have strong morning wrinkles. So I use these wrinkle face stickers at night which work well!

Tretinoin
No alcohol
SPF50
skincare regime
dermarolling
Facial exercises
Lots of oily fish
Sleep
Not too much sugar/refined carbs

I don’t have botox because I like my facial expressions.

They are completely different from fat dissolvers. I'm not convinced of the safety and efficacy of fat dissolvers.

Skinboosters are completely different.

There are different kinds of injected Skinboosters
There are hyaluronic acid based Skinboosters like profhilo which gives intense moisturisation from the inside. These are the commonest.

Or calcium hydroxapetite like radiesse promote collagen and elastin production

There are also PLLA Skinboosters like sculptra which also have a lifting effect

Also there are things like sunekos which is especially good for dark undereyes.

Hybrids like harmonyca which combine calcium hydroxapetite and hyaluronic acid to give a mild lifting and Skinbooster effect

Bear in mind these are all for skin and won't affect underlying volume loss. For that you need filler.

For forehead lines and Crows feet which are caused by muscle movement you need antiwrinkle injections with botox.

Ideally you should see someone qualified to assess your face and provide a treatment plan.

Hope this helps x

You can't keep looking young. Even people who throw the kitchen sink at not looking old, don't look young. They look different. Your post is very sad. Life is about more than looks. Your mum sounds great. You sound one dimensional and shallow. You will look old soon. Just deal with it.

No tretinoin is a prescription only medication

It is a derivative of vitamin a and improves skin quality by increasing turnover.

There is some evidence for led masks in combination with other treatments

I went grey early but nature compensated by giving me good skin. I’m 52 and have some lines but they are minor. Pretty much down to genes, I think: all my family look younger. Even my granny who was a lifelong smoker and drank whisky every day has really good skin.

Apart from that I drink lots of water and use a high SPF daily. Very light face makeup - I use a BB cream instead of foundation. No fillers or Botox or other treatments - can’t afford it and don’t fancy them anyway.

I'll be 60 next year, I'm told I don't look it which is very nice of those who say it.

I credit three things: genetics, keeping out of the sun and drinking loads of water. I've never been one for moisturiser or treatments.

My mum swears by:

Good posture whilst sitting and standing
Good bra (rigby and peller level support if required)
Low stress, water and a varied diet

(hair skin and nails tablets do help even though you do… excrete… 90% of the stuff.)

Genetics
Pilates
A little bit of botox
Eating well

Being born with lucky genetics. All my family look young its luck of the draw. I'm pretty health conscious compared to my sister so I look considerably younger than her but she looks younger than her friends of the same age.

I avoid the hottest part of the day if its sunny and always wear sunglasses when the sun appears to avoid the squint.

Drink water. Exercise helps the blood flow. Lots of sleep to help repair skin. Low stress.

My morning routine: Lightly exfoliate with good quality soap and facial exfoliating sponge then serum, day cream and eye cream.

My night routine: cleansing wash with hot flannel, eye makeup remover, toner, serum, night cream and eye cream.

I do a spa night every month or so with face masks, microneedling, vit A serums and jasmine rollers.

I'm 43 and the daily (v light) exfoliating has helped with some of the deep lines although this year I had my first botox and that took another 5yrs off.

But the biggest facial line remover is being overweight, all that fat pumps the skin out. I'm on a weight loss program so it'll be interesting to see if I end up haggard at the end of it.

@doriangraybutimthepaintingintheattic it's really easy to get sucked into a rabbit hole of more and more extreme and expensive creams, lotions and interventions.

start simple - sleep, exercise, eat well and hydrate. reduce alcohol, caffeine etc.

skin care - no 7 is crap, i dont reccommend it. cerave is a good, affordable brand. I also use a lot of clarins products - but they can be a little pricey. if you visit the clarins kiosk in a department store eg. jl they talk through your skin needs and in some places they also offer facials which I found excellent. start with a decent moisturiser, seperate spf (heliocare is the best I used) and a face wash. Once you have settled into that, then add a weekly exfoliation and face mask.

finally, think about your skin concerns - and use serums which address them eg. hyaluronic acid for deep moisture, niacinamide for blemishes, retinol for skin ageing. cerave has good serums + a good eye cream. you can also try products from la mer, they are fantastic - but pricey. la mer does the best facials at the harrods store.

Once you have tried all these, if you want actual interventions, go see someone good as fillers/botox when poorly done can make things sooo much worse.

I'm 60, work full time and have a 15yo. My career relies on my relative youth and energy and the things I find indispensible are:

Good basic skin care
An spf moisturiser
plenty of fluids - ideally water
fresh air & exercise
Yoga or similar to maintain good posture
Undisturbed sleep

Do people take hrt at 38 ??
It makes sense to look at your mother to see how you age.
I'm basically the same age and would say exercise and low alcohol to reduce facial bloat (sigh), sunscreen, and honestly spending more on cream. I like Clinique, fresh and elmis. For Botox, I think you're not supposed to get in crows feet because the wrinkles will go under your eyes ? Forehead why not though.

I suggest trying Frownies, it’s more work than getting Botox as you have to apply them every evening, but it’s so much cheaper and with persistent use I’ve seen some good results. Also suggest looking into the skin scare brand Deciem, they have different sub-brands, the most well known being The Ordinary which is great value given the active ingredients.

Just a warning on Tret (and probably any retinols) in that I found this study on cancer and I just thought it’s not worth the risk! It concerned me they finished the study early due to the issues. They also controlled for lifestyle factors like smoking and still found the tret group more prone to cancer. Even though it’s not proven to be causal it isn’t certain it’s not causal! So I don’t mess with it.

My mums skin is excellent at 77, I don’t know how she does it really. Hoping I take after her but I had Botox on my eleven lines so I don’t get resting bitch face annd really recommend it and even my static wrinkles have softened, and microneedling on my acne scars to break them up a bit!
My husbands family all have crepey wrinkly skin and I’ve noticed he looks very wrinkly at 40! And my mum has barely a line, think a lot is genetics!

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/article-abstract/419802#:~:text=This%20study%20raises%20the%20possibility,present%20in%20their%20lung%20tissue.

A lot is down to DNA. I'm late 60's and still have very smooth skin with few wrinkles - both my parents were the same. I've also avoided sun damage all my life which helps I think. And Nivea Soft every day , that's the only product I've ever used.

By not worrying about aging. You can look good at any age. It's ridiculous to try and attempt to stay forever young, that's for the young, grow up and embrace the changes,

Some people die before they get so much of a wrinkle, they would love priverlege of growing older.

Dr. Dray discusses the study linked below, and I'm more than happy to continue to use Tret.

I come from the other boring side. (Also I am a cheapskate and can't afford all these lotions. And I am horribly rude and nosey and peek at others' potions in bathroom cabinets and it hasn't made an awful lot of difference to their skin...not that I would say that to my friends and relatives!)

Lifestyle:

• Less booze and no sugar
• Lots of veg and some fruit
• Oily fish instead of red meat
• Regular saunas (probably need to move to Scandinavia for that one!)
• Regular exercise, including strength training (and exercise that turns you upside down - yoga?)
• Proper sleep
• Supplements: collagen and zinc (maybe?), vitamin d and c definitely
• And if possible a stimulating, yet non-stressful job (yeah, right!)

I reckon that the majority of skin treatments make the skin surface look better, which is obviously good. But, again I reckon, the loss of collagen and building of new cells comes from the inside, which in turn is a based on lifestyle.

Suncream is a good call though and I want to try those frownies. Also I watched a TV documentary that did really thorough scientific testing of loads and loads of different types of skin treatments (but not retinol/retanoids), with blue-tub nivea as the control. The nivea won hands down for nearly everything, including anti-aging (they thought it was due to the high fat content).

The women I know who look wonderful focus on health, eat well, low alcohol, exercise and yoga, hydrated skin, not much make up.

I think a lot does come from what you put into your body.

But Tret has lots of research behind it so I'll continue to use that! And I wear loads of Spf

tret is the only thing that works and the only thing I use. I am in my 50s and have zero wrinkles. It's a lifechanger.

The women who I know look well don't drink, eat mainly healthily, exercise regularly, always use moisturisers and have regular facials.
I've started doing all that too plus a few facial exercises.
I don't mind growing old but I don't want to look older than my years.

What’s people’s definition of ‘low alcohol’, out of interest?

I’m down to an average of two glasses of wine a week, with a block of at least 4 weeks of no drinking in the year.

I would love to cut alcohol out, but I feel as though my social life would suffer. I am also single and can’t imagine a first date with no alcohol 😅

I should say I don't think I look particularly young with Tret, maybe a year or two younger, if that. But I look decent enough for my age and have no forehead wrinkles.

I think people with Botox actually look older, but this is an unpopular opinion on here.